The first half of this Q&A, From AMM Origins to Infrastructure, covered:
Carbon DeFi Execution & Ebay’s PS5
Arb Fast Lane as the de-facto taker
Metrics for Success
Gas Consumption Importance
Institutions
Most Valuable Product
Bancor’s Moat & IP Protection
Response to Critics of Licensing
Key Successes Since Carbon DeFi’s Launch
The Decline of Human Users / Rise of Bots
Now, we turn to the future — what the next three years look like, how Bancor approaches chain deployments, and what role the DAO, the community, and new inventions will play in shaping the path ahead.
Bancor’s Role Over the Next 12–24 Months
Bancor Chain
Scaling Carbon DeFi & Arb Fast Lane Fees
Carbon DeFi’s Next 3 Years
Solana & Blockchain Politics
The Vortex Continuation
US Adoption & Geoblocking
Moderation & Community Strength
Contribution vs. Employment
DAO vs. Licensing
How will Bancor’s role evolve over the next 12–24 months?
Bancor’s role in DeFi has shifted dramatically since its founding.
As Mark explained, the original team was focused on building mass-market consumer applications. Their background was in products like Metacafe — platforms designed to reach millions of people through user-friendly experiences and ad-driven monetization. Even the inventor of the Bancor formula, the constant product AMM, wasn’t particularly interested in running financial products.
When Mark took over in 2022, the vision changed.
“I don’t want to try and please billions of users. That’s not something I find very interesting. I’m much more technologically driven. I want to build technology that other businesses use.”
In gaming terms, Bancor’s shift is like Valve’s.
Valve was once known for hit games like Half-Life and Portal. But instead of staying in the cycle of developing new titles for shifting consumer tastes, they launched Steam — a distribution service that became the backbone of the gaming industry.
“Transitioning from making games to building a distribution service was clever. It gave Valve lasting relevance. That’s where I want to take Bancor. I don’t see our customers as the users of AMMs. I see our customers as those who use the Bancor formula and our infrastructure in their own products.”
In short: Bancor’s path forward is B2B, focused on building and licensing infrastructure and intellectual property — not chasing consumer hype cycles.
Would building a Bancor chain (L1/L2) be on the long-term roadmap?
Back in 2020 — before layer twos like Arbitrum, Optimism, or even Polygon — Bancor briefly explored the idea of launching its own chain.
Mark recalled:
“We hired some very gifted software developers to do the cost-benefit analysis and sketch it out. That effort closed very quickly with the conclusion that it doesn’t make sense to make your own blockchain.”
And if anything, the case has only weakened since.
“The cost-benefit analysis has only gotten worse over time. Talk to people competing with their own layer two today, and they’ll tell you how stressful it is.”
For Mark, the decision is clear:
“I don’t think it would make any strategic sense. If Bancor ever did launch its own blockchain, it wouldn’t be for business reasons. As long as I’m leading the project, we’ll never be launching a blockchain.”
Carbon’s progress is great, but many fees still come from AMMs. Plans to scale Carbon’s volume or increase fee generation elsewhere?
First, a distinction: fees in Carbon DeFi don’t go to liquidity providers. They go to the protocol itself. That was a deliberate design choice, and it ties directly into Bancor’s broader growth strategy.
Mark explained:
“We always plan to scale and grow things. But there’s no recipe for how to achieve it. It depends heavily on the environment Carbon appears in and whether it receives support from the community and the blockchain it’s deployed on.”
He pointed to COTI as an example of the right conditions. Carbon DeFi was welcomed with strong community engagement — including grassroots tokens like Pengo that made the protocol their home base.
By contrast, Mark noted that deploying on a chain like Arbitrum, with its deeply entrenched ecosystem, would be an uphill battle:
“You don’t want to be the new kid at school, trying to get in with the cool group. The political momentum on those chains can be very difficult to overcome.”
Scaling, then, isn’t just about choosing a popular chain. It requires the right timing, the right relationships, and the ability to execute quickly. TAC provided that combination — backed by business connections, reward campaigns, and even mini-app development to accelerate adoption.
“These things are always done to scale volume and increase fees. It’s the only reason we do anything really.”
But Carbon DeFi isn’t the only driver of protocol revenue. The Arb Fast Lane is also generating fees across multiple chains. Together with Carbon DeFi and the Vortex, these products form the bigger picture: Bancor’s business model isn’t about one app — it’s about infrastructure that works collectively.
Carbon is three years in. What’s the aim for the next three years? What are you dreaming about?
Mark described Bancor’s current trajectory as one of steady refinement.
“The approach we’ve had over the last two years is constantly being refined. We’re getting much better at this. It’s not something you can switch to very quickly and immediately be an aficionado. It takes time. But over the next three years, the approach will remain more or less the same — the success rate will just continue to increase.”
While the strategy remains consistent, the products themselves will evolve. Mark revealed that he is already working on a new model — an invention that extends Carbon DeFi’s design.
“I’m working on a further abstraction, a further generalization of the kinds of things that Carbon does. I’m preparing a new invention disclosure for this, and I’m taking my time — making sure the mathematical proofs are nailed down, the edge cases addressed, and everything carefully described.”
The goal is not just to refine Carbon, but to push it forward in ways that will resonate with a more institutionalized, more sophisticated DeFi landscape.
“The overall approach will stay the same, but it will be further boosted by a pretty compelling change in the actual product itself. One that I think will make it more appealing and more relevant as DeFi continues to mature.”
For Bancor, the next three years are about preparing for the shifts ahead and ensuring the technology is there to shape them.
Is it a good idea to enter Solana with a DEX?
When asked if Bancor might deploy into the Solana ecosystem, Mark was clear:
“No. Solana, like many of the older blockchains, is highly politicized. There’s a requirement to be invited. It’s naïve to think you can just launch into that ecosystem without being told that you should.”
Technical considerations also play a role. Solana’s Rust-based programming paradigm creates costly overhead:
“It’s not that Rust is bad — in many ways it was a very well-informed decision. But it means maintaining two different codebases in two different languages. Auditing is already expensive, and in Rust it’s doubly so. Staying in the EVM keeps the codebase leaner and more manageable.”
He did note interest in Neon, an EVM-compatible environment on Solana, but not in native Solana itself.
And then the conversation shifted to something bigger: the politics behind blockchains.
“I don’t think people realize how political this all is. It’s one of the great lies about blockchains — that they’re decentralized. In reality, there are a few large political players that control pretty much everything. Decentralization is the costume blockchains wear.”
Deployment decisions aren’t just about tech as much as they are about navigating entrenched power structures that look far more familiar — and far less decentralized — than many would like to admit.
Are you going to continue with the Vortex system through which BNT has gone from 250 million tokens to 112 million tokens?
The Vortex has been one of Bancor’s most visible mechanisms, steadily reducing BNT supply since its launch. When asked if the Vortex system would continue, Mark emphasized that the decision lies with the DAO — but the rationale remains clear.
“I had a lot to do with making the case, writing the proposals, and explaining why this was the most fiscally responsible thing the project could do. A DAO that approved a quarter of a billion dollars in rewards should also have to shoulder the responsibility of absorbing all of that inflation.”
The results speak for themselves.
“We’ve reversed about 94% of the inflation at this point, which is pretty good. Staying the course is the only thing that really makes sense.”
In short: the Vortex has already delivered on its mandate, and continuing its path ensures the gains aren’t undone.
What are the roadblocks to US adoption? (Geoblocking, etc.)
Mark acknowledged the desire to open access but stressed the complexity:
“It’s not like you can just do this and there won’t be consequences. You need to have the right memos in place. It’s a complex decision. And yes — it’s something I want to do. But at an organizational level, these processes can be slow.”
He noted that some projects approach the issue less cautiously, treating it as a calculated gamble:
“I’ve been on calls where people say, ‘such-and-such did this, why can’t we?’ And one of the things I get reminded of is that some of these teams have concluded they’ll lose less money lifting the geoblock and then getting sued. They’re planning to get sued, but they expect the revenues in the meantime to outweigh the fines.”
Mark compared this to the practice of regulatory arbitrage in other industries:
“During COVID, Qantas illegally fired about 1,800 employees. They were fined $90 million, but they saved $500 million in the process. To them, it was a win. That’s the same calculus some crypto projects are making about geoblocking.”
For Bancor, however, that’s not an acceptable path:
“I’m not interested in making those kinds of gambits.”
Moderation is key to strong communities. Will you expand moderators in Telegram/Discord as activity picks up?
I challenged this question. Moderators moderate. But an active, vocal community is key to a strong community.
As was said during the call: “The community we have needs to realize the huge part they play in keeping it strong and growing it — versus putting that responsibility on a moderator.”
Mark emphasized the role of Bancor’s long-time collaboration:
“We use AmaZix as a moderation service and they are phenomenally good. They’ve been with Bancor since the very beginning. If the community 10x’s in size, I have every confidence they’ll scale to meet that demand.”
But he also pointed back to the community themselves:
“I also want to voice my appreciation for everybody who has shown their support, whether in Telegram, on X, or in Discord. I don’t think people realize how important that visible support really is.”
Moderators can guide but it’s the community’s own voice that keeps it strong.
What’s the best process for someone to put themselves forward if they’d like to contribute?
Anyone can contribute. That’s been true since the beginning.
“It’s not really gatekept in that sense of decentralization. People can still contribute stuff — propose things, even at a smart contract level. If you’ve got code you want to submit, just submit it.”
Mark pointed out that many on the current team, including both of us, began as unpaid contributors.
“In the beginning, no one knew who I was. I was participating on my own time as a community member. Then, rather abruptly, I made the switch from being an organic synthetic chemist to a researcher for Bancor. But I didn’t start with the expectation of becoming a paid contributor.”
That culture of contribution has always been central to Bancor’s identity, and it remains alive today.
How does licensing work with the DAO?
The Bancor DAO is designed to govern Bancor’s protocol deployments. Its role is to approve changes that directly impact the economics of the system — such as adjustments to the BNT buy-and-burn mechanism through the Vortex.
Mark explained it with a simple analogy:
“When you go buy a dozen eggs from Walmart, how much did Walmart pay for them? You don’t know. That’s how markup works. In our case, things like the markup are the kinds of parameters the DAO decides on.”
The DAO doesn’t hold legal status. It’s a voting mechanism, not a corporate entity. That distinction is important:
“There’s no legal entity that represents the DAO. It’s just a voting mechanism, which makes it very difficult to take to court — though people are trying across the industry. For licensing and other business functions, that responsibility falls to Bancor’s parent organizations, which do have legal entities, bank accounts, and IP protections in place.”
Closing
Bancor’s path has always been defined by invention — building the technologies that become the foundations of DeFi. That work continues today: creating infrastructure that blockchains, institutions, and projects can depend on for the long term.
Thank you to everyone who joined this call and added to the conversation. Stay engaged, stay active, be sure to submit your questions for the next community call here: Submit here.
