Ecosystem Partners

Avalanche

➡️ https://www.avax.network/ Avalanche (AVAX) is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform that rivals Ethereum and is known for its speed and scalability. Avalanche's Smart Contracts platform supports both decentralised applications and autonomous blockchains.

What is Avalanche?

Avalanche (AVAX) is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform that rivals Ethereum. AVAX is the native token of the Avalanche blockchain, which—like Ethereum—uses smart contracts to support various blockchain projects. The Avalanche blockchain can provide near-instant transaction finality. AVAX is used to pay transaction processing fees, secure the Avalanche network, and act as a basic unit of account among blockchains in the Avalanche network. The Avalanche blockchain reportedly can process 4,500 transactions per second. Launched in 2020, Avalanche aims to be fast, versatile, secure, affordable, and accessible. Also, Avalanche is an open-source project, meaning anyone can view and contribute to the platform's code.

Understanding Avalanche

Avalanche's Smart Contracts platform supports decentralized applications (dApps) and autonomous blockchains. Here are some features that make Avalanche unique:

  • Coin creation rate: The maximum supply of AVAX is capped at 720 million tokens, but AVAX users govern how fast new coins are minted. AVAX holders can control the rate of new coin creation by voting to adjust the amount of AVAX paid as a reward for adding a new block to the Avalanche blockchain.

  • Transaction fee structure: Transaction processing costs vary depending on the type of transaction and Avalanche's network congestion. All fees are burned—removed from circulation—to enable AVAX to become scarcer over time. Avalanche users vote to decide the Avalanche transaction fee, making AVAX fees subject to change.

  • Consensus mechanism: Transactions on the Avalanche blockchain are confirmed using a unique method that requires many small, random subsets of network participants to verify transactions before the transactions are finalized.

  • Participation incentives: High uptime and fast response times can boost the amount of AVAX rewards that a network participant can earn for processing AVAX transactions.

Avalanche is generally governed by the proof-of-stake mechanism. AVAX holders are required to stake—agree not to trade or sell—AVAX in exchange for the right to validate AVAX transactions. AVAX holders with the most staked and actively participated as validators are the most likely to be chosen for new Avalanche blocks. Holding AVAX tokens is also required to vote on Avalanche governance proposals.

Is the Avalanche Blockchain safe?

Avalanche can be considered secure because of the randomized nature of its consensus mechanism. Avalanche claims its platform supports more robust safety measures that make the blockchain less vulnerable to 51% attacks than other blockchains.

Third-party risk to Trendespresso

A hack on one of its bridges is the most likely threat to Avalanche's survivability. A bridge attack has no effect on the bot's operation unless a token we use depegs or is otherwise compromised. The Avalanche blockchain itself can never go down, as anyone can run an Avalanche Validator.

Since we use Circle's native USDC token and not the one bridged from Ethereum known as USDC.e our risk of depegging is much reduced.

Furthermore, we can easily migrate or expand to any EVM blockchain since our entire smart contract ecosystem is EVM compatible.

0x

➡️ https://www.0x.org/ 0x is an open-source, decentralised exchange infrastructure that enables the exchange of tokenised assets on multiple blockchains.

What is 0x?

0x is a decentralized exchange for trading ERC-20 tokens. It is among the most high-profile examples of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Buyers and sellers are connected directly in this form of trading.

Understanding 0x

0x is a peer-to-peer exchange of Ethereum-based tokens. It is often referred to as a decentralized exchange. 0x uses common Smart Contracts over a shared infrastructure. Its technology combines two strategies—state channels and automated market makers (AMMs)—that have already been suggested to overcome these problems. 0x often refers to its solution as the “Craigslist for cryptocurrencies,” in that any developer can build their cryptocurrency exchange and post it online. 0x's own Ethereum token (ZRX) is used to pay trading fees to relayers, which are used to connect makers with takers.

History of 0x

Will Warren and Amir Bandeali co-founded 0x in October 2016. Their initial intention was to provide a standard method of trading for any Ethereum token on the blockchain. Their vision was a world where each asset, from fiat currencies and stocks to gold and digital gaming items, could be represented as a token on the Ethereum blockchain. The two quickly recognized the large usability gap and instead turned the project into a decentralized exchange. 0x raised $24 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) for its ZRX token. With this new protocol, decentralized exchanges improved dramatically in terms of usability. That's because 0x allowed Ethereum tokens to be exchanged over any decentralized exchange using the protocol. Since its inception, several decentralized exchanges have been built on top of 0x, including Nuo, Zerion, DeFi Saver, and Radar Relay.

Concerns about 0x

The biggest concern about 0x's long-term sustainability is its intense competition from other functional decentralized exchanges. Additionally, 0x doesn't interact with fiat currency, meaning users must own Ethereum to use the exchange. Moreover, 0x faces many of the same criticisms common to decentralized exchanges, including inconsistent liquidity and slow transaction times relative to a centralized business.

Future of 0x

The 0x protocol is one of the most widely-used decentralized protocols in the industry. While questions remain about its sustainability, chances are that users will only place more and more emphasis on decentralization and security going forward. Because of that, 0x provides significant long-term potential.

How is 0x different from a regular Trading Model?

Most cryptocurrency exchanges follow the established centralized trading model. In this paradigm, they are gatekeepers providing the infrastructure and acting as connecting agents to clear and facilitate trade between parties. North America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, is the best example of this approach. This model requires customers to trust their funds with exchanges. While the model has worked for equity markets, an increasing number of hacks at exchanges has put its future in cryptocurrency markets under a cloud. Decentralized trading seeks to address that.

Third-party risk to Trendespresso

If 0x goes offline we would be unable to make swaps of large position size without incurring some loss due to slippage. Since 0x's API is necessarily fully-centralized, the 0x project could terminate at any moment. In such an event, we'd either exit its current trade using TraderJoeXYZ's liquidity pool(s) or encourage all Individual mode OWNER's to call directWithdraw() to release any assets directly without any further swapping, thereby bypassing both 0x and TraderJoeXYZ. New instances of Trendespresso would need to be deployed incorporating a new liquidity provider in place of 0x.

0x and Trendespresso are fully EVM compatible, allowing us to use 0x on the Avalanche blockchain instead of on the Ethereum blockchain.

AAVE

➡️ https://aave.com/ Aave is a decentralised non-custodial liquidity market protocol where users can participate as depositors or borrowers. Depositors provide liquidity to the market to earn a passive income, while borrowers can borrow in an overcollateralised (perpetually) or undercollateralised (one-block liquidity) fashion.

What is AAVE?

One of several emerging DeFi cryptocurrencies, Aave is a decentralized lending system that allows users to lend, borrow and earn interest on crypto assets, all without middlemen. Running on the Ethereum blockchain, Aave is a system of smart contracts that enables these assets to be managed by a distributed network of computers running its software. This means Aave users do not need to trust a particular institution or person to manage their funds. They need only trust that their code will execute as written. At its core, the Aave software enables the creation of lending pools that will allow users to lend or borrow 17 different cryptocurrencies, including ETH, BAT, and MANA.

Like other decentralized lending systems on Ethereum, Aave borrowers must post collateral before they can borrow. Further, they can only borrow up to the value of the collateral they post. Borrowers receive funds in the form of a unique token known as aToken, which is pegged to the value of another asset. This token is then encoded, so lenders receive interest on deposits. A borrower may post collateral in DAI, for example, and borrow in ETH. This allows a borrower to gain exposure to different cryptocurrencies without owning them outright. Aave can also introduce additional features, such as instant loans and other forms of issuing debt and credit, that take advantage of the unique design properties of blockchains.

How does AAVE work?

Aave is perhaps best described as a system of lending pools.

Participants deposit funds they wish to lend, which are then collected into a liquidity pool. Borrowers may then draw from those pools when they take out a loan. These tokens can be traded or transferred as a lender wishes. To facilitate this activity, Aave issues two types of tokens: aTokens, issued to lenders so they can collect interest on deposits, and AAVE tokens, which are the native token of Aave. The AAVE cryptocurrency offers holders several advantages. For instance, AAVE borrowers don’t get charged a fee if they take out loans denominated in the token. Also, borrowers who use AAVE as collateral get a discount on fees. AAVE owners can further look at loans before they are released to the general public if they pay a fee in AAVE. Borrowers who post AAVE as collateral can also borrow slightly more.

Flash Loans

Aave allows certain “flash loans” to be instantly issued and settled. These loans require no upfront collateral and happen almost immediately. Flash loans take advantage of a feature of all blockchains, which is that transactions are only finalized when a new bundle of transactions, known as a block, is accepted by the network. Adding each new block takes time. On Bitcoin, that interval is roughly 10 minutes. On Ethereum, it’s 13 seconds. An Aave flash loan, therefore, takes place in those 13 seconds. The flash loan works like this: A borrower can request funds from Aave, but they must pay back those funds, and a 0.09% fee, within the same block. If the borrower doesn’t do this, the entire transaction is canceled so that no funds were ever borrowed. As a result, Aave doesn’t take a risk nor the borrower. A borrower may wish to use a flash loan to take advantage of trading opportunities or maximize profits from other systems built on Ethereum. It’s possible to swap different cryptocurrencies intuitively using flash loans to generate trading profits.

Who created AAVE?

Aave is a for-profit company founded in 2017 by Stani Kulechov and based in Switzerland. Kulechov was trained in law in Helsinki and started Aave while still a student. The firm, named ETHLend initially, raised $16.2 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017, during which time it sold 1 billion units of its AAVE cryptocurrency - originally named LEND.

The LEND cryptocurrency migrated to AAVE at a rate of 100 LEND tokens to 1 AAVE, dropping the total supply of its cryptocurrency to 18 million AAVE. ETHLend was different from Aave in that, instead of pooling funds, it tried to match lenders and borrowers in a peer-to-peer fashion. In 2018 ETHLend was renamed Aave, which means “ghost” in Finnish. ETHLend became a subsidiary of Aave.

Other products and services announced then included a trading desk to handle large trades, a game studio focused on blockchain games, and a system to handle payments.

Why does AAVE have value?

AAVE plays a central role in the management of the Aave software, allowing users to vote on changes to its rules and policies to improve its software. The Aave team also launched a Safety Module (SM), where participants can stake their AAVE to act as insurance in case of a liquidity deficit. Doing so will earn stakes more AAVE tokens, along with a percentage of the protocol fees. Aside from this utility, AAVE derives value from its finite supply and the fact that it uses revenue from fees to buy AAVE and remove the cryptocurrency from circulation.

Why use AAVE?

AAVE may interest traders or investors who believe decentralized lending will continue to grow in popularity. As of July 2020, the Aave system is among the most active decentralized lending systems on Ethereum and has garnered $158 million in total deposits. Competing lending platforms include Compound and Maker, which have over $600 million in deposits. You may also want to use AAVE if you wish to have a say over the rules that govern the Aave system, voting on how fees collected from lending are distributed to AAVE token holders.

Third-party risk to Trendespresso

If AAVE were to become insolvent then all of our smart contract positions could potentially be at risk of liquidiation or insolvency. Should we be unable to withdraw our collateral then irreparable losses may occur. All estimated losses would be sustained in equal weight amongst all users; the percentage lost would be equal for each user.

If the borrowed asset is at break-even price from the time of borrowing, the estimated loss would be -20%.

If the borrowed asset fell to $0.00 (absolute zero; no liquidity anywhere), then the estimated loss would be -88%.

If the borrowed asset has appreciated +29.5% from the time of borrowing, the estimated loss would be ±0%.

In conclusion, if AAVE were to have a significant issue such as freezing their loans, collateral, or become otherwise insolvent, then Trendespresso members have a real risk of similarly realising losses.

Note: Flash loans have been combined to execute attacks on lending systems built on Ethereum, sometimes successfully stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of deposits.

AAVE and Trendespresso are fully EVM-compatible; this allows us to use AAVE on the Avalanche Network instead of Ethereum.

➡️ https://chain.link/ Chainlink is a decentralized network of oracles that enables smart contracts to securely interact with real-world data and services outside blockchain networks. With Chainlink, the traditional systems that currently power modern economies can connect to the emerging blockchain industry to generate more security, efficiency, and transparency in business and social processes.

Chainlink has solved what was known as the “oracle problem.” The oracle problem originates from an issue with smart contracts on blockchain networks and how they are completely isolated from the outside world. The smart contracts typically obtain their external data from “Oracles” (data points, APIs) – where the problem lies. Smart contracts are only as “smart” as the information delivered to them by the oracles. If a smart contract is provided with malicious code or inaccurate data, the contract will still process it anyway because it is just code – and what comes out would be unpredictable, wrong, or worse.

Chainlink completely solved the oracle problem when the team discovered how to retrieve and share information from oracles without putting the security of the blockchain the smart contracts are running on at risk.

This was done by creating a decentralised network that acts as a bridge between the oracles and the smart contracts. This system is built from a nexus of individual nodes, each acting as smart contracts in their own right, gathering information and providing it as needed. Now, instead of blindly trusting a source, smart contracts run through the Chainlink network have unfettered access to resources like data feeds, traditional bank account payments, and web APIs.

Third-party risk to Trendespresso

We may have difficulty closing out Short positions and allowing Individual mode members to withdraw immediately. Otherwise, Chainlink presents no direct threat.

Chainlink and Trendespresso are fully EVM compatible, allowing us to use Chainlink on the Avalanche blockchain instead of the Ethereum blockchain.

Trader Joe

➡️ https://traderjoexyz.com/home#/ Trader Joe, a decentralised exchange (DEX) on the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain, offers DeFi services, including swapping, staking, and yield farming. The exchange has been growing rapidly, attracting over $4 billion in total value locked (TVL) since it was launched in June 2021. Trader Joe claims to take a community-first approach and prioritise innovation, speed, and safety. It aims to provide a one-stop-shop DeFi experience and to integrate new products without compromising on security.

Third-party risk to Trendespresso

TraderJoeXYZ is purely a fallback liquidity provider in case 0x liquidity is unavailable. Only where TraderJoeXYZ and 0x go down would there be any cause for concern.

TradingView

➡️ https://tradingview.com

TradingView is a charting platform and social network used by 30M+ traders and investors worldwide to spot opportunities across global markets. PineScript™ is TradingView’s programming language. It allows traders to create trading tools and execute strategies directly from the TradingView website. PineScript™ is a lightweight, yet powerful, language for developing indicators and strategies that can be executed in realtime or backtested.

Third-party risk to Trendespresso

We're currently running some of our strategies using logic hosted on TradingView via PineScript Alerts. Should TradingView go offline, we'd need to recode our signal applications into another environment/language/framework, such as Python or NodeJS. Long term, we may eventually move our in-house signal logic off TradingView and execute it in a standalone environment on our dedicated server.

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