Hey guys :) I’m back with another comprehensive Q&A piece, this time for the Bitcoin focused DeFi project – BadgerDAO (BADGER).
BadgerDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) dedicated to building products and infrastructure to bring Bitcoin to DeFi.
Now, before we dive in, the following piece is similar to my latest articles on Harvest Finance (FARM), The Graph (GRT), SushiSwap (SUSHI), so if you haven’t already seen those, be sure to check them out as well.
Hope you enjoy!
The list of Q&A is kind of long so first comes the list of questions that I have prepared the answers to:
- What is BadgerDAO?
- Who and When Created BadgerDAO?
- What is $BADGER Token Used For?
- What are Setts?
- What is $DIGG?
- What are Some Notable Collaborations of BadgerDAO?
- Where to store BadgerDAO’s $BADGER token?
- Where to buy & sell BadgerDAO’s $BADGER token?
1. What is BadgerDAO?
BadgerDAO website homepage
BadgerDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) with the sole purpose of building the products and infrastructure necessary to accelerate Bitcoin as a collateral asset across blockchains.
BadgerDAO is not exclusive, it’s meant to be an ecosystem DAO where projects and people across the entire crypto and DeFi space can come together to collaborate and build the products and infrastructure needed to bring Bitcoin to DeFi.
In order to align incentives and ensure a decentralized governance structure of the DAO, all participants have shared ownership in the DAO. This encourages more collaboration and less competition in the creation of BadgerDAO products.
That’s why BadgerDAO launched as a community-led initiative from day one with a fair initial distribution of $Badger Tokens for governance (more on that later). With that, any and all decisions including what, how, and when Badger DAO products are created are made through a governed vote.
Members of the DAO can pitch and propose new product ideas to the DAO and if it passes the initial stages, members can vote to pass the proposal. If a proposal is approved by the BadgerDAO, the team will collaborate to fund, build, and market the project.
This structure is meant to give anyone an opportunity to build what’s needed, regardless if they’re an individual, a blockchain company, a dev shop, or an existing project.
With that, the BadgerDAO aims to more effectively build meaningful products that bring Bitcoin to DeFi.
2. Who and When Created BadgerDAO?
BadgerDAO founders
BadgerDAO was created by 4 long term cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts who came together with a vision to innovate how DAO’s operate, launch, and productize. They announced the creation and launch of BadgerDAO in September 2020.
BadgerDAO founders:
Chris Spadafora - Ops Lead
Chris is a long term crypto enthusiast, investor, and founder of Angelrock, Alwayshodl.com, North Block, and Fitness Decor. He is very active in the crypto space and hosts multiple crypto/poker events including Crypto After Dark and crypto charity poker tournaments.
Amir Rosic - Advisor
Amir is a serial entrepreneur, marketing expert, investor, crypto enthusiast, and founder of Blockgeeks. He’s also an advisor for Virgox, Bitbuy.ca, Q-con, DigitalShovel, Decentral, Shelf.io, and many others.
Albert Castellana - Advisor
Albert is a crypto enthusiast since 2013 and founder of StakeHound, Fomonomics, and founding member of Catalan Chamber of Digital Commerce and the NEM.io Foundation. He’s also the CPO at RadixDLT, CEO at StakeHound, and advisor at He3Labs and Olyseum.
Alberto Cevallos - Advisor
Alberto is a long time crypto enthusiast and founder and CTO of Fostrum, Founder of Metal Technology studio, and Advisor to Travala.com, Bidipass, and ULOX.
dOrg - A development collective for DAOs, DeFi products, and web3 tooling
BadgerDAO was created in partnership with dOrg. They helped lead its design and coding and ensured the project shipped on time. dOrg has previously worked with industry-leading projects like Balancer, The Graph, DeversiFi, and DAOstack.
While the above-mentioned people and dOrg founded BadgerDAO, control over the project was given to the community at launch. Similar to how Yearn Finance is governed completely by the community, BadgerDAO is also governed by its community.
3. What is $BADGER Token Used For?
BadgerDAO (BADGER) token logo
The native cryptocurrency of BadgerDAO is $BADGER – an ERC-20 token serving as the governance token of the DAO and all its products including Sett and Digg protocol.
$BADGER Use Cases:
- Governance
- Stake
- Liquidity Mining
- Mine NFTs
- Rewards and Distribution
Governance
First and foremost, $BADGER is a governance token. $BADGER token holders have shared ownership of BadgerDAO and can make decisions through a governed vote including what, how, and when Badger DAO products are created.
$BADGER token holders can submit and vote on product proposals and collaborate with other members of BadgerDAO on the building of new Bitcoin-related DeFi projects. $BADGER token holders have a vested interest to make it sustainable and successful.
Stake
$BADGER token holders can stake their tokens in the Badger Sett vault to earn additional $BADGER during the 8-week liquidity event and eventually shared fees that come from Setts.
Liquidity Mining
Users can add liquidity to the $BADGER<>wBTC Uniswap pool to earn $BADGER liquidity mining rewards and swap fees.
Mine NFTs
Users can stake $BADGER in Meme, a meme farm that mints Badger NFTs in the form of rare digital art.
Rewards and Distribution
BadgerDAO is doing its best to create a fair $BADGER token launch and on-going distribution process. Since $BADGER’s distribution process is on-going and lengthy, it can be considered a use case as there are many ways to earn $BADGER.
$BADGER Token Distribution
$BADGER token distribution (Source)
The total supply of $BADGER is fixed at 21,000,000 and is being fairly distributed through the following methods:
Liquidity Mining - 4,830,000 $BADGER
$BADGER tokens are rewarded to liquidity providers (LPs) who deposit assets into BadgerDAO’s Sett (vault) product. The longer you stake, the increased multiplier of rewards you will receive. The first liquidity mining event lasts 8 weeks.
Developer mining - 3,150,000 $BADGER
Developers that build products and Sett vault strategies will earn $BADGER. The amount they receive is determined by the overall revenue they’re responsible for.
DAO treasury - 7,350,000 $BADGER
BadgerDAO members vote on and decide how to distribute the treasury’s tokens.
Gitcoin - 420,000 $BADGER
$BADGER tokens are rewarded to anyone that has donated to Gitcoin since inception.
Airdrop - 3,150,000 $BADGER
$BADGER tokens will be airdropped to people that have taken action in proving they have the same values as BadgerDAO. The most recent example is the $BADGER airdrop to users who donated to Gitcoin.
Team - 2,100,000 $BADGER
The founding team is rewarded $BADGER at every block that it’s mined through the liquidity mining event.
4. What are Setts?
(Source)
Sett is the first Bitcoin DeFi product by BadgerDAO. It’s an automated DeFi aggregator focused on tokenized BTC assets and was inspired by and based on Yearn Finance vaults.
Anyone can deposit digital assets into a Sett where its smart contracts put them to work in automated strategies across DeFi protocols to earn yield. Through a Sett, DeFi users can optimize their yield without having to take time to strategize and spend exorbitant amounts on gas costs.
In other words, Setts are Bitcoin vaults for generating automated yield.
In October 2020, BadgerDAO launched a liquidity mining event where users of their Sett vaults earn the governance token $BADGER on top of the yield their strategies produce. The initial liquidity mining program was scheduled for 8 weeks and started in October 2020.
However, it appears the $BADGER liquidity mining program is still ongoing in 2021. Liquidity providers simply have to add their LP tokens to the appropriate Sett and receive $BADGER rewards.
Badger Setts Include:
- renBTC Curve Pool LP
- sBTC Curve Pool LP
- tBTC Curve Pool LP
- $Badger Pool
- $Badger<> WBTC Uniswap LP
Super Setts:
- Harvest: renBTC Curve Pool LP
5. What is $DIGG?
Digg website homepage
Digg is the second community-owned Bitcoin DeFi product by BadgerDAO. It’s a non-custodial synthetic Bitcoin on Ethereum with an elastic supply that’s pegged to the price of Bitcoin.
Like the $BADGER cryptocurrency, $DIGG too is governed by the BadgerDAO, only $DIGG is far more unique than a simple governance token.
$DIGG is based off the $AMPL code base, the first and most battle-tested elastic supply cryptocurrency in the market. But instead of being pegged to the USD, $DIGG targets the price of $BTC with a daily rebase mechanism.
Every day the supply is automatically adjusted across all wallets based on the USD value of $DIGG vs $BTC. If the price of $DIGG is higher than $BTC, your wallet balance increases (the number of $DIGG you own goes up), if it’s lower, your wallet balance decreases (the number of $DIGG you own goes down).
Simply put, your $DIGG supply increases or decreases on a daily basis depending on what the price of Bitcoin is. And contrary to what you might think, $DIGG is non-dilutive. If you own 1% of the overall network you will always own 1% unless you make a transfer.
$DIGG Use Cases
- Hedge BTC Volatility - $DIGG can be used to hedge against a known increase or decrease in $BTC price.
- Go Long BTC - $DIGG is always working to pegg against the current value of Bitcoin and therefore mimics the price of $BTC. Exposure to $DIGG is exposure to $BTC.
- Yield Farming in DeFi - Deposit $DIGG in BadgerDAO Setts to earn a yield and $BADGER rewards on your provided liquidity.
6. What are Some Notable Collaborations of BadgerDAO?
BadgerDAO is making a name for itself in the DeFi space with multiple strategic partnerships and collaborations.
The most notable ones include:
- Keep Project - Keep joined the BadgerDAO as a Badger builder and will help accelerate the implementation of tBTC in Badger’s existing products and future apps.
- Kyber Swap - Kyber Swap joined the BadgerDAO as a Badger builder and will be a key partner in giving access to those wanting to trade $BADGER.
- SushiSwap - BadgerDAO has teamed up with SushiSwap to spread Bitcoin DeFi across both communities with the launch of two new SushiSwap vaults.
- Ren - Ren joined the BadgerDAO to advance Bitcoin in DeFi. Ren is a builder in the DAO and is actively exploring different products and infrastructure.
- Harvest Finance - Harvest joined the BadgerDAO as a Badger builder to build collaborative yield-optimizing products for both communities.
- Pickle Finance - Pickle Finance is collaborating with BadgerDAO to cook up better yields for tokenized BTC through the Sett product.
- + Many More - Collaborations, Builders, Partnerships, Events, Etc.
7. Where to store BadgerDAO’s $BADGER token?
MetaMask wallet website homepage
BadgerDAO (BADGER) is an ERC-20 token residing on top of the public Ethereum blockchain. That said, you can store BADGER in any ERC-20 token supported wallet.
However, the best wallets for storing BADGER are non-custodial Web3 wallets that provide seamless access to the best DeFi applications, like BadgerDAO, Harvest Finance, Uniswap, etc.
That said, DeFi wallets are the best for storing BADGER because the token is widely used and supported in the Ethereum-DeFi ecosystem.
Popular BadgerDAO (BADGER) Wallets:
- Trust Wallet (mobile)
- Argent (mobile)
- Coinbase Wallet (mobile)
- MyEtherWallet (MEW) (web)
- Metamask (web)
In addition to the above-listed wallets, BadgerDAO (BADGER) can be stored on a wide variety of other reputable wallets supporting ERC-20 tokens.
8. Where to buy & sell BadgerDAO’s $BADGER token?
BadgerDAO (BADGER) can be bought and sold on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis but the most popular way to buy, sell, or trade $BADGER is through centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
You can buy and sell BADGER with cryptocurrency or fiat currency at the following top DEXes and exchanges. In most cases, you will be able to buy BADGER with BTC, ETH, or stablecoins.
- Uniswap - WETH, WBTC
- 1inch Exchange - ETH, 1INCH, ESD
- Okex - BTC, USDT
- SushiSwap - ETHGate.io - ETH, USDT
In addition to the exchanges listed above, BadgerDAO (BADGER) is also traded on a variety of other exchanges and platforms that enable people to buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies.
Hope you enjoyed that read :) Let me know if I have missed something in the comments.
