Summer DeFi Spotlight

Summer 2020 has been anything but ordinary. While most of the world seemed to have slowed down with shelter-in-place, DeFi has been doing just the opposite. We wanted to do a recap of this booming summer by spotlighting some top DeFi projects that have come our way to get audited. After diving intimately into these DeFi — as well as a host of others that we didn’t have room to list — we can’t be more excited about what’s in store for the DeFi world.

Without further ado, let’s take a moment to shine the spotlight on the ‘Summer of Security’:

Kava

Described byEntrepreneuras the “Uber of Bitcoin,” Kava allows users to earn high yields on their cryptocurrency while keeping them securely stored on hardware wallets like Ledger. They’re really pushing the space forward, and as a result, Kava was awarded the Launchpad Project of the Year by Binance.

We’ve worked with Kava many timesl, and we’re always ecstatic to find that the team has one of the finest codebases CertiK has seen from a project to date, especially in the Decentralized Finance sector.

ThorChain

Dubbed as a “decentralized liquidity network,” ThorChain aims to promote cross-chain liquiditywithoutrequiring pegged or wrapped tokens.

As is sometimes the case in the world of DeFi and blockchain, the team behind ThorChain is pseudo-anonymous. However, the ThorChain team continues to build the trust of their community through strong communication and initiatives, including a CertiK security audit.

Fetch.ai

This Cambridge-based artificial intelligence lab utilizes blockchain technology to provide the world with AI capable of executing powerful tasks required in the modern world.

With major partnerships including Binance, Blockchain for Europe, and Telekom Innovation Laboratories, a logical step on their journey to deliver groundbreaking AI was to ensure the security of their platform.

We’ve worked with Fetch.ai many times in the past, and we’re always delighted to see their strong code and innovative applications.

Injective Protocol

Launching on Binance’s Launchpad, Injective Protocol’s Layer 2 derivative exchange looks to solve many of the issues that plague decentralized exchanges (DEXs). This includes poor liquidity, high costs, and other inefficiencies.

There’s a lot of potential for this team to fix some of the salient issues that we’ve all faced while using existing DEXs.

Bancor

One of the most well-known and original DeFi projects, Bancor is a protocol that promotes liquidity and facilitates the instantaneous and decentralized exchange of various tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

According to DeFi Pulse, there is, at the time of writing, more than $14m TVL in the Bancor protocol. Bancor is tackling the issue of impermanent loss head on, with their most recent upgrades to support liquidity providers from facing this systemic problem.

Swipe.io

Targeting the mobile crypto user, Swipe is developing a suite of mobile-friendly cryptocurrency apps (mobile wallet, debit card, etc.) which will appeal to existing users and attract new users to crypto.

For those unaware, Swipe was recently acquired by Binance. It’s no easy task to enable users to spend their crypto as if it were fiat — and that certainly doesn’t go without its own unique security risks. Regardless, it’s a huge undertaking that will certainly facilitate broader blockchain adoption. Swipe and Binance are certainly fit for the job.

Aave

DeFi royalty.

Arguably one of the largest Defi platforms, AAVE has made collateralized lending much more efficient in comparison to CeFi. Users are able to borrow, or supply, collateral at some of the most competitive rates in the market.

Aave’s protocol market size currently sits at an astonishing $1.2B.

CertiK has, proudly, audited both the AAVE token and the Safety Module / Staked AAVE.

Ampleforth

Made famous for its novel elastic supply economics model, the supply of AMPL adjusts dynamically to current demand and market conditions to mitigate supply-side shock.

With governments worldwide printing cash to prop up the global economy, Ampleforth’s vision of integrated supply and demand is even more relevant than ever.

Ampleforth’s Geyser caused a huge splash in DeFi, as they attracted a large number of Uniswap’s liquidity providers to support their pairs.

Akash

Akash DeCloud is the DeFi of cloud computing and brings to the world the very first decentralized cloud computing marketplace. Users and developers benefit from cloud computing at a tenth of normal prices - promoting, developing, and scaling, for new projects.

We’re excited to help secure these initiatives and watch closely as they innovate the centralized cloud computing world that we know of today.

With the summer season finished, we’ll see how the seasons change in DeFi. One thing’s for sure — there’s huge potential from what’s being built by these projects. The best part about our role is that not only do we get to directly help make these projects more robust and secure, but we also get a front row seat to the innovation!