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  • Linear Finance ($LINA): The future of synthetic exchange platforms?

    Linear Finance ($LINA): The future of synthetic exchange platforms?

    Linear Finance ($LINA) understands that decentralized finance (DeFi) has opened new possibilities for derivative offerings and that many exchanges have the apparent problems of front-running, expensive gas fees, and liquidity issues. Linear Finance seeks to go around those issues with its cheap, quick, and transparent synthetic asset exchange platform. With Linear, users can simply make a synthetic asset that contains a portfolio of different underlying tokens based on the exposure that they are willing to take. This presents new yield-making opportunities for anyone based on their customized financial goals.

    Check out our interview with Linear Finance!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcXsEwj5hpI

    Background

    Drey Ng and Kevin Tai, Co-founders of Linear Finance, built the project with a vision of an inclusive and more democratized access to investment opportunities. By their team’s expertise in different crypto initiatives and financial instruments, Linear made a cross-chain, Ethereum-based protocol that seeks to fulfill their vision.

    With Linear, users can make their own portfolio exposures and manage them on their own. This initiative enables investors to easily invest, save, and earn efficient profits from their assets.

    What is Linear Finance?

    Linear Finance is a decentralized delta-one asset protocol where users can make, manage, and trade synthetic assets. This gives users exposure to different kinds of assets without having to actually own their underlying assets.

    An additional feature that Linear Finance has introduced is a cross-chain compatible and decentralized protocol that can support a faster, more affordable, and secure exchange of synthetic assets.

    Linear Finance’s platform is powered by its native token, LINA. It can be used for many purposes such as payments, staking, liquidity mining, governance, and investing in “Liquids.” Liquids are Linear’s synthetic assets composed of different underlying tokens or investment options.

    LinearDAO

    LinearDAO is the governance community who controls important platform designs and system parameters including pledge ration, LINA inflation reward and frequency, transactions fees, proposal implementation, and many more. Furthermore, they also regulate the profit and loss regarding liquidation.

    Perks and Special Features

    The project promises infinite liquidity and no slippage. Here are some of the perks users can find with Linear Finance:

    • Convenience: The protocol promises quick transactions with low transaction fees. Any kind of user can enjoy the platform as well, whether they are a market maker, staker, or trader.
    • Transparency: To prevent front-running, every transaction made within the exchange is made transparent to all users. This also reduces systemic risks on the part of each network participant.
    • Ethereum-based: Because it is built on the Ethereum network with cross-chain compatibility, it can work alongside other DeFi projects too.
    • User-tailored options: There are different exposure options that users can freely choose from, such as other tokens, commodities, or market indices.

    The whole Linear platform is built on two different blockchains but they complement each other thanks to cross-chain compatibility. For users, they only need to open an Ethereum-based wallet and an EVM-compatible wallet.

     Linear automatically links these two together through smart contracts. Here are some of the advantages of an infrastructure modeled around that concept. They are:

    • Maximized DeFi support: While LinearDAO and LINA tokens are based on Ethereum, its use of EVM and smart contracts make it easy for the platform to interact with other DeFi protocols.
    • Affordability: Buildr and Exchange function through smart contracts on top of EVM-compatible blockchains. This enables Linear to support the building and trading of Liquids at very minimal gas fees.
    • Fewer risks of front-running: The block time confirmation for other EVM-compatible blockchains are much faster than Ethereum. This allows users to create their own Liquids at more updated prices through the help of oracles. This way, the risk of users front-running the exchange becomes much lower.

    LINA Token

    LINA can be used for payments, staking, and governance participation. But mainly, LINA functions as the base collateral needed to mint Liquids through Buildr, the decentralized application (dApp) designed to manage synthetic assets.

    To create Liquids, users have to “pledge” 100% of their digital assets, which also means collateralization. This is to ensure that Liquids are fully-backed by an underlying asset, saving the stability of the system from the volatility of synthetic assets. The pledge requirement can be reduced eventually if the LinearDAO deems it necessary.

    Collateralization

    Buildr takes a hybrid approach in terms of collateralization. For Liquids, users need to deposit a mixture of LINA and other cryptocurrency tokens to generate a synthetic asset. The ratio is 80:20, where at least 80% of the collateral must be in LINA and 20% can be in other cryptocurrencies.

    Staking

    Staking LINA offers users many incentives. These are the following rewards that users can receive by doing so:

    • Exchange Fee Reward: The transaction fees collected from users of the Linear.Exchange platform, currently set at 0.25%, is redistributed weekly to LINA stakers on a pro-rata basis. For non-LINA stakers, these rewards can also be provided too but it will depend on the decision of the community governance council.
    • Inflationary Reward: LINA has a starting inflation rate of 75% which decreases on a weekly basis. The inflation reward is given to LINA stakers on a pro-rata basis as well.
    • Yield Farming: Yield farmers help maintain Linear’s debt pool and the whole platform. For the first two years of the project, users who actively use the exchange can receive token bonuses. These token bonuses can then be deposited by yield farmers in other liquidity pools such as Balancer, Curve, and Uniswap.

    Where can I buy/sell/trade $LINA?

    $LINA is now tradable on other exchanges as well like Bitmax, MXC, Bilaxy, Bibox, Hotbit and Hoo.

    Linear.Exchange

    In facilitating faster trade activities with almost unlimited liquidity, Linear is building their own exchange. As of now, Liquid is collaborating with other public blockchains to reduce transaction settlement timeframes to as quick as one second every transaction coupled with instant finality.

    With a plan of partnering with oracles, Linear also believes that they can solve problems with front-running as they gain the capability of refreshing prices on a frequent and quick basis at much lower prices for the underlying assets.

    Linear Finance ($LINA) token public sale

    The token public sale took place on 14th September 2020. A total of 47,222,222 LINA tokens were sold in 2 rounds. The first round had 25mil tokens at $0.00400 per token. The second round, 22,222,222 tokens at $0.00450 per token.

    The sale was 40 times oversubscribed and closed earlier than expected (it was supposed to last for 24 hours). Each participant in the sale had to purchase 500 USDT/USDC worth of LINA. Hence only 400 participants were able to get the allocation on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVED basis. This was determined by the time/date stamp on their Google Form submission. The first 200 users were allocated LINA tokens from round 1, and the remaining 200 participants from round 2. This was however subject to the registrants completing the KYC process in a period of 24 hours.

    $LINA was first listed on Uniswap and reached more than 20x from public sale price (and around 60x from private sale round 1). It is now stabilized at around $0.005 (as at 3 November 2020).

    Linear pre-staking platform

    Immediately after listing, Linear Finance has launched its staking platform. Holders can participate in the 8 weeks pre-staking program and get rewarded. The APY has been around 600% for weeks and has now decreased around 370%. All the earnings will be claimable 6 months after mainnet launch but users can withdraw their staked funds at anytime.

    Partnership announcements

    In the weeks following the launch, Linear has announced partnerships with Nervos, Moonbeam and Hex Trust.

    Nervos is an open source blockchain that offers security and trustlessness without compromising on scalability and performance with its unique layered architecture. The collaboration is focused on improving Linear’s cross chain capabilities and penetration of the Chinese market.

    Moonbeam, an Ethereum ($ETH) compatible smart contract parachain, is a strategic partner to help set the feet into the Polkadot ($DOT) ecosystem and level up Linear’s interoperability. Finally, the partnership with Hex Trust as a custody partner, will give Linear the chance to offer secure, institutional grade custodial services for institutional investors.

    A next announcement has revealed a new partnership with 3Commas, a cryptocurrency trading platform that helps users build automated trading bots. The investment is meant “to include future integration of the platforms and tools, streamlining operations and allowing for a greater range of features and offerings”.

    Testnet is live

    On 16th October 2020, the first testnet for Buildr has been released. Buildr is one of the core dApps of the Linear suite, where users can stake their $LINA (and soon more collaterals) to build ℓUSD, the base currency of Linear Exchange. Stakers are entitled to rewards and to a part of the transaction fees generated by the exchange. ℓUSD tokens can be minted to purchase synthetic assets within the exchange itself and can be moved to other protocols.

    The last testnet update has just come out allowing users to purchase “Liquids” with ℓUSD on Linear.Exchange. Meanwhile, mainnet launch is allegedly happening in a couple of weeks.

    If you want to read more and discover how to contribute to the testnet, please have a look at the articles here and here.

    More than 222 million of $LINA tokens are staked, for a total value of more than USD$1 million.

    New Partnership with Band Protocol

    In this article dated November 16, Linear Finance has ufficially announced their partnership with Band Protocol, cross-chain decentralised oracle.

    The biggest problem this collaboration is trying to solve is front running. As Drey Ng, Co-Founder at Linear Finance said: “Front running is a fundamental problem not just for current synthetic asset trading but all trading in general”. Not solving this problem would jeopardize all “the benefits of cross-chain compatibility (such as speed and cost), and a superior creative selection of synthetic assets”.

    How Band Protocol Oracle works with Linear
    How Band Protocol Oracle works with Linear

    Other reasons why Band Protocol was chosen are the minimized network risk., end-to-end customizability for real-time data and truly decentralized oracle mechanism. The partnership will start securing the Linear Protocol on Binance smart Chain, the first project’s cross-integration, where the BEP token has just been created (the common $LINA we see on exchanges is an ERC-20 token).

    The team is now working on features to allow users to seamlessly swap chains.

    Linear Finance road to mainnet
    Linear Finance road to mainnet

    Mainnet Buildr Launch and new staking program

    The Linear Mainnet Buildr v1.0 went live on December the 21st, after months of extensive testing. The Buildr dApp is the heart of Linear’s decentralised application suite. Users can stake $LINA tokens to build ℓUSD and earn rewards. Here is a complete and detailed guide on how to use Buildr to the fullest.

    Linear's Buildr
    Linear’s Buildr

    All of the $LINA from the pre-staking program were migrated seamlessly to the mainnet and while previously earned rewards will be blocked until next June, new mainnet staking rewards will be locked for 1 year from launch. They will count towards the P-Ratio and can be used to build $LUSD. It is important to note that in order to be eligible for rewards, users are required build ℓUSD or any subsequent Liquids.

    Binance Smart Chain’s Buildr v2.0 launch

    As anticipated, Linear wants to bring Cross Chain compatibility and ease of use to Defi and Ethereum users. The team had, in fact, previously declared that “Linear was designed for all users (no matter how much LINA you hold) and transaction costs will not become a barrier to entry. Nobody will get left behind”.

    The promise has been kept and Linear.Builder Mainnet v2.0 with full Binance Smart Chain (BSC) integration and swap has gone live on January the 15th, 2021. Users can now enjoy almost gasless fees when interacting with the platform.

    The transaction was seamless and old stakers only have to connect to Buildr via MetaMask using the BSC Mainnet (they can also use Binance Chain Wallet) and they will see their Lina tokens and rewards already there. For new holders who would like to stake for the first time, there is an internal ERC-20 -> BEP20 swap whithin Buildr itself. More info and complete instructions can be found on the Medium article.

    Be careful!: There are now two versions of the $LINA token. If you send the Etherum version to a BSC wallet or vice-versa (whether it is a custodial or non-custodial address) you will lose your tokens! If in doubt on what to do, contact the support team via the official channels which you can find on their Website.

    Linear will be listed on Binance Innovation Zone

    Binance has announced it will list Linear Finance’s $LINA token on its Innovation Zone. Trading for $LINA/$BTC, $LINA/$BUSD and $LINA/$USDT trading pairs will start at 12:00pm (UTC) on 18th March 2021.

    Furthermore, Binance Launchpad is offering 21,084,000 LINA tokens for sale at at 0.00031044 BNB for 1 LINA. Subscription has already ended at 1:00p.m. (HKT) on 18th March 2021 and tokens will be sent to successful applicants at 6:00p.m. (HKT) on the same day.

    Conclusion

    With the rising gas prices in Ethereum, as well as the emerging trend of yield farming, the DeFi space is presented with new financial opportunities but is discouraged by its costs. Projects such as Linear is a promising addition to the space as it seeks to go around these problems.

    With Linear as a platform to easily build and manage investments, users can now enjoy quick and affordable profit-building opportunities. And in recognition of the real purpose of decentralization, Linear appears to be on the right track after putting in the pipelines a roadmap for a planned transition to community governance.

    Linear is certainly on the radar of a lot of renowned investors in this space. They have recently completed a USD$1.8m seed round with notable backers in the investment space such as NGC Ventures, Hashed, CMS Holdings, Genesis Block, Kenetic Capital, Alameda Research, Evernew Capital, Soul Capital, Moonrock Capital, Black Edge Capital and PANONY. According to Linear, this funding will go towards accelerating the development of their testnet and mainnet, as well as promoting their platform. It will certainly be exciting to see what the Linear Finance team will be releasing in the months to come.

    Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

    With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

    The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

    More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • Shadows Network ($DOWS): new hub for synthetic assets?

    Shadows Network ($DOWS): new hub for synthetic assets?

    Shadows Network ($DOWS) aims to be a hub for people to issue, trade, lend and borrow synthetic assets. The protocol is built using the Substrate blockchain network and is compatible with the Polkadot ecosystem.

    Background

    Iror Chen and Bruce Lin lead the Shadows project. Apart from being the co-founders, they double as the CEO and CTO, respectively. The two have extensive experience in diverse fields. To elaborate, Chen previously worked for Amphenol Group while Lin worked for Baidu.

    Other Shadows team members include Ted Shao (co-founder and COO), Claire Cai (co-founder and CMO), Sue Xia (overseas CMO), and Liang Li (risk control).

    Shadows’ list of partners includes Consensys Lab, NGC Capital, Polka Fund, Blocksync, DuckDAO, OneMax Capital, Oasis Capital, among others.

    What is Shadows?

    Shadows is a distributed platform focusing on the issuance, borrowing, lending, and trading of synthetic assets. The project leverages the Substrate framework that powers other popular DeFi networks like Polkadot.

    Note that synthetics are derivatives or clones of real-world assets. Derived assets can be of anything from cryptocurrencies, stocks, indices, fiat, and commodities. Also called synths, they enable holders to share in the profits and losses of an asset without necessarily having such asset in their portfolio. Doing so opens the DeFi scene to a global audience who would be locked out of the space.

    The platform sits on the Polkadot network as a parallel thread. As such, it has inter-chain compatibility with other platforms leveraging EOS and Ethereum to focus on synthetic assets. Cross-chain support opens the network to more blockchain-based assets. For instance, users can use Ethereum (ETH) or Bitcoin (BTC) to create synths.

    Shadows integrates an off-chain worker to help capture the system outside the blockchain. Note that the platform uses the worker to replicate trusted oracles. Furthermore, the oracles receive data from external decentralized platforms to trigger activities inside the blockchain. Unfortunately, traditional oracles suffer from security, efficiency, and scalability.

    The worker employs Substrate allowing it to perform non-deterministic tasks such as encryption and web requests, and other long-running tasks. The Shadows network achieves the above features through a layered system, focusing on different aspects of synthesizing the assets.

    Critical Areas on the Synthetic Network

    Synthetic Asset Issuance Agreement

    The platform secures the synths using its native asset, DOWS (more on this later). Users deposit the token into a smart contract for them to gain a right to create synthetics on the network.

    Consequently, the created tokens are DOWS backed. To reclaim back their tokens, users have to burn their synths. Note that the platform needs a collateralization ratio of 800 percent.

    Synthetic Asset Transaction Agreement

    The agreements support the trading of synths. These agreements minimize slippage and insufficient liquidity. Also, they ease and provide efficient trading.

    Debt Collateral Lending Agreement

    The platform employs lending pools that hold users’ debt into the pool to facilitate lending activities. How this works is simple. To elaborate, the borrowers access the pool to place a synth debt.

    Next, they pay interest and receive the loan in synthesized USD (xUSD). The need for xUSD funding is to provide flexible financing.  This funding option offers a balance between demand, supply interest, and rates.

    What Drives the Shadows Network?

    Four significant aspects power the platform.

    1. Rewards system – Users are rewarded when they use the native token to create synths. However, the rewards only apply to those who have reached the needed collateralization ratio.
    2. Governance – In the DeFi scene, governance is everything. On Shadows, the native token gives holders a voice when making governance decisions. Some areas falling under community governance include upgrading.
    3. Staking – The base asset does more than just governance, the token can be staked as collateral and at the same time benefit from staking rewards.
    4. Trading bonus – This goes to DOWS holders and is generated by those trading on the platform.

    How Does Shadows Work?

    First, note that the platform is compatible and connects to Polkadot.

    How Shadows Network works
    How Shadows Network works

    It works as an off-chain enterprise that connects to various parts such as inflationary supply, fee pool, and external services. It connects to Polkadot as a single service.

    The Protocol Offers Three Types of Incentives.

    The first type of incentive is where a user is charged 0.3% as the trading fee. How is this an incentive? It’s because they can send it to a fee pool and receive a mortgage in terms of DOWS.

    However, the trading fee incentive’s applicability varies between users because it’s dependent on the amount of debt that the user has and the amount in the debt pool.

    The second type of incentive goes to mortgagors who benefit from holding the base asset on a weekly basis. Notably, the amount of bonus received depends on how much debt the mortgagor has in the debt pool.

    Third comes rewards for lenders in the lending pool. These incentives have a weekly timeline.

    The Shadow Token ($DOWS) tokenomics

    DOWS is the backbone of the Shadows network. Apart from governance, casting synths, lending, and distributing rewards, the token can also be used to power the token destruction mechanism.

    The destruction part utilizes the transactions and debit pool fee. And, it follows a fixed ratio of 30% per week. Note that the token’s destruction is automatically driven by a smart contract. Observe that this makes the native token a deflationary base asset.

    Shadows did a double Initial DEX Offering (IDO) on Ignition and DuckSTARTER. The allocation of tokens were as follows:

    • Ecological Incentives: 63% — 63,000,000
    • Early Investors: 20% — 20,000,000
    • Foundation: 10% — 10,000,000
    • Advisors: 5% —5,000,000
    • Liquidity Provision: 2% — 2,000,000

    The vesting periods for various allocations are as follows:

    Shadows ($DOWS) vesting period
    Shadows ($DOWS) vesting period

    Is Shadows Network safe?

    Recently the Shadows project faced some accusations because they are allegedly connected to another project that recently suffered an alleged “hack” of their smart contract.

    On 6th March 2021, the Team Tweeted to address the concerns, saying that their smart contract codes were audited twice by Certik. And on both occasions the contracts were found to be secure and met the highest security standards.

    The Team in their Tweet on 7th March 2021 also said that Shadows Network uses a proxy contract to upgrade its smart contract and deliver key functions such as issuing, trading, borrowing or lending synthetic assets on the network. Most notably, the proxy contract will deploy incentive DApps for users such as LP staking and DAO governance etc. From these Apps, 63 million $DOWS (representing 63% of the total supply of $DOWS) will be minted as a reward to the community. Once all 63 million $DOWS have been released, the Team will permanently remove the mint function from the Shadows smart contract. This has the effect of stopping the Team from producing any more $DOWS and most importantly, to potentially prevent the price of $DOWS from being diluted.

    Further, this proxy contract and ERC20 contract are kept secure through multisig and is on Openzeppelin- an open-sourced protocol. The Team also notes that other popular names in the cryptocurrency scene i.e. Compound and Coinbase also use Openzeppelin.

    Conclusion

    Shadows helps bring traditional assets onto the blockchain. In doing so, the platform opens the conventional assets to more users. For instance, it brings these assets to DeFi users and those who don’t want to hold real crypto assets.

    Notably, the platform takes on a layered-approach to bring these possibilities to life-enhancing functionalities. Furthermore, the DOWS token helps power different aspects of the Shadows network.

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • Ethena ($ENA) token airdrop guide

    Ethena ($ENA) token airdrop guide

    Ethena ($ENA) is a synthetic dollar protocol on Ethereum that offers a crypto-native solution for stable money, backed by crypto assets and short futures positions, and includes a globally accessible dollar-denominated rewards instrument called the “Internet Bond”. Their season 2 airdrop can now be claimed and season 3 has just started! Here is our Ethena ($ENA) token airdrop guide.

    Check out our step-by-step guide:

    Vote ASAP if you’re holding $ENA! (MORE Airdrops)
    Ethena Season 2 Airdrop CLAIM and Season 3 BEGINS

    What is Ethena ($ENA)

    Ethena ($ENA) is a crypto platform on Ethereum that creates a synthetic dollar called USDe, backed by crypto assets and futures, offering a stable, crypto-native alternative to traditional banking. Here are Ethena’s ($ENA) main features:

    • Synthetic Dollar Protocol: Ethena’s USDe is a synthetic dollar backed by crypto assets and short futures positions, unlike traditional fiat stablecoins.
    • Peg Stability: USDe maintains stability through delta hedging derivatives against protocol-held collateral.
    • Internet Bond: Combines revenue from staked assets and funding spreads from perpetual and futures markets to create a crypto-native solution for money.
    • Crypto-Native Solution: Provides a scalable, fully-backed solution for money without relying on traditional banking infrastructure.

    How to claim the Ethena ($ENA) season 2 token airdrop?

    The Ethena ($ENA) season 2 token airdrop is available to claim until 30th September 2024. Here is how to claim the Ethena ($ENA) season 2 airdrop:

    • Connect your wallet to Ethena ($ENA) airdrop token claim page HERE.
    • Claim your Ethena ($ENA) season 2 token airdrop.
    • Lock $ENA HERE for a chance to get 30x rewards and 20-100% rewards boost.
    • Deposit $ENA on Pendle Points Markets HERE to earn yield and multipliers.
    • Restake $ENA on Mellow’s Ethena LRD Vault HERE for rewards.

    How to get more Ethena ($ENA) token airdrops?

    Time needed: 10 minutes

    Here is how to potentially get more Ethena ($ENA) token airdrops.

    1. Access portfolio

      Connect your wallet to https://app.ethena.fi/join/vtvwu and click on “Portfolio”.

    2. Claim Season 2 airdrop

      In your portfolio, scroll down to find your Season 2 airdrop allocation. Follow the steps to claim your airdrop. Make sure you have participated in Ethena’s season 2 token airdrop. This is because only those who had participated in season 2 are eligible for this potential further airdrop.

    3. Hold position in Ethena

      cContinue to hold your position in Ethena to qualify for further airdrops in Season 3 and beyond. Note you must complete these steps by the deadline on 3rd October 2024.

    4. Participate in governance voting

      Go to the latest governance proposal and cast your vote HERE.

    5. Stay updated for Season 3 Airdrop checker

      If you participated in Season 3 airdrop, stay updated! The Ethena Season 3 airdrop checker will go live in the first week of April 2025. Make sure to follow the Ethena team for the official link to avoid scams. 

    6. Participate in Season 4 Rewards Campaign

      Ethena is currently running Season Four of their campaign. You need to simply go down to the “How to Earn” area and hold the required assets (USDe sENA). 

    7. Interact with Pendle

      Go to the Pendle section and interact with Pendle by providing liquidity to earn extra rewards.

    8. Interact with Ethereal

      Ethereal is Ethena’s native DEX, they are also doing their own airdrop campaign known as the Season Zero campaign. To participate in Ethereal’s Season Zero campaign, connect to Ethereal. Then simply deposit USDe and hold it on the protocol. Note however if you want to withdraw your USDe tokens there is a 7-day unlock period.

    9. Bonus: Provide liquidity

       You can maximise your rewards on Ethereal and potentially also Ethena! To do this, consider providing liquidity into Pendle, Morpho and Euler.



  • Parcl ($PRCL) token airdrop guide

    Parcl ($PRCL) token airdrop guide

    Parcl is a perpetuals exchange built on Solana for real estate synthetics. LPs provide liquidity for cross-margined trading on various real estate markets, earning trading fees and taking on trader PnL. Recently, Parcl completed season 1 of their Perpetual Points Program (PPP), rewarding eligible users with over 11.5 million $PRCL tokens. Season 1 vesting is now underway and you can also prepare for season 2 of the Perpetual Points Program. Here is our Parcl ($PRCL) token airdrop guide.

    What is Parcl?

    Parcl operates as a perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX), providing real estate index markets for speculation and hedging. It incorporates enhanced liquidity provision, flexible governance, and risk management features inspired by Synthetix perps. Here are Parcl’s main features:

    • Perpetuals DEX: Parcl is a decentralized exchange for perpetual contracts. Its focus is on real estate index markets for speculation or hedging.
    • Liquidity Provision: Parcl offers scalable liquidity provision with a single collateral and LP pool per exchange. LPs underwrite trades and earn fees.
    • Risk Management: The protocol includes features to maintain market balance, such as funding costs, margin requirements, and price impact adjustments.
    • Governance: Settings can be adjusted by protocol admins or a DAO to respond to market conditions and user behaviors.

    What is the Parcl token airdrop?

    Parcl has community allocation (airdrop) of its $PRCL tokens known as the Perpetual Points Program. The first allocation has been completed and the second allocation announced. Season 1 of Parcl’s Perpetual Points Program allocated 60 million $PRCL tokens, i.e. 6% of its total token supply. The distribution of the $PRCL token includes a vesting and streaming component. There are 3 streaming schedules in total. This is determined by the amount of $PRCL tokens staked on or before 11th July 2024 at 00:00 UTC. Here is a summary of the eligibility criteria for the 3 streaming schedules.

    • Schedule 1: To be eligible users must stake at least 50% of their PPP Season 1 allocation. Schedule 1 period started on 1st July 2024 and will end on 29th September 2024. The remainder will fall into schedule 2 in a pro-rata fashion. To stream entirely in schedule 1, a user must stake 100% of their PPP S1 allocation. 
    • Schedule 2:  If a user staked at least 50% of the token allocation but not 100%, the remaining tokens are categorized under Schedule 2. For users who did not stake the full PPP S1 allocation, the remaining distribution not streamed in Schedule 1 will be distributed from 1st October 2024, to 30th November 2024.
    • Schedule 3: If a user does not stake at least 50% of the tokens they were eligible to receive via PPP S1, all tokens they are eligible to receive will be streamed from 1st December 2024 to 31st December 2024.

    Season 2 of the Perpetual Points Program is scheduled to run for the remainder of 2024.

    How to get the Parcl token airdrop?

    Here’s our guide on how to get the potential Parcl ($PARCL) token airdrop

    1. Get Parcl ($PRCL) tokens

      You can get Parcl tokens by claiming your Season 1 allocation. Or you can purchase it on exchanges such as OKX or Kucoin.

    2. Connect to Parcl

      Connect to https://app.parcl.co/ with either your Metamask, OKX or Phantom wallet.

    3. Delegate your $PRCL tokens

      Delegate your $PRCL tokens to a staking pool, which is a group of validators that have combined their Parcl tokens. They do this so they can get a higher chance of validating transactions and earning rewards. You can also set up your own validator. However, this can be quite complicated and may require some technical knowledge.

    4. Validate transactions on the Parcl network

      Once you have confirmed the transaction on your wallet, you will automatically validate transactions on the Parcl network. You will receive $PRCL tokens as a reward.

  • Sui ($SUI) token airdrop guide: How to join the Community Access Program

    Sui ($SUI) token airdrop guide: How to join the Community Access Program

    Sui is the world’s first permissionless Layer 1 blockchain completely designed from the ground up. In this guide will we provide the best strategy to earn the most from any potential SUI airdrop.

    Sui is a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain with horizontally scalable throughput and storage. Sui aims to be a step-function advancement in blockchain technology that will allow creators and developers to build experiences for Web3 users. The project is created by former senior leaders of Facebook’s (Meta) advanced blockchain research and development organization. The team first came together to form Mysten Labs– the company behind Sui. The team is also building Move – an open-source smart contract programming language.

    Currently, Sui has deployed their “Permanent Testnet” – which means it’s the best time to generate blockchain evidence to get the airdrops. What we have learned from similar projects is that the more interactions that you do with the blockchain, the more airdrops you earn. We expect that $SUI will give “tiered” airdrops, giving out more free tokens to those who interact more with the blockchain.

    Key Summary

    • Sui is a scalable and permissionless Layer 1 blockchain created by former Meta developers.
    • SUI is the native token of Sui with four main purposes: gas fees, staking, governance, and economy.
    • There is no official SUI token airdrop yet, but the team hinted that they will reward early community members and supporters.
    • To potentially qualify for a future SUI token airdrop, users can install and use the Sui wallet, stake and earn SUI tokens, register names on SuiNS, mint and breed Capys on Capy.art, play games and mint NFTs on Clutchy.io, and explore other projects built on Sui.

    Learn more about Sui with our Sui blockchain guide: Revolutionary Scalability Solution?

    Sui ($SUI) airdrop step-by-step guide

    Here are some ways to get a potential $SUI token airdrop:

    1. Install and use the Sui Wallet
    2. Request SUI devnet tokens
    3. Stake and earn Sui
    4. Mint Sui Capys NFT
    5. Register your domain on Sui Name Service (SuiNS)
    6. Participate in Sui testnet waves
    7. Play games and get NFT test mint on Clutchy
    8. Interact with protocols in the Sui ecosystem
    9. Join the Sui Discord community
    10. Mint your SuiFrens Bullshark Generation 0 Limited Edition NFT

    See below for more details.

    The SUI Token Community Access Program eligibility criteria has been announced! Here is how to check your eligibility to participate in the Sui Recognition Sale:

    1. Verify your Discord here before 17th April 2023 at 9:30pm PDT.
    2. If you are eligible, you will be required to fill in a form on their page.
    3. Register for the token sale on Bybit, Kucoin or OKX. Sign up for an account here: ByBit, KuCoin.

    See below for more details.

    UPDATE: Mysten Labs (the company behind Sui) will be doing an NFT airdrop! Those who are Sui Discord members before 3rd May 2023 can register here for a free SuiFrens Bullshark Generation 0 Limited Edition NFT before 17th May 2023 at 11am PDT.

    What is the Sui $SUI token?

    The SUI token is the native token of the Sui platform. SUI has a max supply of 10 billion tokens.

    SUI token will have 4 main purposes: Gas fees, staking, governance, and as an underlying asset of the Sui economy.

    The team has confirmed that Sui community members can purchase the SUI token during the early Sui Mainnet stage. Sui will also have a Community Access Program. This program will reward Sui supporters who have helped test Sui Apps. Rewards will also be distributed to those who help promote Sui.

    Check out our Sui blockchain guide: Revolutionary Scalability Solution?

    Will there be a Sui $SUI token airdrop?

    There is currently no $SUI token airdrop. However, the Sui team have emphasized in its blog post that they will prioritize the distribution of SUI tokens to early community members. The team also said that those who are already spreading knowledge about Sui, onboarding developers, and testing and refining its’ applications will be part of Sui’s token allocation.

    In August 2022, Sui had a $SUI token airdrop for its Testnet Wave 1 and 2 validators. 2,000 SUI (subject to 1-year vesting) was distributed for participating in every testnet “wave”.

    In the latest blog post, Sui announced its SUI Token Community Access Program. Under the Community Access Program, only limited categories of early supporters will be able to obtain SUI tokens either via retrospective rewards or a recognition sale. However, there are geographical restrictions, for example US residents are not eligible to receive SUI even if they qualify under the Community Access Program.

    The blog post, however, has stated clearly that they will not be any Sui airdrops, leading to the tag #suiScam trending on Twitter. This is because many people believed that Sui would do an airdrop and have spent months interacting with the testnet.

    Sui confirms no airdrop

    How can I participate in a potential $SUI token airdrop?

    The Sui team has not officially announced how and when they will do a $SUI token airdrop. However, they had already strongly hinted that they will prioritize rewarding early community members and supporters. Here’s some ways to get a potential $SUI token airdrop:

    1. Install and use the Sui Wallet
    2. Request SUI devnet tokens
    3. Stake and earn Sui
    4. Mint Sui Capys NFT
    5. Register your domain on Sui Name Service (SuiNS)
    6. Participate in Sui testnet waves
    7. Play games and get NFT test mint on Clutchy
    8. Interact with protocols in the Sui ecosystem
    9. Join the Sui Discord community
    10. Mint your SuiFrens Bullshark Generation 0 Limited Edition NFT

    Install and use the Sui Wallet

    Install and use the Sui Wallet browser extension. On their documentation page here, click “Sui Wallet browser extension”. A new chrome web store window will appear, then click “Add to Chrome”. Afterward, click “Create a New Wallet”. You will be asked to create a password and be asked to save your recovery phrase. Once you have saved your recovery phrase, tick “I saved my recovery phrase” and click “Open Sui Wallet”.

    Sui wallet
    Sui wallet

    Request Sui devnet tokens

    On your Sui wallet (see above on how to install a Sui wallet), click “Request Devnet Sui Tokens”. You will then receive 0.05 $SUI. To get more $SUI devnet tokens, click on the 3 lines on the top right hand corner of the wallet, then click “Request Devnet SUI Tokens”.

    You can also request devnet tokens via their devnet-faucet channel in Discord. Check here for full instructions.

    Stake and Earn Sui

    On your Sui wallet (see above on how to install a Sui wallet), click “Stake & Earn SUI”. Then select the validator you want to stake your Sui and the amount to be staked and click “Stake Now”. You can unstake and withdraw your SUI on the same page. You can also track how much $SUI you have staked and the APY on the “Coins” tab.

    Mint Sui Capys NFT

    Go to https://capy.art/ and connect your Sui wallet. Then, go to “My Collection” and “Capys”. Select “Get a free Capy” and on the Sui Wallet, click “Approve”. You can mint a maximum of 2 Capys.

    Mint a Sui NFT Capy
    Mint a Sui NFT Capy

    Afterward, you can breed or sell your Capys.

    Register your domain on Sui Name Service (SuiNS)

    On your Sui wallet, go to the “Apps” tab, then click “Sui Name Service (SuiNS). You will then be taken to https://suins.io/ where you can search for names. Choose your desired name (ending in .sui or .move) and click “Register Name”. Registering a name costs 0.001 SUI.

    You will then be asked to connect your Sui wallet, and afterward, click “Approve” (2 approvals are required) to approve the transaction.

    Register domain on Sui Name Service (SuiNS)
    Register domain on Sui Name Service (SuiNS)

    Participate in Sui testnet waves

    Sui has recently finished their Sui Testnet Wave 2. However, you can follow them on Twitter to see if and when they will do another testnet wave.

    Play games and get test mints on Clutchy

    Clutchy is a Gaming and NFT marketplace built on Sui, so using their platform may give you a better chance of getting a potential SUI airdrop. To do this, go to Clutchy.io. To play games on Clutchy, go to the “Games” tab, where you will find many games to choose from including board games, shooters, and puzzles. Meanwhile, their Launchpad will have launch test mint NFTs this week. All you need to do is to mint them using SUI tokens.

    https://twitter.com/Clutchy_io/status/1630329210869874690?s=20
    Upcoming Clutchy NFT test mints

    Interact with protocols in the Sui ecosystem

    There are numerous projects built on Sui, many of which have not released their token yet and might also do a potential airdrop! Similar to zkSync, the network itself and its ecosystem projects are all doing airdrops. Learn more with our zkSync ($ZKS) Token Airdrop Guide!

    So, there could be a chance to earn DOUBLE AIRDROP REWARDS!

    One such project being built on the Sui ecosystem is Synthr. Synthr is a synthetic asset protocol built on Sui, and they have confirmed they will do a $SYNTH token airdrop! For more details check out our Synthr ($SYNTH) token airdrop guide.

    Mint your SuiFrens Bullshark Generation 0 Limited Edition NFT

    Mysten Labs, the company behind Sui, have announced its ACES (Active Contributors & Early Supporters) Program. Those who joined the Sui Discord before 3rd May 2023 can register with their Discord account and Sui wallet before 17th May 2023 at 11am PDT: https://aces.mystenlabs.com.

    Those who are eligible will be airdropped a SuiFrens Bullshark Generation 0 Limited Edition NFT at a later date. It is unknown what the utility of the NFT will be.

    Am I eligible to receive SUI tokens in the Community Access Program?

    Sui has stated there will be no SUI airdrops. Instead, there will be a SUI Token Community Access Program which will offer retrospective rewards and a recognition sale for the following categories of Sui supporters:

    1. Capy Holidays competition winners: They will receive tokens directly based on the competition terms.
    2. Champions: Testers and moderators who attended, organized and ran events. They will get SUI tokens after the mainnet launch.
    3. Supporters: These are Sui Discord community members that joined before 1st February 2023 and offered suggestions, joined discussions, interacting with the ecosystem and helped suggest innovations. Also included are the winners of the Frenemies Competition. These people will be able to purchase SUI during a Recognition Sale.

    Those who are eligible to receive SUI tokens will be contacted directly by the team. Meanwhile, here is how to check your eligibility to participate in the Sui Recognition Sale:

    1. Verify your Discord here. You must have joined their Discord before 1st February 2023 to be eligible. Note that this verification portal will close on 17th April 2023 at 9:30pm PDT.
    2. If you are eligible, you will be required to fill in a form on their page.
    3. Register for the token sale on Bybit, Kucoin or OKX. You can sign up for an account here: ByBit, KuCoin, OKX.

    We recommend signing up with every participating exchange, especially ByBit for the Sui Recognition Sale. This is because Bybit have been allocated the largest number of tokens allocated to them for sale compared to other exchanges and likely will have the highest trading volume. Meaning it would be easier to get an allocation and faster to trade your SUI tokens before everyone else.

    You must complete the KYC requirements for the exchange you plan to buy your SUI tokens from, so it is suggested to sign up ASAP. Note that people from the United States are not eligible to participate in Sui’s Community Access Program. Also, people from the following countries are not eligible to participate in the Sui Recognition Sale, even though they may be eligible under the Community Access Program: United States, mainland China, Singapore, Quebec (Canada), Ontario (Canada), North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Ukraine, Sevastopol, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan, or any other jurisdictions excluded by the exchange.

    Those eligible to participate in the Community Access Program can buy up to 1,500 SUI at US$0.03 per SUI. There will not be any lockup period for the SUI tokens which will be distributed at mainnet launch on 3rd May 2023.

    SUI Recognition Sale Details

    As mentioned previously, some Sui Supporters will be eligible to participate in Sui’s Recognition Sale. These are Sui Discord community members that joined before 1st February 2023 and winners of the Frenemies Competition. The Sui Recognition Sale allows these supporters to purchase Sui at US$0.03/Sui instead of the public price of US$0.1. Only, Bybit, Kucoin or OKX will be hosting the Sui Recognition Sale, so eligible persons must sign up for an account and complete any required KYC on those exchanges.

    According to Sui, over 340k Discord accounts were eligible for the Recognition Sale. Of this, 180k accounts made submissions for the Recognition Sale (this excludes any ineligible accounts). Because there is a maximum allotment of tokens for the Recognition Sale, Sui has done a random selection of the submissions. And it is estimated that around 96k supporters will be able to actually participate in the Recognition Sale (assuming each user purchases the maximum allotment). Sui has emailed these allowlisted participants with instructions as well as the 3 exchanges.

    SUI Tokens will be distributed to successful Recognition Sale participants at the following times:

    • Kucoin: From 01:00 on 2nd May to 09:00 on 3rd May UTC.
    • Bybit: 06:00 on 3rd May UTC.
    • OKX: 06:00 on 3rd May UTC.

    All tokens will be unlocked at Sui mainnet launch on 3rd May.

    Here are the timelines for the Sui Recognition Sale for all 3 exchanges.

    Kucoin:

    Sui token sale timeline Kucoin

    Bybit:

    OKX:

    Sui token sale timeline OKX

    Sui Airdrop Review

    When reviewing an airdrop, there are several factors to consider. First, the likelihood the project will even do an airdrop in the first place. Then, to look at how many tokens the project intends to allocate towards airdrop campaigns, as well as the difficulty in participating in their airdrop. It is also important to look at the utility of the token so that there will be an actual use and purpose in participating in the airdrop in the first place. Finally, a factor to consider when reviewing an airdrop is whether the airdropped tokens are subject to any lockup period.

    Likelihood of Airdrop: For now there is no airdrop, and only those who are eligible under their Community Access Program will either receive SUI or be eligible to participate in their Recognition Sale. The Recognition Sale will allow eligible users to buy SUI at a discounted price.

    Airdropped Token Allocation: 594 million $SUI tokens will be allocated towards their Community Access Program. But they will not be distributed in the form of airdrops.

    Airdrop Difficulty: Sui has not announced any airdrop, but it has said it will reward early users. Their wallet is in devnet stage and has the basic features, in addition, you can mint their Capy NFTs and register a Sui domain name. All these actions only cost SUI tokens, which can be obtained for free. This makes the difficulty quite simple and most importantly, does not involve any cost.

    Token Utility: The SUI token will have 4 main purposes: Gas fees, staking, governance, and as an underlying asset of the Sui economy. This gives $SUI holders a lot of flexibility in terms of how they can use the token.

    Token Lockup: It is speculated that any airdropped $SUI tokens will be locked until the token launch. However, there is no announcement on when this would be.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    What is the Sui Community Access Program?

    Sui Community Access Program is a program that rewards Sui supporters. Under the Community Access Program, only limited categories of early supporters will be able to obtain SUI tokens either via retrospective rewards or a recognition sale. However, there are geographical restrictions, for example US residents are not eligible to receive SUI even if they qualify under the Community Access Program.

    Which countries are excluded from the Community Access Program?

    People from the United States are not eligible to participate in Sui’s Community Access Program. Also, people from the following countries are not eligible to participate in the Sui Recognition Sale, even though they may be eligible under the Community Access Program: United States, mainland China, Singapore, Quebec (Canada), Ontario (Canada), North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Ukraine, Sevastopol, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan or any other jurisdictions excluded by OKX, Bybit or Kucoin.

    Who is eligible to join the SUI Token Community Access Program?

    The following categories of persons are eligible to join the SUI Token Community Access Program: Capy Holidays competition winners, Champions (i.e. Testers and moderators) and Supporters (Sui Discord community members that joined before 1st February 2023).

    How do I check my eligibility for the SUI Community Access Program?

    You can check your eligibility at https://verifysupporters.sui.io/

    When is the deadline for signing up for the Sui Community Access Program?

    The verification portal for the Sui Community Access Program will close on 17th April 2023 at 9:30pm PDT.

    What is the token price and lockup period for the Community Access Program?

    Those who are eligible to join the Community Access Program can purchase up to 1,500 SUI at $US0.03 per token. The tokens are not subject to any lockup period and will be distributed at mainnet launch.

    How can I join the SUI Token Recognition Sale?

    First check if you are eligible here. Note that this verification portal will close on 17th April 2023 at 9:30pm PDT. If you are eligible, you will be required to fill in a form on their page. Then, register for the token sale on Bybit, Kucoin or OKX. You can sign up for an account here: ByBit, KuCoin, OKX.

    When is the Sui mainnet launch?

    Sui has confirmed it will launch its mainnet on 3rd May 2023.

  • Polynomial Protocol $OP Token Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW!

    Polynomial Protocol $OP Token Airdrop Guide: LIVE NOW!

    Polynomial Protocol is a decentralized derivative exchange powered by the Synthetix Protocol on Optimism. They have distributed Optimism ($OP) airdrops to active users in the past and could do so again. In this article, we will briefly explain what Polynomial Protocol is and what you can do to position yourself for the retroactive airdrop.

    What is Polynomial Protocol?

    Polynomial Protocol is built on top of Synthetix, with $SNX stakers serving as counterparties for transactions on Polynomial. By offering liquidity, $SNX stakers receive fees from the platform. Apart from trading, Polynomial offers two more products to make DeFi more accessible to users:

    1. Polynomial Earn Vaults: These are the first DeFi Options Vaults (DOV) that operate entirely on-chain by selling options directly to an Automated Market Maker (AMM).
    2. Polynomial Swap: This product streamlines the swapping process on Optimism, particularly for synthetic assets. Non-synthetic assets are routed through 1inch to ensure a seamless experience.

    Does Polynomial Protocol have a Token?

    Salman Naseer, founder of Polynomial Protocol, said in Discord that they are not planning a token launch at the moment. In the meantime, active users can only claim Optimism ($OP) tokens as rewards.

    How to Get Retroactive $OP Airdrop on Polynomial?

    The best chance to get another retroactive $OP airdrop is to interact with the Polynomial Trade, Earn, and Swap features. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

    1. Connect Your Wallet to Polynomial Protocol

      Connect your MetaMask or other supported wallets to the Polynomial Protocol trading app. The available networks are Optimism and Ethereum.

    2. Create Polynomial Smart Wallet

      After you connected your wallet, you will need to create a Polynomial smart contract wallet. For this part, you also need some ETH to cover gas fees.

    3. Deposit sUSD in Smart Wallet

      After creating your smart wallet, you will need to deposit at least $50 sUSD to start trading. You can use the swap feature to get sUSD.

      If you don’t have funds in Optimism, you can bridge your assets via the MetaMask bridge aggregator (this could also qualify you for the $MASK airdrop). You can also buy sUSD on KuCoin and transfer them to your Optimism wallet.

    4. Trade Perpetual Futures

      You can now trade perpetual futures on the platform. Polynomial has a detailed guide on how to open up standard orders or limit orders for long and short positions.

    5. Use Earn Vaults

      You can deposit sETH or sUSD to earn yields in the Polynomial Earn Vaults. It is important to note that these vault strategies are subject to market risks. Check out their earn documents to understand more.

    Airdrop Review

    When reviewing an airdrop, there are several factors to consider. First, the likelihood the project will even do an airdrop in the first place. Then, to look at how many tokens the project intends to allocate towards airdrop campaigns, as well as the difficulty in participating in their airdrop. It is also important to look at the utility of the token so that there will be an actual use and purpose in participating in the airdrop in the first place. Finally, a factor to consider when reviewing an airdrop is whether the airdropped tokens are subject to any lockup period.

    Likelihood of Airdrop: There is no official announcement of the next retroactive $OP airdrop yet. But Polynomial is growing, so there is a good chance there will be another incentive for the community.

    Airdropped Token Allocation: The airdropped token allocation is unknown.

    Airdrop Difficulty: The trading platform offers a user-friendly interface and operates on the Optimism mainnet. As with any investment, it is advised to only use funds that one is prepared to risk.

    Token Utility: Polynomial has no plans to launch its own token yet.

    Token Lockup: Polynomial has no plans to launch its own token yet.

  • Synthr ($SYNTH) token airdrop guide: Get ready for free money!

    Synthr ($SYNTH) token airdrop guide: Get ready for free money!

    Synthr is a synthetic asset protocol built on Ethereum, Aptos, Sui and Sei. It allows users to mint and trade on-chain derivatives using trustless financial contracts. Most importantly, the team has already confirmed they will do an airdrop! Here’s our Synthr token airdrop guide, which will help you best position yourself for maximum airdrops!

    Did you know that some people made over US$10,000 during the Aptos airdrop? Now, Sui is ALSO following suit and doing a potential airdrop. Check out our Sui token airdrop guide!

    Synthr ($SYNTH) airdrop step-by-step guide

    Here’s how to receive a potential Synthr ($SYNTH) token airdrop:

    1. Join their Discord
    2. Follow their Twitter

    See below for more details

    What is Synthr?

    Synthr is a DeFi protocol that provides traders with access to a universal and omni-accessible market. It was created by a team of experts in DeFi and traditional investors with real-world trading experience. Synthr’s goal is to enable traders to take advantage of the opportunities offered by DeFi solutions and to break down the barriers of traditional finance. It provides traders with the tools they need to succeed in the ever-evolving world of trading.

    Synthr
    Synthr (Image Credit: Synthr)

    What is the $SYNTH token?

    $SYNTH is the native token of Synthr. According to Synthr’s Whitepaper, $SYNTH will be rewarded for depositing into their vaults. There will be an initial supply of 690,095,238 $SYNTH released at the Token Generation Event (TGE). Most importantly, the team has already confirmed they will allocate 1.7% of these tokens (i.e. 11,731,619 $SYNTH) towards an airdrop. However, there are no further details on when and how Synthr will do the airdrop.

    How to get a Synthr $SYNTH token airdrop?

    Synthr have confirmed they will do an airdrop, but not how and when this will be. This is likely because Synthr is in a very early stage of development. Their testnet is currently only live for their OGs (of which there are only 100 people). But, is expected to be available for the public in Q1 2023. According to their FAQs, they expect to launch their mainnet in late Q1 2023/early Q2 2023. However, it is likely this will be delayed. Nevertheless, this means you are still early and have a good chance to be part of their future airdrop. Here’s how you can best position yourself for a future Synthr ($SYNTH) token airdrop:

    1. Join their Discord
    2. Follow their Twitter

    Doing this will put you in the best position to be the first to know when details of the airdrop are finally announced.

    Synthr ($SYNTH) token airdrop review

    When reviewing an airdrop, there are several factors to consider. First, the likelihood the project will even do an airdrop in the first place. Then, to look at how many tokens the project intends to allocate towards airdrop campaigns, as well as the difficulty in participating in their airdrop. It is also important to look at the utility of the token so that there will be an actual use and purpose in participating in the airdrop in the first place. Finally, a factor to consider when reviewing an airdrop is whether the airdropped tokens are subject to any lockup period.

    Likelihood of Airdrop: Synthr has already confirmed they will do an airdrop. But the details are unknown.

    Airdropped Token Allocation: The team has confirmed that 1.7% (i.e. 11,731,619 $SYNTH) of the $SYNTH tokens released at the TGE will be allocated towards airdrops.

    Airdrop Difficulty: The Synthr testnet is not open to the public yet. So the only things that can be done now to position yourself for the future airdrop is to join their Discord and follow their social media channels.

    Token Utility: The $SYNTH token is given as a reward for depositing into the Synthr vaults.

    Token Lockup: Over 690 million $SYNTH will be released at TGE. According to their Whitepaper, the vesting period for a major part of the total token supply have been drawn out for as long as 60 months.

  • Increment Finance ($INCR) token airdrop guide

    Increment Finance ($INCR) token airdrop guide

    Increment Finance is built on the zkSync ecosystem which allows on-chain perpetual swaps that feature automatically concentrated liquidity, dynamic fees, and parametrizable pools. Increment Finance launched on the same day as zkSync Fair Onboarding Alpha. Following this launch, projects on zkSync can continue running contests and bug bounty programs. This means a possibility of airdrops on zkSync ecosystem projects such as Increment Finance. In this article, we provide a guide on how you can potentially get an Increment Finance ($INCR) token airdrop.

    Learn more about how to get a potential zkSync airdrop. And don’t miss out on any other upcoming airdrops by signing up for the NEW Boxmining Newsletter to get alerted!

    Increment Finance ($INCR) Airdrop Step-by-Step Guide

    Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get a potential Increment Finance ($INCR) token airdrop:

    1. Participate in any Increment Finance contests or tournaments.
    2. Participate in any beta testing.
    3. Find and report any potential cases of sybil attacks (coming soon).
    4. Participate in governance by voting and commenting on Increment Finance’s governance proposals.

    See below for more details.

    What is Increment Finance?

    Increment Finance is built on zkSync Era (i.e. zkSync 2.0). It is a decentralized, algorithmic perpetual swaps protocol that features automatically concentrated liquidity, parametrizable pools, and dynamic fees. The protocol joined zkSync Era’s Fair Onboarding Alpha which was launched on 16th February 2023.

    Increment Finance is backed by venture funds such as Parafi Capital, Delphi Capital, Dialectic, LedgerPrime, AngelDAO and Skyvision Capital.

    Features of Increment Finance

    There are 3 main features of Increment Finance. The protocol supports multi-asset collateral (e.g. stablecoins and synthetic assets etc.) for trading perpetual swaps. Increment Finance also integrates Curve V2 Crypto Pools for improved liquidity and trade execution. Finally, users can increase buying power by minting more virtual assets using the Curve V2 trading engine.

    What is the Increment Finance ($INCR) token?

    Increment Finance has not launched its token, or its tokenomics and distribution model yet. But its latest blog post suggests it would have the ticker symbol $INCR. According to its documentation, the $INCR token will be for governance.

    Increment Finance has recently taken a poll, and a proposal was passed that 9,200,000 $INCR (i.e. 46% of its total token supply) will be allocated toward 3 community distributions. In the first phase, 400,000 INCR will be distributed retroactively and be available immediately to specific members of the Increment Finance community. These community members include contest winners, community writers, beta testers and those with a community role. However, the ERC-20 token contract will initially be paused, so the INCR token will not be transferable. A breakdown of which addresses will receive the initial 400,000 INCR tokens is available here.

    Phase 2 will distribute 1,000,000 tokens to the community within the first year of the token launch. Finally, the third phase will distribute another 1,000,000 tokens to the community within the second year of the $INCR token launch.

    What is the status of Increment Finance?

    Increment Finance has joined zkSync’s Fair Onboarding Alpha, which was launched on 16th February 2023. The project is currently actively

    Will there be an Increment Finance ($INCR) token airdrop?

    Increment Finance has not announced an $INCR token airdrop yet. However, they are actively discussing issues of token creation and distribution in their Governance proposals. Poll voting has recently ended and a governance proposal on phase 1 of $INCR token creation and distribution has been passed. So far, it has been decided that there will be 3 community distributions of the $INCR token. And how the first phase of 400,000 INCR will be distributed has been agreed upon. So here’s hoping the issue of airdrops would be specifically discussed soon. (https://bestsellerpublishing.org/)

    How to participate in any potential Increment Finance ($INCR) token airdrop?

    Increment Finance has not announced any airdrop yet. However, from the latest passed governance proposal, we can see how Increment Finance community members were eligible for phase 1 of the $INCR community distribution. These members will be retrospectively airdropped a total of 400,000 $INCR between them when the token launches. So based on who were eligible for phase 1 of the $INCR community distribution, here are some ways you can be eligible for any potential $INCR token airdrop:

    1. Participate in any Increment Finance contests or tournaments;
    2. Participate in any beta testing;
    3. Find and report any potential cases of sybil attacks (coming soon); and
    4. Participate in governance by voting and commenting on Increment Finance’s governance proposals.

    Increment Finance ($INCR) airdrop review

    When reviewing an airdrop, there are several factors to consider. First, the likelihood the project will even do an airdrop in the first place. Then, to look at how many tokens the project intends to allocate towards airdrop campaigns, as well as the difficulty in participating in their airdrop. It is also important to look at the utility of the token so that there will be an actual use and purpose in participating in the airdrop in the first place. Finally, a factor to consider when reviewing an airdrop is whether the airdropped tokens are subject to any lockup period.

    Likelihood of Airdrop: No airdrop has been announced yet, but a governance proposal has recently been passed which sees a retroactive airdrop of $INCR tokens to specific community members when the token launches. So an airdrop is likely.

    Airdropped Token Allocation: Increment Finance has recently taken passed a governance proposal to allocate 9,200,000 $INCR (i.e. 46% of its total token supply) toward 3 community distributions.

    Airdrop Difficulty: Increment Finance has not launched its protocol for all users yet. So far the ways to potentially get a $INCR airdrop is to participate in their contests and vote on governance proposals. The latter is relatively straightforward.

    Token Utility: The $INCR token is used for governance.

    Token Lockup: The ERC-20 token contract for $INCR will initially be paused, so the INCR token will not be transferable by those who got airdrops in phase 1 of the community distribution. However, it is unknown how long this pause will be.

  • Unbound Finance (UNB/UND): unlocking liquidity from AMM pools

    Unbound Finance (UNB/UND): unlocking liquidity from AMM pools

    Unbound Finance (UNB/UND) is a decentralised protocol that aims to unlock liquidity from automated market maker (AMM) pools. This allows users to instantly obtain crypto credit lines, as well as providing high-yield earning opportunities.

    Background

    Unbound Finance was launched in October 2020 by a publicly known team. It’s currently in the testnet phase and no token sale has been conducted yet. The team has claimed that they have major exchanges’ CEOs onboard as angels and currently working on audits for mainnet launch in the near future. It’s supported by Tomo Chain, Zilliqa, Frontier, Fuse Network, Enjin, among others.

    What is Unbound Finance?

    Unbound Finance is a decentralized protocol slated to unlock more use cases for liquidity pool tokens from the AMM market. Unbound is aiming to unleash the potential of these powerful assets and promote their further usage in DeFi protocols, without the need to redeem those liquidity pools tokens. It will also enable minting of a decentralized collateralized stablecoin called UND, synthetic Ethereum, and other synthetic assets with LPTs as collateral.

    It’s essentially a derivative layer of automated market makers (AMMs) or orderbook-less decentralized exchanges (DEXes) tasked with ‘unlocking’ the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols. This mechanism can retrieve liquidity from DEXs like Uniswap, Balancer, Bancor, Curve, etc.

    According to the official documents, it will be debt and liquidation-free thanks to the use of high-quality liquidity pairs, large collateral ratios, and backup funds.

    Unbound Finance supported AMMs
    Unbound Finance supported AMM protocols (Image credit: Unbound Finance)

    Synthetic Assets

    Having introduced the term Synthetic assets, it’s a good idea to clarify what they mean. Synthetics are, as the name dictates, not the real thing but a copy of the original. It means that it is a representative of the underlying asset.

    Generally, this is accomplished by tracking the price of an asset through on-chain oracles, which allows for their continuous availability and 24/7 trading, as well as usage in protocols. Synthetic assets can range from cryptocurrencies, fiat, stocks, index funds, precious metals, foods, bonds, and many more. If anything has a price in the market, it can be turned into a synthetic asset.

    Aims And Objectives

    The protocol is trying to become the primary source of liquidity provision for Liquidity Pool tokens (LPTs) in order to bring existing liquidity pools into active usage, act as an LPT treasury, mint and manage the synthetic assets tracking the price of an underlying, establish LPT role as collateral, create pools of liquidity pools, develop instruments for margin trades and yield compounding, and safeguard against loan liquidations.

    Fees

    Unbound Finance charges a fee for minting assets. Fees will be distributed as follows:

    • 20% SAFU fund-
    • 40% UND-DAI liquidity pool
    • 20% team fund: this will be for further development of the project.

    Unbound Finance Services

    There are three primary services provided by the protocol. These include minting, unlocking, and earning services.

    Minting

    Unbound Finance allows users to mint the UND stablecoin and other synthetic assets by providing their LPT tokens as collateral. This allows them to put the value of their LPTs to use without having to liquidate them in a convenient manner, allowing them to access the funds immediately. The users are charged a minting fee and can only generate the synthetics according to the Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio. 

    Unlocking

    After the users return their borrowed funds, the UND or synthetics are burned and the collateral is released. Since the contracts are perpetual and devoid of an expiry date, the users can return the funds at any time without any deadline. There is no fee charged by the protocol for unlocking collateral.

    Earning

    Another service provided by the platform is the earning facility, where the liquidity providers are given rewards for providing liquidity to the platform pools. The rewards are competitive, variable, and derived largely from the initial mint transaction fees.

    Unbound Finance Tokens (UNB/UND)

    The primary token of the platform is the Unbound Finance (UNB) token, used for governance purposes and user participation. It can be used to signal intent on important parameters and tuning the performance of the protocol. UNB is an inflationary token and users staking the it will receive rewards to offset the yearly inflation of 4%.

    The second token type on the protocol is the synthetics, minted from depositing LPT collateral and being withdrawn/burned once the borrowed amount has been successfully repaid. They don’t have a fixed cap and their actual amount in circulation will remain variable.

    UNB tokenomics
    UNB tokenomics (Image credit: Unbound Finance whitepaper)

    Unbound Finance – Supported Liquidity Pools

    Unbound Finance is currently available on testnet only, but supports the following:

    • Uniswap
    • Balancer
    • Bancor
    • Mooniswap
    • Curve.Fi
    • Kyber

    In the future, the liquidity pools of Dodo, Fulcrum, 0x, and Black Hole will be made available too.

    Here’s their tutorial on how to use to the Unbound Finance testnet.

    Conclusions

    The first decentralized orderbook-less exchange was Bancor. And since then, DEXs have exploded in numbers and currently compete well against their centralized counterparts. However, the users providing the liquidity and getting the LPT tokens are stuck with an asset, which ironically isn’t liquid by itself. Unbound Finance seems to be the likely answer to address the shortcomings of LPT tokens.

    Their further inclusion in the DeFi protocols and newfound uses will surely help boost liquidity and derivatives trading. The promise of no debt and no liquidation is another bonus point, as users can make use of the capital borrowed against collateral, without any fear of losing them. The perpetuity of the contracts allows the borrowed amount to be paid at any time.

    Even though Unbound Finance is in its infancy and available only on testnet. The concept and the premise are powerful. Its execution remains to be seen, but if successful, it will be the first of its kind to allow users to mint assets against liquidity pool tokens (LPTs). Hence, it’s likely to set the tone for the upcoming projects and the integrations within the existing ones.

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • The Graph ($GRT) – The Next Level of Decentralized Apps

    The Graph ($GRT) – The Next Level of Decentralized Apps

    What is The Graph?

    The Graph ($GRT) is a decentralized and open-sourced indexing protocol for blockchain data. Developers can build and publish different APIs, which are referred to as subgraphs, and perform queries through the GraphQL.

    The platform can easily be used to look for any Ethereum data conveniently through simple queries. This addresses the common problem faced by a lot of other blockchain indexing platforms.

    Blockchain applications face difficulties in keeping properties like finality, chain reorganization, and security in their process of fulfilling query tasks. These are also potential complications that applications usually address, but unfortunately make the process of querying time-consuming. The Graph has a workaround for this, and it is built exactly for that purpose.

    Through “subgraphs,” The Graph indexes blockchain data, which users can access via the GraphQL API. According to the team, they will make it fully decentralized in the future, where more nodes will be involved and made responsible for maintaining the index.

    The interest for the platform is steadily growing. In fact, they hit over a billion queries last June 2020. This was right at the time when decentralized finance was also gaining much institutional attention.

    The Graph’s Daily Query Volume (Source: ‘1 Billion Monthly Queries’ medium articles)

    Background

    Yaniv Tal, co-founder and CEO of The Graph, together with his team, has created an indexing protocol meant to ease the process of accessing blockchain data. Tal and his co-founders had personally witnessed themselves how difficult it was to actually create new applications on the Ethereum blockchain.

    Thanks to their experience on applications, they have found out that there is actually no decentralized indexing and querying softwares yet for blockchain. The problem back then was that developers had to come up with their own method to gather data and transform them from different sources.

    The mission of the platform, which Tal and his team developed, is to help create applications that require no servers and make Web3 accessible to everyone.

    How Does The Graph Index Data?

    To index Ethereum-based data, The Graph uses the “subgraph manifest.” This refers to the description of a subgraph containing data about smart contracts, blockchain events, and the procedure in mapping event data with one another, before they are all kept in the platform’s database.

    The flow of the data from transactions, subgraph manifests, and the database follows a particular structure. All of it begins with decentralized applications that are adding data to the Ethereum blockchain through the help of smart contracts.

    All of that data will contain a record of all events and transactions up until the point that they have achieved finality. Then comes the Graph Node, which scans the whole blockchain database, gathers new data, and filters out those that are relevant to the queries that users make. To make the indexing much easier, it identifies every information that answers the questions from subgraphs.

    GraphQL is the link between blockchain data and the application that a user wants to provide it with. But then again, it is through the Graph Node that users can deliver searches to the platform. After the whole process, users can finally look at the results of their query from their applications.

    Basically, this is how the cycle of data query and indexing works in the platform. Users can refer to the Graph Explorer to scan through the subgraphs that are already in the platform. Each of these subgraphs have a playground where users can perform queries through GraphQL.

    How the Graph Works? (source: https://thegraph.com/docs/introduction#how-the-graph-works)

    As of latest, The Graph can support the indexing of data coming from Ethereum, IPFS, and PoA networks. There are more networks that the platform will support in the future. But right now, they already have more than 2,300 subgraphs deployed, which developers for applications utilize. Some of these applications are AAVE, Aragon, Balancer, DAOstack, Uniswap, Synthetix, and many others.

    There is a lot of institutional support for The Graph network. Michael Anderson of Framework Ventures, said in a press release that they “couldn’t be happier to back Yaniv and the team, and we look forward to helping grow the decentralized network when it launches.”

    Hayden Adams of Uniswap also shared how useful the platform was for their analytics needs: “As a company we don’t manage or run our own databases. … Right now it’s pretty difficult to get historic data from the Ethereum blockchain in an efficient way.”

    Their plan, apart from expanding to other blockchains soon, is to make it community-owned and governed in the future. This is also in response to the shift of many blockchain applications to a decentralized model of governance.

    Key Roles

    The platform’s whole ecosystem is composed of the following:

    The Graph’s Protocol Roles (source: The Graph Network In Depth)
    • Consumers – These are the users who pay indexers for their searches. It could also be web services or any other software linked with The Graph.
    • Indexers – These are the nodes that maintain the indexing function of the platform.
    • Curators – Using GRTs, curators identify to the subgraphs the information that is valuable for the platform’s index.
    • Delegators – These are other stakers who delegate their GRT to existing indexers and earn a portion of the rewards run by nodes.
    • Fishermen – They check whether the network’s response to queries is accurate.
    • Arbitrators – They decide whether an Indexer is malicious or not.

    The Graph Council

    The Graph plans to decentralize its governance in the future. This will most likely be similar with MakerDAO and Compound. At the point of the protocol’s maturity, the team plans to launch a Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) that would allow core interest groups to participate in important protocol decisions.

    Similar to other DAOs, the Graph Council, which will be the governing body for the technical parameters of the protocol, is also in charge of how The Graph Foundation allocates its native, utility tokens.

    Among their basic functions include decisions on allocating grants and ecosystem funding, protocol upgrades, protocol parameters, and other emergency decisions.

    GRT Token ($GRT)

    The Graph Token, or $GRT, is its native ERC-20 based token, which can serve as a medium of exchange and the reward distributed to community participants who function as Indexers, Curators, and Delegators.

    GRT token distribution
    GRT token distribution (Image source: The Graph)

    GRT also has a vesting and distribution schedule ranging between 6 months to 10 years depending on the bucket. Around 12.5% of the total token supply (i.e. 1,224,999,438 GRT) is expected to be in circulation at launch. However this figure is exclusive of stakeable but locked tokens.

    GRT token distribution at mainnet launch

    The Graph launched its mainnet at 9:00a.m. (PT) on 17th December 2020. Upon launch, GRT has been distributed to all of the participants of the public sale. Members of The Graph’s Curator Program also received an initial USD $1,000 worth in rewards, with the remainder to be distributed to them on a quarterly basis based on their contributions to the Program.

    The Graph Foundation also received around 20% of the supply for the future development of The Graph. In particular, contributors who want to help building on The Graph can apply to their Grants Program, around 1% of the total supply of GRT will be allocated to support these participants in 2021.

    Here’s a graph showing the GRT circulation over the course of 5 years from the date of launch (i.e. 17th December 2020 at 9:00a.m. PT)

    5-year GRT circulation schedule by Bucket
    5-year GRT circulation schedule by Bucket (Image source: The Graph)

    Indexers that assisted during the Testnet phase have also ben rewarded between USD$10,000 to USD$100,000 in GRT as a reward for their contributions.

    In addition, around 2% of the total GRT has been granted to several Education Programs and loans totalling around 2.5% had been made to independent ecosystem partners.

    Indexer Staking

    In order for users to stake in the nodes that operate the whole platform and sell their services in the query market, they have to lock their GRT. In return, they are given financial rewards. If the indexers work maliciously, like altering data intentionally, the GRT that they staked will be slashed.

    Mainnet now live!

    The Graph Network launched its main net on 17th December 2020 after 3 years of development! According to the team the mainnet launch includes the following components: Deployment of The Graph Network contracts on Ethereum mainnet, deployment of the GRT contract, distribution of GRT to takeovers, launch of the Bug County Program and new docs for network roles.

    With the mainnet launch, Indexers will first stress test and improve performance before supporting real query volume, which will be upwards of 5,000 queries per second. Of course, there will be rewards for Indexers who will now begin earning on-chain indexing rewards and query fees.

    Graph Roadmap: What’s next?

    Now that mainnet has launched, The Graph will continue building. The Team has stated that the Graph Foundation will work on building a production-ready Graph Explorer dApp and Gateway that will support all network contributors.

    The Graph is also open to any individuals or third-parties that want to build for the network and as mentioned previously, they an apply to the Grants Program or collaborate with other community contributors.

    Conclusion

    Looking at the current boom of the DeFi space, we can see how important it is for developers to be able to freely access blockchain data. Making the process faster and less difficult for everyone could potentially influence the growth of the space as well as its reliability, security, and capacity.

    Everyone saw the need to create a bridge of information between applications and blockchain data. The Graph sought out to answer that.

    And with the deployment of smart contracts that depend on user data, The Graph has proven itself to be easy to use, cost-efficient, and fast. The platform is seen as a promising tool to empower everyone in the community, especially those who are developing more use cases for the blockchain.

    Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

    With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

    The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

    More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • XFai ($XFIT): Can it resolve the liquidity and gas fee issues in DeFi?

    XFai ($XFIT): Can it resolve the liquidity and gas fee issues in DeFi?

    XFai is a decentralized oracle service provider that aims to address liquidity and gas issues in decentralised exchanges (DEXs) through a so-called DEX Liquidity Oracle which will revolutionise cryptocurrency trading whilst reducing gas fees.

    If you are a regular DEX trader, you might notice that there are times when you can’t complete trades. This happens often with small-cap tokens that do not have enough liquidity. In this case, traders have two options, either to wait it out until there’s enough liquidity or to increase price slippage tolerance. But either way, it can result in huge losses on the part of a small-cap token holder.

    XFai wants to address this problem by empowering DEXs with liquidity that can be supplied to small-cap tokens. This equalizes the playing field for every single trader, allowing them to execute their strategy without having to shoulder massive costs just because a DEX might not have enough liquidity on any particular trading pair.

    Check out our interview with XFai’s Chief Scientist, Taulant Ramabaja.

    Background

    The problem with many DEXs today is liquidity. While liquidity pools and profit-generating DeFi systems like yield farming have offered revolutionary solutions in the last year or so, DEXes still face this concern. This leaves many traders vulnerable to huge price slippages and losses. And if the issue persists, cryptocurrency traders might be discouraged and go back to trading mostly on centralized exchanges despite having less options.

    This is what XFai worked is trying to solve.

    XFai, which was co-founded by Geoffrey Khan, was developed in order to deal with the problems hounding DeFi markets today. It has gained a substantial amount of support, garnering investments from companies like AU21 Capital, LD Capital, and Roger Ver, one of the earliest adopters of blockchain technology and the CEO of Bitcoin.com. It is also worth mentioning that they were able to generate over $3.8 million within the first 12 hours of their private sale.

    What is XFai?

    XFai is a decentralized oracle service provider with the aim of addressing liquidity and gas issues in DEXs through a DEX Liquidity Oracle (DLO). This means that the protocol’s role is not only limited to supplying data to price feeds and engaging with smart contracts, but is also capable of actively providing and managing token liquidity in partner DEXs such as Uniswap.

    The primary goal of the project is to support small cap tokens and token holders by establishing a system that helps them earn better rewards. In other words, the project seeks to help them gain as much in incentives as they can, just like how a holder of a large cap token does.

    DEX Liquidity Oracle

    XFai’s DLO is powered by the XFai smart contract, which allows users to stake small cap tokens that can later be supplied to Uniswap pools according to corresponding price ranges and existing orders. The biggest trades facilitated on Uniswap exchanges will be provided with the liquidity collected from the DLO.

    This does not just benefit large volume trades for small cap tokens, but also those who supply liquidity on the same tokens. They receive rewards when they do so as well. The good thing about DLO is that it does not require liquidity providers to supply all the assets supported in a liquidity pool. They can choose to simply supply a single token in a pool, which also mitigates the risks of impermanent loss on their end.

    What supports this function further is its real-time price feed from centralized exchanges. Furthermore, the liquidity from the DLO is easily accessible to DEXs, addressing the issue on price slippage. This is exactly the goal of the XFai team, to support the current DEXs in the market and not to present itself as a competitor.

    How Does XFai Work?

    First, the user has to add tokens on the DLO liquidity vault/pool. The DLO is governed by a smart contract that also sends the tokens to partner DEXes when liquidity is needed. Note that users do not need to supply multiple assets at a time anymore, thereby reducing their exposure.

    Second, the DLO looks into the data from existing order books from other exchanges to determine existing prices and trading volume. Then, it comes up with a synthetic curve which they will use in order to pair DLO liquidity with partner DEXs.

    Then, there is a smart contract that governs how and when liquidity is supplied to a DEX using the synthetic curve. The goal of the contract is to ensure that enough liquidity is met by AMMs in order to avoid price slippage while allowing small cap token holders to supply liquidity without incurring impermanent loss.

    XFIT Token

    XFIT token is XFai’s native, utility token, which can be used as a medium of exchange, store of value, and means of payment for transaction fees. But more than that, it also has governance and reward functions. Liquidity farming is accessible in XFIT and all other DLO pairs.

    To start liquidity mining, holders can stake their tokens in select pools to earn proportional rewards. Each time the DLO profits from the trades conducted by its platform users, token holders earn additional XFIT. They can either redeem XFIT tokens to be later sold to the market, or they can decide to return their rewards back to liquidity pools in order to increase their stake position.

    In addition, XFIT token holders are also entitled to discounts on transaction fees if they use XFIT. They can also make direct swaps from XFIT to any other token in the protocol as long as they are supported by the DLO.

    XFai Liquidity Generation Event: How to stake XFIT

    The XFai liquidity generation event is a way to allow users to become involved with XFai’s XFIT token early, and stake them in the liquidity pool in order to earn increased, sustained yield throughout the launch period.

    To participate, users can go on the XFai website and click on “Farm”, then choose your preferred pool. Note that the APY is synced for all pools so they earn the same amount of APY as each other. Then click “Connect Wallet” to connect using MetaMask, once connected the dashboard will automatically calculate how much XFIT you can purchase with the amount in your wallet. Select the amount you want to stake and hit “Farm”.

    Whilst farming, you have the option to either Add to Farm, which allows you to increase your stake or Harvest, which allows you to claim your XIFT rewards.

    To claim your rewards, click “Harvest” and you would be presented with the option to Harvest XFIT or Harvest XFIT and unstake. Harvest XFIT allows you to claim the XFIT tokens gained into your wallet whilst keeping the staked amount in the liquidity pool to keep farming more XIFT rewards. On the other hand, Harvest XFIT and unstake means you can claim your XFIT rewards and unstake the staked amount (or any part of it) from the pool.

    The XFai LGE will be from 16th April to 7 May 2021.

    For a full guide on how to farm XFIT, click here.

    Conclusion

    Perhaps one of the largest factors that stop people from completely shifting their cryptocurrency trading activities to DEXs is the liquidity problem, apart from the fees. It is difficult to execute trades with low liquidity and even if they often do, sometimes, it takes multiple slippage tolerance adjustments before a trade gets to be completed.

    While this can look trivial for some people, this is something that can’t be neglected. If XFai takes off, the DeFi space might experience a better market situation. If traders do not have to be burdened by price slippages and if liquidity further improves through the same solutions the XFai team did, DEXs can be even more alluring to everyone, which would help speed up adoption.

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • Base Protocol ($BASE): a rebasing token to cover all cryptocurrencies?

    Base Protocol ($BASE): a rebasing token to cover all cryptocurrencies?

    Base Protocol ($BASE) created a token with a value pegged to the total market capitalization of every cryptocurrency available in the market. The purpose is to diversify a person’s investments and expand their exposure to a lot of cryptocurrencies that they would not have otherwise availed from existing traditional investment vehicles. 

    This has helped investors because trading on the cryptocurrency market has always been challenging. Especially when the performance of some coins varies a lot from each other. There are big gainers and big losers. In addition, choosing which digital currency to invest in can be truly difficult at times considering their inherent risks. Fortunately, Base Protocol’s token aims to solve this problem.

    Learn more about Base Protocol and how rebasing works in our debate with Nick Ravanbakhsh, co-founder of Base Protocol.

    EPIC Debate: Are “Rebases” Useful Financially? – With Base Protocol

    Background

    Nick Ravanbakhsh and Dylan Senter, founders of the Base Protocol, started the project to address the lack of a crypto index fund product for the cryptocurrency market. They came up with the idea to establish a basket of digital assets that track the market.

    Both of them are also co-founders of Spectiv, a digital token designed as a rewards system for content creators, aiming to do away with the advertising intermediaries like YouTube or Facebook.

    Base Protocol’s key team members also include Chris Peña (Head of Development), who has over 10 years of experience being a developer for systems that span multiple industries,and Based McGee (Head of Development — Solidity), who has 10 years of experience being a software engineer.

    What is Base Protocol?

    Base Protocol is an Ethereum-based synthetic token that has its price derived from the value of all digital assets in the cryptocurrency market. You can think of it like a stock index. It functions as a trading vehicle where the price is dependent on the movement of all other stocks held in its particular market.

    Through Base, investors can participate in the cryptocurrency market with the Base Protocol index mitigating risk.

    Rather than simply speculating on the numerous cryptocurrencies that pop up almost daily, investors can spread their risk by simply investing in Base Protocol. This means that they can have a stake in every successful coin, at the same time, have a more balanced risk exposure.

    And for as long as the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, you cannot lose. Basically, this project is geared to those who believe in the nascent industry’s long-term potential.

    Features of Base Protocol

    Base Protocol as a Synthetic Asset

    A synthetic asset in finance is a tool designed to produce the same effects as investing in another asset (called the underlying asset). However, it also alters the key characteristics of the underlying asset.

    This is effectively the engineering mechanism behind the Base protocol, which is a synthetic asset that simulates the performance of the cryptocurrency market. To do this effectively, it is built with some important features in place.

    Elastic supply

    BASE’s value is designed to be the combined value of all cryptocurrencies in the market at a ratio of 1:1 trillion. Hence Base Protocol is built to always achieve equilibrium with the market cap of all cryptocurrencies (target price). This means that its supply could also change depending on the current state of the market. Through its rebasing method, BASE could ensure that it can reconcile the difference between the value of its coin and the total market cap for cryptocurrencies.

    Rebasing- how does it work?

    Rebasing is the term used for the process by which a synthetic asset’s price is restored in equilibrium to the underlying asset. BASE’s rebasing mechanism adjusts its total supply until the market price reaches the target price.

    While this protocol functions to ensure that the market price of BASE always correlates with the target price – it often only manages to influence the corrections. It is left to market actors to respond to rebases to correct prices.

    Rebase process
    Rebase process (Image credit: Base Protocol whitepaper)

    Example

    • t0 — An investor buys 1 BASE with a market price $1
    • t1— The market price of BASE goes up to $2 – out of sync with the target price of $1
    • t2 — To restore the market price’s equilibrium to target price, BASE’s total supply is adjusted in proportion to the difference. This is a “rebase”, and the process is called a “rebase event”.
    • t3 — Regardless of the rebase event, the investor’s net $ balance and his percent ownership of the total supply are always constant.

    BASE Token ($BASE)

    Base’s token ($BASE) is the token associated with the Base Protocol index and is both itself a cryptocurrency and a measure of the cryptocurrency market as a whole. It serves as a trading instrument that enables individuals to make investments based on the whole cryptocurrency market, instead of just a single or few digital asset selections.

    BASE’s value follows the ratio of 1:1 trillion, based on the whole market cap for cryptocurrencies. For example, if the market cap is at $800 billion, the value of one BASE is $0.80.

    The protocol is based on the Ethereum blockchain and can be bought on Uniswap. The price feed uses Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network.

    Base Protocol dashboard
    Base Protocol dashboard (Image credit: Base Protocol)

    While BASE is becoming more popular as an investment instrument, it can serve other specific purposes too. Here are some of the other features that the $BASE token can be used for.

    Uses for $BASE token

    Price Reference

    Traders trying to analyze the potential movement of a particular coin could track its price with the value of BASE to determine how they fare against the whole crypto market. This can even be better than just comparing altcoins with BTC because it shows an overview of the whole crypto economy. 

    Hence $BASE is intended to be a single token that allows an investor to speculate on all crypto assets simultaneously. This way, they don’t have to buy any specific coin or invest in a select few and can spread their stake across the entire industry.

    As long as the investor is optimistic about the industry’s future, they can invest in the market as a whole.

    Safe Haven

    According to the Team, purchasing BASE allows holders to make safe investments, instead of just selecting a single digital asset.

    This is because cherry-picking cryptocurrencies into a portfolio opens the investor to the risk of loss — seeing how volatile the market can be. People might also miss out on the emergence of the rapid rise of any new currency.

    By investing in $BASE, however, the idea is that one can mitigate the risk of exposure of individual coins while enjoying the rest’s potential gains.

    Price Reference

    As a market tracker, BASE’s price is indicative of the total market cap of the crypto market. Crypto investors already track the performance of altcoins in relation to bitcoin instead of USD.

    The performance of any altcoin in relation to bitcoin is more a more important measure for the decentralized economy. But even better would be to use $BASE as the price reference. Instead of just BTC, the trader can see how well any altcoin performs against the entire crypto market.

    Lending Instrument

    BASE can be utilized as a hedge for leveraged crypto trading. It can be considered an alternative to borrowing in BTC since it is less volatile. For example, if the value of BASE drops and they have to repay the loan they made, they can suffer less in terms of losses since it depends on the overall drop in the market.

    Base Cascade

    BASE Cascade is a program on the platform designed to reward BASE holders. This is because it also serves as their contribution to the liquidity of Uniswap’s pool. In order to take part in the Cascade program, users have to lock their BASE and ETH on the Uniswap liquidity pool. They get a percentage of the transaction fees based on the volume of trading in the pool as a reward.

    After they have deposited their BASE and ETH on Uniswap, they are given LP tokens, which is the token that they can stake to claim their rewards on Cascade.

    At first, the rewards multiplier for Cascade participants is at 1x. 30 days after they are staked, it increase to 2x. 60 days after, the multiplier becomes 3x. The increase in the multiplier happens everyday until it reaches the ceiling point, which is at 3x.

    Participation in Cascade is merely optional. Only the user can decided how much liquidity they want to contribute. Furthermore, they can withdraw at any point in time.

    Conclusion

    Devising new ways to expand the investment opportunities for the cryptocurrency market serves the purposes of adoption and new use cases. Base Protocol’s initiative to create a product that expands the exposure of its users to the whole crypto market can be a convenient entry point for fresh investments.

    Some of the factors affecting the arrival of new entrants to the crypto space include the volatility of some coins and the difficulty in selecting the best-performing coin. With Base as one of their options, not only are investors given a much safer alternative to investing in single digital assets, they are also given the opportunity to speculate on the crypto market as a whole. Given that this project could potentially bring new interest to the space, we can expect a more vibrant community if the project becomes successful.

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

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