Why News Project HEADLINE Pivoted to Dev Tools and DeFi
HEADLINE is an expansive project on Algorand that’s grown massively from its roots as a news platform into its own robust ecosystem of developer tools and decentralized finance applications.
Former journalist Aaron Martinez, founder of HEADLINE, originally started the company to generate news content with an unbiased perspective, but after his introduction to Algorand, the project grew in scope.
The HEADLINE team approached the Algorand Foundation with its ideas and in 2021 was awarded a grant to build a suite of React tools for Algorand developers, which opened up a whole world of growth — for both HEADLINE and the Algorand community at large. Its suite of offerings will also soon include Silo, the first decentralized Options Vaults and DeFi derivatives platform on Algorand.
Keep reading to learn more about HEADLINE’s journey.
Early Days: Building Web3 Developer Tooling
In 2021, after receiving an incredible amount of support from the Algorand community for the news project, Martinez realized the potential of the Algorand blockchain and decided to shift gears and focus on building a suite of front-end tools for developers building decentralized applications.
“We were basically jumping into the deep end of the pool when it comes to software development. We had to learn how to swim as we were building…there’s no guidebook to learn how to build developer tooling in Web3. We had to write it. We basically wrote the book on how to do it on Algorand.”
- Aaron Martinez, Founder & CEO, HEADLINE Inc.
From June to August 2021, HEADLINE was able to create the beginning of a suite of Web3 developer tooling for Algorand. You can see the journey the team took on the PIPELINE-UI website.
Since then, the toolkit has grown to hundreds of components, including one of the most robust SDKs on Algorand for developers.
HEADLINE and PIPELINE-UI
PIPELINE-UI is a front-end toolkit that allows developers to build Web3 applications quickly and easily. To illustrate this point, two interns used PIPELINE-UI to build and deploy a Web3 application in under five minutes, with no previous coding experience.
The devkit addresses the barrier-to-entry hurdle in the blockchain ecosystem, allowing more developers to deploy great-looking apps on Algorand more quickly, much like ConsenSys has done for the Ethereum ecosystem.
About 25,000 developers, coming from other ecosystems such as Ethereum or Solana, are currently building using PIPELINE-UI. But with an estimated 100,000 active developers in the blockchain space, and 20 million developers worldwide — there’s obviously a lot of room for growth.
“The cool part about building developer tooling is that once you do it, you can iterate on top of it quickly and efficiently.”
— Aaron Martinez, Founder & CEO, HEADLINE Inc.
There’s currently an SDK of PIPELINE-UI on testnet, which HEADLINE believes will help drive further Algorand adoption, thanks to its ease of use. As part of the launch, the team is looking at creating a number of educational tools to help spread the usage of the SDK and grow adoption from the development community.
“There’s not nearly enough open-source tool aids for developers, even now. We are one of the biggest contributors of open-source repos on Algorand [but] there’s still a massive need and demand for more of it.”
- Aaron Martinez, Founder & CEO, HEADLINE Inc.
Growing an open-source catalog makes the entire development process easier, leading to increased developer adoption, and increased growth of the Algorand ecosystem.
HEADLINE & DeFi
Beyond its developer toolkits, HEADLINE is gearing up to launch Silo, the first decentralized Options Vaults and DeFi derivatives platform on Algorand. Silo opens the door to a major untapped segment of DeFi on Algorand, providing experienced traders and institutions with advanced financial instruments. Decentralized Options Vaults have had a banner year, industry wide, as many experts believe a shift is underway in the favor of sustainable DeFi models like Silo.
Silo is currently undergoing a smart contract audit by Entersoft Security, a leading blockchain auditing firm with significant cross chain experience. The platform is projected to launch on Algorand mainnet in September of this year. This will be the first audited DeFi derivatives protocol on Algorand mainnet and an exciting edition to Algorand’s DeFi landscape in Q3.
Stay up to date on the latest from HEADLINE via Twitter, Reddit, and HEADLINE-inc.com
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