Recap: DeFi Week of March 23 🦄
Hello Defiers! Hope everyone’s well and safe.
Summing last week up: This past week was a bit quieter in terms of market swings for crypto and project announcement took the limelight, with MakerDAO handing over control of its MKR token to to token holders, as its auction was well underway to raise enough Dai to heal all of its bad debt. Uniswap released details on its long-awaited V2, while Balancer Labs raised a $3 million seed round to enter the automated market-maker game. Coinbase Wallet integrated DeFi lending platforms to its mobile app, while Uma designed a “priceless” token to reduce oracle risk. This week’s interview was with Ren Project’s CTO Loong Wang, who spoke about plans to bring Bitcoin to DeFi. I wrote about how times of crisis highlight the need for a more decentralized future. And there’re more :)
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Op-ed
Crises Strengthen Case for Decentralized Future
Extreme situations, such as the global pandemic we’re living in, highlight just how much control institutions have over individuals, and how they’ll use it when generalized fear erodes the usual checks and balances. By seeing these actions unfold, some may want to consider a more decentralized alternative.
Interview
Ren is Just Weeks Away From Bringing Bitcoin to DeFi, Says Loong Wang, the Project's CTO
Ren Project CTO Loong Wang, is leading one of the teams at the forefront in the effort to bridge different blockchains, and bring Bitcoin to decentralized finance in a trustless way. Wang says RenVM is only a few weeks away from going live, and once it does, it will strengthen DeFi by adding different types of collateral and boosting liquidity. It will also open up a new investment option, as anyone will be able to run a node on the network and collect fees.
Thursday
Dives
Complex Ethereum Transactions on Track to Overtake Simple Transfers: There’s a continually increasing number of transactions that are of the more complex kind. If anyone were to question the utility of Ethereum – simply point them to this chart, Covalent’s Ganesh Swami writes.
MakerDAO’s Latest Move is Unthinkable in Traditional Finance: MakerDAO’s Maker Foundation has transferred control of the MKR token to token holders as it seeks to increasingly cede decision-making to the broader community and become a fully self-sustaining decentralized, autonomous organization (DAO).
Sums
Uma Designs Priceless Tokens to Minimize Oracle Risk: Uma, a synthetic assets platform,designed a token which doesn’t require price feeds to minimize oracle attack risk.
Balancer Labs Raises $3 Million to Launch Programmable Liquidity Platform: Accomplice and Placeholder led the seed round, with participation from CoinFund and Inflection.
DeFi Saver Launches Platform for Anyone to Become a MakerDAO Liquidator: DeFi Saver released a MakerDAO collateral auctions dashboard with the goal of making it easier to liquidate underwater loans in the system.
Coinbase Putting DeFi Interets on Your Cel Phone: Coinbase Wallet is integrating DeFi lending platforms with its mobile application, making it easier for users to start gaining up to 6% on their deposits.
Bytes
Tuesday
Dives
Uniswap Unveils V2 With Flash Swaps, Potential Protocol Fees and Better Price Feeds: Uniswap yesterday announced details of its highly anticipated second iteration, or V2, which it expects to launch in the second quarter, pending a successful formal verification.
Sums
Dharma Announced P2P Payments: Blockchain-based lending platform Dharma on Thursday announced users will be able to make peer-to-peer money transfers on its app.
MakerDAO Close to Raising Enough Dai to Heal Bad Deb: MakerDAO has raised 4.3 million Dai at MKR auction, compared with a total 5.6 million of underwater loans the system needs to pay off.
💜Community Love💜
Thanking all the amazing Defiers for the support and love this week (and always)!
The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Sign up to learn more and keep up on the latest, most interesting developments. Subscribers get full access at $10/month or $100/year, while free signups get only part of the content.
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About the author: I’m Camila Russo, a financial journalist writing a book on Ethereum with Harper Collins. (Pre-order The Infinite Machine here). I was previously at Bloomberg News in New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires covering markets. I’ve extensively covered crypto and finance, and now I’m diving into DeFi, the intersection of the two.