Boxmining

Category: Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is a sector within the cryptocurrency and blockchain space which aims to provide a decentralized version of the products available in traditional finance- without central control and at a lower cost with potentially higher returns. These products include loans, interest-bearing deposits and borrowing services.

The advantages of decentralized finance are that it addresses the problems we have with the traditional banking system. For example, decentralized finance protocols are controlled by multiple people, and all participants are required to abide by the rules written into the smart contracts underlying the protocols.

  • Blockchain Analytics: Powering The New Data Economy

    Blockchain Analytics: Powering The New Data Economy

    The vast amount of innovations and creativity happening within the crypto space is overwhelming.  Countless projects, protocols, apps, tokens, and communities are launching, layering, merging, forking and growing every day.  It can be a lot to keep up with.

    Fortunately, blockchains are public data sources, and the historical ledger of addresses and transactions is a treasure trove of data, just waiting to be unpacked and explored. Anyone can view the transactions that are occurring in real time and interpret what is happening on the blockchain. However, in its raw form, blockchain data is kind of like binary code: great for machines but tough for humans. What is needed is not only a data platform that can convert it to a more useful form, but also a community of analysts that can give it meaning.

    Enter blockchain analytics. Blockchain analytics is the act of inspecting, identifying, understanding, and visualizing data on a blockchain. Doing so allows users to gain valuable insights that would otherwise be hidden in traditional systems. Just as Google organized the internet of information for consumers and commerce by indexing the World Wide Web, making it accessible without requiring any knowledge about the underlying TCP/IP protocol, blockchain analytics technology is building the pathway for an easy-to-navigate internet of value as well as the emerging data economy.

    What Is Blockchain Analytics?

    Blockchain analytics is the process of analyzing, identifying and clustering data on the blockchain. Blockchain analytics also models and visually represents data in order to identify key information about users and transactions.

    More and more companies operating with cryptocurrencies are using blockchain analytics tools to analyze transactions and assess the level of risks to meet regulatory requirements worldwide. This is done to help stop illicit transactions such as money laundering and fraud from being carried out. 

    Crypto asset transactions carried out are inherently anonymous so blockchain analytics providers help to provide the data needed to match a transaction with a person or company. This helps to keep cryptocurrency markets and transactions safer for everyone. Blockchain analytics can achieve this by scraping blockchain data, which is all public.

    How Does It Work?

    Blockchain analytics providers scrape publicly-available transactional data to tie crypto wallets back to illicit or criminal behavior. Data scraping is the act of collecting and structurally storing and updating data in real-time. This data includes information on which cryptocurrency wallets the cryptocurrency were sent to and from, the type of cryptocurrency, the amount, and the time of the transaction. As for cryptocurrency wallets, they are digital wallets that can send and receive payments. And specifically for those wallets maintained by cryptocurrency exchanges, users must first go through a Know Your Customer (KYC) onboarding processes whereby the personal details of the crypto wallet’s owner are recorded and stored. 

    When a crypto wallet transaction is made, that data is forever on the blockchain. It cannot be altered or erased. Through the scraping of these blockchains, blockchain analytics ties crypto transactions to illicit activity through certain signifiers such as a crypto wallet previously linked to illicit transactions like drug smuggling or terrorist financing. Through that, a wallet or transaction is flagged and given a risk score. When a crypto business or a financial institution works with a blockchain analytics provider, any transaction they undertake can be screened to provide a risk score for the crypto wallet in question.

    If further investigation is needed, a blockchain analytics provider can forward this type of information and analysis to the relevant law enforcement authorities, who can match an identity with an anonymous wallet, via a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). Because the transactional data in the wallet represents all transactions that the specific cryptocurrency has been used in, an end-to-end trail is thus created.

    The wallet is tagged with a typology by the analytics provider, which ties it to a certain illicit activity that will be flagged in future transactions. The provider will also create a heuristic which clusters transactional wallet data with similar typologies. (Ultram) When multiple wallets are owned by the same person, blockchain analytics can help to determine if transactions carried out by different wallets are actually coming from the same place. 

    Collecting data on the identifiers of illicit transactions is a continuous process. Blockchain analytics is a key line of defense for creating fair and legal crypto environments, helping to discover the source and destination of illicit funds.

    Why Is Blockchain Analytics Important?

    Often hackers and web criminals use cryptocurrency due to its pseudonymous nature. Thanks to blockchain analytics, we now have access to specialized analytics tools that can scan otherwise hard to track the trail of transactional data on public blockchains. Blockchain analytics makes it possible to follow who is buying what and paying for which product and services utilizing cryptocurrency.

    Many blockchain analytics providers help to create these insights by turning blockchain raw data into searchable and executable data that individuals and businesses can easily search and build services on top of. This has tremendous value to regulators, law enforcement, companies and users within the crypto space. 

    Regulators and law enforcement can have full visibility on illicit transactions and track the movement, allowing them to uncover the identities of the criminals over time. Companies are able to have full visibility over transactions made by vendors or third parties and ensure legitimacy of those claims. Users such as traders are able to have visibility on what smart money is doing and make better informed decisions, leveling the playing field. Smart money in crypto represents a new type of economy where knowledge is open and powerful actors’ behavior is revealed.

    All organizations who work within the crypto asset market, whether it be crypto businesses or financial institutions, also need to remain compliant. Blockchain analytics providers can help these financial institutions pursue their compliance efforts. Through blockchain analytics, compliance departments can identify fraudulent or illicit activity, protect themselves from risk and work to create increased trust and transparency within the system and thus maximizing opportunities for growth and profitability. 

    Blockchain Analytics Providers

    Let us take a look at some of the most popular blockchain analytics providers that are developing new insights from raw blockchain data to make it accessible to users of all levels.

    1- Dune

    Dune, formerly known as Dune Analytics, is a powerful tool for blockchain research. It can be used to query, extract, and visualize vast amounts of data on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can simply query the database to extract almost any information that resides on the blockchain. Dune released its free version in 2019. Since that release, Dune has grown exponentially with users from all around the world joining in to leverage the on-chain analytics it provides. 

    Example of a graph visualization from a popular query dashboard
    Example of a graph visualization from a popular query dashboard

    Dune’s strengths are in its open data source. Analysts, traders, and number crunching data enthusiasts make up the community. They create and openly share their queries which can then be forked and remixed in a multitude of ways by others. That is why Dune has been described as the “Github for on-chain analysis.” The secret sauce is the collaborative effort that is built-in to the Dune platform. So instead of dealing with the status quo, siloed sets of dashboards, the queries on Dune Analytics are open source, creating a revolutionary way for their community to harvest and remix blockchain data.

    Dashboard page on Dune Analytics
    Dashboard page on Dune Analytics

    The community version of Dune allows users to conduct any kind of on-chain analysis. Dune converts the raw blockchain data into a readable format, and queries can be completed with SQL. Dune gives its users access to datasets and they can create their charts and dashboards. Users can then share what they are working on. And working with Dune provides one with good education and powerful insights into how on-chain analytics systems work in general.  

    With Dune, users can explore the dashboards and queries of others in the community. It is similar to sharing dashboards on Google Analytics. And by researching the work of others, users can find inspiration to come up with even more queries to find deeper insights.

    It is not much of a stretch to say that Dune is fast becoming the default platform for Ethereum data seekers.

    Use Case: Dune has more than 22,000 different dashboards, a method of discovery. Given that the queries within the dashboards are user-generated, the quality varies. Some may be professional-grade and easy to scan, while others result from a SQL student’s early lessons. These are searchable by name or tags.

    Looking for OpenSea’s monthly volume? There is a dashboard for that. 

    Want to compare it to LooksRare? No problem.

    Intrigued by STEPN’s recent rise? Dune has the info.. 

    2- PARSIQ

    PARSIQ is the next-generation monitoring and intelligence platform for various blockchains, successfully connecting legal systems and off-chain applications to precious blockchain-based data. PARSIQ’s platform provides a suite of products that handle everything from database querying to instant notifications. The use case of PARSIQ extends not only to the on-chain blockchain but also to the off-chain universe. 

    Transaction tracking for compliance purposes, financial accounting, or building insights on the different properties of competing blockchains are some of the jobs that PARSIQ’s applications perform as off-chain jobs. PARSIQ also provides a tool that monitors and processes blockchain data. Every single blockchain activity that occurs on the platform results in a massive amount of information. All of this circulates through the PARSIQ platform and activates various parts of it. Every product that belongs to the ecosystem has a particular processing subsystem of the platform standing behind it.

    Smart Triggers on PARSIQ
    Smart Triggers on PARSIQ

    With Smart Triggers, users can create “if-this-then-that” workflows, allowing users to watch for a specific on-chain event and initiate downstream actions when they occur. PARSIQ’s Trigger Wizard is a no-code editor that allows users to create Smart Triggers for the most common use cases in just minutes. Smart Triggers can be used for a variety of use cases:

    • Build user notifications — PARSIQ delivers real-time alerts to users when relevant activities occur
    • Expand product functionality — users are able to build capabilities on top of blockchain data without writing custom code
    • Manage risk — PARSIQ instantly detects risky transactions and blacklisted accounts

    In order to solve actual problems and meet the demands of business use cases, PARSIQ introduces the possibility of using various on-demand services and data delivered by third party providers integrated to the PARSIQ platform. Smart Triggers are deployed to the PARSIQ system and continue to circulate the on-chain data. External Data Providers (EDP) are the source of external off-chain or even on-chain data that can be plugged in and additionally combined with Smart Trigger data. With this feature, it is possible to combine the on-chain data with off-chain data, such as market data, risk scoring, forensics information, and more

    Use Case: PARSIQ’s wallet surveillance tools notify wallet holders on every inflow and outflow of funds. Any alert sent by PARSIQ’s transports informs users who are at risk with a potentially exploited wallet in their possession.

    Whitelisting is another useful tool to preserve users’ trigger count. It gives the user control of what they deem trigger worthy transactions. Making frequent transactions & interactions with certain addresses or addresses they are familiar with would be acceptable without triggers, but addresses not whitelisted will trigger alerts. 

    To set up wallet surveillance with PARSIQ, you can refer to this tutorial video.

    3- Elementus

    Elementus is the first universal blockchain search engine and institutional-grade crypto forensic solution. They are building the next generation “Who’s Who” of crypto entities on the blockchain with the best-in-class search and analytics capabilities. Their compliance solution and data analytics platform are being used by key U.S. governmental agencies to solve some of the most high-profile cyber investigations and by financial institutions to build the future of finance and commerce on the bedrock of blockchain and digital currencies.

    Elementus applies data science to restructure underlying blockchain data into a schema optimized around the relationships between blockchain activity, providing valuable context far beyond manual investigations on individual transaction level. The Elementus view provides a powerful clustering and confident entity attribution based on insights that exist tens or even thousands of transactions away. 

    A visualization of token sales created using Elementus
    A visualization of token sales created using Elementus

    As the use of cryptocurrency increases, so does the complexity of investigations. Elementus’s Intelligent Network Expansion technology allows users to generate a network in seconds based on custom parameters relevant to their investigation. 

    Elementus is an agile team of data and computer scientists, analysts, and developers representing alumni of Palantir, Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Bloomberg, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and the United States Intelligence Community (IC).

    Elementus offers several products dedicated to different solutions within its ecosystem:

    • Radar — for compliance solutions. Users are able to extract risk scores for any public blockchain address, consumable via API, real-time alert, or via the Radar user interface.
    • Echo — for custom analytics. Users are able to harness the power of Elementus Analytics paired with the versatility of Palantir Foundry, accessing custom data analysis applications for any use case.
    • Pulse — for investigations. Pulse provides almost instantaneous tracing of funds from source to destination with multi-level entity attribution, powered by proprietary RapidTrace™ and EntityIndex™ technology

    Use Case: Elementus was used to track down billions of stolen bitcoin in a fraud investigation of a YouTube rapper named Razzlekhan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein. The couple was arrested on federal charges of conspiring to launder a multibillion-dollar trove of bitcoins stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016. The couple was not accused of the theft itself. 

    Analysis provided by Elementus has found that the pair were able to shield the unseized money through a complex series of crypto transfers. Max Galka, the CEO of Elementus, said the bitcoins were moved across more than 20,000 transactions, indicating that some form of automation software was used. 

    According to Galka, some of the unseized bitcoins were transferred through the Russia-based darknet market Hydra. “It’s the largest darknet market in existence,” Galka says. “It is highly unlikely law enforcement has the ability to trace these funds further.” According to Elementus, the last known movement of the unseized cache occurred on January 25th 2022, shortly before the couple’s arrests at their Wall Street apartment.

    4- AllianceBlock

    AllianceBlock is building a globally compliant decentralized capital market by providing a bridge between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), unlocking trillions of dollars in capital.  The AllianceBlock Protocol is a decentralized, blockchain-agnostic layer 2 that automates the process of converting any digital or crypto asset into a bankable product, simplifying the capital transfer process between regulated and opaque markets.

    The protocol has three main pillars, focusing on compliance and regulation, data, and DeFi technology. The AllianceBlock Data Tunnel is a key component of the data element, and it leverages their partner Ocean Protocol’s technology, as well as partnerships with Parsiq, API3, Covalent, DIA and Chainlink. The Data Tunnel is a data marketplace that makes data accessible to all through a monetized marketplace, while ensuring traceability, transparency, and trust. Data providers and consumers will benefit from increased access to one another, driven through a secure and easy-to-use solution.

    The Data Tunnel dashboard
    The Data Tunnel dashboard

    The AllianceBlock Data Tunnel makes it possible to publish data in a decentralized and simplified manner, without needing to be proficient in DeFi, MetaMask, or private keys. This is crucial to attracting a wider, more mainstream audience. In line with this, the Data Tunnel also simplifies usability for data consumers and developers through a standardized output format. This is in contrast to current offerings, with datasets found in a wide range of formats, making it more difficult for consumers.

    Ultimately, the Data Tunnel aims to become the oracle of oracles, being able to take data from oracles to the Data Tunnel, enhancing this data, and then feeding it back to the oracle providers. The Data Tunnel is chain-agnostic, in line with AllianceBlock’s wider vision, to allow for the greatest access and breadth to both datasets and consumers and to ensure as wide adoption as possible. The AllianceBlock Data Tunnel aims to incentivize data providers to share more data, acting as the conduit through which both DeFi and TradFi users can access and take advantage of increased data opportunities.

    Use Case: Financial institutions are largely excluded from offering investors access to DeFi. Fund distribution is one of the issues. AllianceBlock provides a solution to these issues by offering access to Open Finance that allows all market entities to participate. It is an end-to-end regulatory compliance framework that serves as a bridge between stakeholders and all actors within the capital markets chain. 

    In a traditional fund distribution model, all intermediaries between the investor and fund manager can operate independently. Many may only communicate with the next chain in the link. When they do communicate, it is likely through email correspondence, or, for certain operations, even fax or post. This creates inefficiencies.

    Traditional fund distribution model
    Traditional fund distribution model

    AllianceBlock seeks to create a fund protocol which hosts all of the required activities on one platform. This allows for greater operational transparency and efficiency. 

    The AllianceBlock fund distribution model
    The AllianceBlock fund distribution model

    Learn more here about AllianceBlock’s solution to fund distribution, and to explore more use cases for the platform.

    5- HUBX

    HUBX elevates private placement and loan syndication deal distribution for banks, exchanges, and brokerage firms by connecting into core systems to deliver dynamic data insights and a richer customer experience. In the world of syndicated lending, accessing accurate and timely data is critical for origination and distribution teams to make meaningful and effective decisions. The way data is captured and interpreted constitutes the single most important success criteria to protect and scale capital raising operations. HUBX brings together all relevant data from across an organization to deliver a single source of truth for all participants. 

    Founded in 2015, HUBX platforms facilitate collaboration between banks and their institutional clients, connect syndicate desks with the rest of the organization, and simplify execution. Each network hub is private, ensuring that the clients’ data is always protected. HUBX strives to help banks adapt quickly and seamlessly to the rapid digital transformation that is driving private capital markets today.

    By connecting all participants on their own terms, HUBX will help accelerate deal execution, reduce costs, and introduce standardization and automation into the market. By offering unrivaled customer experience and dynamic insights and tools to their clients, banks are able to harness the true potential of their data and the network effect.

    Use Case: HUBX has partnered with financial software solution developer Finastra to help corporate lenders during the loan syndication process by reducing manual workloads. As a first step, this deal sees HUBX Arranger integrated with Finastra’s back-office loan software Fusion Loan IQ, which is used by 90% of the world’s top 100 banks to process over 70% of global syndicated loans. While the market is worth around $4.5trn annually, much like in private equity, the majority of work is manual and disconnected.

    According to Axel Coustere, HUBX co-founder, “HUBX Arranger provides a key missing link for Finastra’s clients. The ability to digitally scale the arduous syndication process by tackling the lack of end-to-end execution. There are many manual, time consuming steps and a lack of real -time visibility currently associated with this piece of a bank’s business. Not doing this well limits the banks’ ability to manage and improve risk and ultimately reputation.”

    Conclusion: The Rise of Data Analytics

    Modern businesses have been benefiting from data analytics for several years now. According to Forbes, data analytics adoption in enterprises increased from 17% in 2015 to 59% in 2018. Now, only 10% of businesses have refused to utilize big data. One category of data analytics that is poised to change and transform the industry is predictive analytics. It is focused on making predictions about future outcomes based on a massive amount of historical data as well as techniques like machine learning. With this type of technology, enterprises will be able to forecast trends and behaviors.

    The current state of predictive analytics is hardly perfect. A huge obstacle to overcome is getting quality data from different sources and correlating them. Digital agencies and IT firms have their own silos of data and use different tools in obtaining them. There is also the issue of whether there is enough of the right data. When there is not enough for the system to make conclusions from, the results of predictions may be biased and untrustworthy. Blockchain technology might be able to fill the gap in this space. 

    Blockchain’s computational power is gained from multiple connected computers, hence it is powerful enough to properly define the model to be analyzed based on a vast number of data sets. It would use its power to analyze the different stored datasets across computers and pull up the ones that can provide the answer. Furthermore, blockchain may be the cloud equivalent to one physical supercomputer, which makes it accessible to small businesses. Currently, companies that want to utilize predictive analytics have to rely on expensive super machines. With blockchain implemented, the costs to obtain such analytics tools will be greatly reduced.

    As for potential applications, blockchain analytics could be used in marketing strategies. Marketers could be able to prepare for future marketing campaigns with the help of data gained from market realities. The system might be able to forecast price movements for financial markets, including cryptocurrencies.

    The fusion of data and blockchain technology is poised to grow even more in the next couple of years. This could provide an opportunity for blockchain to display its potential as developers continue to experiment.

  • Saito ($SAITO): Providing Scalability and Decentralization Towards Web3 Development

    Saito ($SAITO): Providing Scalability and Decentralization Towards Web3 Development

    Blockchain technology is often considered the best solution to problems caused by centralization. Through blockchain, people get to exercise authority over their personal affairs and enjoy more security and sovereignty, especially with financial transactions. Yet despite all the advantages of blockchain adoption, the technology also has a few current drawbacks.

    Many people complain about unstable and sometimes relatively high transaction fees. For some people, the main problem with blockchain is a lack of interoperability between several different systems while others worry about response time or latency. However, a bigger issue lurks around the corner – scalability.

    Compared to traditional systems, blockchain technology might be a long way from tackling the scalability problem. Saito Network helps to solve these issues by providing unique solutions for the general growth of the sector.

    What is Saito ($SAITO)?

    Saito ($SAITO) is a layer-1 blockchain that provides a permissionless and scalable network for decentralized applications. The open network also supports in-browser crypto applications without private APIs or plugins. 

    Saito aims to tackle problems caused by centralization, as well as scalability issues that are commonplace with both Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoW) blockchains. Instead of paying stakers and miners for block production, the network directly pays internet service providers, allowing easy use of regular browsers for decentralized projects. This method helps new and existing Web3 projects run cost-effective operations instead of paying node operators like Infura.

    Learn more about Proof of Stake (PoS) vs Proof of Work (PoW) with our article: Proof of Stake Explained

    Saito’s open infrastructure provides better security for projects looking to host on a blockchain without intermediaries. A problem with employing the services of a middleman is the apparent centralization of a supposedly decentralized product. Another issue is that projects connected to the blockchain through node operators are open to several risks if the operator becomes compromised or otherwise unavailable. For example, in 2020, Infura suffered an outage that caused Binance and other exchanges to disable ERC-20 transactions. By connecting projects directly to the blockchain through the browser, Saito Network allows decentralized apps or other infrastructure to host their own nodes without an intermediary.

    Features of Saito

    Saito’s decentralized framework is essential to the ongoing shift to Web3. Since a major tenet of Web3 is decentralization, the platform’s basic structure is the critical tool developers and various projects need to compete in the new iteration of the internet. The following Saito features place the network at the forefront of Web3 development:

    • Truly Peer-To-Peer: Saito ensures that projects and all their transactions are truly peer-to-peer. No go-between is required.
    • Scalable Onchain Data: Saito solves scalability problems by providing easy dApp support through browsers instead of relying on a node operator.
    • Browser Applications: All projects will quickly onboard and operate decentralized applications directly through a browser, without the need for a plugin like MetaMask.

    What makes Saito special?

    In addition to the advantages Web3 projects enjoy through Saito, the platform also offers the following:

    • Dynamic App Support: Saito’s network provides a valuable framework for several applications regardless of data or bandwidth requirements. Developers can build anything from games to social media apps and communication tools.
    • Open Infrastructure: Other networks can take advantage of Saito’s infrastructure to tackle interoperability problems. 
    • Web3 Blockchains: All applications built on Saito support Polkadot and many other major Web3 blockchains, with many more coming down the line.
    • Enterprise PKI Support: Saito’s scalable PKI network layer tackles network security head-on. The layer’s basic design satisfies enterprise-level and encryption requirements.
    • App Deployment: Developers can easily create and publish apps on Saito’s platform. App creators can do everything from start to finish without any third-party infrastructure.
    • Vibrant Community: Joining the Saito community exposes projects and developers to an active and growing community of like-minded people excited about Web3 development.

    Saito has already processed more than 10 million transactions and averages over 30,000 transactions per day. With more than 30 popular applications and modules already in the works, Saito has positioned itself as the best chance for the ongoing evolution of Web3.

    SAITO Token: What is it?

    SAITO token is the network’s native asset, a utility token that powers activities on the platform. The platform offers two types of SAITO on different networks, an ERC-20 variation and the Layer One SAITO. The ERC-20 tokens are wrapped tokens in ERC-20 form and are available to public sale participants over vesting periods. Wrapped SAITO asupports purchases and permissionless integration in off-chain applications. Users who hold ERC-20 SAITO also enjoy token withdrawals to any public Saito fork.

    Layer-One SAITO tokens have on-chain utility and represent 75% of all tokens minted. As the network expands, on-chain SAITO holders will enjoy increased liquidity and convertibility. However, holders cannot directly convert Layer-One SAITO to ERC-20 SAITO. Of the allocated 75%, the Saito Foundation retains 20%, while strategic partners share a 10% pool. Rewards, contributors/developers, and the Saito core team all receive 15% each of the SAITO token supply.

    Visit Saito’s latest developments here:

    Website | Twitter | Telegram | Discord

  • IX Swap: The Uniswap For Security Tokens & Fractionalized NFTs

    IX Swap: The Uniswap For Security Tokens & Fractionalized NFTs

    Despite the tremendous growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, it still faces a key problem – the liquidity of operations due to the lack of licensing and market makers in the industry. IX Swap ($IXS) provides a solution through regulatory compliant liquidity pools, automated market making functions for security tokens (STO), tokenized stocks (TSO), and fractionalized NFTs (fNFTs).

    By using blockchain technology to build liquidity and infrastructure solutions for their security token ecosystem, IX Swap is able to provide global trading and access to this untapped asset class. The platform will be the first bridge between decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) to facilitate trading of security tokens through licensed custodians and security brokers which will provide actual ownership and claim over these real world assets.

    The Security Token: A DeFi Solution For Crowdfunding

    Capital raising has evolved rapidly over the years, originating from traditional stock markets in Wall Street. It then moved onto less conventional methods, such as crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, which is a different evolution of the same concept.

    One of the newer and more creative innovations in the ever-evolving landscape of capital markets and crowdfunding was derived from the birth of Bitcoin and Ethereum. These innovations allowed blockchain enabled technology platforms to develop ecosystems where tokens were minted – to provide some sort of utility, or just a pure token for their native platform. Such initial coin offerings (ICOs) enabled entrepreneurs to raise money globally from potential users of their products while simultaneously achieving market fit.

    This phenomenon created a new wave of funding into the markets as companies were able to raise millions overnight with a theoretical “whitepaper” with little to no development done on the project. In this overnight, unregulated industry, funding became cheaper and easier compared to raising money through the traditional debt/equity markets. 

    It also attracted sharks that sensed an opportunity to abuse the easy money and lack of regulations. By the end of 2017, the number of ICO scams had increased exponentially, with 80% of ICOs being scams. This led to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to step in and take a more active stance towards the industry, targeting companies that the SEC deemed as securities rather than utility tokens.

    As regulatory scrutiny began to rise, security token offerings (STO) became the natural evolution of ICOs. Security tokens provide access to digital asset markets while still adhering to regulatory standards, making it the perfect fit for the digitization and tokenization of certain assets that may be deemed securities.

    What is IX Swap?

    By trading securities, you are trading a right of ownership or claim to an asset in the real world. Therefore, it is no surprise that security tokens and tokenized stocks are regulated assets. To deal with securities, a market maker requires licensing, strict regulation, and the right infrastructure to accommodate trading and the custody of these securities. 

    IX Swap meets all of these requirements, effectively solving the key liquidity problem. IX Swap achieves this by building a blockchain system with infrastructure designed for the STO and TSO (Tokenized Security Offering) ecosystems. The platform could be considered as the “Uniswap” that provides liquidity pools and automated market-making functions for securities.

    Investors of securities will be able to contribute to the ecosystem and issuers of securities will be able to create their own liquidity pools. 

    IX Swap Features

    Some of IX Swap’s main advantages and solutions include:

    • Security — By leveraging blockchain technology, IX Swap is able to provide security and transparency
    • Liquidity pools for tokens/TSO — Holders of STO/TSO tokens will be able to extract liquidity legally for the first time
    • Unique platform — IX Swap is DeFi’s first market-making solution built specifically for STO and tokenized stocks
    • Lending — Users will be able to lend their idle assets to earn passive income
    • Licensed partners — IX Swap has partnered with licensed intermediaries to address the nuances of the securities
    • Reduced fees — Reduced fees compared to 1–2% charged by banks for private asset investments
    • Mining and staking — Holders have the option to earn and grow the value of their assets through liquidity mining and staking
    • IL Insurance — IX Swap has been structured to include an impermanent loss (IL) insurance mechanism to reduce the effect of IL on liquidity providers

    Fractionalized NFTs on IX Swap

    A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unit of data stored on the blockchain that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files. The substantial rise in value of many NFTs have given way to the concept of fractionalization. Fractionalized NFTs (fNFT) allow smaller investors to pool resources to purchase fractional interests of an NFT.

    IX Swap will soon allow users to bid and purchase fractionalized NFTs on its platform. According to their roadmap, they plan to roll out this feature in Q2 of 2022.

    Fractionalization provides many advantages for owners, including:

    • Retained ownership while freeing up liquidity
    • Curated fees from fractionalization
    • Access to a larger audience as more investors would have access to a singular NFT
    • Increased utility for NFT through DeFi applications
    • Positive price correlation through fractionalization
    • Lower floor prices for new NFT investors

    Fractionalization also brings benefits for investors, such as:

    • The ability to purchase a fraction of an NFT that would otherwise be too costly for 100% ownership
    • DeFi applications to generate additional yield from holding NFTs
    • Greater liquidity and trading platforms to realize gains from the fractionalized NFTs
    • Portfolio diversification through multiple fractional investments

    There has been significant debate in recent times surrounding the classification of NFTs and if they are securities. OpenSea, one of the worlds largest NFT marketplaces, put a freeze on trading for a project called DAO Turtles given the uncertainty whether these assets were securities.

    According to Chris Donovan, the Head of Legal at UK VC Outlier Ventures,  NFTs can be considered securities under certain circumstances — with one of those circumstances being fractionalized NFTs “embodying rights to royalties,” or sold with the promise of future liquidity and continued services from the issuer.

    By purchasing fractionalized NFTs through IX Swap, owners and investors can rest easy in the event that these assets are deemed securities thanks to the regulations within the platform.

    STO vs NFT: What are the differences?

    Due to the similarities in their characteristics, STOs are constantly being compared to NFTs, and the comparison is justified. STOs and NFTs are both vehicles that provide proof of ownership of an asset, only presented in different ways. 

    The concept behind STOs is relatively simple. Unlike ICOs, where the token is considered a currency or a means of utility, STOs are securities and are regulated assets by government authorities. Herein also lies the key difference between STOs and NFTs: STOs are regulated assets, whereas, for NFTs, they are still unregulated despite having similar ownership rights over an asset.

    The determination of whether an NFT is a security is generally based on the characteristics of the NFT and may differ. For example, you might have a piece of art that you have collected to appreciate the artwork; this NFT would not be classified as a security. However, an NFT that provides ownership over a financial asset or even a house — would definitely classify as a security and would technically be classified as a security token.

    There is no right and wrong to which structure is better, as both STO and NFT structures are excellent in their own rights and are highly innovative solutions to represent ownership over an asset.

    $IXS Token

    The IX Swap ($IXS) token is the native cryptocurrency and utility token for the IX Swap platform and will be freely traded on cryptocurrency platforms. Utilities for the token include:

    • Staking $IXS tokens for a fixed income percentage on the IX Swap platform;
    • Staking $IXS in liquidity pools to receive a portion of the pool profits;
    • Staking $IXS on the platform will provide voting and governance functionalities for the IX Swap platform;
    • $IXS is the native payment token on IX Swap’s first broker/dealer partner platform, InvestaX; and
    • $IXS token holders get priority access to new primary STO listings.

    IXS will be distributed as incentive rewards to ecosystem contributors. IXS paired pools will have boosted returns over non-IXS paired pools. The IXS tokens also have a distinct deflationary economics function to ensure value is created for token holders the more the platform is used.

    IXS token’s deflationary tokenomics:

    • 5% of fees will be sent to a permanently locked vault reducing the overall token supply
    • 5% of fees will also be sent to a vault to purchase IXS tokens; and
    • Rewards earned on the platform will be distributed over time to ensure token inflation is reduced.

    Conclusion

    STOs are bridging the gap between traditional money markets and the new era of digital currencies by tokenizing traditional investment types, such as stocks, bonds and commodities. Tokenization of an asset is among one of the most powerful ways to express and manage an asset, where it is represented directly on the blockchain in the form of a token.

    IX Swap solves the liquidity problem for secondary trading of STOs that is both algorithmic driven and allows for anyone to participate in the allocation of market making capital, and therefore benefit from the subsequent fees of being a liquidity provider. This DeFi solution will bring in a new wave of liquidity to STO trading and solve a key industry problem. (Zolpidem)

    FAQs

    What is IX Swap?

    IX Swap is the world’s first liquidity pool and automated market maker (AMM) provider for security tokens, tokenized stocks, and fractionalized non-fungible tokens.

    What is a liquidity pool?

    A liquidity pool in cryptocurrency markets is a smart contract where tokens are locked for the purpose of providing liquidity for trades.

    What is an automated market maker (AMM)?

    An AMM is a type of decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol that relies on a mathematical formula to price assets using blockchains and smart contracts. Instead of using an order book like a traditional exchange, assets are priced according to a pricing algorithm. Any investor can participate in the DeFi liquidity pools and earn fees as a benefit.

    What is a security token?

    Security tokens are tokenized securities. They are digital forms of traditional securities that live on a blockchain. These tokens could represent ownership of a fraction of any valuable asset, like a car, real estate, or corporate stock.

    What are tokenized stocks?

    Tokenized stocks are tokenized derivatives that represent traditional securities, particularly shares in publicly traded firms on regulated exchanges.

    What are fractionalized NFTs?

    Fractionalized NFTs are NFTs split into smaller pieces by their original owner. Fractionalized NFTs enable investors to own part of an NFT that would otherwise be unaffordable. It also enables the owner to release some of the value in their NFT without selling it fully.

    Official Channels

    Website — https://ixswap.io/

    Twitter — https://twitter.com/IxSwap

    Telegram — https://t.me/ixswapofficial

    Medium — https://ixswap.medium.com/

    LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/company/ixswap

  • DinoSwap ($DINO) Guide: What is it?

    DinoSwap ($DINO) Guide: What is it?

    What is DinoSwap?

    DinoSwap ($DINO) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) Polygon network-based cross-chain protocol that rivals the likes of PancakeSwap and other automated market makers. Launched on 17 July 2021, the DEX allows users to use the DINO token to earn various tokens of projects operating on top of Polygon. 

    Some of the top investors of DinoSwap include DeFinance, Hashed, Spartan Group, DFG, and co-founder of Polygon Sandeep Nailwal. 

    DinoSwap’s goal is to allow users from any blockchains to benefit from increased liquidity by tapping into tethered liquidity from multiple other blockchains, thereby becoming a centralised hub for cross-chain liquidity. This can be done by building liquidity for layer one blockchains, AMMs (Automated Market Makers), and partnering projects.

    The first blockchain that DinoSwap has started with is Polygon due to its high liquid environment and extremely low transaction cost. By leveraging the strength of Polygon, DinoSwap is then able to help crypto projects boost their token liquidity. 

    How does DinoSwap work?

    DinoSwap $DINO

    Currently, DinoSwap offers three products:

    DinoSwap Exchange

    The main focus of DinoSwap, it is a DEX that does not have its own Automated Market Maker (AMM) and instead interfaces directly with third-party liquidity pools of the top DEXs on Polygon. On DinoSwap, users can exchange ERC20 tokens, and one of the features that make DinoSwap unique is that it does not charge any additional fees on exchanges. 

    Yield Farming (aka DinoSwap Fossil Farms)

    Following the dinosaur theme, DinoSwap’s Fossil Farms are where users can earn DINO by staking their LP tokens from SushiSwap, QuickSwap and Dfyn.

    Staking

    Jurassic Pools

    This is a non-burn pool where users can stake their DINO and earn more tokens from partnering projects. In addition, users can still withdraw or deposit DINO without any additional fees, time-locks, or burns. (www.stellardental.my)

    Extinction Pools

    Extinction Pools are burn pools where deposited DINO is burned when all rewards are distributed. Users can stake their DINO tokens in order to earn more tokens from other partners over a period of time.These allow projects to issue tokens to a global community of Degen Dinos which increases wallet holder count, boosts awareness of the project, and bootstraps initial market liquidity. Participating projects are announced through the official DinoSwap social media platforms and receive cross promotional benefits, and these projects will also populate on the default list of DinoSwap tokens without having to search for the contract address. 

    Tar Pits

    Users can stake DINO in the Tar Pit to earn more DINO tokens. Entering these pools requires an adjustable time lock on staked DINO, but longer lock-ups mean increased rewards.

    DINO token utility

    DINO token is the native token of DinoSwap in ERC – 20 standard and is used to get other tokens from projects partnering with DinoSwap. DINO token has no hard cap but has a burning mechanism to deter inflation and ensure the healthy development of the ecosystem. 

    The DINO token at this time has two different uses: DINO is currently used to farm yDINO, a governance token which will be part of a complete ecosystem, by staking DINO and BNB on Tenet. DINO provides passive income to its users and holders through the 1% redistribution applied from every transaction Note: It will be used in the near future as the central currency used in this ecosystem currently in development, where artists and collectors can buy and sell digital art goods using DINO Token.

    DINO Token Distribution

    65 million DINO tokens were distributed at launch as follows:

    • 65% – Farming Rewards (Fair launch).
    • 5.6% – Treasury.
    • 14.4% – Team (vested over 12 months, linearly, on a per-block basis).
    • 15% – Investors and Advisors (vested over 12 months, linearly, on a per-block basis)

    After the first 65 million DINO have hatched, new tokens will be created on-demand. For every 10 DINO created, one extra DINO will be allotted to the DinoSwap Treasury to support further protocol growth initiatives.

    Trading on DinoSwap

    Trading on DinoSwap is simple:

    1.  Navigate to the DinoSwap exchange here
    Dinoswap exchange
    Dinoswap exchange
    1. Unlock your Polygon Wallet, click connect, and choose the wallet provider of your choice
    Dinoswap Polygon wallet
    Dinoswap Polygon wallet
    1. Select the tokens you wish to swap and enter the amount (make sure you have MATIC in your wallet to push the transaction through) .
    Dinoswap and MATIC
    Dinoswap and MATIC
    1.  Check the details, and click “Swap”.
    Dinoswap finalize
    Dinoswap finalize
    1. Check the details again and click “Confirm Swap”.
    Dinoswap confirmation page
    Dinoswap confirmation page
    1. Confirm the transaction in your wallet.
    2. The swap is complete and you can click view on maticvigil to see your transaction details

    Yield Farming on DinoSwap

    This function allows users to stake DINO in order to earn even more rewards after a period of time. There are two parts to this process:

    Providing Liquidity

    Every Fossil Farm needs a specific LP Token that can be acquired by providing liquidity for the appropriate pair. The following steps will prepare you to start excavating in your favorite Fossil Farm.

    1. Go to the Fossil Farms page.
    Dinoswap Fossil Farms
    Dinoswap Fossil Farms
    1. Click on your favorite Fossil Farm.
    2. Click on the “Get LP” link on the left side.
    Dinoswap Get LP
    Dinoswap Get LP
    1. Follow the instructions to get LP tokens on either SushiSwap, Quickswap or Dfyn.

    Entering a Fossil Farm

    Now that you have your LP Tokens ready, it is time to put them at work and start excavating.

    1. Go back to the Fossil Farms page.
    2. Unlock your Wallet via the “Unlock Wallet” button or the “Connect” button (top right).
    Fossil Farm Unlock Wallet
    Fossil Farm Unlock Wallet
    1. Make sure your wallet is on the “Matic Mainnet” network.
    2.  Click on the Fossil Farm you want to excavate.
    3.  Click the “Enable” button.
    Fossil Farm MATIC Mainnet
    Fossil Farm MATIC Mainnet
    1.  Your wallet will ask you to confirm the transaction.
    Fossil Farm confirm transaction
    Fossil Farm confirm transaction
    1.  Click the “Stake LP” button.
    2.  Enter your desired amount of LP Tokens and click the “Confirm” button.
    3.  DONE! You are now farming DINO.

    Adding or removing LP Tokens

    At any time, you can decide to leave the Fossil Farm or add more LP Tokens to it.

    1. Return to the Fossil Farms page.
    2. Click the “Staked only” toggle to see the pairs you have LP Tokens in.
    3. Choose a Fossil Farm you have LP Token in and click on it.
    4. Click on the “+” or the “-“ button to add or remove LP Tokens.
    5. Enter the amount you would like to add or remove.
    6. Verify your information and click the “Confirm” button.
    7. After a short wait you should see your new balance in the details section of the LP Token pair. If you have unstaked your LP Tokens, any unclaimed rewards will automatically have been collected.

    Conclusion

    DinoSwap ran a highly successful fundraising campaign before its launch and is even backed by the co-founder of Polygon himself, indicating a large amount of confidence in the project. The DEX has also successfully completed three Certik smart contract audits and has received a “low risk” rating from the Rug Doctor. DinoSwap is already the 7th most popular dApp on Polygon in less than 2 weeks from its official launch.

    With DinoSwap’s mission of increased liquidity for cryptocurrency exchange, this DEX is one to keep an eye on and has huge potential to change the crypto exchange game.

  • Scaleswap: Next Gen Decentralized IDO Launchpad

    Scaleswap: Next Gen Decentralized IDO Launchpad

    Scaleswap is a fully decentralized IDO (Initial DEX Offering) launchpad that aims to make fundraising and scale trading easier. 

    Harnessing the power of an advanced layer 2 blockchain scaling protocol, Scaleswap already boasts investments from several top tier venture capitalist firms such as Spark Digital Capital and Magnus Capital. The new platform is described as the most advanced way to invest with new and unique features, making investing in pools easier and more transparent. 

    What is an Initial DEX Offering (IDO)?

    An Initial DEX Offering (IDO) is a type of decentralized and permissionless crowdfunding platform, which is opening up a new way of fundraising in the crypto space. If a project is launching an IDO, it means the project is launching a coin or token via a decentralized liquidity exchange or IDO platform. Traders can swap between different crypto assets and stablecoins based on market conditions. IDO platforms enable companies to launch a token and access immediate liquidity.

    Fundraising is a vital part of early project development – teams need to pay their workers and afford partnerships or new technologies. In the real world, this is done through public stock offerings that invite investors to buy shares of a company. That money goes toward employees who develop the business and increase share values.

    This fundraising method has carried over into crypto, with tokens taking the place of stocks. Each project offers a set amount of tokens, broken up into different avenues like team payments, public use, and more.

    Scaleswap’s IDO Launchpad

    Scaleswap is a community-driven IDO launchpad focused on transparency with a long-term vision to transform the current IDO approach to a more sustainable, less market-dependent system that honors loyalty. It deploys an Ethereum layer 2 scaling protocol powered by Polygon that allows users to enjoy low fees and convenience.

    What makes Scaleswap different from other launchpads?

    1. ScaleSCORE

    One of Scaleswap’s major differentiators is that they shift from pure lotteries and valuing only the amount of tokens that are held to a multi-dimensional loyalty scoring system where users can earn guaranteed participation in pools over time. In contrast to their competitors, holding $SCA tokens is only one of six dimensions that are used to measure loyalty and participation. And not all criteria are $SCA token related. The system was designed to ensure that the most committed supporters of their mission are always rewarded (rather than simply favoring those with the biggest budgets).

    ScaleSCORE will be the core element of the platform and the deciding factor for unlocking all of the wonderful benefits in the Scaleswap ecosystem — private pool participation, advanced platform features (ie. autopilot participation feature), determining voting power in their DAO, being considered in weighted airdrops from partners, and more.

    1. Transparency

    The team knew that most IDO launchpads are not known for its fairness and transparency. As such, Scaleswap aims to change that in a major way by setting new standards in fairness, transparency and a fully community-governed launchpad (in a DAO that is legally backed by a foundation).

    1. Advanced Technology & Seamless UX

    The Scaleswap platform makes use of the most advanced technical solutions, while simultaneously providing a state-of-the-art user experience that eliminates many of the common barriers to entry that DeFi users face. There will be no more getting priced out of network usage by the larger players. Scaleswap provides everyone with truly open access to an affordable, user-friendly, and fair IDO experience to support the successful launch of innovative blockchain-based projects.

    1. Ethereum Layer 2 Scaling

    Scaleswap is powered by Polygon’s Ethereum layer 2 solution, fully customized with unique features to deliver IDO participants with lower fees, instant execution of transactions, and a drastically improved DeFi experience. Polygon, backed by Coinbase and Binance, is the leading Layer 2 Aggregator for Ethereum and is providing Scaleswap with full technical and marketing support. The team also actively researches and follows the development progress on additional cutting-edge scaling solutions and further protocols for possible future integrations.

    1. Security

    The Scaleswap tech team is led by co-founder Stanislav Stolberg, who has an extensive background in information security, and places the strongest possible emphasis in that area. They use a security by design development approach and utilize several high-level external consultants who permanently review the code and the infrastructure.

    Hacken, a premiere cybersecurity company and leader in the blockchain security sector, completed a code review and security analysis of Scaleswap’s Smart Contracts. Hacken assigned their smart contracts with the highest possible rating of “well-secured”, having uncovered zero critical issues. Their full findings can be viewed here.

    You can also learn more about Hacken here.

    1. Cross Chain Integration

    The team has positioned themselves as an Ethereum Layer 2 Platform, but they will indeed integrate vital multi-chain/ bridge opportunities in the future, thus enabling users to participate across multiple blockchain ecosystems. Scaleswap has already integrated with BSC and Fantom. Potential candidates for future integration include Solana, Avalanche, Polkadot, and CasperLabs.

    1. Strong Infrastructure for Deal Flow

    Scaleswap has been diligent in assembling an elite backing of strategic partners to ensure a strong network (for Scaleswap as well as their launch partners), CEX listings, influencers, and most importantly, deal flow. In order to disrupt the current system and establish a more fair and sustainable approach, it was imperative to carefully select the best fitting partners who could provide the strongest networks and highest value-adds to ensure consistent deal flow of the highest quality projects.

    Scaleswap’s IDO Process

    Scaleswap’s IDO consists of 2 pools-  a public sale pool and a private pool. The private pool is only for their loyal members who have a certain amount of scaleSCORE. To gain access in the private pool, you need to have yourself ranked within the top few hundreds of the scaleSCORE ranking. The team will investigate the blockchain to calculate and rank each of the whitelisted participants using their scaleSCORE metrics. An excel sheet for the rankings will be published a few hours before the IDO starts. The top few hundreds will have a guaranteed place in the IDO but they will need to participate in the IDO within the first 15 minutes of the sale, or the spot will be given to the next 50 rankers.

    $SCA Token

    $SCA is the native ERC-20 token of Scaleswap. It is a pure utility token that will enable and empower a multitude of use cases.

    1. Pool Participation 

    $SCA token holders will obtain allocation in pools based on their ScaleSCORE. Achieving a high enough score will guarantee max allocation in all preferred pools.

    1. Governance

    $SCA token holders will build the governance organization within the ScaleDAO, which is planned to be built on the latest layer 2 DAO platform of MetisDAO. Voting power in the DAO will be weighted based on ScaleSCORE.

    1. Platform Fees & Token Burns

    Scaleswap pool fees are required to be paid in the native $SCA token and will subsequently be burned after the utility is used up. This is an organic way of burning tokens similar to consuming a voucher and stays within the framework of a real utility token. Therefore, it is easier to avoid any additional “buy-back and burn” activities.

    1. Airdrops

    Airdrops have always been a popular way for projects to accelerate early growth. Airdropping to $SCA token holders takes all of the guesswork out of the equation since distributions are weighted by ScaleSCORE. This ensures two things: the most loyal community members are always rewarded, and the project airdropping tokens is onboarding the most proven and strongest of supporters.

    Potential for Growth

    Polygon has grown massively in late 2021, with more daily active users than the Ethereum network for the first time. This would mean greater potential for $SCA as user growth would attract more protocols to launch on Matic and work with launchpads such as Scaleswap.

    Scaleswap has recently entered a partnership with Nasdaq listed firm, WISeKey International Holding Ltd, to successfully launch the NFT platform, WISe.Art. The NFT platform and technology stack allows tokenization of digital and physical assets in the form of NFTs with platform governance and utility managed by WISeKey’s own TrusteCoin utility token (TEC DAO Token).

    Scaleswap will also become the first market player to implement wrapped NFT technology in their new product: multi-chain wNFT pre-IDO Launchpad. 

    At the same time, Scaleswap is working on integrating crucial multi-chain or bridge opportunities in the future, allowing the community to engage in different blockchain ecosystems which will expand their reach beyond the Polygon ecosystem. Scaleswap is consistently working on building behind the scenes with their partnerships and technology integration, promising a lot of potential growth to come.

    Conclusion

    The IDO landscape is riddled with unsustainable motives, non-transparency, exploitation of community members, and pure luck-based lottery mechanisms. Being able to participate in IDO launches is strongly budget-driven, often mirrored in tier structures — with one basic principle: The more of the native token you hold/stake, the more rights you have.

    Scaleswap is the first truly fair IDO launchpad, focused on transparency and a long-term vision to transform IDOs into a more sustainable, market-independent, and community-driven launch strategy where fair treatment and remuneration of loyal community members is of the highest priority.

    To follow their development and news, check out Scaleswap’s official channels:

    Website – https://scaleswap.io/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/scaleswapio

    Telegram – https://t.me/scaleswap

    Medium – https://scaleswap.medium.com/

    Sources:

    https://scaleswap.io/launch-ido.html

    https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-an-initial-dex-offering-ido-and-why-do-we-need-them

    https://egorithms.com/scaleswap-what-is-it-what-are-sca-tokens/#What_is_Scale_Trading

    https://chaindebrief.com/scaleswap-next-generation-ido-launchpad-layer-2/

    https://morioh.com/p/42fc05c8c6c9

  • Occam: Complete DeFi Suite Tailored to Cardano

    Occam: Complete DeFi Suite Tailored to Cardano

    Named after the principle of theory construction, Occam ($OCC), aka Occam Finance or Occam.fi, is a decentralised exchange (DEX) and the first and most significant addition to Cardano’s DeFi landscape. 

    Designed to deliver market-leading launchpad capabilities, DEX tools, and liquidity pools, Occam is a suite of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) solutions tailored for Cardano and managed and maintained by the Occam Association, a blockchain entity based in Switzerland. Once the Occam.fi ecosystem has matured, the project will be handed over to a carefully designed Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to manage and guide it.

    Learn more about OccamFi in our interview with Mark Berger, President of the Occam Association.

    Background

    Occam Finance was built by a team of individuals based in Belgrade, Serbia. Launched exclusively as an ERC20 token in its early stages, OCC shifted towards a multichain ready infrastructure after the Ethereum-Cardano bridge was released.

    Mark Berger, the president of the Occam Association, is a crypto market veteran who founded Scalable Solutions. His vision is to prepare the crypto industry for institutional and enterprise adoption, holding advisory functions in various startups and traditional financial services.

    Several other equally notable members and advisors comprise the Occam Association’s core team, which seeks to build the Cardano community and the Occam.fi ecosystem.

    Occam Products

    At the time of writing, Occam offers three separate products:

    OccamRazer

    OccamRazer is a Initial Decentralized Offering (IDO) platform used to raise funds for startups on Cardano. It consists of a tier system that allows users to access IDOs depending on which tier investors fall into. In order to participate, users need to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and own at least 150 OCC tokens. 

    OccamX

    A purpose-built Cardano DEX developed by Occam.fi as a whole. It is backed by IOHK’s cFund and EMURGO, and provides liquidity and empowers trading of any Cardano Native Token.

    OccamDAO

    An autonomous organisation that allows token holders to vote on the direction of development.

    Occam Tokens

    OCC tokens can access a premium liquidity pool and will also be used to pledge stake, invest in new products in the Occam ecosystem, and more. With OCC tokens, OccamRazer is able to put a portion of project allocations back into the ecosystem. In addition, token holders are able to continuously receive a small reward in high-quality tokens from the best projects, opening up a cascade of opportunities for token holders and ecosystem participants while providing momentum for continued ecosystem diversification. As a result, this ensures that Occam becomes a thriving, self-sustaining, and flourishing ecosystem.

    OCC tokens can be used for many purposes, most notably:

    Staking: Users are required to stake OCC tokens to participate in any IDO on the platform.

    Liquidity Mining: OCC tokens are distributed to pool participants from the liquidity pool based on their liquidity volume.

    Governance: OCC token holders will have access to the governance mechanism via voting on the changes of system upgrades, system parameters, DAO investments. However, this feature will be implemented later according to the roadmap.

    How to get OCC tokens

    You can get OCC through multiple CEXs (Centralized Exchanges) nand DEXs such as Uniswap, SushiSwap, and Gate.io. It is important to note, however, that you will need a MetaMask web3.0 wallet in order to do anything in the Occam ecosystem. 

    Alternatively, instead of buying on different exchanges, you can also earn OCC via Liquidity Mining the OCC-ETH pair on Uniswap. Rebate Rewards are the amount of OCC tokens distributed via IDO pools with a specific OCC supply, and after an IDO closes, its participants will receive a portion of the OCC tokens calculated pro-rata. Continuous Ecosystem Diversification (CED) distributes CED rewards as the tokens of the projects launched on the platform. As long as you stake more than 150 OCC for a while, you will earn a portion of the rewards as project tokens.

    Conclusion

    Occam provides an all-in-one, feature-rich ecosystem to raise and exchange capital. While catering towards traditional financial institutions, the project boasts (KYC) regulatory compliance but simultaneously claims to have all the benefits of decentralization.

    With a focus on user experience, the UI is aimed towards the institutional mass market and is primarily focused on unlocking and raising capital for upcoming IDOs through its Ethereum-Cardano bridge.

  • Formation Fi: Forget Yield Chasing, Welcome Smart Farming

    Formation Fi: Forget Yield Chasing, Welcome Smart Farming

    Formation Fi is a startup aiming to revolutionize portfolio management in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) by introducing risk parity smart farming.

    DeFi’s current obsession with speculative yield chasing often leaves out the regard for risk. With risk parity inspired smart yield farming 2.0, users get to tailor their level of exposure while receiving guidance from the protocol, which is engineered to reduce risks posed by both bull and bear cycles.

    Formation Fi’s risk parity protocol is guided by the principles of the risk parity movement adopted by top hedge funds on Wall Street, opening up a playing field that was once walled off to all but the richest few.

    What is Risk Parity?

    Risk parity is an investment strategy that aims to spread risk exposure equally across every type of portfolio asset.

    The performance of an investment portfolio is largely dictated by the risk it carries. The riskier its assets are, the higher the portfolio’s upside potential. For example, compare a 100% savings account portfolio with a 100% stocks portfolio; the former has low risk and low returns, while the latter has high risk and a greater chance of large returns. Interestingly, similar to the varying risk levels in investment portfolios, bitcoin casinos instant withdrawal services offer a dynamic environment for users seeking quick access to their winnings, enhancing the overall gambling experience. “Traditional” portfolios increase risk by concentrating money in riskier assets, while risk parity portfolios have fixed asset allocations in order to equalize risk contributions. To increase risk, a risk parity portfolio uses leverage.

    The fundamental theory behind risk parity strategies is that assets in a portfolio should be balanced by risk, not by dollars. In other words, instead of allocating more money to riskier assets to achieve a performance target, risk parity balances assets by risk contribution and then uses leverage to achieve the performance target.

    Risk Parity Smart Yield Farming: How Does It Work?

    Formation Fi’s risk parity protocol is the first chain-agnostic, algorithmic, defi yield-management platform driven by the risk parity portfolio management strategy.

    That means it’s automatic, transparent, can be tailored to everyone’s risk appetite and bag size, and won’t be tied to a single clogged chain.

    It’s the latest and the most sophisticated attempt to create a DeFi risk-parity robo-advisor to algorithmically calibrate asset allocations across core asset classes such as stablecoins, alphas, and betas based on volatility and environmental changes. All under a single unified interface that finally connects all the different DeFi tools in a clear and simple way.

    This simplicity is key.

    Chasing different yield farming strategies, different chains, and constantly changing technical layers is painful. DeFi should be as simple as a single click to make money. And it can be.

    You select your acceptable level of risk with a minimum amount of commitment determined by the algorithm in the top reserve currencies such as BTC, ETH, USDT, or BNB. The protocol will then automatically configure and recommend a chain-agnostic portfolio of yield farming strategies, tailored specifically to you and engineered to offset risks posed by both bull and bear cycles.

    The protocol also uses a small amount of leverage to boost yield while maintaining the optimal level of diversification.

    The protocol will then mint you an index token that tracks the underlying cross-chain DeFi assets and yield farming strategies. That’s all there is to it. No need to track and manage a million different assets. No need to go bankrupt from gas fees. Just let the index token do its work and track your yields in the dashboard.

    Formation Fi will save you valuable time, headaches, and most importantly, money.

    Best of all, the Formation Fi token is itself a potentially valuable crypto-asset. The index token can be sold, bought, or swapped like any other ERC-20 token. It can also be deployed into other yield farming strategies or added into a liquidity mining pool to further boost yield at the holder’s discretion. 

    Guiding Principles of Formation Fi

    Chain-agnostic

    Early DeFi is a collection of protocols, chains, dapps, tokens, pools and other inventions. Some work together, most don’t. Most only work within their own vertical ecosystems. Investing optimally across them all, one at a time, is virtually impossible manually. 

    Formation Fi takes a holistic view — aiming to be chain-agnostic and all-inclusive. From the ideals of crypto and Web3 will come the internet of value, where all blockchains are seamlessly connected through a decentralized infrastructure of bridges and relays.

    All types of DeFi assets will be able to move from point A to point B quickly and smoothly, with no barriers. Their goal is to make the network dependency irrelevant. In other words, ultimately all users of Formation Fi will be able to add any type of uncorrelated DeFi assets available in the world of Web3 to their portfolio, regardless of the protocols of the asset and those already in the portfolio and claim profits from the network of their choice.

    Low Transaction Costs

    DeFi investors have learnt that fees can eat into their capital at an alarming rate, becoming a barrier to entry for some of the more complicated protocols. Costs on Ethereum made it nearly unusable in 2020–2021 for many yield farmers, forcing them to move to other blockchains with different scalability, decentralization and security characteristics. (goldchannel.net)  

    Formation Fi will minimize users’ costs at all opportunities. There are two types of costs to consider: fund management fees and the underlying protocols’ gas/network fees. Most Wall Street hedge funds traditionally charge in excess of 30% of fund profits as management fees and carries interest. Formation Fi will not only charge a significantly lower management fee (only 5%) but will also redistribute a share of the profits to holders of the Formation Fi token, $FORM. 

    Fees for gas/network and other on-chain services such as oracles will also be kept low. For example, when it makes sense, instead of using expensive price feed oracles, Formation Fi will call sets of APIs or build their own oracles to achieve the same results. Over time and with progressive decentralization, they expect on-chain costs to reduce. Formation Fi will always strive to reduce costs and pass the savings and profits on to their users and token holders.

    Radical Simplification

    Many of the first-generation yield farming protocols were thrown together as fast as possible to catch as much of the new booming market as they could. Aspects like the user interface and automation were not top priorities. As a result, 50% of yield farming investing is repetitive and requires a high degree of understanding and attention to detail. This creates a barrier to entry for novice investors, causing confusion and increasing the probability of costly mistakes. 

    Formation Fi will make the user experience as simple and efficient as possible. They will develop algorithms and bots to predict requirements and remove repetitive tasks. They will design the user experience to be simple and a pleasure to use. Formation Fi aims to allow users to focus on investing instead of battling a screen.

    Investment over Speculation

    First-generation yield farming was about speculating on the next coin to 100x and maximizing gains out of the latest scheme. Farmers rushed in, ignorant of the risks and in the long run will lose on gas, impermanent loss, slippage and other hidden fees. 

    Formation Fi is at the lead of the second generation. They will motivate and enable users to form coherent, sensible portfolios instead of collections of random coins. Second generation yield farming is about intelligent investing — calculating quantitative risk as well as reward. 

    This methodology was pioneered by Benjamin Graham in his book “The Intelligent Investor” and employed extensively by Warren Buffet. Formation Fi takes techniques and skills learnt over decades on Wall Street and applies them through algorithms to DeFi. They aim to generate personalized funds that not only catch the market highs but also provide protection from the lows.

    Communal Effort

    DeFi is taking off because so many people can see the benefits of transparency and community governance over the centralized banks, which so often charge hidden fees and make secret backroom deals we’ll never know about. The community is what makes DeFi so compelling — but community governance is a double-edged sword. You can cast your vote and yield the reward, but you have to invest your stake and in reality, only the whales can achieve meaningful results. 

    Formation Fi is turning that around. Ultimately, through progressive decentralization, their DAO will achieve open governance by financially incentivising long-term engagement and offering exclusive original research and quantitative analysis. They will empower a new generation of yield farmers to take control of their assets, achieve better risk-adjusted results and become better investors. 

    Long-Term Focus

    Yield farming has been a fast-moving, get in and out quickly, type of business so far. The first generation of farmers were often risk-seeking ‘degens’ who loved the thrill of the 100x chase and if a coin failed, that’s ok — move on to the next one. That isn’t investing though and Formation Fi isn’t about short-term gambling. 

    Second generation yield farming is for investors who want intelligent, serious management for the long haul with safe exposure to crypto. Formation Fi’s algorithms will build personally risk-adjusted indexes for the long term that can automatically reinvest the yield across multiple chains so users can benefit from the laws of compound interest. 

    Future development, guided by the DAO community and taking advantage of progressive decentralization, will ensure a safe, intelligent and personalized haven for users.

    Constant Innovation and Safety

    Innovation is taken as given in DeFi but unfortunately, for many, is a buzzword that means hitching onto the latest craze and heading off on a dozen random paths. The biggest casualties are then the users when it all implodes, taking their invested capital with it. 

    Formation Fi has a strategic direction to build their vision of low-risk wealth for everyone. The force of innovation and safety drives the project, guided by the DAO community and regulation. The project will adopt progressive decentralization, not hide behind security audit reports, care for the TVL as if it were their own money and try to safeguard it to the best of their abilities.

    $FORM Token

    The Formation Fi protocol will enable the minting of an index token, the $FORM token, to track underlying cross-chain DeFi assets and strategies. $FORM is a triple-utility token with the following functions:

    • Governance Voting — $FORM holders vote on proposals for the FORM operational treasury.
    • Staking & Liquidity Mining — $FORM will be awarded to a user who deposits or stakes underlying digital assets to generate Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Parity or swap among the index coins.
    • Dark Pools — $FORM will confer access to investment liquidity pools which harness the wisdom of the crowd to incubate and fund the most promising new DeFi projects.

    Conclusion

    Every yield comes with risk. Formation Fi brings the risk mitigation strategies which let hedge funds conquer the stock market to crypto, for everyone to use. 

    Their focus is to better manage your risks while protecting your hard-earned yield through thick and thin. Imagine what can be accomplished as a community of smart yield farmers. The Formation Fi DAO will harness the wisdom of the crowd to make the protocol more accurate and more powerful.

    The risk parity protocol is just the first chapter of Formation Fi’s ever-expanding story. Follow Formation Fi’s development on their official channels:

    Website – https://formation.fi/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/FormationFi

    Telegram – https://t.me/FormationFi

    Medium – https://medium.com/formation-fi

    Sources:

    https://docs.formation.fi/

    https://www.financetldr.com/posts/simply-explained-wealthfronts-risk-parity-whitepaper

    https://morioh.com/p/fcf80bde60d4

    https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/formation-fi-closes-33m-strategic-sale-to-build-smart-yield-farming-20-framework

  • Sienna Network ($SIENNA): Privacy Meets DeFi

    Sienna Network ($SIENNA): Privacy Meets DeFi

    Sienna Network is a privacy-first decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows a completely private lending, borrowing, and trading experience with great scalability and low transaction fees. 

    Sienna Network allows users to avoid the lack of privacy on exchanges that allow others to see what users are doing and arbitrage on those transactions with front-running — a key weakness of crypto transactions today. Front-running is the act of getting a transaction first in line in the execution queue, right before a known future transaction occurs. Bots executing such front-running operations by paying slightly higher transaction fees have been a difficult problem for DeFi users.

    Background

    Banking, cryptography, and even decentralized finance go back a long way; as far back as the 12th Century when financial crime took place on the roads of Europe. In 1135, Sienna (known as Siena in 21st Century Italy) was an important trade city and heists were common. To stop the scourge of constant robberies to places such as Veneto, the Bishop of Sienna offered loans against collateral and interest to Sienna citizens and the people who traveled to the city to trade.

    At the same time, the Knights Templar initiated a network of money transfer locations so people could deposit money in the Veneto region and travel to Sienna and Venice without the risk of losing all their money and possessions. Upon arrival at either destination, traveling tradesmen could withdraw their money from a Templar location by handing in an encrypted document that could only be decrypted by the Templars.

    By today’s standards, that encryption was so primitive that the so-called algorithm could be cracked in seconds, but it set the scene for today’s intricate systems. This is where Sienna Network comes into the picture — to build on that same idea and contribute to solutions that will become the standard in privacy-first DeFi.

    What is Sienna Network?

    Until now, the activities of DeFi users have remained an open book — publicly preserved on the blockchain and forever vulnerable. This level of disclosure has created a chilling effect for the industry, discouraging even remotely privacy-conscious users from participation in DeFi, whilst concerning regulators who wish to ensure that users, private and professional alike, are properly protected. 

    Modern blockchain-based technologies fall short when it comes to preserving privacy, and Sienna Network aims to solve the same problem that has been solved by banks for their customers for many years — privacy in terms of funds and transactions, as well as computational privacy, but without the need for any third party to be involved. 

    With Sienna Network, transactions are private. Which means that the user — and no intermediary — decides if any of the data exchanged should be shared with anybody else. This occurs by default, and uses strong encryption to protect the data. 

    Sienna Network is powered by the Secret Network blockchain, a privacy-first smart contract platform by Cosmos. To share data, users need to generate a viewing key, which allows them to decrypt the contents of the data they have sent to contracts on Secret Network. Only the user can decide if they want to share this key and their viewing key only corresponds to their own transactions and cannot be used to monitor a third party’s wallet transactions.

    By building Sienna Network on programmable private smart contracts, it enables a variety of powerful new use cases in DeFi. Programmable privacy allows feeding verifiable sensitive data into a decentralized world without revealing said data. Decentralized identities, credit scores, under-collateralized loans and privacy for institutions are some important examples.

    SiennaSwap

    At the heart of Sienna Network are robust tools for the assurance of privacy to users, including the decentralized exchange (DEX) called SiennaSwap. 

    SiennaSwap lets users trade “secret versions” of popular tokens like Ethereum ($ETH) and Cosmos ($ATOM), and flip them anonymously on the platform. For now, the number of assets is limited to the bridges the project has created, hence the absence of a secret version of Bitcoin ($BTC). The bridges currently available are to Ethereum, Monero, Polkadot, Cosmos, and Binance Smart Chain. Users are able to create as many swap pairs as they wish among each of the assets.

    Leveraging Cosmos means gas fees are low and transactions are almost immediate. A typical transaction costs about $0.02, which is extremely low compared to other blockchains and protocols.

    But perhaps the most important cost that SiennaSwap seeks to omit is that of front-running, or traders cutting to the front of the queue and scooping up lucrative trades before others. This is possible due to the platform’s privacy-first approach. Using Secret Network’s protocol, Sienna Network has found a way to turn legacy public smart contracts into Secret Contracts, which allow private interactions where Third Parties cannot monitor what’s going on. This is because the data remains inside TEEs — Trusted Execution Environments; not even the node operators of the underlying network.

    What does it mean for a user? On public ledger chains where anyone with a wallet address could see others’ entire transaction history and that of their friends, with Sienna’s token and via the SiennaSwap, the wrapped ‘secret’ tokens such as secretETH the transaction history cannot be looked up and seen. This fixes several core issues including the aforesaid blight of front-running.

    Sienna Lend

    Another important product by Sienna Network is Sienna Lend which allows users to borrow and lend both public and private crypto assets. Moreover, users can deposit their tokens and earn interest from them or use their deposit as collateral to borrow a wide range of assets. These assets include stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and tokenized assets such as real estate, stocks, gold, NFTs, and more.

    The entire process will be private and no one can see a user’s earnings or other financial details.

    The Need for Financial Privacy

    Privacy is a fundamental human right — or it should be. It is a basic individual right to choose whom to share with — not just information, but other important aspects of life such as financial transactions. 

    But here a problem arises — while cash has relevant anonymous uses — larger transactions should not be anonymous because no system should enable money-laundering or the funding of bad actors. This is especially relevant at a time when the opinion of policy-makers has transmuted into a surveillance economy, with market actors required to police and report with severe penalties for failures. Whether we like it or not.

    If a crypto user sends a beneficiary an amount of tokens, both wallets are consequently linked via that transaction. This seems like a basic and fair exchange, but it also means that the beneficiary can now see the complete transactional history of that person’s wallet. This is patently an infringement of privacy and needs to be fixed.

    So, privacy matters. It is a mechanism for individuals and institutions to decide to control their data — sometimes transactionally, at other times to prove or disclose information or financial actions by choosing to share that data with relevant and selected Third Parties.

    $SIENNA Token Utility

    $SIENNA is a governance token which provides a dual function in the network’s ecosystem.

    It acts as the governance token of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), allowing its holders to vote on possible changes on both the Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and the lending protocol.

    It also powers the incentivization mechanism to encourage positive behavior from users. Users are awarded with $SIENNA based only on its actual usage, activity and contribution on the Sienna Network, whereas users of the Sienna Network and/or holders of $SIENNA which did not actively participate will not receive any $SIENNA incentives.

    The token can be bought directly on Secret Network on SiennaSwap, but wrapped versions can also be bought on Uniswap and Pancakeswap.

    Conclusion

    Until now, DeFi users have had to choose between the personal freedom of decentralized finance, or the personal privacy of centralized finance. Never were both achievable at the same time. 

    Sienna Network solves this core problem by developing a course correction for the industry, delivering all of the many benefits within the DeFi space, while at the same time protecting users from the unwanted prying of third parties. 

    Sienna Network’s users can freely interact with powerful DeFi products, enjoying the same levels of privacy, or even greater, as in centralized finance. Sienna Network will seek to spur the sector onto new frontiers, providing tools that are programmatically private. Sienna Network’s protocols will also be used to empower self-sovereign identities. 

    These factors place Sienna Network at the vanguard of privacy-first decentralized finance. Now is the time to unlock the full potential of DeFi.

    Project Links

    Website — https://sienna.network/

    Discord — https://discord.gg/jZk8ggm7XP

    Telegram — https://t.me/GoSiennaNetwork

    Twitter — https://twitter.com/sienna_network

    Medium — https://medium.com/sienna-network

    Sources:

    https://sienna.network/static/documents/Sienna-Network-Whitepaper-V1.3—November-2021.pdf

    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/frontrunning.asp

    https://scrt.network/blog/introducing-sienna-a-privacy-first-defi-protocol

    https://decrypt.co/82825/sienna-network-launches-privacy-centric-defi-crypto-exchange

    https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/07/shooting-for-greater-privacy-in-defi-sienna-network-launches-siennaswap/?guccounter=1

    https://medium.com/sienna-network/privacy-matters-9ed864973f5f

  • Dot Finance: Polkadot’s Yield Aggregator & DeFi Hub

    Dot Finance: Polkadot’s Yield Aggregator & DeFi Hub

    Dot Finance is a new decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to incentivize the growth of the Polkadot ecosystem. Similar to other DeFi applications, Dot Finance uses smart contracts instead of third parties to provide financial services to users.

    By providing access to a variety of battle-tested high-performing financial instruments, Dot Finance is designed to bring DeFi to a wide range of users and will help increase user exposure to the many benefits of the Polkadot ecosystem. This will help grow the adoption of not just the Polkadot framework but the many new DeFi products and services that Dot Finance is building on top of Polkadot’s safe, secure, and resilient architecture.

    What is Yield Farming?

    Anybody that has been in DeFi long enough has heard about yield farming. At its core, yield farming is the practice of using DeFi protocols to make your money work for you. Instead of having funds stashed in a zero-interest account or a hardware wallet hidden under your mattress, you can use them to lend, borrow, trade, or provide liquidity. DeFi platforms incentivize user participation by rewarding them with native tokens and/or a portion of the transaction fees.

    Yield Farming Strategies

    Yield farming strategies are in constant flux as farmers must continuously adapt to protocol changes, market demands, and gas prices. That being said, the primary goal is to earn the highest rewards by locking up your funds. This is accomplished by supporting Automated Market Makers (AMMs) through addition of funds to Liquidity Pools (LPs).

    When liquidity is added to a pool, you receive LP tokens that represent the amount of your contribution to the pool. The LP tokens can entitle you to a portion of the swap fees from that pool, but you can also stake the LP tokens in different farms to earn rewards. The staking rewards come in the form of a new token, (e.g. PancakeSwap rewards LP token stakers with CAKE tokens) that can also be swapped or staked in different farms and pools. 

    The complexity of strategies increases quickly with all the different options and varying returns available.

    Yield Farming Optimization

    Keeping up with the fluctuating rates and ever-changing market conditions takes a lot of time and energy. If you make a mistake or miss the optimal compounding times, your APY drops significantly. If you farm on Ethereum, you also must worry about the crazy high gas fees eating into your yields with every transaction. Ethereum yield farming has become a space where only whales turn a profit.

    Dot Finance helps farmers avoid these issues and earn the highest returns possible with their yield aggregator. By working on the Polkadot and Kusama blockchains, the transactions are fast, and the gas fees remain low. 

    Dot Finance’s smart contracts automatically compound yields at the optimal frequency to increase your APY and the already low fees are shared across farms by batching the auto-compound transactions. Farmers also have access to automation and compounding at scale. It’s like farming with a tractor instead of pulling a yoke on your shoulders.

    How Dot Finance Maximizes Yields

    Normally, after providing liquidity to a pool and receiving LP tokens, you can stake those to earn new tokens. The rewards incentivize people to add liquidity to the pools but it takes a little more time and effort from the farmers because the funds have to be manually converted and restaked.

    Optimal compounding can be almost magical in how much it increases your returns. For example, if you were to auto-compound once a day for a year, a 40% APR becomes 49%. That’s almost a 25% increase in returns! 

    Dot Finance’s yield aggregator auto-compounds farming yields for you by converting them to LP tokens then staking them. Using their platform means the smart contracts will compound your yields at the optimal rate and entitle you to a share of their performance fee – the Pink Distribution.

    When you harvest your yields (collect rewards), Dot Finance gives you 70% of your earnings in LP tokens, and the other 30% will be issued in their native $PINK tokens. This is based only on your profits, your principal remains untouched. The 30% for which $PINK is minted is the performance fee that goes to the $PINK stakers.

    $PINK Token

    Governance

    Staking $PINK tokens will allow you to participate in DAO governance protocols. When future changes are proposed for the platform, you will be able to vote and help steer the protocols in a direction you think is best.

    Utility

    The native $PINK token is more than just a regular governance token. $PINK incentivizes liquidity provision and helps increase returns when using the platform. It can be staked to earn rewards and is used as an APR multiplier when claiming profits.

    The following shows the fee structure of $PINK:

    • 30% performance fee (the $PINK distribution) – This means 30% of profits will be converted and issued as $PINK tokens upon user withdrawal. The original profits are used to reward individuals that staked their $PINK tokens in the $PINK staking farm.
    • 0.5% withdrawal fee if the withdrawal happens within 72 hours of deposit.

    $PINK Staking

    There is a separate $PINK staking farm that will allow you to stake your tokens and receive a share of $PINK distribution profits. These profits come from the vault’s performance fee – the original 30% that were converted to newly minted $PINK tokens.

    This is an automatic process that happens with every withdrawal, e.g., a user takes profits, the smart contract executes and 30% of those profits are converted and given to everyone with staked $PINK tokens.

    Simply put, when you stake $PINK tokens in the $PINK farm, you receive a share of the $PINK distribution for the entire community.   

    Dot Finance prioritizes community and wants everyone to benefit from the growth and success of the protocol, therefore choosing this mechanism to share the earnings of the protocol with all the $PINK holders.

    Why Polkadot?

    Polkadot is a highly successful blockchain protocol that was designed to connect multiple specialized blockchains into a unified network. Isolated blockchains can only process a finite amount of traffic, and all blockchains make tradeoffs to support a variety of features and use cases. For example, one blockchain might optimize for security, while another might optimize for speed.

    These are the real-life challenges that Polkadot was designed to address. With a sharded multichain network, Polkadot can process many transactions on several chains in parallel. This eliminates bottlenecks. Also, the platform supports blockchains of different designs that are optimized for specific use cases. In this way, Polkadot overcomes the interoperability problem by uniting isolated blockchains, thereby enabling its user base to access and harness all of its advantages in one holistic protocol, making it a real contender for the next generation of blockchains.

    Because of these features, Polkadot has grown significantly over the last year and numerous projects have committed to building on it.

    What’s Next for Dot Finance?

    • Users can expect additional farms to be launched such as DAI-USDC & BUSD-USDC, and other projects in the Polkadot ecosystem.
    • Users will be able to deploy their vault strategy and integrate with Sushi decentralized exchange, enabling users to auto-compound gains and maximize returns on Sushi farms.
    • Plans to launch and support additional vault strategies to offer even higher yields for current farms.
    • Integration with Chainlink oracles to enhance vault’s security with additional price feeds.
    • Dot Finance will conduct additional audits for their smart contracts to ensure the security and safety of users’ funds.

    Check out Dot Finance’s official channels to learn more:

    Website – http://dot.finance/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/dot_finance

    Telegram – https://t.me/Dot_Finance

    Medium – https://dot-finance.medium.com/

    Sources:

    https://docs.dot.finance/

    https://morioh.com/p/110b7f4a031a

    https://dot-finance.medium.com/hello-polkadot-we-are-live-eb40187c146a

    https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/01/04/dex-aggregator-dot-finance-migrates-to-polkadot-from-bsc/

  • Alium Finance: All-in-One DeFi & NFT Ecosystem

    Alium Finance: All-in-One DeFi & NFT Ecosystem

    Alium Finance is a multichain decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem with an ambitious roadmap of CrossChain DeFi and non-fungible token (NFT) products. Their aim is to offer its users a single interface multichain ecosystem so they can enjoy different DeFi and NFT products on different blockchains without having to hop from one platform to another.  

    Alium Swap AMM DEX

    Existing AMM DEXs (Automated Market Maker Decentralized Exchanges) have several limitations and disadvantages that prevent them from providing maximum profit and benefits for their users. Decentralized exchanges on different blockchains do not interact with each other and the transfer of assets between them creates serious difficulties for users.

    To enable users to extract the maximum profit and choose the blockchain that best suits their needs, Alium Finance has created an advanced multi-blockchain AMM MultiChain DEX called Alium Swap.

    It will allow users to safely trade assets and quickly transfer them between different blockchains. Implementing the best features from existing protocols, Alium Swap creates a complete ecosystem of DeFi products that meets a broad variety of customer demands.

    Token swap on Alium Swap is a very simple way to trade one token for another via automated liquidity pools. Currently, they have integrated Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Huobi ECO Chain networks. They have also launched a BSC-Polygon Bridge with plans for more bridges between chains to be released soon.

    The liquidity provided to the exchange comes from Liquidity Providers (LPs) who stake their tokens in liquidity pools. When users make a token swap (trade) on the exchange they will pay a 0.25% trading fee, which is broken down as follows:

    • 0.20% – Returned to liquidity pools in the form of a fee reward for liquidity providers.
    • 0.05% – Sent to the Alium Swap Treasury.

    For a smoother and mobile experience, Alium Swap also offers a mobile app available to users on Android and Apple devices.

    $ALM Token

    $ALM token is a utility token for the whole Alium ecosystem – it will be used on the DEX, NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace, in their NFT game, as well as for governance and staking.

    • DEX – Providing liquidity, profit sharing between $ALM holders, airdrops
    • NFT Marketplace – $ALM minting bonus and NFT auctions
    • Smart Farming – LP token $ALM farming and next gen $ALM farming
    • DAO – Voting with $ALM and proposals with $ALM
    • Staking – Dynamic $ALM staking pools

    $ALM is a BEP-20 token which means that any wallet supporting Binance Smart Chain can be used for storing $ALM. In the future, ETH-wrapped ALM will also be available.

    Liquidity Migration

    The Alium development team has introduced the ‘vampiring’ function now available on the platform. You can access it here: https://alium.finance/migrate

    Liquidity migration, or ‘vampiring’, is a process that allows users to transfer their liquidity from one exchange to another within the same chain, utilizing the most profitable rates on offer across various protocols and exchanges. 

    The introduction of the given function on the Alium exchange is needed to allow users to easily transfer their liquidity from other DEXs to Alium Finance for farming $ALM tokens with a greater degree of convenience and profitability. The BSC, Ethereum, and Polygon blockchains, as well as the exchanges they support, are available via the ‘vampiring’ function.

    Smart Farming & Strong Holders Pool

    Strong Holders Pool is a mechanic developed to incentivize holding $ALM, not selling. To prevent the Farm & Dump phenomenon, which many projects and communities suffer from after the Farming Campaigns, Alium decided to introduce the Smart Farming Pools to reward the Strong Holders at the expense of Flippers.

    Strong Holders Pools are available to both Farmers and $ALM holders who didn’t participate in Farming. After you harvest the Farmed ALMs, 90% of $ALM go straight into Strong Holders’ Pools of 100 participants each. When the pool is formed, the game begins. The first users withdraw some of their tokens, which will be rewarded to Diamond Hands, who withdraw last.

    The first 60 users who leave the pool will be at a loss while the last 40 users of the pool will be in profit. The amount of tokens lost/gained depends on the proportion between pool participants’ holdings.

    Apart from that, the last 8 users of every pool will be rewarded usable NFTs for Alium’s play-to-earn (P2E) game Cyber City Inc.

    Cyber City Inc NFT Game

    Cyber City is Alium’s first P2E NFT game with collectible drops set in a futuristic cyberpunk world. The play-to-earn (P2E) model is an explosive trend in the blockchain and gaming industry where players of NFT games get to collect lucrative rewards for playing. 

    In the not-so-distant future, Cyber City dominates the planet, and corporations run the world.

    These Corporations control all the wealth and resources, leaving the inhabitants of the City in a dire existence. Cyber City Streets are ugly, cruel and dangerous. A perfect environment for the strongest and most cunning to claw their way to the top. The game features Tokenized Assets and NFT Characters set in the futuristic metaverse called Endless Megapolis.

    The Cyber City Genesis Wave NFTs is currently available for purchase through partners such as NFTb, Hyperjump, and Niftify among others. The Genesis Wave will have 6,000 NFT boxes that will contain 10,000 characters, 10,000 city blocks, and 450,000 in-game resources. The game is set to release its beta version in July 2022. (morganstern.com)

    Alium.Art NFT Marketplace

    One of the main goals of the project is to attract attention to new and promising technologies with a special focus on NFTs. The project development team believes in the integration and use of advanced solutions based on NFTs and has announced the launch of an NFT marketplace called Alium.Art with the implementation of a cross-play NFT asset protocol for blockchain-based games. 

    Allium.Art is being developed using a design philosophy that is artist-centered with a high degree of customization. Some key features in development:

    • Multi-Blockchain
    • Private Collections
    • Collections Customization
    • Easy Onboarding
    • Customizable Galleries
    • Charity Auctions
    • VR/AR Galleries
    • Categories Search
    • Easy Onboarding

    The platform aims to empower artists to sell their art on their terms, represent it in a digital environment using AR and VR technologies, and benefit from selling their art in the form of NFTs. For buyers, it will be a way to acquire unique digital artwork and enter the modern crypto art market. Easy onboarding will ensure anyone can become part of the thriving community, no matter artist, collector, or crypto enthusiast.

    Tokenomics via NFTs

    The Alium token economic model strives to make it resilient to fluctuations using a distribution model called Initial NFT Offering (INO). The Alium team is confident that this will provide an opportunity to reduce the volatility of the $ALM token value, despite potential high demand for the token.

    NFTs are a new milestone in the development of DeFi and the blockchain in general, so the team paid great attention to the development of this direction. The main feature of their approach is the so-called NFT 2.0, which not only acts as collectible cards or tokens but can also be used in various applications as an object of interaction.

    All the Smart Farming Pools are built on this principle and users with NFT cards will have the opportunity to increase their profit in farming through NFT cards.

    Roadmap for 2022

    • Synthetic ALM Token (BSC <> ETH)
    • Tron Integration
    • Avalanche Integration
    • CYBR Token Launch
    • Cyber City Inc NFT Marketplace
    • Cyber City Inc Clan NFT Drops
    • ALM Staking – CYBR Farming
    • External Liquidity Pools
    • Staking Platform
    • Super ALM (Governance Token / DAO / Burn)
    • Cyber City Inc Light Game Launch
    • Cyber City Inc full release

    For more information, check out their official channels below:

    Website – https://alium.finance

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/AliumSwap

    Telegram – https://t.me/aliumswap_official

    Medium – https://aliumswap.medium.com/

    Sources:

    https://docs.alium.finance/

    https://aliumswap.medium.com/introducing-alium-finance-b228d570c6fa

    https://morioh.com/p/54ff6ae9837e

    https://techbullion.com/alium-finance-year-in-review-and-plans-for-2022/

    https://blog.nftb.io/nftb-announced-strategic-partnership-with-alium-finance-to-expand-multi-chain-nft-adoption-2cb6638928ae

  • How Do Crypto Savings Accounts Work

    How Do Crypto Savings Accounts Work

    Lending and borrowing cryptocurrencies is becoming an increasingly important sub-sector of the crypto industry, one that may end up shaping how the underlying assets themselves are valued and priced in markets. Since many crypto enthusiasts invest in crypto with a long-term mindset anyway, the idea of letting assets generate a return regardless of the price appreciation of the underlying asset is an appealing one to many. (www.voiceoverherald.com)  

    With the rise of crypto savings accounts that promise high annual percentage yields (APYs), investors now have the potential to boost their earnings for crypto deposits. 

    What is a Crypto Savings Account

    The concept behind crypto savings accounts is similar to that of traditional savings accounts. You as a crypto owner can deposit your assets into a crypto savings account, which are then lent out on your behalf by a third party provider, earning you interest for your deposits. 

    The key difference when it comes to crypto savings accounts is that instead of depositing fiat currency, you will instead keep your funds in the cryptocurrency of your preference. Your funds may also be exposed to the volatility and price fluctuations of the crypto market.

    A crypto wallet is not the same as a crypto savings account, with the main difference being that the latter accrues interest whereas a crypto wallet does not. If you just keep your coins in a wallet where you own the private keys or in an exchange wallet, your investment will not earn any interest. To earn money for your crypto, you will need to open an account with a provider and deposit funds into your crypto savings account.

    For a comparison between providers, check out our guide to the Best Crypto Savings Accounts 2022.

    How Does It Work

    Before you open a crypto savings account, it is probably a good idea to fully understand what these products are and how exactly they differ from traditional savings accounts. 

    In the case of a traditional savings account, when you deposit money, you give permission to the bank to loan out the money to third parties. And in return, you earn interest from the bank.

    Similarly, when your money is invested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, the cryptocurrency savings account provider will loan out the crypto to borrowers, and provide you a certain pre-arranged rate of interest on your crypto. The interest rates depend on many factors such as the current market rate.

    You can also earn interest on stablecoins, which are fixed to the value of the US dollar if you don’t want to be exposed to cryptocurrency price fluctuations. Because the crypto market is speculative, these accounts should be viewed as investments rather than savings accounts, because that is really what they are at their core.

    Crypto Savings VS Traditional Savings

    Despite sounding similar, crypto savings accounts have some very distinct differences from traditional savings accounts.  

    1. Interest Yields – Crypto savings accounts offer much higher rates of return than traditional banks, reaching as high as 8% to 12% APY. To put this in perspective, the average savings account yield sits at just 0.06% APY according to recent data by the FDIC.
    1. FDIC Insurance – Major banks have insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This insurance guarantees that, even if your bank loans out the money you deposit into your account, your funds are protected. You won’t lose money when you put it into a traditional savings account because the FDIC backs your account. Crypto savings accounts do not have FDIC insurance.
    1. Access to Funds – In a traditional savings account, you are free to withdraw your money at any time with no fees or restrictions. Crypto savings accounts may limit access to your coins for a set period of time after you deposit them into your account. They may also charge you a fee for withdrawing your funds before a select date. However, many platforms do not have minimum lockup periods, allowing you to take out your investment at any time. These platforms are also open 24/7, unlike traditional banks.

    Benefits of Crypto Savings Accounts

    Crypto savings accounts have several positive impacts both to the individual investor as well as to the overall cryptocurrency economy.

    1. Passive Income – Crypto savings accounts provide an automated method to grow crypto portfolios over time. For someone already fully invested in bitcoin, they simply need to deposit that bitcoin into a crypto savings account and can immediately earn additional interest paid in bitcoin.
    1. Greater Liquidity – Crypto savings accounts provide an incentive to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency. By drawing in more participants to the crypto economy, greater liquidity can be attained leading to eventual price stability for the asset.
    1. Increased Adoption – Long time holders of crypto are incentivized to move their crypto out of storage and into the markets, facilitating adoption and helping innovate new use cases for crypto.
    1. Higher Demand – Interest rates are important in financial markets because they fill the gap between people with a surplus of assets and the people who need the assets because they have a use for them. High interest rates being offered can be seen as high demand for the underlying crypto assets.

    Risks of Crypto Savings Accounts

    While the prospect of earning 8% or more in a savings account seems attractive, investors should know that there are also risks involved. Cryptocurrency in general comes with risk and one should only invest once they are fully aware of the risks associated with these investments.

    1. Price Volatility – The value of cryptocurrencies are volatile and can easily lose their value. Cryptocurrency is not backed by the government so if something happens to cause it to lose its underlying value, then investors would lose their principal invested amount.
    1. Lock Up Risk – Some crypto savings accounts are very flexible, allowing investors to withdraw at any time. Others may have lock up periods or additional fees for excessive withdrawal activity. Generally speaking, the more restrictive accounts will offer the higher interest rate while the more flexible accounts tend to offer the lower interest rates. Make sure to do some research before committing to a provider.
    1. Pledge Risk – When you deposit your assets into a crypto savings account, you no longer control the crypto and are pledging it as collateral. For example, when you deposit at a bank you are staking a claim to a bank’s liability. It is a similar situation with the crypto savings account. If the crypto provider goes under due to a mismanagement of their business or an adverse market event, you will not be able to get your assets back.
    1. Smart Contract Risk – Decentralized finance (Defi) lenders use automated coding called smart contracts to loan and allocate capital. This coding is viewable by everyone so it is quite transparent. Everyone is incentivized to make sure the coding is solid.  However, a previously undiscovered error in a smart contract may open the door for a hacker to find their way in. Though not exempt from the risk, lenders who have been around longer and whose products have stood the test of time are generally less likely to be exposed.

    Things to Consider Before Getting Started

    Thanks to the rising popularity of crypto savings accounts, there has also been an increase in the number of providers. But how do you know which platform is the best choice for your investment needs? Here are some of the things you should research before selecting a crypto savings account:

    • Compound interest
    • Crypto market availability
    • Security
    • Supported coins
    • Withdrawal restrictions
    • Private key access policy
    • Loan-to-value (LTV) rates

    Compound Interest

    Compound interest is calculated based on both the initial deposit and the accumulated interest. It will make a sum grow at a faster rate than simple interest, which is calculated only on the principal amount. Not all providers offer compound interest so before deciding, it is recommended to inquire whether or not they apply compound interest to their savings accounts.

    Crypto Market Availability

    It is preferable to choose a savings account that has crypto market access. This will help you buy crypto through the platform and set up your account. Having access to the market also saves a lot of time and documentation.

    Security

    One of the most important aspects of choosing a crypto savings account is its security measures. Every company has its own security policies to safeguard the assets you save, so it is recommended to look for savings account providers who offer two-factor authentication (2FA). 

    Apart from 2FA, many companies also provide cold storage as an additional layer of security.

    Supported Coins

    Thousands of cryptocurrencies are available in today’s market, and there is nothing worse than selecting an account provider that does not support the coins you are holding. Before you deposit your crypto into an account, be sure to verify that the provider supports that crypto.

    Withdrawal Restrictions

    Some crypto savings accounts have withdrawal limits that cap the amount you can take from your account over a specific period of time. These withdrawal limits can put your money out of reach when you need it most, like during a financial emergency. Not only that, but you may also have to pay fees to withdraw your money. These fees can add up if you are an active crypto trader who makes a lot of transfers in and out of your account, in which case it would be more beneficial to find a provider that offers unlimited free withdrawals.

    Private Key Access Policy

    Unlike traditional savings accounts that allow you control over your money, not all crypto savings accounts allow you to keep control over the keys to your crypto. Noncustodial wallets like Coinbase leave you in control of the private keys to your crypto. You are the sole owner of your digital assets across transactions on the platform. Custodial accounts like Nexo require you to hand over your private keys, trusting the platform to manage it on your behalf. Thus, it is recommended to always verify the company policy related to crypto key access and understand ownership swapping.

    Loan-To-Value (LTV) Rates

    Another important point to research is the loan-to-value rates or the LTV rates. The LTV rates represent what the platform is ready to risk. It must be noted that the more robust LTV a platform has, the better it is for you.

    Bottom Line: Should You Open A Crypto Savings Account?

    While a crypto savings account can produce exceptionally lucrative returns for long-term investors, it is important to remember that the cryptocurrency market is known for its volatility. Crypto savings accounts might accrue interest like a traditional savings account, but they do not have the same financial protections that are awarded to traditional banking institutions.

    If you do decide to open a crypto savings account, treat it as an investment account instead of a separate checking account. Keep your emergency funds somewhere safe, and never invest more money than you can afford to lose in cryptocurrency. 

    FAQ

    What is a crypto savings account?

    Crypto savings accounts work in a similar way to traditional bank savings accounts. In a nutshell, you lend money to an institution which lends your assets to borrowers in need of liquidity. Except, crypto savings accounts deal exclusively in cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

    Are crypto savings accounts safe?

    Yes. Every crypto savings account provider has its own security policies to safeguard your assets. It is recommended to look for account providers who offer two-factor authentication (2FA) and/or cold storage.

    How much interest can I earn for my crypto deposits?

    That depends on the platform you use and the type of cryptocurrency you deposit. As an example, FTX lets account holders earn up to 8% APY on all crypto deposits, while BlockFi offers up to 9.5% APY on stablecoins.

    Are crypto savings accounts a reliable retirement investment strategy?

    No. Considering the volatility of the crypto market, there are a lot of risks associated with crypto savings accounts. These accounts should be viewed as investments rather than savings accounts.

    Sources:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2021/05/17/what-are-the-risks-of-crypto-savings-accounts/?sh=61b866591417

    https://apyguy.com/best-crypto-savings-accounts/#What_are_Crypto-Based_Savings_Accounts

    https://www.coinratecap.com/en/blogDetail/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-crypto-savings-account

    https://financeplusinsurance.com/risks-associated-crypto-savings-accounts/

  • Keep3rb BSC Network ($KP3RB): The First Keeper Network on Binance Smart Chain

    Keep3rb BSC Network ($KP3RB): The First Keeper Network on Binance Smart Chain

    keep3r bsc network

    Keep3rb Network is a decentralized keeper network built on Binance Smart Chain for projects that require external DevOps and external teams to find keeper jobs.

    DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle (SDLC) and provide continuous delivery with high software quality.

    Keep3rb network provides a seamless platform to connect DevOps teams (Keepers) with project teams that require DevOps tasks (Jobs).

    This project is not to be confused with Andre Conje’s Keep3r Network ($KP3R).

    What is a Keeper

    A keeper is the term used to refer to an external person or team that executes a job. Keepers can also be bots, scripts, other contracts, or simply EOA accounts that trigger events. 

    The job can be as simple as submitting a signed TX on behalf of a third party, calling a transaction at a specific time, or more complex functionality that requires extensive off-chain logic. Each time a keeper executes a job, they are rewarded with $BNB, tokens, or the system’s native token $KP3RB.

    Jobs might require keepers that have a minimum amount of bonded tokens, have earned a minimum amount of fees, or have been in the system longer than a certain period of time.

    At the most simple level, they simply require a keeper to be registered in the system.

    With the keeper network being decentralized, It is up to the keepers to set up their DevOps and infrastructure and create their own rules based on what transactions they deem profitable.

    What is a Job

    A job is the term used to refer to a smart contract that requires external DevOps or a team to perform an action. The action needs to be performed in goodwill and not as a malicious act to harm the project. For this reason they register as a job, and keepers can then execute on their contract.

    Becoming a Keeper

    how to use keep3r bsc network

    To join as a keeper, you need to connect a wallet and register a bond. You do not need to have $KPR3B tokens to participate as a keeper, you can join as long as you have a wallet to hold your tokens. 

    There is a 3-day activation period before you can activate as a keeper. Once the three days have passed, you will be able to activate your bond. 

    Once activated, you are officially a keeper on the network and will be able to select jobs from the Keep3rb network jobs list.

    Registering a Job

    Keep in mind that the Keep3rb network does not get in the way of the job. They do not define nor restrict the action taken, hence its decentralized nature. Incentive mechanisms are available for all parties involved to ensure tasks are carried out efficiently. There are 2 core ways to create a job:

    • Registering a job via Governance – you can register a job simply by creating a new proposal via governance. If governance approves, no further steps are required.
    • Registering a job via Adding Liquidity – you will need to provide liquidity to one of the approved liquidity pairs (for example KP3RB-BNB). You put your LP tokens in escrow and receive credit. When the credit is used up, you can simply withdraw the LP tokens. You will receive 100% of the LP tokens back that you deposited.

    Job Credits

    Each job has a set amount of credit they can award keepers. You do not need to purchase KP3RB tokens to receive credits. Instead you are required to provide liquidity in Keep3rb network’s job liquidity pools.

    kp3rb job liquidity pool list

    You can remove your liquidity at any time, so you do not have to keep buying new credits. Your liquidity provided is never reduced and as such you can remove it whenever you no longer would like a job to be executed.

    There are 3 primary payment mechanisms to pay keepers and these are based on the credit provided:

    • Pay via liquidity provided tokens (based on ‘ addLiquidityToJob ‘)
    • Pay in direct BNB (based on ‘ addCreditETH ‘)
    • Pay in direct token (based on ‘ addCredit ‘)

    Governance

    Keep3rb governance by design has a low overhead, it is not meant to be protocol intensive. The focus is simply on reviewing and approving jobs, and if absolutely required mitigate disputes or blacklist keepers.

    Only bonded keepers may participate in governance. To participate in governance a keeper must first bond $KP3RB, once bonded they can delegate voting rights to either themselves or another party.

    The core function of governance is to approve and include jobs, when liquidity is provided for a job, a proposal is automatically created to include them for review. Bonded keepers will review the contracts and decide if they should be included. It is important that jobs code defensively, assume keepers will only include your job to maximize their returns, as such maximum payment thresholds have been implemented.

    As a last resort, governance has certain rights over managing keepers, these include lodging disputes, slashing, revoking access, and resolving disputes.

    Job Interface

    Some contracts require external event execution, an example for this is the ‘ harvest() ‘ function in the yearn ecosystem or the ‘ update(address, address) ‘ function in the uniquote ecosystem. These usually require a restricted access control list. However, these can be difficult for fully decentralized projects to manage, as they lack DevOps infrastructure.

    These job interfaces can be broken down into 2 types, no risk delta and harvest. No risk delta is similar to an ‘ update(address, address) ‘ in uniquote, which has no risk to execution. ‘ harvest() ‘, as seen in yearn, can be exploited by malicious actors using front-running deposits. 

    For complete information on how these codes are executed, you can refer to the official Medium post by Keep3rb network.

    $KP3RB Token

    According to Coinmarketcap, the platform’s native token $KP3RB stands at a token supply of 211,450. No further details about token supply and distribution are provided at present.

    Conclusion

    Keep3rb network aims to facilitate DevOps projects in a decentralized environment. The scope of the Keep3rb network is not to manage these jobs themselves but to allow contracts to register as jobs for keepers, and to allow keepers to register themselves to perform jobs. Due to its decentralized nature, both the keeper and job can define and set their own parameters and rules as they choose. 

    It will be interesting to see how BSC’s first keeper network performs and how it will change the DevOps market and its practices. 

    keep3rb network

    To learn more about Keep3rb network and the project’s future developments, check out their official channels listed below:

    Website – https://keep3rb.network/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/keep3rb

    Telegram – https://t.me/keep3rb

    News –  https://t.me/kp3rbnews

    Medium – https://keep3rb.medium.com/

    GitHub – https://github.com/keep3rb-network

    Sources:

    https://docs.keep3rb.network/docs/keepers

    https://keep3rb.medium.com/introduction-to-keep3rb-network-f116f94ede79

    https://www.bsc.news/post/keep3rb-first-keeper-network-on-binance-smart-chain

    https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/keep3r-bsc-network/