Holdstation Research

#AccountAbstraction #wallet #opbnb #ETH #Layer2

Overview

Building a smart contract wallet by Account Abstraction technology (ERC-4337) are predicted to be the new direction for many projects, aiming to make Web3 increasingly secure, user-friendly, and accessible to a wider audience.

"A seamless experience with advanced features - ease of use is a vital bridge to bring the first billion users to Web3." - Chainlink

To foster the development of account abstraction, following its official announcement at the ETH Denver event, the Ethereum Foundation has established a $300,000 fund to nurture the AA ecosystem. On a different note, numerous Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), developers, and the media are beginning to promote this keyword to attract attention from the community.

"Account abstraction" is a recent hot keyword. Source: Google Trends.

Especially after the recent Arbitrum airdrop, a significant amount of capital has flowed into Starknet and zkSync Era, two platforms fully compatible with Account Abstraction. Could this be the first step towards user adoption that the Ethereum team had planned for in advance? Nonetheless, from the signs, we can see a substantial shift quietly unfolding.

Therefore, to stay ahead of the trend and reap rewards in the future, in this article, we will outline the top 10 most promising projects (both tokenless and tokenized) that could benefit from the AA development wave. What are these projects, and why are they promising? Let's explore!

Key takeaways:

5 pioneering Smart Contract Wallet projects (Account Abstraction) in the market.

3 projects with Account Abstraction support platforms.

2 EOA wallet projects with conversion potential following the trend.

Overview of Account Abstraction Development Projects

Account Abstraction Integrated Wallet Projects

Argent X (No Token Yet)

Argent X stands out as the leading wallet on both Starknet and ZkSync platform

Argent X is one of the pioneering projects in developing Account Abstraction (AA) on two platforms: Starknet and ZkSync 2.0. It has seamlessly integrated AA into its infrastructure. Argent X is the second offspring of Argent, an established wallet application with millions of users on Ethereum and ZkSync V1. Additionally, the Argent team has secured impressive funding of up to $52 million from renowned names such as Amonica Brand, Paradigm, Jump Trading, and more.

Notable features of Argent include Social Recovery, Multisig, Session Key, Trusted Addresses/Apps (enabling transactions only with predefined wallet addresses and smart contracts), Remote Wallet Locking (for cases of lost laptops or phones), and more. Furthermore, transaction fees when using Argent are remarkably low, costing only $1 on the Ethereum network.

Holdstation (Token Not Yet Released)

Holdstation is a multi-chain Smart Contract Wallet that has currently integrated Account Abstraction features into its product on the zkSync Era network. Recently, they raised $2 million from K300 Ventures to enhance the Smart Contract Wallet, providing users with a comprehensive experience, from spot trading to leverage trading.

Holdstation is a Smart Contract Wallet that specializes in derivative trading on zkSync

The project's standout feature is its focus on delivering a user-friendly Smart Contract Wallet for executing derivative transactions across a wide range of trading pairs, including cryptocurrencies, forex, and commodities. Additionally, the project has exciting plans to introduce its own token, accompanied by an airdrop for users in the near future.

Safe (Token Not Yet Released)

Safe, also known as Gnosis Safe, is one of the early-generation Account Abstraction (AA) wallet projects. It has already made its presence felt in various major ecosystems, including mainnets (Ethereum, BNB, Polygon, Gnosis, Aurora, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche) and testnets (Goerli, Base testnet). The project has successfully raised $100 million in a strategic funding round, with participation from prominent investors such as Tiger Global, Parafi, Blockchain Capital, and more.

Safe Wallet has integrated numerous AA features, including multisig, Safe app permission, spending limits, and batch transactions (currently a unique feature among wallets). With over 1.5 million users and $39 billion in assets under custody, Safe is one of the most trustworthy "treasuries" in the crypto world.

Safe is currently the largest-scale Account Abstraction (AA) wallet.

Safe is actively collaborating with other projects to further develop its account abstraction capabilities, notable partnerships include:

Collaboration with the emerging layer 2 solution BASE to promote AA wallets on their platform.

Partnering with Gelato (backend), Stripe, and Web3Auth to introduce Safe{Core}, an AA stack module.

Hosting a $50,000 hackathon for developers in March.

According to a prior proposal, the project plans to airdrop 50 million $SAFE tokens to 21,000 wallets. This airdrop has not occurred yet, and the token has not been in circulation. Nevertheless, it is an event worth closely monitoring.

Braavos (Token Not Yet Released)

Braavos is a wallet project operating on both Starknet and ZkSync 2.0. Established in 2022, Braavos has successfully raised $10 million in funding from investors such as Pantera Capital, Crypto.com, Maxiport, and Starkware.

Braavos boasts a notable feature known as "transaction explanations," which enhances user-friendliness by making transactions more understandable and accessible to users.

Braavos Wallet 

Ambire Wallet ($WALLET and $ADX)

Ambire Wallet is a newly introduced smart contract wallet that emerged in early 2022 and is the second product from the Ambire team, whose first product is AdEx, a decentralized advertising platform. Ambire Wallet provides support for a wide range of networks, both large and small, including Ethereum, BNB, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Gnosis, Andromeda, and more. Despite raising only $2.5 million from lesser-known organizations such as Ascensive Assets, MetaCartel Ventures, LAUNCHub Ventures, Ambire's product is quite polished.

Ambire Wallet has built several features around account abstraction, including:

Fee payment with stablecoins.

Multisig functionality.

Batch transactions.

Ambire Wallet

Furthermore, in my opinion, Ambire Wallet offers a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate interface, with numerous integrated auxiliary features such as multi-chain asset management, swapping, and Visa card top-ups.

Several other AA wallets are also being developed in this evolving landscape, which you can explore further, including Soul Wallet, 0xpass, Squads, Pillar Wallet, Panda Wallet, Blocto Wallet, and more.

NEAR Wallet ($NEAR)

With infrastructure that has integrated Account Abstraction (AA) from its early stages, Near Wallet, built on the Near Protocol, appears to fully leverage all AA features such as upgradability, flexible gas fees, and user-friendly wallet addresses (instead of lengthy character strings, users can assign memorable names to wallet addresses). Near Wallet is a subsidiary project of Layer 1 Near Protocol, which has successfully raised over $500 million.

Distinctive features of Near Wallet include the ability to change the seed phase and the capability to delegate fee payments to third parties. These features make Near Wallet stand out in the realm of AA wallets.

NEAR Wallet

Biconomy ($BICO )

Biconomy provides a variety of Account Abstraction infrastructure solutions.

Biconomy is the third-party solution bridging support for various EVM chains, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, xDai Chain, Avalanche, and Moonriver. It optimizes user experiences through Account Abstraction (AA) features, allowing users to pay gas fees with any token and providing recovery options. Biconomy has raised $10.5 million in funding from renowned investors such as Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Mechanism Capital, and others.

Although it rose to prominence in 2021 and then faded from the spotlight, Biconomy is currently regaining attention by partnering with Polygon to implement AA on Polygon's ZkEVM and actively promoting its AA SDK.

Uniswap ($UNI)

During the ETH Denver event, Uniswap also introduced its wallet. However, Uniswap's wallet has received somewhat mixed feedback.

Yet, given its role as a leading DEX in the crypto ecosystem, both in terms of technology and trading volume, the prospect of promoting Account Abstraction (AA) through DEX trading volume is entirely plausible. For instance, conducting trades on Uniswap using AA-supporting wallets, such as Ambire Wallet, to receive the $WALLET/$ADX airdrop, is a feasible scenario.

Another noteworthy DEX is 1inch, which not only has its token but also its own wallet.

The user experience on DEXs will be greatly improved with the presence of Account Abstraction.

Gelato ($GEL)

Gelato is also a notable infrastructure project receiving attention.

Similar to Biconomy, Gelato is a solution for developing smart contracts and building infrastructure on various EVM platforms. The project has raised funds twice, totaling around $22 million, from investors such as IOSG Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly Capital, Parafi, among others. Additionally, Gelato has received support from AAVE with the purpose of creating asset liquidation infrastructure.

Gelato currently provides two services:

Automate: This service automates the execution of smart contracts in a reliable, developer-friendly, and decentralized environment while integrating off-chain data.

Relay: Gelato's Relay service helps users connect to a powerful and reliable fee-free trading system.

Gelato's infrastructure aims to provide efficient and automated solutions for decentralized applications and DeFi platforms.

Promising EOA Wallet Conversion Projects

In addition to AA wallets, we should also pay attention to EOA wallets that already have tokens. These projects are actively exploring the AA market by updating to the ERC-4337 standard.

SafePal ($SFP )

Despite starting with relatively modest funding of $8.5 million, SafePal has risen to become the second-largest EOA wallet in the market. SafePal places a strong emphasis on security and even has its own hardware wallet.

In the context of the AA trend, SafePal has not experienced significant changes yet. However, with its core values of safety, security, and user-friendliness, SafePal is likely to adapt and leverage the tremendous advantages of AA.

SafePal is widely recognized for its hardware wallet product.

Additionally, we should also keep an eye on smaller-cap EOA wallets that are actively innovating, such as Mathwallet ($MATH), Metamask, Zerion, and others.

Trust Wallet ($TWT)

Trust Wallet is a project that ranks second in popularity after Metamask, especially since it was acquired by Binance in 2018 (the exact amount was not disclosed). Recently, Trust Wallet has been frequently mentioned by CZ regarding self-custody of assets, particularly in the wake of FTX exchange's bankruptcy.

Additionally, CZ and Vitalik have a close relationship and have been shaping the cryptocurrency market for many years. With Ethereum implementing account abstraction, Trust Wallet, under CZ's ownership, has great potential. With its top-ranking market capitalization in the wallet sector, Trust Wallet could be at the forefront of leading this trend, both in AA and EOA wallets.

Trust Wallet is Binance's DeFi wallet

Conclusion

In this article, we have summarized the top 10 most promising projects that could develop in the long-term trend of account abstraction. Each project has its own advantages and disadvantages, as well as depending on the capabilities of the development team. As investors, we need to truly experience the products to make our own decisions (this is also a great opportunity to "farm" airdrops from wallets that do not yet have tokens!).

#AccountAbstraction #wallet #opbnb #ETH #crypto2023

Account Abstraction stands out as a notable leap forward in the ever-evolving realm of blockchain technology. It amplifies the flexibility and interactivity of decentralized applications (DApps) within blockchain ecosystems. In this article, we will delve into the concept of Account Abstraction and provide a brief overview of the top 5 wallets that have currently embraced this cutting-edge technology.

What Exactly is Account Abstraction?

Account Abstraction is a methodology that can be applied to blockchain accounts to usher in greater adaptability, diversity, and security for users. This is achieved by harnessing the power of smart contract accounts, which offer advantages to External Owned Accounts (EOAs). Here's how it works:

At the network or protocol level, the fundamental details of EOAs are concealed or abstracted, rendering them invisible to the blockchain itself. The blockchain interacts exclusively with smart contracts, and the logic governing these contracts can be programmed, thus ensuring flexibility.

At the user level, the intricate layers of managing operational loads are abstracted away through a user-friendly interface that presents interactions in a human-friendly manner. Behind the scenes, these interactions are facilitated by smart contract accounts instead of EOAs, effectively taking the form of a smart contract wallet.

"Account Abstraction was initially introduced by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and has gained widespread recognition and substantial community support, particularly through ERC-4337."

Account Abstraction is currently regarded as a cutting-edge trend within the blockchain industry. So, which wallets can you utilize to access and leverage Account Abstraction technology at this moment? Here are the top wallets currently implementing Account Abstraction:

 1. Argent

Argent is a particularly intriguing smart contract wallet, with a strong focus on newcomers to the world of cryptocurrency and a specialization in Layer 2 activities.

It offers a range of top-tier smart account features, including social recovery, multi-signature capabilities, fee payments in stablecoins, and high-speed batch transactions.

Argent presents an aesthetically pleasing product that emphasizes user-friendly self-custody. It is currently deployed on the Ethereum Mainnet and Layer 2 solutions like zkSync and StarkNet.

2. Holdstation - Account Abstraction Wallet (holdstation.com)

Holdstation is an Account Abstraction wallet available on Google Play and Appstore. It was among the first wallets to implement and pave the way for Account Abstraction on zkSync.

One of Holdstation's intriguing aspects is its integration with the PerpDEX exchange, offering leverage of up to 500x and enabling users to trade various assets, including crypto, forex, and commodities. (holdstation.exchange)

Presently, Holdstation allows users to utilize certain Account Abstraction features such as Paymaster or payment of transaction fees in various tokens. Upcoming updates will introduce additional features like Seedless Recovery, MPC, Crosschainswap, and more to Make DeFi as easy as CeFi

Key terms associated with Holdstation include Smart Contract Wallet, Account Abstraction, RealYield, PerpDEX, and Airdrop (the project has allocated 15% of the total token supply for airdrops to users).

3. Ambire Wallet

Ambire Wallet offers advanced features right from the outset, including batch transactions, multi-signature capabilities, and fee payments in stablecoins across multiple blockchain networks.

Their primary focus is on providing a user-friendly interface that combines high-security levels with operational complexity, catering to both newcomers and seasoned crypto enthusiasts. They were pioneers in introducing gas fee-saving mechanisms, such as the Gas Tank, which allows users to save on transaction fees and pay in the token of their choice.

4. Safe

Safe is one of the earliest smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum network, with a strong emphasis on securing the custody protocol and establishing a superior ownership standard.

Through Account Abstraction, Safe offers advanced multi-signature options, transaction simulations, and an internal app store for interacting with Web3 applications.

In comparison to other wallets, Safe places less emphasis on streamlining user experiences or simplifying onboarding, featuring a somewhat complex interface that may be perceived as daunting by crypto beginners.

 5. Sequence

Sequence Wallet is a project that has been steadily gaining popularity since its launch in late 2022. Developed by Horizon, a blockchain company with an impressive roster of investors, its initial vision was to create a novel FinOps solution for B2B.

However, the wallet has progressively adopted many of the best practices and innovations in the realm of Account Abstraction, making it an intriguing tool for a broader consumer audience.

Similar to Ambire, Sequence is committed to providing a seamless Web3 experience and leverages a complex tech stack across multiple blockchain networks.

Quick Comparision

Account Abstraction Wallet Comparision

 Conclusion:

Account Abstraction has revolutionized our perspective on blockchain interactions, paving the way for a more robust environment for developing decentralized applications and enhancing flexibility. Leading blockchain wallets have integrated this technology into their systems, creating myriad opportunities for developers and users worldwide.

#AccountAbstraction #zkSync #Layer2 #crypto2023 #airdrop

The upcoming zkSync Era airdrop is garnering attention from many users. While this ecosystem shows promise, it's essential to focus more on its development and potential projects being built on it.

The zkSync project is experiencing robust growth, with a current TVL (Total Value Locked) of approximately $421 million. This ecosystem is attracting more users, and in the next uptrend cycle, zkSync has the potential to become one of the top 50 projects by market capitalization. Here are the top 5 leading projects on zkSync that you might find intriguing.

TOP 5 Leading Projects on zkSync in 2023

SyncSwap – the top DEX platform on Zksync

Website: https://syncswap.xyz/

SyncSwap is currently the leading project on zkSync, accounting for 40% of the TVL (Total Value Locked) within the zkSync ecosystem, making it the largest protocol in the ecosystem. This is a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform designed to provide a user-friendly and cost-effective solution while maintaining full security.

In addition to typical swap functions, SyncSwap offers a range of advanced features such as support for pool scaling, customizable fee structures, enhanced routing mechanisms, token governance and voting, and more.

Smart routing means that AMM pools are paired, and if there is no direct trading pair for the two types of tokens you want to trade (or if there is but it lacks liquidity), the smart routing feature can automatically select multiple routes for you, routing funds in a decentralized manner to achieve minimal slippage.

SYNC is the native token of SyncSwap, with a maximum supply of 100 million. Currently, SYNC has not been officially released, and there may be an airdrop in the future. If you want a chance to receive SYNC Airdrop, it's advisable to actively participate in activities such as trading, adding liquidity, etc., on this platform. Typically, projects airdrop coins to users who actively engage.

Holdstation

Website: https://holdstation.com/

Holdstation is a multi-chain Smart Contract Wallet. The project's standout feature is its focus on enhancing the user experience when engaging in derivative transactions across a wide range of trading pairs, including Crypto, Forex, and Commodities, with leverage of up to 500x. Additionally, the integration of Account Abstraction further simplifies the user experience, making it easier than ever before.

The outstanding features of the derivative trading platform integrated into the Holdstation Wallet include:

Account Abstraction: This technology optimizes the user experience, making DeFi trading as easy as CeFi. Moreover, the Smart Contractization of Holdstation's cryptocurrency wallet provides a banking-like feel, with features such as two-factor authentication, private key recovery, feeless transactions, and more.

Fair Price Data: Holdstation utilizes real-time price data from major exchanges, which is aggregated and averaged to provide users with the final price. This eliminates price manipulation concerns.

Tokenomics: $HOLD is the project's governance token, while $GOLD and $uGOLD are utility tokens. Specific tokenomics details have not been disclosed yet, but the project has announced a 12% total supply allocation for a community airdrop. Users can participate in early use of Holdstation's products for a chance to receive the airdrop. Using the Holdstation wallet will also earn users $GOLD rewards (which will be convertible into $uGOLD tokens for direct conversion to stablecoins).

ReactorFusion - Decentralized Lending Protocol on zkSync

Website: https://reactorfusion.xyz/

ReactorFusion is a decentralized lending protocol on zkSync Era, a project built on the foundation of Compound Finance, offering a unique token economics model called Bribe-Reward.

Compared to agreement-based lending protocols like Sonne and Mare, ReactorFusion automates all these processes through smart contracts, and rewards are reflected in real-time liquidity.

Similar to Compound, ReactorFusion also relies on the Collateral Factor and Reserve Factor mechanisms for lending.

The Collateral Factor is the amount that can be borrowed by pledging a certain amount of assets.

The Reserve Factor refers to the project collecting interest from depositors. Assuming an asset has a borrowing rate of 5% and ReactorFusion has a reserve factor of 10%, this means that out of the 5% interest paid by borrowers, 0.5% or 5% of 10% will be allocated to ReactorFusion as a reserve.

RF is the native token of ReactorFusion. The project has recently completed its public fundraising on Velocore, but specific use cases for the RF token have not been disclosed by the project yet. For more information, you can explore the project's official website.

Symbiosis - Multi-Chain Decentralized Liquidity Protocol on zkSync

Website: https://symbiosis.finance/

Symbiosis is a decentralized multi-chain liquidity protocol that aggregates liquidity across DEXs on various EVM and non-EVM networks, enabling users to trade any token and transfer liquidity across different blockchains.

Symbiosis operates similarly to Multichain and THORChain, positioning itself as a competitive contender against these two protocols.

In terms of security models, Symbiosis, like Multicoin, employs a threshold signature algorithm based on multi-party secure computation. THORChain, on the other hand, relies on Tendermint and Cosmos-SDK while also utilizing a threshold signature algorithm. The security programs of all three protocols are quite similar. However, during cross-chain transactions, THORChain requires the use of its native RUNE token as a means of exchange, whereas Multichain and Symbiosis do not have this limitation, making them more versatile.

Symbiosis comprises three core components:

Front-end: This is a web interface or mobile application that helps users access asset information, establish the best transaction paths, sign transactions, and submit transactions to the blockchain.

Cross-Chain Liquidity Tools: These are smart contracts built on each blockchain supported by Symbiosis, running cross-chain liquidity pools and off-chain routing mechanisms.

Relay Network: This is a decentralized P2P node network. The relay network monitors events sent by cross-chain liquidity tools on each network supported by Symbiosis, achieves consensus, and submits transactions to the corresponding blockchain.

SIS is Symbiosis's native token, with a total supply of 100 million tokens and a current market capitalization of 8 million USD.

Tevaera - Leading Metaverse Project on zkSync

Website: https://tevaera.com/

Tevaera is a metaverse project that provides its citizens (Tevans) with a virtual reality game to build a thriving community. Here, players can experience, construct, earn, and manage digital islands while engaging in NFT transactions and enjoying various fun and educational arcade games on the TevaBazaar Marketplace.

In simple terms, Teva Games offers 'fun and fair' multi-genre adventure games for the web and mobile devices, encouraging social connections and supporting cross-chain NFTs.

Overall, the zkSync ecosystem is thriving with numerous potential projects. The projects mentioned in this article are just a few standout examples among many others being developed on zkSync. If you are interested in this ecosystem, take the time to explore other projects to capture potential investment opportunities.

What is Open Campus ($EDU)? The Potential of the 31st Binance Launchpad Project

What is Open Campus?

Open Campus is a solution for stakeholders such as educators, content creators, students, parents and co-publishers to create a decentralized educational environment that solves currently existing problems.

The protocol uses Blockchain technology to open up an environment where everyone can create the benefits their desire. Students have a new and more diverse learning environment, teachers/content creators generate extra income, and parents can easily manage their children.

Open Campus's Model Overview

Open Campus Web3 Model

The construction orientation of Open Campus focuses on the following factors:

Digital Content Ownership and Participation

Open Campus will tokenize content into NFTs to create decentralized access to a large number of users. Teachers/content creators tap new sources of income by selling their content co-publishing rights and benefit from new partnerships

Independence

Decentralization allows users to set up, manage, select and use content according to their wishes

Academic records are kept transparently and permanently

Through blockchain technology, users' certificates and education levels are transparently and permanently stored. Users can access their information immediately if they need it

Platform agnostic and community owned

Assets based on blockchain technology open up many opportunities for cooperation with various platforms. Allows creators to share their content across multiple distribution channels while preserving their ownership

Open Campus's Web3 Model

Key elements of the protocol

Digital Ownership as Publisher NFTs

Users tokenize their content to mark their intellectual property (IP) and easily test the performance of their products. Using blockchain technology, Open Campus helps content creators expand their income range while keeping ownership intact.

Publisher NFTs Marketplace

Creators, after NFTizing their content, can bring it to the platform's exchange to sell to co-publishers. Co-publishers, after purchasing content, are responsible for promoting it, in return they receive a revenue share from the subscriptions of people who need that content.

Educational program with collective resources

Open Campus allows content creators, co-publishers, and partners to come together to expand the broad content offering to the community. Generate multiple sources of income and be distributed proportionally

Key elements of Open Campus

Tokenomics

The main token of the platform named $EDU is deployed on the BNB Chain network with a fixed total supply of 1,000,000,000 $EDU

$EDU Allocation

Vesting Schedule

According to the above diagrams, $EDU will have a large emission schedule until about the 8th week then slow down to the 20th week. After that, the large amount of tokens will start to gradually unlock for the project team and developers. investment join early.

Token Usecases

Present:

Reward content creators and Co-publishers

Pay for minting NFTs

Pay to join Open Campus partner platforms

Platform Governance

Governance Diagram

Future:

Used to buy/sell at Open Campus Marketplace

Sponsor scholarships through Smart Donation

Use in decentralized peer-review system

Use in partner education provider services

$EDU Usecases

The impact of $EDU on users in the ecosystem:

Content creator

Use $EDU to mint Publishers NFTs

Get $EDU by selling NFT/revenue from co-publishing/royalty fee from secondary market

Co-publisher

Use $EDU to buy Publishers NFT/Marketing expenses

Get $EDU from Publishers NFT revenue

Educational Partner Platform

Pay in $EDU to register for service deployment

Get $EDU from registration and transaction fees

Open Campus Funds

Incentive rewards (in $EDU) for platform participants

Get $EDU from Transaction Fees / Publishers NFT Mining / Service Deployment Subscriptions from Partner Platforms

Parents/Students

Use $EDU to pay fees when using Open Campus services

Ecosystem Diagram

The foundation for building a system of closely related and complementary parties creates important links:

Creators deploy their educational content and pay $EDU to reviewers

After the content is approved they pay $EDU to mint Publishers NFT proof of intellectual property rights

Then can sell their NFTs through marketplaces to make a profit from co-publishers

Co-publishers is responsible for promoting such content to the user community

Content buyers will pay fees when using the platform and buying the course

Co-publishers, content creators, related educational platforms and Open Campus will share in the revenue earned from Publishers NFT

Ecosystem Diagram

Partner

Open Campus's partners have big names in the market (mostly projects from China) such as: NFT Mocaverse Collection, The Sandbox, Animoca Brands, Hooked Protocol, Highstreet, etc.

Partners of Open Campus

Project evaluation

This is a project with a new and unique model in the market around 4 main factors:

Content creator

Co-publisher

Relevant educational background

Protocol

In addition, education is a segment that is predicted to reach a scale of 1 trillion by 2030. The opportunity of projects targeting this segment in the market will be huge.

2030 Global Education and Training Expenditure

Advantage

$EDU has great usecases and demand in the market

Multiple income generation models in the ecosystem (creation/promotion/service)

Allows multiple projects to be combined or built in the Open Campus ecosystem

Rewards are generated based on the capacity of each participant

Defect

Difficulty in accessing user files from Web2.0 – Web3.0

Depends heavily on the number of users of the platform

Using a single token system for payments/rewards makes it difficult to balance the economy

Above is the collected information that Holdstation wants to share about the Open Campus project, hopefully valuable for your investment decisions!

Y2K Finance overview

Y2K Finance is a completely novel DeFi platform built on Arbitrum with the aim of allowing users to protect or profit with pegged assets (or basket of pegged assets) from deviating from price. anchored value of that property.

Currently Y2K has three main products:

Earthquake

Tsunami

Wildfire

Let's find out what these products stand out with Holdstation.

Features of Y2K Finance

Earthquake

The platform creates Vaults, where users can create positions to hedge, speculate and hedge against the risk of price fluctuations of fixed-price assets. Currently supported asset classes are stablecoins like $USDC, $USDT, $DAI, $MIM, $FRAX.

Positions in this product include two types of Vault that allow users to deposit $ETH into the Vault for terms like Weekly Epoch or Monthly Epoch:

Hedge Vault

User deposits $ETH into Vault by deadline (Weekly/Monthly) and receives Tokens in the form of ERC-1155 as deposit receipt. This can be seen as an insurance against the de-peg events of the property they desire. If, during that time, assets are de-peg, depositors to this vault will get a share of the rewards (according to market share in the Vault) from the deposits from Risk Vault users. Conversely, if the asset is not de-peg, the sender will lose the above amount entirely.

Basically, the person who deposits money into the Hedge Vault is the party who buys insurance for the property.

Risk Vault

Depositors into Risk Vault will create insurance for the Hedge Vault and have to pay the Hedge party if there is a risk. Conversely, if there is no de-peg risk, the person who deposits money into this Vault will receive a portion of $ETH from the Hedge Vault side. Like the Hedge Vault side, Risk Vault users also receive ERC-1155 tokens.

Basically, the person who deposits money into the Risk Vault is the party that sells insurance for the property.

Hedge & Risk Vault

Wildfire

Basically this is a product for users who want to create a position or exit a position without having to wait until the deposit term expires. Currently, Y2K Finance is using the Order Book mechanism through its smart contract. 0x Protocol to create this product in beta and will release in the future.

Tsunami

Not yet officially announced, but revealed from the project, Tsunami can be seen as a Lending platform for pegged assets.

How Y2K Finance works

Users of both Vaults deposit $ETH into the smart contract and receive NFT with the following parameters:

$MIM Vault

1 week deposit term

Initial Value $MIM = 0.99$

$MIM depeg case

The Hedge side receives the insurance payout from the Risk side and the hedge money is transferred to the platform's Treasury (minus 5% of the platform fee) – Profit Hedge

Risk side receives premium from Hedge side (minus 5% of platform fee) – Risk Loss

$MIM Depeg

$MIM no depeg case

Hedge party deposits will be put into the Platform Treasury – Hedge Loss

The Risk side receives a part of the premium from the Hedge party's deposit amount – the Interest Risk side

In two cases on Treasury platform will receive money platform fee from Risk Vault sender, and Hedge Vault side only need to pay platform fee when $MIM depeg.

$MIM No Depeg

Investor

The current investor of Y2K Finance is New Order, which was raised through a crowdfunding round, the amount of money raised has not been disclosed.

Y2K Finance's Investor

Roadmap

The future roadmap of Y2K will include the following stages:

Supports stablecoins like USDC, USDT, MIM, FRAX, DAI on multi-chain

Launch of a rebase mechanism to prevent location dilution in the vault

Launching Wildfire

Launching Tsunami

Add wBTC

Supports Exotic stablecoins like USN (Near), VST (Arbitrum)

Autocompounding $Y2K token

Launch of fixed arbitrage trading vault

Launch of options trading

LP y2kTOKENS

Updating more...

Tokenomics

Key metrics

Name: Y2K Finance token

Ticker: $Y2K

Type: Governance token

Contract: 0x65c936f008BC34fE819bce9Fa5afD9dc2d49977f

Chain: Arbitrum

Total supply: 20,000,000 $Y2K

Initial circulating supply: ~1.800.000 $Y2K

Distribution and vesting schedule

Tokenomic

The allocation category of $Y2K allocated by Y2K Finance is as follows:

30% for liquidity mining

35% for the project's Treasury

15% for development team (locked for 9 months with 10% unlocked, and vested linearly for 2 years)

10% for New Order Treasury (for incubation purposes)

5% for investors (locked for 6 months with 10% unlocked, and vested linearly for 2 years)

5% for IFO

Y2K Finance owns a tokenomics design with most of the total supply devoted to paying rewards to users with 30% going to reward activities through users locking their positions in Vaults. After the end of the IFO activity with 5% of the total supply, the initial inflation of the token is quite risky for holding. 35% of the total supply is for the project's Treasury, investors should regularly check the Treasury address to have the best strategy for their investment. However, if the project works well, the revenue is steady. You can watch to buy $Y2K at the time of $vlY2K coming out because then the demand for $Y2K lock will increase, creating buying force for the token.

In addition, the team holds 15% of the total supply with a 9-month lockout period with 10% unlocked and linear vesting within 2 years, a vesting period is not very long we should also be careful about this

Although the only investor at the moment of Y2K Finance is New Order and 5% of the total supply is for investors. However, information about other investors has not been disclosed, maybe these are angel investors or some other investment fund.

The remaining 10% is allocated to New Order's Treasury for the purpose of incubating projects launched on New Order. More information will be updated.

Usecase

Y2K Finance owns $Y2K which is the platform's utility token, used for two core products of Y2K Finance, Earthquake and Wildfire.

Currently, $Y2K token has usecases such as locking $Y2K, receiving $vlY2K, enjoying revenue from the platform's transaction fees (30% from transaction fees), administration, and rewards for users. Specifically:

Revenue from platform fees

+ 5% fee from deposit in Hedge vault

+ 5% Risk vault deposit fee when a depeg event occurs (no charge if the asset remains peg level)

Reward users through lock time in farming, the longer the lock, the higher the reward, and for specific vaults, etc.

Governance: Own governance rights, participate in voting on proposals to add new asset classes and derivative products

$vlY2K will have the following features:

Increase the rewards in the Vault The longer the lockout period, the greater the percentage of revenue shared Governance of the platform through voting Sell ​​your voting rights to parties wishing to participate Create/Exit voting positions through the secondary market in the future

Lock $Y2K (16/32 week) to earn platform fee sharing

Conclusion

In the author's subjective opinion, Y2K Finance is essentially an options trading platform for pegged assets. Users who participate by depositing in two vaults of Y2K Finance, 'Hedge' and 'Risk', are both at high risk of not being able to exit their positions immediately. Current products are all stablecoins with high risk of price manipulation, so product access is difficult and demand is not high.

However, this is a very unique product that makes the DeFi ecosystem more diverse. With the total amount of locks on the platform growing to 11 million USD in the first epoch, the community's interest in this novel platform can be seen.

We should wait for the finished products and the time when the $Y2K token is released to have a more objective perspective. If investors want to participate in Vaults on the platform, they should consider and allocate capital along with careful risk management.

What is a Balancer ($BAL)? Potential To Be a Liquidity Concentration After Shanghai

After Shanghai, instead of simply holding $ETH , investors can convert to $ETH LSD products and even better join low-risk Yield Farming.

So which project should be considered? Let's find out with Holdstation through today's article.

What is Liquidity LSDs?

After Shanghai, a lot of $ETH will be withdrawn from the Beacon Chain. Most of them will look for a new source of Yield with more flexibility, higher APR to maximize their profits. And Balancer will be a good choice if you are looking for a destination for the amount of $ETH you are holding.

Liquidity for LSDs products will drive Ethereum growth for the sake of benefits;

Optimize capital efficiency, create leverage to encourage big boys, VCs to jump into the game

Create LSD positions for investors flexibly

Higher rewards than regular Liquid Staking Derivaties

Encourage more $ETH to participate in staking, improve the security and decentralization of the network

What is Balancer?

Balancer is an old AMM built on Ethereum chain then extended to Arbitrum, Polygon, zkSync, Gnosis, etc.

So why can Balancer become a liquidity hub for ETH LSDs?

Balancer Batch Swap

Balancer Liquidity Pool V2

The reason comes from the Pool V2 update, the Balancer creates a Pool where all assets are entered into a single contract. When a transaction occurs, the liquidity pool only needs to calculate the amount of swap, assets are inserted and withdrawn.

Unlike other protocols, when you want to swap from token A to token B. If there is no A-B LP pair, the protocol will automatically swap assets through various liquidity pools. This will increase gas fees and (probably) create more slippage.

For example:

You swap from WBTC -> stETH in Curve Finance, the router logic will swap from WBTC -> ETH -> stETH. This means that swapping 2 times causes price slippage and higher gas fees than usual.

Curve router WBTC -> ETH ->stETH

Another example is swap from rETH -> stETH

Curve routers rETH -> ETH -> WETH -> stETH

It can be seen that Balancer Batch Swap is working very effectively in terms of swapping between regular pairs and stable pairs.

Because of the above benefits, the transaction gas fee on the Balancer is also optimized, according to the statistics below comparing the gas between Balancer and Uniswap. If your transaction goes through 3 routers in Uniswap need to pay more than 310,000 gas cost but with Batch swap of Balancer only need 170,000 gas cost

Gas on Balancer is more optimized than Uniswap

With the above improvements, Batch Swap will bring users the benefits

Traders can optimize transactions with low slippage, low gas fees -> good for both Whale and Retails

Liquidity providers enjoy more swap fees -> Higher Pool APR

Boosted Pool

With liquidity pools like regular Pool2 or Curve Finance's pool3, the rewards for liquidity providers come from swap fees and inflation tokens. However, most pools only use about 20% of the liquidity in them, which leads to underutilized capital -> low swap fees -> low APR

Volume Curve Finance is very low compared to the liquidity in each separate pool

In Boosted Pool, Balancer will wrap unused tokens and take them away to create more profitable strategies for providers such as AAVE, Morpho, Gearbox,etc

With the above improvements, Boosted Pool will bring users the following benefits:

Higher APR

Deeper liquidity combined with Batch Swap to help traders enjoy better prices

MEV Protect

You may be familiar with the “Sandwich Attack”. Recently, the market has recovered, leading to more transactions on DEXs, becoming a lucrative prey for MEV bots.

It is very likely that after the Shanghai Hard Fork takes place, there will be a large number of investors buying/selling in large volume. So anti-MEV exchanges will be the destination for those who want to trade in large volumes.

And Balancer has long cooperated with Cowswap to prevent MEV attack to ensure the safety of its users.

Summary

The reasons why Balancer can become a liquidity hub for Ethereum LSDs are:

Batch Swap helps users to trade at a good price and optimize fees

Boosted Pool helps liquidity providers optimize capital resources

If you want to stake your $ETH after Shanghai, you can refer to some projects like Aura Finance, Tetu, Beefy, etc. These are all Yield Boost built on top of Balancer's liquidity