As we wrap up Q1 of 2022 we take a look in the mirror and are pleased with what we see. Whale Loans has been able to successfully launch, build a tight knit and loyal community, return a positive ROI for day 1 investors, and build out a reliable product.
We are on a great path but it is only just getting started, this post is going to highlight what that path looks like for the rest of 2022. Before getting into the future, there are a couple of outstanding things to talk about for our current roadmap.
Current Roadmap
Delta-Neutral Vaults
Our vaults have been hard work. They are complete, ready to deploy, and audited. We are delaying the launch for the vaults until the implementation to allow them time to do make some last minute changes to their product to ensure customers get the high stable yields we intended but rest assured, we are ready to go.
Flash Minting
Flash minting is also been completed, tested and audited. These are going live alongside our ecosystem on all chains we’re bringing any products to. Our flash mintable tokens are wrappers over other tokens and will be integrated into every step of our ecosystem. Since it is a wrapper we can integrate it on any token, we don’t require permission from the creators of each token but it does need to be accepted by protocols to be used with them.
Future Roadmap
Our goal has always been to make crypto easier. Flash minting is the first step with this in mind and we are creating an ecosystem to enable it and to help users use DeFi with less complexity.
Future developments are going to be focusing on 3 things; usability, security, and scalability.
Usability
In order to focus on usability, the ecosystem must be inclusive for everyone. It must even the playing field and lower the barrier of entry. It must make it easy for users to participate and be members. In order for that to happen there must be a constant focus on removing complexity, installing familiarity, and providing comprehensive educational resources.
So what does that look like?
- New Landing Page
- Updated UX/UI experience
- Multi language support
We’ll be rolling out a new landing page and interface that will make it easier for new users to use our products, removing clutter and confusion around our products is key to a good user experience.
Another thing we’re doing this year will be to add multiple languages to our websites, powered by Crowdin. This is something that is widely ignored in DeFi, but we believe this is an opportunity to invite more users into our ecosystem and allow for a much better user experience. Along with adding features that make interacting with Whale Loans cheaper and easier we will focus on usability not just in 2022, but forever.
Security
Security is always the most important thing to focus on in crypto. Protocols must act as stewards to guard their users from the many current and evolving exploits. A lot of times this is ignored and creates a divide within a community that is built on trust. The key to building a loyal community starts with security.
On top of our extensive internal security expertise, we will also be introducing a bug bounty for our entire ecosystem to encourage a safe investing environment with Immunefi.
Of course, audits will also be updated regularly as we roll out the infrastructure of our ecosystem. At some point we would also like to explore the possibility of embedding insurance into all of our products so that when a user invests they can do so with the peace of mind that their investment is insured against malicious attacks and exploits.
Scalability
Ultimately, we want to build a scalable ecosystem. This will allow ourselves, strategic partners, as well as other developers to build on top of our products. What this does is create a meaningfully different and localized reward system for our users.
There’s a heap of products coming to make up our initial ecosystem:
- Cross-Chain Token Support
- Flash Mintable Tokens
- Whale Pro (Bond marketplace)
- Whale Swap (Trading, borrowing, lending)
- Whale Combo (No-code strategy development)
These may seem like aspirational updates but we assure you that they are much closer than you may think. Again this infrastructure will allow us to design sophisticated product offerings on a more personal scale.
Each part of our ecosystem is designed to make things easier. Each will have a post of their own blog post to introduce them in more depth and explain their value, they will all integrate flash minting where possible and contribute back to the token with buybacks and treasury contributions. Furthermore, each product will exist cross-chain on a growing list of chains (currently 10!) so no matter what you’re after, you can have a single, familiar UI without needing to think “what’s the best DEX for my chain” or “where can I get flash loans on this chain?”.
Conclusion
This is what Whale Loans will look like in 2022, but it is also just the beginning. The next layer in 2023 will look different, but the goal will always remain the same. It isn’t enough to just design new products or re-imagine financial services. Adoption will stall if it isn’t driven by usability. Our goal is to build an ecosystem that focuses on usability, security and scalability.
To all of our current and prospective users and partners we want to thank you for your support. To all of the protocols before us we thank you for the inspiration. 2022 is going to be an amazing year.
