On 19 December 2023, Flare hosted an ecosystem call focused on FAssets and DeFi. Speakers from Kinetic, aiPX, and Rome Blockchain Labs engaged in a lively and informative discussion, moderated by Hugo plus John from Flare Community.
Replay the X Space here:
— Hugo Philion ☀️ (@HugoPhilion) December 19, 2023
Key topics covered:
- Get to know Kinetic and aiPX
- Everyone’s DeFi story
- Utilization of the FTSO and FAssets System by Kinetic and aiPX
- FTSO Updates and FAssets Roadmap
- What’s next for Kinetic and aiPX?
- Open forum
Get to Know Kinetic and aiPX
Kinetic – The first lending and borrowing platform on Flare, Kinetic plays an important role in building a robust DeFi ecosystem. Powered by Rome Blockchain Labs who also built the very successful Benqi platform on Avalanche, Kinetic will integrate the FTSO and FAssets in their plans to launch lending V2 on Flare. Learn more about our partnership with Kinetic.
aiPX – The first perpetual decentralized exchange on Flare, aiPX, led by CEO Sonic, divides its liquidity pools into three tranches, allowing liquidity providers to choose their level of risk tolerance. aiPX is an iteration of Level Finance, forked from the hugely successful GMX platform, with some additional features for an improved UX. aiPX migrated to Flare for secure data access and plans to support FAssets upon its release. Learn more about our partnership with aiPX.
Everyone’s DeFi story
JD Gagnon, co-founder of Rome Blockchain Labs (RBL), shared their RBL’s extensive involvement in diverse crypto projects. They built data and visualization tools for major blockchains. They launched Benqi and Moonwell, two lending protocols on Avalanche and Moonbeam respectively, and developed liquid staking solutions across platforms.
Jake, a core contributor of Kinetic, brings a wealth of experience from his tenure at Ledger Works, a security and risk management company.
Sonic, a former day trader turned crypto and data enthusiast, oversees operations at aiPX, a perpetual DEX on Flare.
Kinetic and aiPX utilize the FTSO
Hugo introduces the FTSO, Flare’s native oracle for time series data like cryptocurrency prices. Flare’s new staking model, where all validators must also be FTSO data providers, ensures secure and decentralized delivery of data to builders on the network. Hugo also mentioned FTSO v2, a potential upgrade being worked on by Flare Labs to enhance speed and scalability. Hugo then asked aiPX and Kinetic how they use the FTSO:
Sonic: aiPX uses the FTSO for collateral and liquidation calculations on the perpetual DEX. The FTSO ensures the platform’s efficiency and trustworthiness for traders.
Jake: Kinetic appreciates the FTSO’s decentralization and sophistication and will use it as the main oracle for the lending protocol to mitigate the risk of price exploits, which can be an issue with other systems.
And the FAssets system
Hugo also discussed FAssets, the system that allows non-smart contract tokens such as BTC, XRP, and DOGE to be used trustlessly with smart contracts on Flare and be bridged to other chains.
Sonic from aiPX is excited about the variety of assets that can be offered on their protocol, including assets for liquidity providers, traders looking to use a specific asset as collateral on a trade, or swaps.
JD and Jake from Kinetic are excited to offer FAssets as deposit and collateral assets for the ecosystem. FAssets will bring new optionality to the holders of these assets. They are excited about the capital efficiency that comes with building in lending for these assets and eventually perps and other types of options. Portfolio management becomes orders of magnitude more sophisticated.
You can learn more about the FAssets system by Flare Labs by reading the official documentation. Developer documentation will be available soon.
What’s next for Kinetic and aiPX?
Kinetic plans to release their Lite Paper in Q1 2024, which will include an overview of their tokenomics. They’re also creating markets for wrapped ETH and various tokens, with a testnet expected early next year. Visit: https://kinetic.market/
aiPX is investigating implementing binary options trading on their protocol, simplifying leverage trading by allowing users to choose an asset, timeframe, and predict whether it will go up or down. They are also completing an audit and plan to support FAssets upon its 2024 release, expanding the tradable tokens on the protocol.
Visit: https://aipx.finance/
FTSO Updates & FAssets Roadmap
Flare Labs is working on a major upgrade to the FTSO to address limitations in data provision and speed. This includes the addition of many more price feeds, 90-second update intervals, the potential for fast updates every block, and a relay system for serving data to other chains.
FAssets will allow users to mint and redeem trustless representations of non-Turing complete assets, such as Bitcoin, on Flare. It is currently in a private test-closed beta, where the developers are testing various aspects of liquidation, challenges, and state connector proofs. The next phase will be to open up the beta testing to a selected group of agents and liquidators, and then to the wider community with the launch of a graphical interface. After that, the protocol will be deployed on Songbird, the canary network of Flare, where it will be tested with real value. Finally, the protocol will be launched on the Flare mainnet.
“It’s both achievable and more important than ever, to get all of the protocols and upgrades rolled out within the next 12 months, ” Hugo confirmed.
Open Forum
The space didn’t just stop here. Guests also started an open forum that included discussions on future trends in the DeFi and blockchain industry, and how data will be a necessity for different use cases.
The call also touched upon the possibility of a liquid staking token for FLR to accelerate liquidity in the DeFi ecosystem and balance the decentralization of validators. We invite you to tune in to the space to get the full scope.
Thanks to everyone who joined the December Ecosystem Call. As we look forward to our next calls in 2024, stay in touch with us on Discord and Twitter for updates.
