Compound Labs has revealed the prototype of their previously announced Compound Chain, nicknamed Gateway. Gateway will enable DeFi users to borrow assets native to one chain with collateral from another.
Today, we're proud to announce a prototype based on the Compound Chain whitepaper:
Gateway is a cross-chain interest rate market that allows you to borrow assets native to one chain (e.g. ETH), with collateral from another chain (e.g. CELO).https://t.co/kFzxnz9SWc
— Compound Labs (@compoundfinance) March 1, 2021
The idea of Gateway was introduced around 3 months ago when the team first released the initial whitepaper, as a quick refresher Gateway is a blockchain built with Substrate but COMP token holders on Ethereum will be the ultimate governors of the new chain.
For DeFi users familiar with Compound Finance, Gateway should feel somewhat familiar but with a few key changes noted below:
Interest is earned and paid in dollars, using CASH, Gateway’s native unit of account. If you borrow one Ether, you’ll only ever owe one Ether.
The Gateway risk engine is more robust; risk is based on the volatility of assets you use as collateral, as well as the assets you borrow — leading to capital efficiency improvements for less volatile assets.
You can quickly and inexpensively transfer any asset in Gateway to other users — even wallets from other blockchains.
Gateway validators stand to earn a cut of interest from every market in addition to transaction fees that will scale with the growth of Gateway. This prototype is live on Ropsten Testnet today, where anyone can try their hand at being a Gateway validator. Testnet participation does not guarantee you a spot as a mainnet validator, that selection process will be handled through Compound governance.
Another recent Compound development is the new community proposal regarding the Compound Grant Program (CPG) being championed by a few notable DeFi veterans.
Are you a fan of @compoundfinance? @jessewldn @MonetSupply @getty_hill @aparnalocked @nkennethk @yiryan @sammycrypto4 & I are.
We just proposed to start a $2mm grants program to fund projects and ideas that make Compound better. Give us your feedback!https://t.co/VXkUPcOa5K
— Larry Sukernik (@lsukernik) March 1, 2021
The CPG takes inspiration from Uniswap’s grant program established earlier this year and looks to deploy up to $1M per quarter for two quarters. Funding will come from the Compound treasury which holds 200k COMP or approximately ~$95M at the time of writing. The intention here is to fund projects or initiatives that directly benefit the Compound protocol and its stakeholders.
The 8 individuals listed in the linked tweet above have been proposed as the initial CPG committee with Larry Sukernik as lead and the 7 others as reviewers. For more in-depth detail and to share your opinion on the CPG proposal, check out the forum post here.
Keep up with Compound by following their Twitter.
Business Development and Operations at TrustToken – TUSD. Jack is a startup generalist and DeFi enthusiast. Stay connected with him by following @HHJackSun on Twitter.
