The Razer’s Edge of DeFi Arrives on Cardano
The decentralized finance landscape, more commonly known as DeFi, is growing at an unprecedented pace. Today, the total on-chain value locked in DeFi — mostly through liquidity pools and lending protocols — now exceeds some US$40 billion.
With smart contracts mere months away, Cardano is a sleeping giant ready to awaken — but certain components still need to be added. Onchain liquidity, and the ability to utilize it, is a critical requirement for a healthy and functioning DeFi ecosystem. The good news? Cardano has liquidity in abundance. But unlocking this liquidity will be one of the most important functions for decentralized finance applications built atop Cardano. So, how do we do this?
Unlocking DeFi on Cardano
Cardano already has an incredibly vibrant community of over 1 million members across all public channels, including both cutting edge researchers and developers, dedicated stake pool operators, university professors, and a wide array of businesses and professionals with domain expertise. It’s also home to a vast number of crypto enthusiasts looking for the next leading projects. As a result, Cardano is growing into a vast and colorful mosaic of interconnected parts and capabilities — all moving to the heartbeat of the Ouroboros protocol.
At the same time, Cardano has also benefited by learning from other protocols, including the vast number of preventable human errors, bugs, and hacks that have plagued other chains and smart contracts. Cardano’s collaborative approach to interoperability with other chains is creating the foundations for long term success. The fact that Cardano has been able to learn from the mistakes of other chains means that contract and protocol security will be far greater.
This lays down the foundations upon which Cardano’s DeFi layer — larger, more secure and liquid than that of many other chains — will inevitably emerge on the Cardano chain. At Occam.fi, we believe these features will make Cardano of critical importance in the blockchain space, and it’s one of the reasons we are committed to bringing liquidity and supporting start-ups on Cardano.
But in order for that ecosystem to truly blossom, it needs access to tremendous on chain liquidity, and the some 16 billion ADA currently in circulation is just the beginning.
Decentralized fundraising, sometimes known as a launchpad, is the key to catalyzing liquidity for Cardano on a much greater scale. It will bring new participants, businesses, applications, and venture capital into the space. It will also bring millions of new users from local communities to Cardano. But how will Occam.fi improve this process, and what does it currently look like?
Launching on Cardano — What Does the Current Landscape Look Like?
While the pace of the Cardano ecosystem’s bootstrapping process may have tested your patience, some, like stake pool operator Big Pey, have wisely stated that the process has actually incentivized good actors. These actors now support Cardano’s long term success to participate and gain initial market share. Of course, the deal and collaboration pipeline for EMURGO, IOHK, and the Cardano Foundation is limited by the number of hours in a day; that pipeline is like the eye of a needle — and only so much can flow through.
Project Catalyst is Cardano’s current solution to expanding its ecosystem. The current Fund 4 has US$1 million available, with over 15,000 participating voters. In the future, Catalyst is projected to have up to US$15 million available for projects by the end of 2021. However, according to PwC, US-based, VC backed Internet related companies raised over US$15 billion alone in 2020; so even with a rising ADA price and additional potential, Cardano ecosystem still needs to benefit from further access to venture capital.
In order to catalyze this on-chain liquidity, and expand the Cardano ecosystem to a far greater scale, primary market infrastructure and decentralized fundraising will be imperative. The emerging cohort of new decentralized launchpads will bring new participants, businesses, applications, and venture capital into the space. Similarly, it will bring millions of users from local communities to Cardano.
Being able to provide full-service decentralized fundraising will allow DeFi on Cardano to grow to be a truly global phenomenon. Occam.Fi will address the need for decentralized fundraising mechanisms for significant capital raises on Cardano, while also bringing a range of DeFi use cases to Cardano through several mechanisms. The first component will be Occam’s decentralized funding platform, a launchpad, called OccamRazer — truly the Razer’s edge of DeFi for Cardano. It offers a full suite of compliance and RegTech tools for professional venture capital participants, as well as an interface that is user-friendly enough to accommodate less technical participants. OccamRazer is production-ready, and is set to host the first projects raising funds soon.
With OccamRazer, you will be able to access the levels of funding your DeFi startup requires, while also being supported by staking, liquidity mining, and a full suite of elaborate tokenomics interactions. But that’s not all, as Occam itself will eventually grow to be a fully comprehensive ecosystem that extends far beyond traditional DeFi products.
We will expand upon what OccamRazer is, how it works, and its interactions with the wider Cardano ecosystem in a future set of articles. These articles will soon follow, so stay tuned and follow us on our social media! The Occam.fi team looks forward to welcoming you to the Occam ecosystem.
