Introducing The 4626 Alliance
Reflecting on the power of standards, it is clear that broad adoption is a prerequisite for them to become game-changers. Early adopters of the ERC-4626 standard are happy to annouce the 4626 Alliance today, a hub for 4626 builders to foster collaboration, push forward the ERC-4626 standard, and fund its development.
Introduction
Standards in traditional technology are one of the most powerful catalysts. They drive interoperability, ecosystem development, and future innovation. Crypto is no exception to this: ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-4626. ERC standards are the condition for a successful composable and permissionless ecosystem.
ERC-4626 is one of the most exciting standards for Ethereum and DeFi. A standard for tokenized vaults:
- Substantially lowers the integration effort for yield-bearing vaults that are powering many DeFi projects
- Supercharges composability and capabilities built by individual DeFi projects
- Natively creates derivative assets, generating a new kind of liquidity independent from the underlying assets
ERC-4626 is already gaining wide adoption in the DeFi ecosystem, and its compatibility is positive-sum and highly synergistic: contract interfaces become de facto compliant with any other ERC-4626 compliant protocol.
4626 Alliance Scope: Creating Public Goods
To foster collaboration between DeFi projects and push the adoption of the standard, members of the 4626 Alliance will:
- Establish a common bounty board for “4626 essentials.” These essentials could be adapters wrapping useful existing vault contracts and other things. They will be voted on/built individually/jointly by members of the Alliance
- Fund a common vehicle to distribute the costs and outsource through bounties the development of these “4626 essentials.” Each member of the Alliance will commit $3k or more for this purpose
- Promote the ERC-4626 standard through publication and events. mStable & Sommelier Finance organized a side event at EthLisbon
- Create and maintain an open-source ERC-4626 resource library
Starring Partners
mStable, Superform, Balancer, and Aztec and have come together to bootstrap the funding of the 4626 Alliance and define its early scope. Each project committed between $3k and $5k to a dedicated Gnosis Safe to finance the Alliance. $15,000 was raised.
The result of this work so far is:
- A complete website for the 4626-Alliance where you can find resources about ERC-4626, a description of the purpose of the Alliance and its supporters, a bounty board, a database of live ERC-4626 compliant vaults, and a news section
- A dedicated Gnosis Safe to finance ERC-4626 public goods with $15,000 already raised and an additional $10k to $15k committed
- A new Twitter and public telegram group for the Alliance that’s meant to be our interface with the general public
First batch of members for the 4626 Alliance
At inception, the Alliance is joined by a fresh batch of new members with Frax Finance, Alchemix, Joey Santoro and Sommelier Finance. These four parties have committed funding between $2k and $5k to the Alliance and will be disbursed in the coming weeks.
Looking ahead: Going Beyond ERC-4626
Vaults are part of the greater DeFi vertical which is highly risk-sensitive and would enormously benefit from common guidelines on the matter. In the longer run, the 4626 Alliance could consider leveraging players like Messari, Gauntlet, and Risk DAO, to build a global risk framework for DeFi projects.
Next Steps
Teams are welcome to join us in our mission to standardize DeFi. The 4626 Alliance is open to new participants. If you and your team are interested in joining us, feel free to visit this link and fill-up the form.
