As we continue to watch the growth of DeFi, it should come as no surprise that new capital entering the space has their eyes set on those aggregating user adoption at large.
One project – PoolTogether – epitomizes this sentiment perfectly. As the creators of the world’s first no-loss savings game, the project has been able to aggregate over $1M in DAI for a novel lending use-case.
Today, PoolTogether announced a $1M strategic funding round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures with participation from ConsenSys Labs and DTC Capital to empower financial health.
While PoolTogether is viewed by many as a “game”, at its core it embodies the power of saving – directly tying into the notion of Prize Linked Savings (PLS) – or products which increase healthy financial behavior.
Why Does This Matter?
For users of PoolTogether, this funding round brings about a number of important product enhancements:
- Security – Additional security audits and larger bug bounties.
- Prizes – A portion of the funding will act as “sponsored DAI”, meaning it is entered into the pool without being eligible to win a prize.
- Fees – PoolTogether will continue to take no fees on interest accrued, rather than the previous thought of taking 10%.
In tandem with an ever-growing capital pool, it’s likely that PoolTogether will continue to represent one of the more user-friendly DeFi tools in the sector at large.
PoolTogether Growth
Just this past week, we saw the PoolTogether weekly prize cross $1,000 – the first time the prize has exceeded 4 figures to date.
While this number might not turn any heads to traditional crowds, PoolTogether has been enjoying steady growth in recent weeks, a sign that more people are contributing income to the capital pool.
Along with this announcement, it appears that PoolTogether is also starting to roll out additional stablecoin support, namely with USDC-based pools – an item which was listed on the roadmap earlier this month.
Over the next few weeks, be on the lookout for Pods – a way to pool tickets together with other players to increase the chance of winning a prize.
Rounding this article out, PoolTogehter provides yet another signal that new capital has its eyes on DeFi.
As we continue to explore novel use-cases that aide in the adoption of web3 products, it’s likely that 2020 is set to be quite an exciting year.
Cooper is focused on building compelling blockchain products. He currently works as the managing director at Fitzner Blockchain Consulting and is a contributor to DAOs like MetaCartel and Moloch. He is an active member of the Ethereum community and has a strong interest in for-profit businesses such as The Block Crypto and Messari.
