Behind zkLend, a dual solution money market protocol for institutions and retail

2022-5-19 05:30

zkLend is an L2 money-market protocol built on StarkNet, combining the best of zk-rollups and Ethereum to bring more users to the DeFi market. 

To differentiate itself from the growing competition on the market, zkLend offers an innovative, dual solution to the problems faced in DeFi—a permissioned and compliance-focused solution for institutional clients and a permissionless service for DeFi users. All without sacrificing decentralization.

Zk-rollups + StarkNet + Ethereum = zkLend

zkLend was created to advance DeFi adoption by making financial primitives on the blockchain accessible to the retail market and the growing number of institutional clients. And while it sounds like a simple enough proposition, the protocol was faced with a series of complex problems it needed to solve—the first one being security. 

The team behind zkLend started toying with building a protocol in 2021 when talks of Layer-2 solutions emerged. While Ethereum was and still is one of the best blockchain platforms to launch on, both in terms of the overall security and network effect, the congestion and high fees it faced at the time pushed the team to consider launching on an L2.

When Vitalik Buterin’s guide to rollups was published in early May last year, it cemented the team’s position that zk-rollups were the best L2 solution for zkLend. With computations done off the main blockchain while proofing the results and state-root changes recorded on-chain, zk-rollups provided scale without compromising security.

At the time, StarkNet emerged as a promising new application of zk-rollup technology, pushing the team to launch the protocol on the innovative blockchain.

The team said that StarkWare’s technological competitiveness, proven effectiveness, and a technical, developer-focused ecosystem made it choose the network. StarkNet uses cryptography based on STARKs validity proofs—around ten times faster than its competitor SNARKs (technology currently used by zkSync).

With validity rollups, as the number of transactions increases in each unique batch, the transaction fees become cheaper. The team explained that this is different from other L2 scaling solutions, where the transaction costs typically scale linearly with the total number of transactions.

StarkNet’s scaling capability was not theoretical but supported by the actual performance of StarkEx – a predecessor dapp-specific scaling engine developed by StarkWare, which processed over $200 billion worth of trades in 2021. As of May this year, this number has passed $600 billion. 

“We saw a scrappy and robust developer ecosystem where people had new protocol ideas that didn’t exist on L1. We wanted to be at the forefront of innovation,” Brian Fu, the co-founder of zkLend told CryptoSlate. ”And now In less than six months, we went from being a part of a nascent community to one that has massively expanded across games, DeFi, and infrastructure tooling. ” 

Building on StarkNet was also zkLend’s attempt to future-proof its protocol. StarkNet’s recently updated roadmap includes working on a Layer-3 solution for private zk-rollup layering, enabling developers to have both public and private L3s on top of the L2, further increasing its privacy zk-rollup solution.

A dual solution, tailor-made to solve the problems of DeFi adoption

zkLend has gone to great lengths to establish a rock-solid foundation for its protocol. However, the team isn’t blind to the challenges ahead of them—the biggest one being growing competition from already established protocols on other networks.

StarkNet’s recent push to become the go-to gaming and NFT L2 has also positioned zkLend as a backbone of the network, providing financial infrastructure to thousands of new users pouring into the sectors. Even Aave, by far the biggest lending protocol currently on the market, has announced plans to come onto StarkNet. 

zkLend plans to leverage everything StarkNet has to offer to become the flagship lending protocol on the network and a household name in DeFi. The network’s low transaction costs will enable it to create more efficient liquidation models, putting the focus back on the borrower. 

The team cited its KYC and whitelisting layer, market pool risk isolation, two-sided collateralization, borrowing factor, and a dynamic correlation-linked collateralization ratio as product features that differentiate the protocol from others. 

And while these features aren’t anything new on the market, they create a perfect environment for what zkLend is genuinely about—Artemis and Apollo. 

Artemis and Apollo are the protocol’s dual approaches to tackling the growing size of the DeFi market. 

As the team believes that the next chapter of DeFi will be institutional, it was essential to create a protocol that will cater to the needs of financial institutions and businesses entering the market. However, creating a protocol that would fit both institutional and retail needs became an impossible mission.

Instead, zkLend decided to implement the dual approach—creating two sister protocols catering to a specific audience. The protocols are operationally independent but are designed to leverage one another in the future to maximize capital efficiency. 

Artemis is zkLend’s retail-oriented product, a permissionless protocol open and accessible to anyone. The team expects to have an MVP in early July, but V1 of Artemis won’t launch until the end of Q3. The full version of the product will have features including flash loans, asset tiering, a refined token utility program, and other protocol integrations.

The second version of the protocol will be available at the end of Q4 and include adaptive interest rates, long-tailed assets, and free swaps. Aside from these features, V2 will bring about the start of the DAO transition for Artemis, scheduled to be completed next year. 

On the other hand, Apollo is tailor-made to fit the needs of institutional clients entering DeFi. Unlike Artemis, Apollo is a permissioned network, offering customizable and transparent permission rights for vetted participants. 

What makes Apollo a perfect fit for institutions is its focus on compliance. The product has a compliance layer that’s unheard of in the world of DeFi, but a standard feature in TradFi markets. It offers stringent regulatory compliance, as well as KYB and KYC checks. 

An MVP for Apollo is set to be released at the end of the year. The team is working on securing institutional launch partners and an on-chain KYB provider in parallel to the product development.

While the team didn’t reveal any further details about who those partners might be, they did say that various institutions and investors were included in talks about what the over-and under-collateralized lending products on Apollo should look like. 

“We are already beginning to see an influx of traditional players, but they still tend to be crypto-savvy investment funds and prop trading firms,” Fu explained. “Plus, the TVL involved is still small as they test the waters. Success cases like Clearpool, Goldfinch, and Maple set the tone for the market. As more of these use cases come out, institutions will become more comfortable around DeFi and speed up the rate of adoption.”

(Source: zkLend)

When it comes to launch dates, zkLend has a clear schedule in place but remains tied to StarkNet’s timing.

“Our public launch is dependent on the StarkNet public mainnet launch, but we’re optimistic about the timing,” Jane Ma, the co-founder and project lead at zkLend said. “By launching alongside a few other protocols including DEXes and DeFi aggregators, we plan to create more use cases and greater composability for StarkNet users “

This is why the protocol’s native token, ZEND, still doesn’t have a set launch date. The token was designed to anchor the zkLend protocol, incentivize activity, award genuine contributors to the network, and give meaningful governance rights to its holders.

The $5 million seed round zkLend raised recently will be enough to cover the protocol’s development for the foreseeable future. Led by Delphi Digital, the round saw key cornerstone investments from StarkWare, Three Arrows Capital, and Alameda Research, among other big names in the VC industry.

The team said they don’t have plans for more fundraises, but they’re leaving options open if the situation calls for it. 

“At the moment our top priority is to get our MVP product out to market at the end of Q3 2022, as well as the full-pledged product onto StarkNet mainnet by early Q4 2022,” Ma told CryptoSlate. “We want to realize the roadmap we have set and demonstrate the value of our product to current investors and users first.”

The post Behind zkLend, a dual solution money market protocol for institutions and retail appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Similar to Notcoin - Blum - Airdrops In 2024

origin »

Market.space (MASP) на Currencies.ru

$ 0 (+0.00%)
Объем 24H $0
Изменеия 24h: 0.00 %, 7d: 0.00 %
Cегодня L: $0 - H: $0
Капитализация $0 Rank 99999
Доступно / Всего 0 MASP

market solution zklend dual protocol defi retail

market solution → Результатов: 126


Niftables Wants To Take NFTs Into The Mainstream With A New Marketplace And White-Label Solution For Creators

The mainstream appeal of non-fungible tokens has never been more outspoken than it is today. Everyone seeks exposure to NFT assets, representing a market worth roughly $17 billion. The introduction of white-label solutions and an interconnecting marketplace by Niftables may lead to much higher valuations.

2022-5-17 20:06


Real Estate in the Web3 space

America’s housing or real estate market is out of control, and Web3 could be the solution to this problem, but the question remains, will the mainstream real estate sector want to accept blockchain technology?  America’s Housing Problem  Home prices in America are increasing daily due to several reasons such as demand, speculation, and lavish spending.

2022-4-29 13:33


Фото:

EWO Place Launches Platform That Seeks To Democratize The Real Estate Business Using Blockchain Technology

Renting has been the standard in the UK and all over the world for decades. However, with changing technology and new financial models, that norm is becoming less sustainable. Enter EWO Place, a company that’s disrupting the rent-based real estate market by offering an innovative solution – a no-rent model instead.  EWO Place was founded […]

2022-1-5 18:08


ABEYCHAIN Receives Blockchain Of the Year Solution Award, Why It Is One Of The Strongest Players In The Emerging Industry

Launched in Q1, 2021, ABEY and its ecosystem took the market by storm by becoming one of the fastest-growing projects in the crypto and blockchain space. The project’s progress was acknowledged at the AIBC Europe 2021 in Malta, an event that gathers thousands of investors and innovators from different sectors.

2021-11-18 19:20


PolkaBridge Integrates with Polygon Full Stack Scaling Solution — Stake PBR on Polygon With Lower Fees and High APY

PolkaBridge development has been gaining steam and our first priority is a smooth / hassle-free launch of our “MultiChain Automated Market Maker (AMM)” decentralized exchange. Currently, we are present on the Ethereum blockchain and we plan to onboard the Polkadot blockchain fully, once it launches with all functionality.

2021-9-8 13:00


Фото:

Orion Protocol Launches A Series Of New Features To Improve Ease Of Use & Lower Entry Barriers

Orion Protocol has launched the Orion Pool to offer decentralized access to decentralized and centralized cryptocurrency exchanges along with swap pools without requiring multiple accounts or KYC.  Connecting The Entire Crypto Ecosystem In A Single Platform Orion Protocol’s automated market maker (AMM) solution, Orion Pool, has helped Orion Terminal become the world’s first platform toRead More

2021-8-16 16:10


How Wanchain’s Litecoin Integration Paves the Way for Mainstream Adoption of Decentralized Cross-chain Infrastructure

With so many blockchains on the market today, the demand for cross-chain operability grows ever louder. While there are some projects in development, Wanchain stands out among the pack. Having just integrated Litecoin into its cross-chain ecosystem, Wanchain’s interoperability solution is miles ahead of competing ecosystems.

2021-6-23 12:49


Фото:

Orion launches AMM solution, Orion Pool: aggregating swap pools and CEXs into one decentralized platform

Orion’s automated market maker (AMM) solution, Orion Pool, is scheduled for launch on June 22. This will make Orion Terminal the only trading portal supporting decentralized access to both swap pools and centralized exchanges (CEXs), thereby giving traders a unified platform for trading, staking, adding or removing liquidity, and governance voting directly from their wallets. […]

2021-6-16 02:30


Bitwise Replaces ATOM with MATIC in Crypto Index; Okcoin Integrates Polygon for Cheaper & Faster DeFi Entry

The Ethereum scaling solution is enjoying elevated levels of total value locked (TVL) despite the recent deep rut in the market, the same as its price. The post Bitwise Replaces ATOM with MATIC in Crypto Index; Okcoin Integrates Polygon for Cheaper & Faster DeFi Entry first appeared on BitcoinExchangeGuide.

2021-6-4 17:08


Venture platform Cognitive Blockchain invests in cross-chain compute network Cudos

CryptoNinjas » Venture platform Cognitive Blockchain invests in cross-chain compute network Cudos Cudos, a multi-chain layer-2 solution providing Turing-complete compute and external data to blockchains, today announced that Cognitive Blockchain has made an equity investment in its parent company Cudo, and will be providing expertise to Cudo for the vast Chinese blockchain market.

2021-5-13 00:04