Alright, this is my first attempt at thinking of a DeFi product/service so I have no idea if it’s the dumbest idea in the world, but it’s been circling in my head for days now so I had to put it down on paper (or graphic in this case).
Tell me why it wouldn’t work or would be very dumb and/or inefficient (seriously). Or am I getting the hang of this DeFi thing? 1f609
Sorry if this is the wrong category for this, but I thought that eventually having our own bridge instead of relying on other exchanges/L2 networks would be safe for “true decentralization.”
Actually, i brought up something similar a few days ago, wanting Shapeshift to do. (i have no tech knowledge around it) but playing with the diff Bridges etc. I would have user feedback. (ie: do this! its nice) look at honey interface, it shows the top 4 other routes you can use, and whats the actual difference. (so my push/vote would be for the dao to build a bridge(network) that connects to ALL of the chains) (be kinda nice if we just input what we have, and what we want, and it connects us the lowest cost way)
(so Your on Honey, with Dai, and you want to get Matic on Polygon) 2 chain connection (at least) but if we have setup the 'Island" that all the bridges connect to.
Hahah, well then it comes down to decentralization, and whether trusting one centralized source (the DAO foundation in this case, I suppose). It’s one thing to support a bridge of one asset, but its a whole new world when you’re trying to do multi-chain and multi-assets. But add in X number of validators with a lot to lose if playing naughty, then we’re on to something…
Nice diagram! I don’t follow closely enough to be able to give feedback, but am curious to understand what you’re envisioning. Step 3 is where I get lost.
Reminds me a bit of a concept that Starkware is pioneering where users on Layer 2 that want to do the same transaction in Layer 1 (ie. Deposit FOX into Compound) can pool their funds in a smart contract on layer 2 and split the cost of migrating to and transacting on mainnet. If this is kind of what you’re thinking, it’s an awesome idea and something that I think ShapeShift is in a great position to offer and monetize, but also one that will be more useful once we have a greater mass of users on Layer 2.
giantkin:
so my push/vote would be for the dao to build a bridge(network) that connects to ALL of the chains
Love this and am also in favor of ShapeShift building or integrating bridges across chains that make it easy not only for users to transfer an asset across a chain, but trade an asset on one chain for an asset on another. This is basically the problem that THORChain is solving (and also proving how complex it is to solve in a decentralized way), so for now I’m of the opinion we can add the most value by integrating protocols like THORChain and others rather than focus on building them ourselves.
Sorry, should have clarified the point of this post: don’t take it too seriously. 1f605
It was a part tongue-in-cheek post poking fun at the low-quality DeFi “staking platforms” with no value added or actual use case that seems to be popping up left and right (essentially, ponzi schemes). Which got me thinking, could such a platform actually provide value or is it completely doomed? (I don’t want to publicly call out projects, but if anyone wants references on these hundreds (!) of projects that are treading on very dangerous BitConnect-level waters, then I’ll share in PM).
Which leads to the other point of this post: to try and get the community to slowly start thinking of actual ways to branch out FOX’s utility. I’ve been growing a list of potential new services and product lines that ShapeShift could offer in the future, that also fits the DAO’s long-term goals, is very aligned in ideologies, and could leverage its massive database to onboard users / generate buzz quickly.
I’ll give three quick examples:
I’ve been engaged with the ENS team to research potential new revenue streams by positioning ShapeShift as a registrar not only for ENS but for “centralized” gTLDs that are supported / will be supported by ENS very soon with DNSSEC (talking hundreds of gTLDs very soon). But obviously, there needs to be more value added to be actually enticing; why go through ShapeShift?
Because our platform will make it seamless to get ICANN’s registry and ENS aligned, because we offer integrated IPFS web hosting, “one-click” eCommerce site launch thats immediately integrated with crypto payments, because we offer beautiful no-code page builder tools, decentralized emails (this is a very interesting topic btw), etc…
Launching a basket of algorithmic trading bots, single-asset and triangular arbitrage bots, market making bots, ML-based prediction hedging bots, etc. Of course some of these are high risk high reward, but by allocating small amounts and diversifying in strategies have shown in my personal experience to be a great hedge and money maker.
Leveraging the growing P2P economy by disrupting some industries that are largely controlled by 5-6 megacorps (no, not file storage, that market is already too saturated and the supply is astronomically above the demand). I don’t want to give away too much info on this yet, but I did manage to get a proof of concept working and I’m finally beginning to see non-blockchain based startups trying to tackle this issue. Hint: it’s an industry that’s growing almost exponentially atm (not quite, but almost 1f609
) and is needed by every large enterprises that are serious about their research whether its for competitive analysis or for datasets for ML training. It’s also in very high demand by gray and black-hat users, and the supply at the moment can not meet the demand. Starts with a “resi”/“mobi” and ends with a “oxy.”
Of course these are all hypothetical project ideas that would be huge undertakings, but my point is there’s a lot of ways to create (more) demand and give more utility. When the time is right I will present a very detailed list of all my ideas (and I know people already hate me for my overtly detailed or long posts), but I see the next year as a very crucial time for ShapeShift DAO to show the world that a DAO can continue to innovate and create new services outside of DeFi.
Obviously there’s countless ways of bridging to/from L2, I’m not saying we should make our own bridge which wouldn’t make much sense (as you already know, I’m pushing for the xDai liquidity with high convictions), but I guess I was inspired by looking at some Tron community projects (don’t judge, I’m not a fan, but respect is due where its due) thats managed to create similar simple lending platforms to move assets around without the native token (TRX) by lending their version of “gas” – without all these complicated L2 validators, nodes, etc etc. simply by through smart contracts. The community has power to create value ourselves, and yeah this might not make sense as a DAO project, but if someone were to make something like this, I only see it as a plus to the ShapeShift ecosystem. But we need to create that culture of creation. Not everything has to be DeFi oriented. There’s a million ways to create value.
tl’dr: don’t take this seriously, but let’s prepare to make some money in a way that would benefit many, not just the DAO.
p.s. actually though, it would be a pretty cool bridge to have. AFAIK I haven’t come across a ETH L2 bridge that wouldn’t require gas spending on the mainnet side. 1f601
edit: Okay, reading my post now this was definitely the wrong category. Sorry about that folks!
I’ve been wowed by the vast spectrum of ideas that have come from the community for things ShapeShift could build and problems we could solve.
This is something we’ve faced since ShapeShift’s inception; there are so many interesting and significant problems that ShapeShift and blockchain technologies can help solve, and it’s tempting to want to try and solve them all. As a DAO, my hope is that we will be able to build more faster, but there is still something to be said about 1. focus and 2. keeping the UX simple. If you try to do everything, you can end up doing nothing well. I’m all about expanding, but think it’s really important to at least be the best at one thing before you try to do much more.
In the immediate term, there are some gaps between ShapeShift’s current offerings and our vision as the open source, cross-chain interface to the decentralized universe (dapps, defi, bridges, nfts, on/off ramps, all of it) that I think we should consider laser focusing on solving. Part of this includes a Dapp store where any Dapp built by the ShapeShift community could be featured without complicating the core UX.
For ideas that aren’t necessarily feature related, (ie. trading strategy bots), it would be awesome to see teams formed outside of the product and engineering workstreams dedicated to this. For example, had the idea the other day for allocating some FOX to a ShapeShift DAO investment fund to invest in hot projects, ideally those that ShapeShift is also integrating with. and I know has been thinking about other ways to put idle funds in DAO’s treasury to work to generate revs.
Anyway, loving your geyser of ideas and looking forward to hearing more of them 1f642
Also really looking forward to the initial roadmap proposal discussions and getting everyone aligned on the most important features for us to focus on over the next quarter. I’m planning to do a quick presentation on a proposed vision for shapeshift, competitive analysis, and the gaps between our current offering and vision that we’ll need to close to achieve our mission, and I think it will help kick off the discussion to get everyone on the same page and rowing in the same direction. 1f680
giantkin:
1f680