@bentossell The level of loss unsuspecting investors suffered due to the Mt. Gox failure really left an impression on me, so when I saw what was going on with the 0x Project, I knew I had to be a part of it. I'm convinced that the 0x approach of what we call "hybrid decentralization" is the right one. EtherDelta did an admirable job of trying to decentralize trading as a reaction to the endless string of centralized exchange hacks, but according to our beta testers, it left a lot to be desired on the trading experience front. The 0x protocol prescribes a centralized order book with on-chain settlement that gives the trader the best of both worlds: a responsive, low-failure trading interface, coupled with the convenience of trading from his or her wallet and absolute elimination of exchange risk.

To address the "how" in your question, as cliche as it may sound, it's truly been a team effort. I've been fortunate enough to have an amazing team of world-class professionals who have worked tirelessly to deliver the best product on the market.

@Klockchain Sorry, I forgot to reply to this. As much as we loved receiving the praise we got, the most valuable feedback for us was the feedback that told us what we needed to improve. These comments pointed us to important features that we might not have thought of (like a "max" amount button for a limit sell order) but that enhance the trading experience so it "just works".

@soonaorlater Good point! I sometimes forget how deep into this stuff I've gotten. For the uninitiated, the term "relayer" in this context was coined by the 0x Project in their white paper (https://0xproject.com/pdfs/0x_white_paper.pdf) to describe an entity that gathers token trade orders off of the blockchain, then when matches are made, submits those orders to a blockchain-based exchange smart contract, where the order is executed atomically.

@Klockchain @davidaktary Thank you for your kind, detail answers! Really appreciate it! You just got a big fan on ERC dEX! :)

@Klockchain Sorry for the delayed response! If you think about it, as a relayer, we're implicitly long ZRX because it's how we collect our fees. There aren't good hedging mechanisms (yet!) so our risk exposure boils down to how long we hold the ZRX we collect. We believe in the 0x ecosystem and we think it'll grow, so we're inclined to hold it, which would be good if it appreciates. The flip side is that appreciation of ZRX may be a disincentive to users to use relayers because, depending on how they calculate fees, they may become more expensive, which is obviously bad. So, as with many things in this space, there is no easy answer.

With respect to the governance question, 0x has been great about gathering and integrating feedback from the relayer community. They just held the first 0x developer hangout today and were very receptive to input. While the governance side of ZRX needs to be clarified still, this interim model is working. Once it becomes a clear feature of the token, I'm sure relayers will want to hold some amount to have a guaranteed seat at the table.

@bentossell Hey Ben... my background is a blend of software engineering and finance. I did my computer science degree at Michigan and spent the early years of my career at IBM. I left IBM to get an MBA with a focus on corporate and investment finance at Duke, where I did an investment banking internship at JPMorgan in New York, and a venture capital internship at Academy Funds in Raleigh. For the last five or so years, I've been running my own custom software engineering firm, AktaryTech, building enterprise-grade software for clients like Universal Music, USA Today, and Qualcomm. I'm now working on ERC dEX, a trading platform for Ethereum-based tokens.

@bentossell I've been watching crypto since 2013 or so, when I first noticed the price disparity between Mt. Gox and other exchanges. I thought it looked like a great opportunity to do some exchange arbitrage, until I learned that people were having difficulty getting cash out of Mt. Gox. I then just sat back and watched it implode spectacularly.

@bentossell Being a 0x relayer means that we have somewhat of a built-in community. The 0x team has been fantastic in their support of us and all of the 0x relayers, so we've been able to benefit as a result. Separately, we're looking to carve out our own niche in the marketplace and are using some of our product features to do so. For example, we're currently the only relayer that supports mobile web trading, which was a priority for us from the beginning. By working with the mobile wallet developers like Cipher, Toshi, and Status, we've been able to welcome many of their users into our community.

@bentossell We have not yet begun to grow... not really, when compared to where we will be this time next year. The name of the game in the trading space is liquidity, and the biggest knock against decentralized exchanges is that no one has any. We're working very hard to fix that. We operate an open order book strategy, meaning we can share liquidity with other relayers who operate the same strategy. As this space grows, this shared liquidity will dwarf that which is on any independent, closed relayer or exchange. Combine that with the fact that more "traditional" investors are moving into the ERC20 token space, and 2018 starts to look like a year of astronomical growth.

@bentossell As we don't have a need for a utility token in our system at the moment, we will continue to take a traditional approach to funding.

@bentossell One of the biggest challenges was nailing down scope early on. For example, a portion of our team spent much of the September/October timeframe working on designing a derivatives product that we had intended to offer on the platform, and that would incorporate a token we intended to sell. About a week or so before we would have published our white paper, Antonio Juliano published his dY/dX white paper, which essentially did exactly what we were planning to do, but without a token. As you might imagine, this was a difficult thing to go through, but in retrospect, it allowed us to re-focus on the thing that really mattered: delivering the best relayer on the market.

@bentossell Absolutely! Being able to plug into the existing communities of 0x and partners like Cipher and Toshi have allowed us to get our message out there much faster than if we were trying to build a community on our own.

@bentossell Be patient. There's a LOT of noise and hype in this space. Take your time to learn the basics: what is a blockchain? what is the difference between the major blockchains? what is the difference between a coin and a token? why do any of these things have value? what's a smart contract? how do I stay secure in this space?

Once you feel you've got a good grasp on the answers to those questions, then you're ready to get hands-on and involved. There's no rush... despite the FOMO you might be feeling right now, crypto isn't going anywhere and opportunities will abound here for the foreseeable future.

@Klockchain Radar Relay operates an open order book, just like we do, and we've got a great relationship with them, so we'll be sharing orders. As such, it's not as much a competition as it is "coopetition". We will all likely differentiate based on the different features we offer and the different market segments we're trying to address (I can't reveal our specific plans on this point yet.) Long term, I believe that the joint efforts of the individual relayers contributing the the network liquidity will help the entire 0x relayer network stand out from the non-0x "DEXs".