Vitalik Buterin became the world’s youngest and most successful decentralized finance billionaire at 27 after deploying the Ethereum blockchain. His invention leveled up the playground for fintech startups and is why- youngstars like Gajesh Naik are running multi-million dollar DeFi projects with only an internet connection.
Gajesh Naik is only 13 years old and has already deployed a decentralized finance protocol on the Polygon blockchain. PolyGaj is the name of the protocol and has managed more than $7 million in digital assets. The value went up early last month following an investment on Polygon by crypto proponent Mark Cuban.
“Age is just a number” Gajesh Naik | The Boy who could DeFi
Arjun Kalsy, the polygon VP, was skeptical when he first recieved a Linkedin message from the PolyGaj creator. The young creator introduced himself as ‘a crypto developer looking for guidance’. While its a common thing for the VP to interact with various blockchain developers around the world, he became even more skeptical when Naik said he was only 13 years old. Kalsy said in a press statement he was 100% sure the message was from a scammer disgusing himself as a 13 year old. He thought he was perhaps a huge hairy dude tucked behind a screen in some remote warehouse.
Kalsy responded to the messages a month later after conceding to a Telegram chat. What attracted the VP to the chat was after Naik noted, “ Man, it’s a 13-year-old kid.” Afterward, the vice president went on to initiate a face-to-face video call via zoom.
Believing a 13-year-old understands the definition of a DeFi protocol is hard, let alone believing he coded one. DeFi broadly represents a non-custodial decentralized software that uses smart contracts to manage cryptocurrency investments without the need for third parties. Naik’s invention, the PolyGaj Protocol, is a platform for such investments and contains smart contracts that dictate how one’s funds will be invested.
Only two years ago, Times Group of India featured Gajesh Naik in a publication after creating an AI-based e-learning project. Now at 13, Naik understands C, C++, Solidity, and Javascript. He said he began learning how to code over five years ago during a bootcamp that taught basic programming using Scratch.
