XendFinance, a decentralized finance application backed by BINANCE Lab and Google Launchpad, is on course to bring DeFi Credit Union to Africa with higher returns for savers. Xend Finance is a product of Xend, a Nigerian FinTech Company with a network of over 55,000 individuals, pushing the adoption of Xend Finance in Africa. Founded by Aronu Ugochukwu, Xend Finance aims to pioneer the adoption of DeFi in Africa with its DeFi application that supports the Ethereum blockchain, using smart contracts as an algorithm to reward users and a governance token, $XEND for its Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governance via Xend smart contracts, governor smart contracts and time lock smart contracts. These smart contracts would allow the Xend Finance community to propose features, vote, and execute approved proposals like Adjusting Group Reward, Early Withdrawal Charge (Ewc), Defaulters Charge (Dc), and $Xend Depreciation Factor (Df)
A common problem faced by traditional credit unions, savers and cooperatives in African societies is the constant devaluation of local currencies due to unstable economies in most African countries. This has resulted in the constant loss to savers and credit unions. According to Nairametrics, inflation in Nigeria rose to 13.22% in August 2020, while the naira (Nigerian local currency) dropped over -30% against the US dollar. In Uganda, africanmarketsreports that the inflation rate of May 2020 was 2.8%, while the shilling.
(Ugandan local currency) dropped 2.6% against the US dollar. This goes to show the level of unstableness of the economy in most African countries. Other problems include unfavorable government policies and lack of detailed financial data on credit union activities.
Xend Finance aims to overcome these problems via financial inclusion in developing countries by creating a platform for converting local currency deposits (offline and online) into crypto and harvesting yields on DeFi platforms like Compound, Maker Aave. With decentralized insurance in place, Xend Finance would use its location agonistic protocol to allow savers to save and create their own credit union from any location while getting returns as much as 15% APY in a flexible loan system. With Xend Finance, you can easily invest on schedule, automatically stake your savings on DeFi networks like Compound, Maker, or Aave or even save in a stable currency such as $BUSD or $DAI and earn interest as much as 15% APY.
Xend Finance currently supports the Ethereum blockchain and would soon support the Binance smart chain for interoperability, heterogeneous sharing for quick transactions, high security via POS relay chain, and on-chain governance. In the words of CEO Aronu Ugochukwu,
“Once we launch the first version of Xend Finance, we will immediately start working on a software development kit (SDK) for both web and mobile applications. This SDK will be integrated into the Xend and Geena and any other web2.0 or web3.0 applications……we are aware that our target industry (cooperative and credit union) is not very crypto savvy, hence the need to create a system that makes it easy for them to use”.
With backing from Binance Labs, Google Launchpad, AU21 Capital, TRG Capital, Sandeep Nailwal, and others, XendFinance looks ready to power DeFi Credit Union adoption in Africa.
About three weeks after announcing its partnership with @maticnetwork to integrate its layer 2 scaling solution on Ethereum blockchain, Xend Finance is on track to full scale on both the Ethereum network Binance Smart Chain. This partnership announcement comes as the first partnership announcement of 2021 since Xend Finance’s last partnership with @elrondnetwork in December 2020. Elrond network has a yield aggregator protocol which Xend Finance would integrate to bring more yield to its users via $EGLD staking and DeFi products.
@certik, a blockchain firm that combines its leading formal verification technology with best-in-class cybersecurity experts to deliver end-to-end security services, is currently auditing the Xend Finance codebase as new features are being implemented. With clients like Bitmain, Binance, Huobi, Aave, Neo, VeChain, and Ethereum Foundation, Certik has performed over 220 audits that have secured over $8Billion since its existence. New features recently added to the Xend Finance Web3.0 Application include Xend Token rewards and Fixed savings feature. These features and more are being implemented as the codebase audit is in its final days. Upon completing this audit by Certik, Xend Finance protocol and GitHub would be made open source for programmers and the community to access while new partnerships are announced.
Since the completion of the incentivized testnet, Xend Finance has gone ahead to market its brand across different media platforms, including its African Road Show and a Binance Developer Masterclass tagged ‘Careers in Blockchain Technology,’ of which Xend Finance is a partner as well as many Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions... This exposure and marketing have resulted in the community's growth by over 100%, including members from over 75 countries. With Xend Finance private sale completed in November 2020, all eyes are set on its mainnet and product launch, with a date for an Initial Coin Offering or Initial Exchange Offering to be announced soon. This is expected after Xend Finance CEO, Aronu Ugochukwu, in his words to the Telegram community, cleared the air about Binance suspending Naira deposits following Nigeria’s Central Bank directive,
“This has been a major news in the crypto space, especially for new crypto investors, but the true essence of crypto is decentralization. [The] majority of crypto trades that occur in Nigeria are peer-to-peer…..Nigeria did not ban Bitcoin, and this does not affect Xend[Finance]”.
With public and private sales completed, Xend Finance should list on an exchange within the coming days while the mainnet launch takes shape.
For more information about Xend Finance, visit the official website at https://xend.finance/ or join the communities via Twitter, telegram, or Reddit. You can also take part in the testnet at https://testnet.xend.finance/ and subscribe to the monthly newsletter here.
