The Balancer Report: Base or Avalanche? How about both!
Balancer’s multichain expansion has just reached two major milestones: the protocol is now live on both Base and Avalanche!
What does this mean for the ecosystem? How can you interact with Balancer on the two new chains? What’s coming up next?
This week’s Balancer Report will cover this and much more, buckle up!
Balancer has been expanding to new blockchains (including Layer 2s!) throughout the Balancer Summer. Each deployment is facilitated through a governance vote to ensure community alignment.
The two new deployments offer an interesting case study of how Balancer’s pool architecture and pool types can benefit both existing chains with long track records and a myriad of other protocols and up and coming ones with a lot of promise.
The chains
Base is a new L2 developed by Coinbase. Unlike the exchange of the same name, it’s decentralized and permissionless by design which means that DeFi protocols like Balancer can be freely deployed on it. It is an optimistic rollup built with the help of the OP stack.
Balancer’s deployment happened during the period when Base was open mostly to developers ahead of the full release. This is a testament to the DAO’s ability to forecast trends and ensure that Balancer is deployed on new networks in a timely manner.
Avalanche is one of the best-known L1s with a unique consensus mechanism dubbed “Snow Consensus”, which is different compared to both Proof of Work and Proof of Stake. Here’s a more detailed description:
A node is selected to build the block and then a sub-sample is randomly selected to compare results. If the majority of the sampled validators respond with the same preferred transaction, that block is built.
This allows Avalanche to minimize transaction costs for end users while maintaining security, speed and decentralization.
You could learn more about both deployments here: Base, Avalanche.
What does this mean for Balancer?
Bringing Balancer’s versatile tech stack to both Base and Avalanche means more liquidity, more efficiency, more adoption and faster DeFi growth. Making Balancer available in these major ecosystems marks yet another instance of concepts such as 80/20, the ecosystem Launchpad, the LST flywheel, boosted pools and more expanding to new blockchains. It is important as they offer numerous benefits such as efficient liquidity profiles and high composability which can only be achieved on Balancer.
By making sure that DeFi continues to grow and thrive across multiple chains, Balancer is primed to grow its TVL, the number of partner protocols, grantees and ecosystem participants.
The protocol’s multichain focus aligns well with the overall multichain trend in the ecosystem. It’s not about picking and choosing, but rather about making innovative tech available and letting the users decide.
Looking ahead
Could the Balancer Summer turn into a Balancer Autumn? We are yet to find out.
What is clear however is that Balancer will continue growing and expanding whether it is through new chains, new partner protocols or new tech.
The DAO actively supports builders through the ever-growing Grants Program which is open to everyone building with, on top of or for Balancer. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have a proposal or would like to learn more.
There have been other notable ecosystem developments too, here’s a recap:
Balancer hosted a Twitter space that marked the Avalanche deployment. The deployment attracted more than $4.4 million in LST liquidity in just 2 days which demonstrates the ecosystem’s readiness to embrace Balancer’s expansion to Avalanche.
Raft deployed the first-ever boosted pool with sDAI. The pool stands out as, compared to other sDAI pools, it has additional incentives flowing to it thanks to being a boosted one.
Aura Finance is officially expanding to Gnosis. The corresponding governance vote has been approved which means that Gnosis enjoyers will now be able to explore the wonders of Aura’s unique approach to BPTs.
LSTs are as hot as always and Balancer remains a leader in LST liquidity. Make sure you check out the latest update here
HiddenHand incentives can as always be explored here, the current round ends on August 10, 2023.
Balancer: TVL and Stats — Defilytica
Balancer’s Total TVL across all networks is sitting at $1.06b. And it is distributed as follows:
The Total Mainnet TVL is $763,7m with a dominance of 71,8%.
Polygon TVL is at $114,1m.
Arbitrum TVL is at $133,9m.
Gnosis TVL is at $34,7m.
Polygon zkEVM TVL is at $5,2m.
Avalanche TVL is at $10,4m.
Base TVL is at $1,6m.
And finally, Balancer on Optimism by Beethoven X sits at $22,1m TVL.
As for our liquid wrappers, they are under the following parity to veBAL:
This section will list the top three expected pools to receive most of the next period’s emissions. Voting is open for four more days, and the next period is scheduled to start on Thursday at 00:00 am UTC.
- Mainnet — wstETH / COMP — currently at 15.67%.
- Mainnet — BADGER / rETH — currently at 9.49%
- Mainnet — rETH / WETH — currently at 7.92%
You can find an overview of the current LM incentives on the Balancer Mainnet below:
This voting round is ending with 7 new Snapshot votes including the following:
- [BIP-393] Fund Beethoven X DAO — Technical for Aug — Dec
- [BIP-394] Fund Beethoven X DAO — Marketing for Aug — Dec
- [BIP-395] Delegate AAVE/stkAAVE to TokenLogic
Stay tuned for this week’s Governance Recap to learn about the results and their implications.
This week Dubstard brings another set of warnings:
- Do not open any links sent to you in DMs from any one pretending to be a “mod”, “admin” “staff member” and etc.
- Do not message anybody offering help if you DMs them first, those are scammers.
- Remember, Balancer operates primarily under the following domain: https://balancer.fi/
Balancer has a flourishing ecosystem. You’re welcome to contribute to it whether you’re a dev, a community person, or a graphic designer! We strive toward onboarding every new member in a smooth and personalized way.
Join the Ballers and start your Balancer journey now: http://discord.balancer.fi/
Are you looking for a grant? Learn more here.
This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It should not be construed as investment or trading advice or a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any digital assets. Transactions on the blockchain are speculative. Carefully consider and accept all risks before taking action.
