OKX Wallet Dialogue with Yue Xiaoyu: The Web3 Product Philosophy from the Perspective of Senior Practitioners (Part 2)

After more than a month of technical refinement and security upgrades, OKX DEX officially returned on May 5, 2025, bringing users a more efficient and reliable trading experience. As a one-stop DEX aggregator, OKX DEX relies on its self-developed X Routing algorithm to find optimal liquidity across more than 130 chains and over 500 DEXs, helping users complete transactions with lower fees and less slippage.

For this product return, we specially invited a deep user of OKX DEX, Mr. Yue Xiaoyu (@yuexiaoyu111), who previously served as a product manager at a well-known internet company and is now a Web3 product manager, to have an in-depth dialogue with Shawn, the head of OKX DEX. Together, they analyzed the product thinking and user value insights behind this return and discussed how to create Web3 products that truly meet user needs, thereby drawing actionable product inspiration to further enhance user experience.

Next, let’s dive into this in-depth conversation and hear their views and thoughts. This is the next part.

Future Evolution of DEX and User Expectations

9. Based on your product experience at a major Web2 company, which mature processes or methods are most worth retaining or innovating in the Web3 iteration?

Yue Xiaoyu: Here, I will discuss this from both macro and micro perspectives.

First, on a macro level, the concept that Web3 products need to have: I previously worked at a well-known internet company, and what influenced me the most was the unified philosophy within the company: making it easy for everyone to do business, centered around the customer. In the Web3 industry, or as a leader like OKX, the slogan should be: making it easy for everyone to earn money, allowing ordinary people to use blockchain.

Making it easy for everyone to earn money: The core is to enlarge the industry pie so that every participant can enjoy the industry dividends, allowing many quality projects to emerge in the ecosystem, enabling everyone to make money. Allowing ordinary people to use blockchain: The core is not limited to financial play but to further popularize blockchain technology, integrating it with the real world to provide convenience for everyone’s life.

Ordinary people are more concerned about how to trade and make money in the crypto space and how to use blockchain to make their lives more convenient. If ordinary people cannot make money in the Web3 industry or feel no convenience from using blockchain, then why would they stay here? How can we attract new users to join? Therefore, the Web3 industry or leaders like OKX should return to the industry’s original intention and the core needs of ordinary users: making it easy for everyone to earn money and allowing ordinary people to use blockchain.

Now, on a micro level, regarding the practical operation of Web3 product iteration: Based on the concepts mentioned above that Web3 products should have, the specific product iteration should revolve around this concept. Overall, the product methodology is consistent, aimed at serving users and businesses, and needs to be designed from the perspective of users (finding target users), scenarios (the actual application scenarios of the product), and needs (which user needs are met based on specific scenarios). The differences arise because this industry has its own characteristics, leading to many differences in product thinking and methodology, mainly in three aspects: blockchain characteristics + token economic models + global product thinking.

(1) Blockchain Characteristics: Traditional internet products follow a front-end and back-end model, with data stored on local servers; decentralized applications store data on the blockchain. In addition to interfacing with the back-end, the front-end also interacts directly with smart contracts on the blockchain. On one hand, the difference in data flow generates a series of issues, such as which data should be on-chain, when to put it on-chain, and whether on-chain data can be synchronized in real time, all of which need to be considered, affecting product design and user experience. On the other hand, smart contracts deployed on the blockchain have immutability, and iterations on business logic require product managers to plan long-term for the product, design product roadmaps, and grasp project rhythms. Therefore, for Web3 product managers, understanding the basic knowledge and underlying principles of blockchain is crucial; only by clearly understanding blockchain characteristics can they design products that better meet user needs. More importantly, only when Web3 product managers have a deep understanding of blockchain characteristics can they obscure these complex concepts at the user level, truly lowering the usage threshold for users, allowing Web2 users to smoothly transition into Web3.

(2) Token Economic Models: Tokens are the economic incentive mechanism of blockchain and the core pillar for achieving decentralization. Traditional internet products do not involve the design of token economic models; at most, membership point systems may touch on some economics (supply and demand relationships). However, for various Web3 projects, a well-designed token economic model is key to project success. If the token economic model is well designed, it can attract a large number of new users in the early stages and achieve long-term sustainable development for the project. Therefore, Web3 product managers need to understand economics, be able to design the project’s token economics, and design corresponding product forms based on token economics so that the two can work in synergy.

(3) Global Product Thinking: Blockchain enables a globally shared "database," Bitcoin allows for the free use of a currency across borders, and various decentralized applications can also directly serve global users. Users from any country or region can use decentralized applications as long as they can connect to the internet, without needing real-name authentication or being subject to various restrictions. This is both an advantage and a challenge. When creating traditional internet products, serving users from just one country or region is already complex enough, but serving users from different countries, ethnicities, lifestyles, and cultural customs makes it even more challenging to satisfy the majority of users. However, some things are universal, which is also what product managers often emphasize as "empathy." Through "empathy," product managers can resonate with different user groups, thereby designing products that better meet their needs. Therefore, Web3 product managers need to possess global product thinking and design more universal products that can meet a more diverse user base.

10. Next, what are the key plans for OKX DEX? What is the primary goal in the short term?

Shawn: Our short-term goals have not changed significantly; our product strategy has been continuously optimized, and the goal remains to serve on-chain users like "P Xiaojang." However, our recent key plans mainly include the following aspects:

1. Enhance trading decision analysis functions. In addition to the underlying capabilities mentioned earlier, we will add more functions to help users analyze trading decisions. In terms of speed, we will continue to push it to the extreme.

2. Address industry pain points. We have identified some pain points in the industry, such as issues with the rankings and other problems; we need to better shield these risks to protect users. Additionally, MEV has always been a pain point in the industry. Before we paused services, there was a significant MEV issue on the edge chain. We are collaborating with the edge chain team to strengthen protections in this area, which is also an important aspect of security.

3. Balance self-custody and trading speed. Is there a contradiction between self-custody and trading speed? Does users controlling their private keys mean that trading speed cannot be as fast as other products? This is not an unsolvable problem; we have found a solution and will focus on this direction. I believe this will be an innovation in the industry, and everyone will soon see the results.

4. Continuous investment in Memecoins. Although the popularity of Memecoins is currently declining, and some users have temporarily stopped participating, Memecoins themselves are cyclical. We are uncertain whether there will be a larger wave in the future, but our investment in this area will not decrease. We are enhancing trend tracking and notification capabilities, such as wallet address tracking and notification functions, and we have invested a lot of resources to improve this functionality.

5. Early detection of market trends. In addition to notifying users after a market trend has formed, we are also researching whether we can detect and notify users before a trend forms. The popularity of memecoins is usually preceded by a topic, followed by market reactions. If we only follow the tokens, we will lag behind. Therefore, we are exploring whether we can follow the topics and lay the groundwork in advance.

In summary, these points are the directions we will focus on in our upcoming research and layout. These are also the product capabilities that everyone may be concerned about. As for the specific product forms, we have not fully determined them yet. Currently, the entire industry is trying different solutions, and there is no fixed model, but this is precisely what makes the industry progress interesting: everyone is exploring the unknown, trying different answers, and seeing who can better serve users.

11. How do you view the evolution of DEX? How do you think OKX DEX should build a differentiated moat in the competitive landscape?

Yue Xiaoyu: The evaluation of trading platforms can be divided into five dimensions: trading threshold, trading speed, trading strategies, trading indicators, and security. Everyone competes on these five levels, and OKX DEX needs to create differentiated moats in these areas.

(1) Trading Threshold: Represents the friendliness towards trading newcomers. The biggest problem with several leading Memecoin trading platforms is that they are too specialized, with products mainly aimed at advanced Memecoin traders. This results in a very high usage threshold, which is not friendly to trading newcomers. This actually becomes an advantage for OKX, which has always emphasized interactive experience, providing a very smooth overall product experience. However, there is still room for differentiation, such as adopting chain abstraction, account abstraction, and other technologies to completely reconstruct the existing on-chain interaction experience, eliminating the need for chain switching, gas fees, cross-chain complexities, and directly targeting the user experience of Web3 products, allowing users to smoothly transition into Web3. This is the true meaning of "no threshold" and "user-friendly." However, such changes are relatively large and belong to strategic adjustments that require a mature timing to promote.

(2) Trading Speed: The most critical competitive advantage of trading tools. Trading speed is the most intuitive aspect users can feel. OKX DEX is already very fast, but some competitors claim to be able to go on-chain in 1 second, and some even claim 0.4 seconds. Therefore, there is still room for OKX DEX to optimize its trading speed. After all, in Memecoin trading, speed is paramount; even a slight delay can result in missed opportunities. The competition in speed among DEXs essentially boils down to infrastructure competition, such as optimizing nodes. This is also a potential advantage for OKX, which has a very deep technical foundation.

(3) Trading Strategies: Market orders, limit orders, contract trading, etc., to meet the needs of different user groups. Currently, OKX DEX supports market orders and limit orders for spot trading but lacks contract trading and more advanced custom strategy trading. The crypto industry has three core needs: issuing assets, trading assets, and managing assets. OKX DEX will continue to deepen its focus on trading assets, and the future direction is to continue to launch more advanced trading tools to meet the needs of more on-chain players.

(4) Trading Indicators: Address labeling capabilities to assist users in trading decisions. Trading tools should not just be operational tools; the core is to help users make trading decisions. One of the biggest differences between Web3 products and Web2 products is that on-chain data is publicly transparent, so Web3 trading products can do more by analyzing on-chain data to provide richer trading indicators. This tests the project’s own data analysis capabilities.

(5) Security: The bottom line of trading platforms. Security is the lifeline of trading products; once a security issue arises, users' assets will be directly at risk, and their trust in trading will essentially drop to zero. The security of trading products mainly consists of three dimensions: the inherent security of the wallet, on-chain interaction security, and other security measures. First, the inherent security of the wallet refers to whether the wallet's code has vulnerabilities or issues. Generally, wallet platforms will hire third-party security agencies to audit the code to timely fix vulnerabilities and endorse the security of their wallets. Second, wallets are not only used to store assets but also interact with various applications on the chain, so there may be various risks during the interaction process, requiring multi-dimensional risk control security capabilities: risk currency alerts, contract authorization management, risk address detection, and contract risk monitoring. Finally, in addition to building the wallet's inherent security capabilities, there are also external security measures to enhance user trust, such as risk assurance funds and security education content. In summary, in these five areas, OKX actually has a significant advantage in establishing its differentiated moat.

12. Do you have any other themes/thoughts you would like to share?

Yue Xiaoyu: The on-chain world is a dark forest, where everyone is both a hunter and prey, so it is essential to maintain a strong sense of security at all times to protect one’s assets. However, we often see news that even some industry OGs fall victim to scams, resulting in asset theft. So, is there really no way to prevent this? Based on my own security practices, I would like to share a very effective asset management strategy: a three-tier wallet management system of cold, warm, and hot wallets. Proper asset isolation is the most important thing; the cold, warm, and hot wallet strategy divides your wallets into three categories:

(1) Hot Wallet: A wallet frequently used for interactions; do not store large amounts of assets, generally just enough to meet gas needs. This type of wallet can be further subdivided based on usage scenarios, such as airdrop wallets, Memecoin trading wallets, etc. This type of wallet can be used to frequently engage with new projects, so even if it gets phished, resulting in some losses, it won't be catastrophic.

(2) Warm Wallet: Essentially an isolated hot wallet, assets with relatively low interaction frequency can be placed in the warm wallet. This wallet is suitable for holding liquid staking assets, as many projects are staking-based. If these assets are kept in a hot wallet for a long time, it can be dangerous, so a warm wallet can be isolated from a hot wallet. The assets in this wallet can also be used at any time, but the interaction frequency is much lower than that of a hot wallet, reducing risk significantly.

(3) Cold Wallet: Large assets are best stored in a hardware wallet for cold storage, ideally with no interactions at all, which eliminates the risk of private key theft and the risks associated with contract interactions.

Finally, I hope everyone can thrive in this industry for a long time, go far, and ultimately seize their own significant outcomes!