With 2022 rapidly coming to a close, it seems like a good time to reflect on what has occurred in DeFi since FilDA began its journey.
2021
As a brief overview, FilDA started in January 2021, a Compound fork on Huobi Eco Chain, and quickly secured significant TVL as the DeFi wave gathered momentum (over 2bn USD). The subsequent black swan events, coupled with Huobi’s antipathy towards their public chain, led FilDA to explore other avenues for our lending services.
Adding further chains (IoTeX, Elastos Smart Chain, Rei Network, Arbitrum, Polygon, and BNB Chain) allowed us to maintain our development pipeline and we continue to add features and services to the platform. From LP deposits, banking and management, to an improved UX, progress is being made. And further developments are nearing completion, or are poised for release at an opportune time.
We, like many others, were regrettably subjected to an attack on Elastos Smart Chain in 2022. However, even though the exploiter managed to extract funds from our (audited) contracts, we were able to return all the lost funds. While this was not the highest point in our short history, we are pleased that our commitment to our users was on display as we quickly constructed a solution to what could have been a disastrous situation for those using FilDA. This commitment to user safety and asset security is unwavering, and moving forwards we will endeavour to exceed the standards we’ve set for ourselves
Further chains are always a possibility, and we are constantly in discussions to find the next venue for new users to participate in decentralised, collateralised lending. Further to this is our work with partners exploring uncollateralised lending opportunities in the future, backed by credit score modelling.
Black swans become commonplace
The events of 2022 have been tumultuous to say the least. Black swan events are supposed to be rare and unexpected, but in crypto we have learned to take nothing for granted and to expect the worst along with the best. Things can change so fast and are all too often outside of one’s control.
Terra (LUNA) was set to be the big story of 2022, totally collapsing in an incredibly short timeframe, taking many investors down with them. Not to be outdone, a pillar of the centralised exchange scene, FTX, also faced annihilation in the markets as their reported risk management strategies were found to be incredibly poorly handled. FTT’s price destruction, like LUNA before it, led to losses across the market. The resultant legal wranglings seem set to extend into the future and have damaged crypto lending immensely.
Add to these the multitude of bridge hacks, protocol exploits and black hat hacks, and it’s clear that the need for conscientious and careful DeFi projects has never been more apparent.
Finally, and importantly, while all the human-led risk-taking and mismanagement of assets was occurring throughout the year, robust lending protocols, with FilDA firmly among them, all continued to function exactly as expected. Trust is either gained or lost. Trustlessness endures.
We believe that FilDA is bridging that trust/trustless duality right now — permissionless lending coupled with the trust earned through making all users whole again (after the protocol exploit). We would rather it had never happened, but how one reacts to adversity is defining.
2023
A new year is coming. We have been busy building FilDA’s newest offerings. Even though we are just a small boat in a large sea, and have endured difficulties in our voyage, we are still here and have sails to raise, oars to row with, and a solid hull to carry our crew and passengers forwards.
The current market is undoubtedly in a period of bearish sentiment and we have new aspects of our protocol to share with you. However, we feel it is prudent to recognise that anything brought to market now is likely to be drowned in the bearish tsunami. This is absolutely not what we wish for our users, token holders, and partners.
Developments underway or completed, but not released:
- A new DAO model, similar to vote-escrowed systems in place elsewhere, has been completed and audited. When to release this to production is under consideration - veFILDA will transform $FILDA utility.
- New chains are lining up for lending and borrowing from FilDA (token deployment on new chains is unlikely before the veFILDA changes are implemented). We’re looking at a major ecosystem (starts with a T), and a Cosmos chain too. Watch this space!
- New LP lending opportunities with new partners on existing and new chains, such as support for Curve 3LP/GMX GLP/Metavault MVLP/Uni V3 LP NFT.
- A new bond product, FilBond (working name), is under development. A tool for FIL miners to increase their liquid holding and earn at the same time.
- Smart Contract Account technologies are being investigated for the addition of FilDA in new environments with further tools. It will allow more scenarios to deploy uncollateralized lending.
FilDA continues to move forwards with explorations into new options and opportunities for lending. We will keep building, keep exploring and we thank you for joining us on the journey.
About FilDA
FilDA is a decentralized banking platform.
Banking — Lending and Borrowing assets (a modifed version of Compound)
Staking — Locking of assets to earn rewards, including leveraged-staking on Arbitrum
· FilDA Website
· FilDA Twitter and Telegram Channel
· FilDA GitHub
