Make sense of the news and how it affects the blockchain space as a whole. Crypto trends is a collection of relevant news and insights to help you make an informed decision.
We managed to pull some key movers and shakers in this space and sit them down for an exclusive interview. We asked them all about DeFi, trends for 2020 and most importantly…when bull run?
Yam Finance took over Twitter and social media this week both a fun meme and experiment in elastic token design. However, as the token was gaining popularity a bug was discovered that rendered the governance features of $YAM permanently inaccessible. Yield farming principle / Total Value Locked was not affected by this bug.
At one point, there was almost a glimmer of hope that the project could be salvaged as the community banded together to save YAM. This was a big display of strength and unity in the YAM community. Even though the community achieved the votes needed, a serious bug prevented the fix from deployed, forever dooming the governance features and the YAM treasury.
Zeus Capital vs ChainLink
This all started in late July 2020 when Zeus Capital LLP issued reports alleging that ChainLink was operating a pump and dump scheme and recommending people short sell LINK at 7 cents. Zeus Capital were persistent, advertising their reports on Twitter and allegedly paying influencers to post price analysis showing that LINK prices would fall. Zeus Capital did seem to have some monetary interest in this, disclosing that they hold a short position. However, things got really interesting on 8th August 2020 when $LINK prices crossed the $11 mark and millions worth of short positions were entirely liquidated. It’s unknown whether Zeus Capital’s short position was one of them, but this and the continued rise of $LINK past $14 really gave the Link Marines something to celebrate about Read our TL;DR summary of this dispute here.
Calm down, $YFI’s Andre Cronje isn’t going anywhere
On 8th August 2020, Decrypt- a cryptocurrency media outlet published an interview with Andre Cronje-creator of yEarn.finance ($YFI) titled “Exclusive: YFI’s Andre Cronje is tired, broke and close to quitting DeFi“. The article goes on to say that when interviewed, Cronje expressed he was “Close to rage quitting again” because of DeFi’s “toxic community” and that he gets nothing from the skyrocketing value of the $YFI coin that he created. This did not sit well with Cronje, who took to Twitter on the same day to express his dissatisfaction with the sensationalism of the article and that he was taken out of context. He also mentioned that he received donations from concerned members of the cryptocurrency community, but would return them. Cronje subsequently was interviewed by the Defiant, where he basically said his drive comes from his excitement to add new things to the DeFi ecosystem, and that he is not going anywhere.
You can also learn more about his journey to cryptocurrency and eventually DeFi, and the yEarn ecosystem he is building in our summary of his interview with FTX exchange.
Serum (SRM) begins trading, breaks the Internet
Serum is the first decentralised exchange ever built on Solana and is the creation of the team behind FTX. Here’s our first look at Serum.
On 11th August 2020, Serum ($SRM) started trading on Binance, BitMax, FTX, Uniswap (v2), Balancer and more. Cryptocurrency users started flocking onto the exchanges and even our site to trade and learn more about the project. The volume of people interested was so much that we even noticed a slowdown on FTX and on our site itself.
Within the first 30 minutes of listing, SRM prices shot up to $1.25. By morning of 12th August 2020, attempts were made to break the $2.00 threshold but were met with resistance. However, prices are consistently hovering well above $1.50.
Thankfully prices have not plummeted since the listing as we saw with many ICO projects in 2017. And with Serum hopefully launching this year, we are interested to know where this will take $SRM.
Serum ($SRM): With the listing just days ago. People are going to be watching closely to see which direction token prices move. Long term, there is also a lot of interest in what the team at FTX will come up with for Serum.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Join us for our bi-weekly decentralised finance (DeFi), cryptocurrency and bitcoin updates!
On the channel we focus on DeFi and Yield Farming, the HOTTEST trends right now. We also look at the latest cryptocurrency and blockchain news as well as market trends.
Our aim is to have rational discussions and try to see through any speculation and sensation. All the while sharing our personal experiences in our live chat and keeping our community’s spirits up during these times.
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more
With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces
More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!
Bobby Ong, Co-Founder and COO of CoinGecko, sat down in an interview with Boxmining on 4th August 2020. They talked about Decentralised Finance (DeFi), Decentralised Exchanges (DEX), whether 2020 will be a breakout year for a bull run, and more.
What is CoinGecko?
CoinGecko is a Singapore-based company founded in 2014 by TM Lee and Bobby Ong. It is one of the most popular cryptocurrency data aggregators today. Apart from tracking price, volume, and market capitalization, the platform also records community growth, open-source code development, major events, and on-chain metrics. Basically, Coingecko helps its users quantitatively evaluate and rank crypto assets.
Here’s some of our KEY TAKEAWAYS from the interview. You can also watch it here:
DeFi Wave – Decentralized finance on the rise
According to Ong, the DeFi momentum isn’t slowing down. He believes that DeFi still presents enormous opportunities to democratize financial services to everyone. He also said that Q2 2020 was exceptionally great for DeFi tokens and now it’s everyone’s favorite. Meanwhile, we’ve seen CoinGecko FINALLY answering our prayers for the past few weeks and creating a DeFi coin ranking.
Trends and Challenges
In terms of trends, Q2 and Q3 2020 are going to be all about DeFi. When doing analytics, the team found that Uniswap was the most popular exchange in Q2. Everyone in July 2020 everyone was just looking at Uniswap and in fact it was even more popular than centralised exchanges, solidifying their view that DeFi is going to be the hottest trend.
In terms of challenges, he believes that adding DEXs to the CoinGecko platform was definitely a big challenge because they do not have a rest API. So CoinGecko cannot just integrate DEXs just like how they used to add centralized exchanges. Ong and his team spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get all of the data from DEXs onto CoinGecko. But they have finally overcome this challenge and found a solution to getting the on-chain data and integrating it with Coingecko. That is why CoinGecko can now show data for Uniswap, Balancer, Gnosis Protocol and other many DEXs.
How does CoinGecko identify scam cryptocurrency projects?
Initially, to ensure users get the most complete info, CoinGecko would be very lenient in listing the information of any coin listed on any exchange, including DEXs. However, they discovered a lot of scam coins showing up on Uniswap. For example, some people would create new tokens, list it on Uniswap, provide some liquidity to attract others to buy, and after a while take out all the liquidity leaving people with bags of tokens that can’t be sold.
Hence CoinGecko had to tighten their policy on what information is listed on their platform. Now they have a blanket policy whereby they will not list coins that are only traded on Uniswap unless it is properly checked and vetted by the CoinGecko team. And they do this by contacting the project itself.
Ong also notes that Uniswap is working on compiling an maintaining a decentralised list of legitimate coins which other aggregators such as CoinGecko can contribute to so that users can watch out for fake coins which are listed on Uniswap. This is a good sign, as it means there is clearly an effort to tackle these scam projects by different platforms.
How does CoinGecko tackle fake volume on exchanges?
As for fake volumes on cryptocurrency exchanges, CoinGecko does something unique, which is to look at order book spread and ±2% depth for each trading pair cited on CoinGecko. When CoinGecko first looked at order book depth a year ago, they found numerous instances where an exchange would report millions in trade volume, but the volume was clearly created by bots. Worse still, when you do put in an order, it would trigger the bots to stop trading. Hence, in reality, you can’t even actually trade $10 of coins in there!
Ong considers that Automated Market Makers (AMM) such as Uniswap or Balancer are game changes because so long as there is liquidity inside the pool, there is real depth. And even if the price may not always be the best, users can still know for sure whether there is some liquidity in there. Though save of course, if the token creators are trying to pull an exit scam as mentioned above.
Is this a bull run?
Talking about the growing demand for DeFi protocols, Ong said that everyone in the crypto space wants to witness the same 2017-18 bull run phase. He said, “The next six months will be crucial in determining whether we are going to enter the bull run or not. I think we are still in the early innings like maybe the first base of an actual bull run.” His reasoning behind this stems from observations on the number of page views on his platform. He noticed that in the past year or so they have around 15 million monthly page views and the growth was quite stagnant. However, in the past 1 or 2 months, they have noticed the traffic has increased by around 1.5 to 2 times. He considers that the increase in traffic on CoinGecko can be attributed to existing cryptocurrency enthusiasts looking into DeFi, but we are not at the stage yet where outsiders are coming in and checking out cryptocurrency like in 2017. Therefore, according to Ong, the market hype is real, but we are not seeing a massive bull run yet.
We asked Ong a bit more on this. Does he think we are entering a bull market, or is this just a fakeout zone where prices will just eventually dip like some of the short-lived hypes in 2019? Ong admits he does have a conservative side, but at the same time, a part of him feels we are almost there for the next bull run. This is because if we look at a typical cycle, bear markets usually last between 3-4 years, and we have already been in a bear market since 2018. Finally, he also mentions his friend’s observations from analysing Bitcoin’s weekly charts that 2020 won’t be a breakout year, but rather it would likely be in 2021. Ong agrees with this analysis and certainly sees we are building ground and setting the scene for a 2021 bull market.
Thank you again to Bobby Ong for sitting down with us for an interview! Follow Bobby Ong’s twitter and check out CoinGecko!
Orion Protocol ($ORN) offers a unique liquidity aggregator that connects major exchanges into one simple platform. Orion sees traders having difficulty in performing profitable transactions from popular exchanges. And while there are many exchanges to choose from, the liquidity in these exchanges remains an issue and not everyone has the time to research which exchange offers the best returns. Hence Orion wants to set itself apart, not by competing with exchanges, but by aggregating their order books into one simple terminal.
Background
Alexey Koloskov, CEO and Co-Founder of the Orion Protocol, launched the project in 2020 in a bid to deal with the problems of large exchanges monopolizing the cryptocurrency exchange market. In his view, both centralized and decentralized exchanges have their fair share of issues. Centralized exchanges are vulnerable to hacks, whilst decentralized exchanges are still relatively underdeveloped.
Hence accordingly to Yanush Ali, CSO of Orion Protocol, their project is exactly what the cryptocurrency industry needs today as it is a truly decentralized platform that meets the demands of businesses and consumers alike.
What is Orion Protocol?
Orion Protocol is an open-sourced, decentralized finance project mainly created to aggregate liquidity from different major liquidity providers i.e. exchanges. Primarily, Orion helps users get the best return out of their funds while lowering the risks associated with going onto multiple exchanges (both centralized and decentralized).
Orion operates by collecting the liquidity offered across multiple exchanges in the cryptocurrency market into a single, universal API. This API combines multiple order books from exchanges in order to make it easier for users to make trading calls whenever they wish to.
For example, when the user makes an order and a single API call is made, Orion itself will split and route this action to multiple exchanges at once. This leads to them being able to find lower buy and sell spreads and eventually the best exchange prices for users.
With Orion, traders do not have to bother themselves too much with APIs from different exchanges, data formats, modes, and order types. They can just focus on executing their trades or managing their assets.
In addition, Orion seeks to address another risk from centralized exchanges — hacking. Hot wallets usually provided by online cryptocurrency exchanges are susceptible to hacking. Recent reports already revealed how vulnerable centralized exchanges (and even decentralized ones) are. And users have no option but to deposit their cryptocurrencies there for trading, which inevitably puts them at risk. Orion’s non-custodial solutions try to solve this by letting users freely manage their assets on the platform, whenever and however they want, without ever giving up their private keys just to do so.
Along with Orion’s multi-currency wallet, it is easier to keep track of your portfolio’s overall performance as they can easily be found in just a single API. The hassle in using and maintaining multiple wallets just to trade in multiple exchanges is eliminated.
Since Orion is open-sourced, third-party developers can join the protocol and make their own decentralized applications on top of it.
Orion Products
Orion aims to be a one-stop shop, so naturally they have a whole suite of products and ecosystem for traders. Let’s take a look at them in turn.
Orion Trading Terminal
The trading terminal is Orion’s platform to allow traders and investors to conveniently execute trades in its universal API. In just a single call, users can make trade orders that will be automatically executed across different exchange platforms in search for the best spot prices.
If users want to invest in emerging blockchain initiatives or are interested in purchasing new tokens, they can also perform such transactions with Orion’s trading terminal.
Portfolio management application
Instead of having to check different accounts from multiple exchanges one by one just to monitor your portfolio, Orion simplifies the process by collecting all relevant information together in a single tool for the user.
Orion’s portfolio management application allows users to monitor and record their activity across exchanges, set alarms for arbitrage opportunities, and automate asset management processes, among others.
All these processes do not require the user to give up custody over their funds because the application offers a non-custodial portfolio management feature. Surrendering your private keys to a third party is no longer necessary.
App store
Orion has a marketplace of decentralized applications that users can access to purchase Orion-based software. Many of these software may be third-party developments built on top of the protocol. Some applications users can gain access to are:
Arbitrage apps;
Algorithmic trading bot; and,
Payment integration systems.
Enterprise trade
While interoperability is a concern for some aggregators, Orion has developed a system made to address this. Orion has its own extension that firms and traders can embed into their own software to provide access to Orion’s API.
Liquidity boost plugin for exchanges
Orion has its own plug-in that centralized and decentralized exchanges can place on their own platforms to contribute to Orion’s aggregated liquidity. This also helps bring market-makers to exchanges at a reasonable fee.
Orion shared liquidity pool — brokers are liquidity providers who hold funds in exchanges while also executing orders on behalf of the users. They stake a minimum amount of ORN tokens to join the liquidity pool. The more ORN they have, the more fees they get from executing orders.
DEX launcher
This is the platform where users can launch their own decentralized exchange with access to Orion’s liquidity. It is not just a simple method to open new exchanges but also provides instant liquidity.
Orion Token ($ORN)
Orion Protocol’s native utility token, $ORN, is an ERC-20 token. The token supply is capped at 100,000,000 ORN and the circulating supply is around 3.8 million coins. Orion claims it is committed to ensuring ORN’s sustainability and they aim to achieve this through several means:
providing uses for the token;
non-inflationary staking;
diminishing supply;
benefits for holders; and
refund opportunities.
Uses for ORN
ORN can be used throughout its various products. For example:
Orion terminal: Users receive fee discounts when paying using ORN, and can earn terminal transaction fees and interest by staking ORN tokens.
Decentralized brokerage: brokers are required to stake ORN in order to be chosen to execute trades. Whilst non-brokers can stake ORN to vote for their chosen broker.
Orion Enterprise: All licensing fees generated will be used to buy ORN from the market and removed from the total supply.
Non-inflationary staking
Currently Orion has a multi-exchange pre-staking initiative and according to them, it yields a 39% APR. Apparently it is so lucrative that 50% of circulating ORN ahs already been staked.
Upon Mainnet launch in Q4 2020, Orion will utilize a Delegated Proof of Broker (DPoB) staking model. This model has 2 components: Broker Stakers and Non-broker Stakers. Brokers run the Orion Broker Software, which automatically executes trades routed there from Orion’s liquidity aggregator. The more ORN staked by the Broker, the more likely they are chosen to execute trades. Brokers can also increase their chances of getting chosen through Non-broker Stakers who stake ORN to “vote” for their chosen Broker to execute the trades. Both Broker Stakers and Non-Broker Stakers receive rewards. Broker Stakers receive a portion of fees from each trade they execute, whilst Non-Broker Stakers a variable reward share offered by the Brokers in exchange for their vote.
The DPoB model for staking ORN is non-inflationary because, under existing mechanisms used by other exchanges, miner/staker benefits are typically minted as new tokens which hurts the underlying asset over time. Orion departs from this existing mechanism because Orion does not mint tokens for the purpose of giving rewards, instead, DPoB stakers receive rewards that are generated through Orion’s 13 revenue streams. This in turn preserves the necessity and the value of the ORN token.
Diminishing supply
Orion actively removes ORN from ciruclation (thus increasing its value over time) through the following means:
Staking: Under the DPoB model, both Broker and Non-Broker stakers remove their ORN from the circulating supply. The rewards generated are compounded into their stake which further reduces circulating supply.
Licensing fees: 100% of licensing fees generated from Orion’s DeFi solutions will be used to purchase ORN from the market and removed from circulation.
Refunds: ORN tokens refunded via the Dynamic Coin Offering (DYCO) will be destroyed.
Benefits for ORN holders
As seen above, Orion Terminal users get fee discounts when paying using ORN and stakers get additional incentives.
Refund opportunities
Orion is the first project ever to implement a DYCO. 80% of the funds which were raised during the token sale were set aside to buy-back holders’ tokens if they so requested. Any refunded tokens will be burned.
Orion’s token sale had ended on 14th July 2020 and as mentioned above ORN is already listed on several exchanges. In the upcoming Q4 2020 we can expect the launch of the public mainnet, decentralized brokerage and Orion price oracle. Most importantly upon public mainnet launch the DPoB staking model will be place.
Here’s a look at Orion’s roadmap:
Conclusion
The challenge for traders and investors is how they can make sure that the transactions they make are still profitable. This is because day-to-day market prices can be manipulated by crypto whales and other large investors as they influence overall liquidity.
Orion’s aggregated liquidity promised to solve this issue and so far, it is off to a good start. With Orion, no single entity or investor can influence its aggregated liquidity. Users can consider this platform if they want to execute trades that are much more profitable, or if they just simply want to have a better view of how their portfolio is performing on different exchanges.
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more
With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces
More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
I’ll keep this week’s newsletter short and sweet. Primary markets (BTC, ETC) have been relatively stable, which an overall trend of recovery after last week’s flash crash on the 2nd of Aug. The crash was primarily targeted at leveraged traders, with over $1 Billion USD worth of contracts being liquidated across multiple exchanges. After this crash, prices quickly recovered nearing previous highs. This goes to show one of the dangers of over-leveraged positions, as there can be sudden volatility in either direction causing positions to be liquidated.
Yield farming is HOT, but farmers Beware!
Personally, I’ve been yield farming quite a lot this week with generally favorable results. Please note that Yield Farming is EXTREMELY dangerous as it involves the use of potentially unverified audited code on smart contracts. Do Your Own Research (honestly this is what’s taking up most of my time)
Starting off, Yearn’s developer Andre Cronje (check this interview summary) launched Yvaults 2. Simply funds saved there will automatically be invested into the best strategy possible to generate more profit. The new system allows for the addition of new strategies too – basically what the founder Andre sees fit. Annual returns can vary – we’ve seen numbers between 50% and 200% APY. However, there isn’t a good way to calculate for the time being.
One of the biggest trends this week is the emergence of $YFI clones. $YFI farming was extremely popular 2 weeks ago as it has extremely high yields. However – this has since paused as there is no new distribution of $YFI. Many opportunistic developers sought to create forks for $YFI that would distribute new coins such as $YFII, $YFFI, $YFT, and $WIFEY (just to name a few) in a similar fashion. One of the biggest risks with these $YFI clones is that the use un-audited code – so they are extremely vulnerable to smart contract bugs (such as this one https://twitter.com/oli_vdb/status/1290370855709573122 ).
BEWARE: $ASUKA & YYFI exit scams
Two infamous projects pulled of exit scams in the past month, with developers minting a huge number of tokens and trading it into DAI. Both $ASUKA and $YYFI preyed on farmers who added liquidity to balancer pools that are required to farm the tokens. These pools are dangerous because the funds are directly used as a counter-party to trades, meaning that the pool’s DAI will directly be used to buy up the corresponding token. The $YFFI developer minted 1,000,000 $YFFI and sold it immediately, making off with $70,000 in the process (could have been more if he understood how balancer works).
For the time being, I’m staying away from any yield farming involves liquidity pools.
CREAM
This week I’m testing out CREAM mining. CREAM is a project inspired by Compound and they are offering airdrops of CREAM token to those supply / borrowing from the protocol. Currently, the project’s code is up on GitHub but is pending formal audits. This means there will be potential smart contract risks with farming here.
Utrust aims to distinguish itself from the competition and overcome the volatility and lack of consumer protection which are some of the biggest factors preventing user adoption of cryptocurrencies. Utrust tries to do this by merging the best features of traditional payment gateways with the security of blockchain technology.
Background and team
Sanja Kon is the CEO of Utrust with an extensive track record working as the Head of Marketplaces and Large Enterprises at PayPal. She also has previous experience working as the European Partner of Development at eBay. Coming from PayPal, she has a full understanding of the eCommerce ecosystem and how to handle merchant partners. This positions Utrust at a very strategic position in terms so cryptocurrency payment adoption.
Utrust was built on the greatness of @nunocor_’s vision as CEO. Today, we proudly welcome @SanjaKon as our new CEO and leader as we enter a new era—an era where we scale-up to mass adoption.
Utrust is a digital payment platform built on the blockchain. It combines the features of the traditional online payment system and blockchain technology to offer the best of both worlds. One that offers an affordable payment system that secures transactions between buyers and sellers from the point of payment until they receive the products.
The platform also streamlines the exchange between merchants and consumers by making payments simpler. There is no need to bear huge operational costs or conversion fees anymore just to establish a cryptocurrency payment gateway. This makes the option of accepting and making cryptocurrency payments within everyone’s reach.
Utrust goes further by promising real-time business-to-consumer transactions without having both parties suffer from the volatility of cryptocurrencies. After all, there is nothing scarier than transacting in cryptocurrencies only to later find out that the payment you accepted significantly changed in value.
The Utrust platform supports different digital currencies and its native token, $UTK. Users can make payments for goods and services without any exchange rate fee if they are paid in UTK.
UTK is backed by the platform. Each time a transaction happens, a small percentage of the fees are converted into UTK and burned. This decreases the total supply of UTK, causing its value to rise. The more transactions, the higher the token value becomes.
Others believe that Utrust might just be the alternative to PayPal because PayPal can be expensive and at times, inconvenient to use. Here is how they do it.
How Does Utrust Work?
Perhaps one of the biggest problems in transacting in cryptocurrency is that at any given time, the price of a particular coin may change drastically. Or, a transaction that was already finalized might turn out to be disadvantageous for the buyer but cannot be reversed anymore.
Here is how Utrust combined the traditional buyer protection system with blockchain technology:
The transaction begins with buyers looking for merchants accepting cryptocurrencies. Through the merchant’s website, they can see if they have integrated Utrust with their payment system. Buyers can also use the Utrust wallet on their mobile phones to store, send and buy products and transactions will be processed instantly.
The buyer is charged a total payment fee that covers a 1% commission and conversion fee. This is what Utrust carries to convert cryptos into fiat currencies in real-time with the best conversion rates.
When the buyer completes the purchase of a product, the fiat money they pay will be converted and held in escrow. It will only be released after a prescribed holding period.
Should there be no disputes in the transaction, the payment is released from escrow.
The seller receives the payment in fiat currency, which he can withdraw, or convert to another cryptocurrency.
What is the holding period? Utrust’s Performance-Based Criteria
The holding period in point 3 above refers to the time period before the merchant receives the actual payment for the product sold. Utrust determines the length of the holding period depending on the reputation of the merchant in the marketplace.
The purpose of the holding period is to ensure that the products each customer buys are received in a condition agreed upon before each transaction. If the transaction is all well and good, the amount held in escrow is released.
For successful transactions or those that are dispute-free, the merchant earns good reputation ratings. But the more disputes they experience in their transactions, the lower their rating becomes. And the lower their reputation rating is, the longer their payment holding period is.
UTrust’s Third-party Mediation
Utrust’s third-party mediation in transactions takes the form of establishing a safe communication platform for everyone involved. Through a messaging system, buyers and sellers can easily discuss their concerns with a particular product if they need to. And if a conflict arises, Utrust has impartial mediators who can resolve arising disputes and decide whether to refund a buyer or release payments to the merchant.
What Problems Is Utrust Trying to Solve?
Cryptocurrency Volatility
The reason why some merchants do not accept payments made in cryptocurrency is because of high transaction fees and volatility. This makes crypto transactions less feasible and much riskier for merchants and buyers.
Consumer Protection
Consumer protection is the process where the merchants can interact with the seller before a transaction is actually finalized. If a product received seems to be faulty, it must be settled accordingly before each transaction is closed. But this is not the case with most payment gateways. Blockchain’s immutability makes it difficult for merchants and buyers to reverse problematic transactions because of the nature of blockchain transactions.
Advantages of Utrust
Immediate Conversion From Crypto to Fiat
Sellers have the option to accept the fiat currency of their choice for payments. To protect sellers from market volatility, funds are immediately converted into fiat currency whenever customers pay in cryptocurrency.
The seller then receives the payment and is offered the option to withdraw it in his bank account, store it in their wallet, or convert it into another cryptocurrency.
Buyer Protection System
Apart from addressing market volatility, Utrust also took steps in protecting consumers from scams by acting as a third-party mediator between transactions. Every purchase is protected from the point of payment to delivery.
Utrust has a blockchain-powered buyer protection system that creates a safe and secure environment for payment transactions between customers and merchants. This is done via Utrust holding the funds and releasing them to the seller on performance-based criteria.
And because transactions are recorded on the blockchain, they are irreversible and final. This eliminates the possibility of fraud from buyers, chargebacks, and other financial losses arising from failed transactions.
While there are a lot of other payment gateways available in the cryptocurrency space, Utrust is the first to provide consumer protection and third party mediation, unlike other blockchain payment gateways.
We can get the best out of technology and innovation by putting together the best features of traditional innovations and blockchain technology. UTrust did exactly that when it meshed together the traditional process of consumer protection and the advanced infrastructure brought by blockchain.
If we are looking at increasing the adoption rate for cryptocurrencies, this is the way to go. Utrust addresses the risk of price volatility that scares merchants from accepting them as payment transactions and offers a solution to the problem of fraudulent payments.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Uniswap is an automated liquidity protocol and is one of the most popular decentralised exchanges (DEX) out there because of the surge in popularity of decentralised finance (DeFi). Users can become liquidity providers for a pool on Uniswap by depositing an equivalent value of each underlying token in return for other tokens in the pool. In this article, we look at why Uniswap is so popular and provide a tutorial suitable for both beginners, and some advanced tips and hacks for more advanced users.
You can also check out our Uniswap Guide with a walkthrough of their various features, tips and tricks here:
Key features of Uniswap
Uniswap has 2 major elements or features known as Swap and Pool:
Swap: Uniswap’s Swap feature allows users to swap between Ethereum (ETH) and different ERC-20 tokens.
Pool: Uniswap’s Pool Allows users to earn through providing liquidity. This is done by depositing tokens into a smart contract and you would receive pool tokens in return.
Why is Uniswap so popular? Advantages of the Exchange
Self-custodial: Uniswap allows you to retain full custody of your funds. So there is no risk associated with centralised exchanges where you could stand to lose your funds if the exchange is hacked or goes bankrupt.
No Know Your Customer (KYC) process: Because Uniswap allows you to retain custody of your funds they do not require you to go through a lengthy KYC process and disclose your full name, passport details etc. It also means getting started on the Exchange will be much quicker and will drastically reduce the chances of your personal information falling into the wrong hands if the Exchange is hacked.
Low trading fees: Uniswap only charges a flat fee of 0.30% per trade. This is much cheaper than most decentralised exchanges.
Access to new coins: Usually with centralised exchanges, different cryptocurrency or DeFi projects will need to go through a vetting process with the exchange before their coin or token is listed for trading. However, since Uniswap is decentralised and owing to their popularity, a lot of projects are instead choosing to launch on Uniswap directly. So with Uniswap, users can get their hands on these new tokens first. And with crazy fluctuations in token prices, especially when they first launch, many traders consider it crucial to be the first ones there.
Is Uniswap safe or a scam? Disadvantages and risks
Transaction failure: When swapping coins on Uniswap, transactions can be at risk of failing. This is mostly for 3 reasons. Firstly, you paid too little gas fees and the transaction took longer than the hard deadline coded into the transaction. Secondly, you had specified a maximum price that you would be prepared to pay per token but the price exceeds the maximum before the transaction is completed. Lastly, there is insufficient liquidity in the pool. In these cases, your transactions are “reverted” i.e. reset as if the transaction never occurred, so you would not lose your funds. So it cannot really be said that Uniswap is a scam.
Fake coins: Anyone can list their tokens on Uniswap, so there are people out there who list fake coins on Uniswap in the hopes of being able to scam people into sending their funds for these coins. So Uniswap users need to be extra careful in this respect- see our section below on identifying and avoiding fake coins on Uniswap which teaches you how to double-check you are sending funds to the correct transaction.
Uniswap beginners guide
Uniswap allows users to connect directly to their Exchange, the following wallets are supported: MetaMask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, Fortmatic and Portis.
Connecting MetaMask to Uniswap
If you don’t have a MetaMask wallet yet, learn to set one up with our MetaMask tutorial.
On Uniswap, click “Launch App” and then “Connect to a wallet”. Choose the MetaMask wallet (or whichever other wallets you want to connect with) and click “Connect wallet”. A popup window would appear showing your account, choose the wallet then click “Next” and “Connect”. Then you are all set!
How to use Uniswap’s Swap feature
Uniswap allows you to swap between ERC-20 tokens. On the Swap tab, choose the amount of ERC-20 tokens you want to swap. Choose the token you want to swap to by clicking the down arrow under “To”. A list will appear and you can choose the token you want to swap to, or if your token is not on the list you can paste the address of the token. Uniswap will display an estimate of how many tokens you would receive after the swap. To confirm, click “Swap”.
You will then be taken to a page to confirm your swap (see left image below). There are several figures you need to look out for here:
the amount you are swapping from, and the amount you will receive;
minimum sent: which is the guaranteed minimum amount you would receive if the price drops whilst the transaction is processing;
price impact: the difference between the market price and the price estimate provided by Uniswap due to trade size; and
liquidity provider fee: amount of fees you will be paying to Uniswap. This is generally 0.03% of the transaction.
Once you’ve confirmed your swap, a pop-up window would appear (see right image below) to confirm the gas prices to be paid for this swap since it is an Ethereum transaction. Input the gas prices you wish to pay and click “confirm”.
Once the transaction is completed, Uniswap will let you know and provide you with a link to Etherscan to show your transaction details. Here you can check how many tokens you actually got out of the swap, and the amount of transaction fees that were paid.
Uniswap advanced tips and tricks
Failed transactions: why does it happen and how to avoid them?
Transactions on Uniswap can fail if the prices of the input currency drops such that it does not fulfil your preset criteria. When a transaction fails, all your sent Ethereum would be reverted back to you. So you do not lose your original funds. However the Ethereum gas fee does get deducted and it is not refunded.
To avoid failed transactions, you can look out for other people who are also trying to do the same transaction as you. To do this click “…” on Uniswap go to “Analytics” and search for your intended trading pair to see how many other people are also trying to do the same swap. If the price of the token you want to swap for is increasing in value, you may want to increase the amount of gas fees. This will speed up your transaction and beat your other competitors to lock in the swap price.
How to get faster / speed up Uniswap transactions
Get faster or speed up your transactions by essentially outbidding other competitors who are trying to process the same transaction. This is by paying more gas fees than others. To see how much gas fees to pay go to Ethereum Gas Station and see the recommended gas prices for fast, standard and safe transactions. As a tip for getting fast transactions, we suggest paying around 10% more than the recommended price for fast transactions. You can input the amount of gas prices you wish to pay in the MetaMask pop-up window before you confirm your transaction (see above section on how to use Uniswap’s Swap feature).
Fake coins on Uniswap: How to identify and avoid them
Because any coin can be added to Uniswap, there are lots of scam or fake coins on the Exchange. Cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible, so if you accidentally send your funds to buy these scam coins or tokens you will not be refunded. The logo and ticker of these fake coins can look exactly like the real ones, so you need to be careful.
You can verify if the coin or token is real by checking it on Coingecko. To do this, look up the coin or token you want to exchange to on Coingecko, at the bottom of the page find and click on the trading pair for Uniswap (see image on left). You will then automatically be taken back to Uniswap and the token will have been imported (see image on right).
Another way to verify that the token is genuine is to check it on Etherscan (see below). Again on Coingecko, find the token and click on the etherscan.io explorer. On the Etherscan window, you will be able to see the contract number for the token. Match this contract number with the number in the address bar in your web browser for Uniswap.
Warning: Do NOT search for the token or its address on Etherscan. Always link to Etherscan via Coingecko or the project’s official website. This is because Etherscan itself lets you search for all tokens and transactions on the blockchain, including the fake ones.
How to adjust slippage tolerance
Slippage in trading occurs when the price at which the order is eventually executed does not match the price at the time you confirmed the transaction. When trading on Uniswap, this is referred to as “slippage tolerance” and is expressed as a percentage.
For coins or tokens whose price is on the way up, there may be a lot of competition to process the transaction and get those tokens. In that case, you can increase the chances of your transaction being processed faster by increasing your slippage tolerance. This will also avoid failed transactions.
To adjust your slippage tolerance, click on the gear icon located at the top right-hand corner on the Uniswap browser. There you can adjust your slippage tolerance. This will, in turn, decrease the minimum amount that is guaranteed to be sent to you. That is, it will increase the chances of your transaction going through but at the cost of potentially receiving fewer cryptocurrencies.
Mobile trading: How to use Uniswap on your phone
Prices of cryptocurrencies are always fluctuating, so serious traders want to be able to trade their cryptocurrencies on the go. Uniswap allows you to connect your mobile wallet. Simply go onto Uniswap on your browser and follow the same steps as you would on your PC. This allows the same wallet to appear on your PC and your mobile phone. The following mobile wallets are supported: MetaMask, Trustwallet, Coinbase wallet, Rainbow, Argent, imToken, Pillar, Safe, Math, and Fortmatic.
From our user experience, it’s not the most convenient feature since you need to multitask between several windows. BUT it does fulfil the objective of being able to trade cryptocurrencies on the go.
Uniswap Liquidity Pool guide
Uniswap has liquidity pool which is essentially pools of various tokens that sit in smart contracts. Users can exchange the tokens in the pools using Ethereum as a conduit. And a main feature of Uniswap is that anyone can create new exchange pairs in a liquidity pool for any token, unlike centralised exchanges where the exchange dictates what trading pairs are available.
First off, note that for liquidity pools you need to deposit both an equal value of Ethereum and the token that you want to participate with. So say I want to participate in the ETH/USDT pool, I would need to deposit an equivalent amount of ETH and USDT into the pool at the same time. The funds you supply to these pools will be traded by other people and so there will be fluctuations in the ratios of ETH and USDT that you have.
This is because if someone wants to sell ETH for USDT, they will tap into your liquidity pool and the USDT that you supplied to the pool would be used to buy up the ETH- this whole concept is known as Automated Market Making (AMM). As a result of this, there would be a higher ratio of USDT compared to ETH in your pool. Conversely, if someone wants to sell their USDT for ETH, they would take ETH out and shrink your ETH liquidity. Thus the liquidity pool is like scale, whereby if your ETH goes down by 10 dollars, then your USDT should correspondingly up to by 10 dollars.
So why would liquidity providers do this? It is because they receive a Liquidity Provider Fee from those who are conducting swaps in their liquidity pool. As mentioned earlier in this article, Uniswap charges a flat fee of 0.3% for each transaction. This 0.3% is actually then split in proportion amongst all the liquidity providers of that pool based on their contributions.
And Uniswap is not the only liquidity pool provider out there, so many people try to find and contribute to the most profitable pools in order to earn more liquidity provider fees. Pools.fyi is one such website that a lot of people use to try and find the best liquidity pools.
What’s the difference between Uniswap version 1 and 2?
Uniswap has launched an improved version of their Exchange, simply referred to as version 2. The main difference between these versions is that version 2 offers ERC-20 to ERC-20 token pools, native price oracles and flash swaps.
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more
With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces
More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
I’ll be interviewing CZ, Founder and CEO of Binance LIVE on 12th August 2020 at 3:00am (UTC)!
In the interview we will be discussing:
DeFi Mania – Is Binance going to go big on Decentralised Finance (DeFi)?
What can we expect from Binance in 2020?
Upcoming giveaways on the Exchange!?
What is Binance?Binance was established in 2017 and is BY FAR the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange with more than USD $3 million being traded on the Exchange every 24 hours. The Exchange offers trading in 201 coins and 637 trading pairs. The Exchange also has its native token $BNB which consistently ranks within the top 10 of all cryptocurrencies based on market capitalization.
The huge success of Binance also means that CZ himself is hugely well-known in the cryptocurrency scene and beyond, having been featured on the cover of Time Magazine as going from zero to billionaire in only 6 months, and is extremely active on Twitter with over 540,000 followers.
This video is aimed at all levels of cryptocurrency enthusiasts so feel free to ask CZ your burning questions about DeFi, cryptocurrency projects, exchanges, and this space in general. I’ll personally be giving out prizes for:
Most Creative Question;
Most Insightful Question; and
Funniest / Weirdest Question.
To ask a question, leave a comment in this post below!
Sunny Lu, Co-Founder and CEO of VeChain went on a live interview with Boxmining on 20th July 2020 to talk about what’s happening with VeChain recently and their grand objectives. It was also a great opportunity for Lu to directly speak to and answer questions from the community. Here are some key takeaways from this interview.
VeChain is a smart contract platform mainly focused on enterprise adoption. The platform allows for the creation of decentralised applications to solve problems such as anti-counterfeiting, cold-chain logistics and maintaining tamper-proof records.
Lu said that VeChain is a “next-generation” smart contract platform devoted to providing blockchain solutions to different enterprises.
In terms of adoption, VeChain is at the top of all the blockchain developments in the field, having been adopted by prominent clients such as BMW, Givenchy, and Walmart. Lu also said that the project has done a lot globally and they are very proud of their achievements.
Blockchain can create a trust-free world
He said that the innovation brought about by blockchain technology enables us to create trustless machines. With its decentralized structure and immutability, it can establish a unique trust features that may or may not be available in centralized systems.
Blockchain creates a trust-free world because it does not rely on flawed humans in operating the whole system. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about people deciding to play “something dirty or evil” with blockchain.
Lu also stated that if we “aim for the better world, blockchain has to be there.”
Post COVID-19 developments need blockchain
He said that “digitization is the new black.” True enough, a lot of people are now starting to be aware of its use cases.
When COVID-19 shook the world, many enterprises had to digitize their business, or put them up online, in order to continue to remain afloat. According to him, that meant “relying on the digital version of the world”. If that is to be the case, he said that “blockchain is the first fundamental infrastructure technology you got to do.”
Furthermore, a blockchain allows a business operation that is completely secure and transparent from end-to-end. With it, every data relevant to each transaction can be safely stored and accessed by anyone since it is a distributed database.
Continuous improvements on the blockchain infrastructure
Lu also shared that to maintain VeChain’s growth, they are continuously increasing the capacity and capability of their platform. This is what they have devoted themselves to doing for the past three to four years.
Before, the procedure required for an enterprise to establish an e-commerce platform was extremely difficult. That was the case if we look back 25 or 30 years ago. But with blockchain technology, we don’t have to work everything out from scratch anymore.
Blockchain has enabled us to easily build an e-commerce platform with all the new tools that can help enterprises innovate their Proof of Concept (PoC), production, and skill amplification. Other parts of the supply chain could also heavily benefit from blockchain technology.
Adoption is increasing at a massive scale
He said that a lot of people are now starting to use the blockchain as an essential part of transitioning to e-commerce. Just a year and a half ago, VeChain underwent numerous upgrades.
They now have new fundamental modules that seek to provide specific solutions to enterprises. The first module provides a standard template for different kinds of businesses based on the industries that have used VeChain successfully.
For example, you can imagine establishing a supermarket chain. With VeChain, the standard template would be to refer to Walmart China (Learn about what VeChain is doing for Walmart China) you can easily refer to China’s Walmart case. Or in the case of a pharmaceutical company looking into conducting clinical trials for new drugs, they can refer to Bayer China (Learn about VeChain’s partnership with Bayer China).
This saves a lot of time for the user because they can start production in just a few weeks after setting it up.
He said that looking back, it had been too time-consuming to establish a business on a blockchain platform. A project that he observed in the United States was developing a food safety platform on the blockchain. It took them 14 months, however, to set up on-chain for just a 12-month period PoC.
VeChain helped make the process a whole lot easier. He also shared their experience in Walmart China, which only took them three months to finish everything.
“If you are starting to use a template, it would be easier. You would just need a couple of days or a week maximum to create something. No need to wait nine months or more just to create a PoC,” he said.
A second module accessible to them provides templates to different companies based on which practice that might fit their model. They can build on these templates, and transfer their infrastructure model to the blockchain within just a few weeks.
The third module that they use allows the user to gather and understand data on the blockchain. It provides the user with the tools to reveal the value of the data that they have stored. In the case of Walmart China, for example, Lu explained that consumers can still easily trace the movement of their purchases with the data accessible in its public blockchain.
Blockchain needs more business people to flourish
He said that while blockchain is mainly a technological innovation, the entire blockchain space needs more business experts to complement its technological value with business value. That way, people can maximize the benefits of the blockchain while maintaining sustainability.
This benefit is shared by every enterprise in the VeChain platform, even the small and medium-sized enterprises.
What’s next for VeChain and $VET?
Six months after they first launched the VeChain mainnet in 2018, the total number of transactions was almost half a million. But in 2019, this number shot up to 36 million. And in 2020, they were already processing a hundred thousand transactions per day.
The growth rate is increasing consistently. But when asked about his plans on listing VeChain’s token $VET on other crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, he said that he has no comments yet.
Andre Cronje, one of the “older trees” in the crypto industry, had a one-on-one interview with Tristan Yver on the FTX Podcast on 29th July 2020. Cronje is a self-proclaimed DeFi Architect, and Founder of yEarn.finance (YFI), a yield farming aggregator that is considered one of the hottest DeFi protocols today. The popularity of YFI has created many different forks of the project, include $YFII and $YFFI.
Cronje began studying Computer Science after learning about the subject from someone he used to drive to school. After finishing the course, he started building his network and got a job at Vodacom, one of the largest telecom companies in South Africa before going into mobile development and distributed systems. He also acquired experience in loans and insurance, as well as other finance work.
Entry Into Crypto
He was so pumped when he discovered cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum because it was “Leveraging everything [he’s] done up until that [point].” He saw the whole concept of programable money as the “holy grail” of blockchain for a long time. And DeFi’s success solidified this stance.
He started out doing code reviews for blockchains in order to teach himself and understand the technology better. After posting his reviews on medium for a while, one of his posts became viral. And that’s how his popularity started to take off. From there, he caught the attention of the CEO of Crypto Briefing, who decided to get him on board as a blockchain code reviewer for their website.
He started running his own crypto portfolio management project. His first clients started out as friends and family. But it turned out that the broad cryptocurrency market was too incomprehensible for him. The market movements didn’t make a lot of sense. So he decided to lean towards stablecoins because they seemed to be a lot more predictable.
Entry Into DeFi
When DeFi’s popularity was steadily rising, he immediately saw the enormous financial value it could bring. He found stablecoins to have more upsides and fewer downsides. Therefore he started using stablecoins to earn from the top platforms like Compound, Synthetix, Balancer, etc.
Cronje begins to work on automating DeFi yield farming
What Cronje realized was that micromanaging multiple yield farming operations was exhaustive and tedious. There had to be a better way. So he started working on an automated system that automatically moves his funds around. What he discovered was that automated systems had rewarded him with higher aggregate yields than the rest. Although it still required him to interact with the protocol every day, at least the rest of the process was automated.
He also realized that he could actually scale this automated system to the point that whenever someone interacts with the protocol, it will optimize the yield. And as more users use it, the more optimized it gets. It was a win-win situation for both the platform and other users.
Creation of yEarn.Finance
As the system grew, so did the overhead costs of running it. It came to the point that his earnings from yields were easily wiped out due to maintenance. So he decided to evolve the system and find a way to make the system autonomous so he doesn’t have to interact with it anymore. This became yEarn.finance, which has been doing pretty well so far. The average yield is at 10% over time with some months going as high as 40%. As a matter of fact, some weeks even yielded over 900%.
yEarn v2
Cronje also expressed concerns regarding newer users entering the DeFi space looking to earn money. The main problem he sees is that these protocols have a steep learning curve, to begin with. And yet new DeFi systems are coming out faster than you could learn. This is why he launched yEarn v2, the second iteration of the Yearn protocol. What version 2 does is it addresses the problems faced by these DeFi newcomers who don’t know what to do. It makes the user’s life a lot easier by simplifying the process into merely putting money in the system while it does the rest.
yEarn v2 also introduces the $YFI (pronounced “Waifi”) token to enable a distributed community of users to make governance decisions on the platform. To summarize the protocol:
The base layer acts as a switcher between DeFi lenders to maximize the stablecoin’s APY (annual percentage yield).
On top of that, is the trading side which adds your stablecoins into Curve as a liquidity provider.
yEarn v2 takes care of the automated yield farming across the DeFi industry and maximizing your APR without you having to worry about the whole process.
He points out that while nothing in DeFi is completely “safe”, he would put his own money on the platform. According to Cronje, the yEarn system has the best returns and if it ever fails, he assures that he would be the last to pull his money out.
What Andre Cronje is building: the yEarn ecosystem
He explained that his creation, yEarn.finance, is actually an automated emulation of what he used to do for his clients manually. It is basically the yield-side of yEarn and the bread and butter of the protocol. However, he also has other systems in place that do various things like yTrade, yLiquidate, ySwap, etc. (casadelninobilingual.com) Essentially, he is trying to build a whole suite of products.
yTrade
According to Cronje, yTrade is a simplistic tool that allows you to become a liquidity provider to a pool. On the other side, there are traders who can take out leveraged positions: 1000x capped shorts or longs on stablecoins.
He also encourages people to use more yield-earning tokens like yDAI instead of base layer tokens like DAI. The reason for this is that there is no financial difference between the two. yDAI can always be used to redeem an equal or greater amount of DAI.
The yTrade platform is already functional but Cronje hasn’t promoted it to the public yet since he feels that it is not yet ready to be shared with newer users.
ySwap
On the technological side, Cronje is very excited about ySwap. On the base layer, it is an AMM (automated market maker) that is “yield-aware”. It allows the swapping of debt tokens (tokens like DAI that are minted when you deposit collateral) between different pools.
Here are the three benefits of using ySwap:
Users get to have a stablecoin that is representative of the share of the entire ecosystem;
Liquidity providers only need single-sided exposure when depositing to AMMs; and
Users get to suffer less impermanent loss exposure.
yLeverage
yLeverage is basically DAI short position at up to 4x leverage. This is currently the project Cronje is focused on completing. He expects to release ySwap after yLeverage is completed.
yLiquidate
A liquidation engine which does flash loans from dYdX. When positions are liquidated 90% of the profit goes to the user and the remaining 10% is retained by the system. The main attraction of yLiquidate is that the user does not have to do anything other than to tell the system to liquidate the position. Also there is no capital requirement.
yBorrow
Few details are known about yBorrow, and Cronje has said he will be giving more details on this in due course. For now, we know it is a project in collaboration with Aave and concerns delegated credit and the ability to tokenise your credit/debit on the Aave platform and to do something with the same.
What Andre Cronje WON’T be building
Cronje makes it very clear there are 2 things he definitely WON’T be building: oracles, and his own lending platform. He considers it “insane” to build his own oracle, and as for lending platforms, he says he already enjoys using Compound and dYdX.
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more
With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces
More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
