With over $120M locked in Synthetix, the derivatives protocol sits as the second most valuable DeFi protocol in terms of value locked. The growth in value comes as Synthetix has constantly been building over the past year releasing new updates, supporting new assets, and iterating on protocol incentives.
The derivatives protocol has reached the point where users have expanding opportunities on how they’d like to participate or use the platform. Today, users can gain exposure to a wide range of assets without ever holding them – like a synthetic version of Japan’s stock market or a basket of DeFi assets. Users also have attractive opportunities to earn by participating in the ecosystem. Some examples include allowing users to stake SNX and earn inflationary rewards and trading fees from Synthetix.Exchange, depositing sUSD into Curve to earn SNX rewards, or providing sETH liquidity on Uniswap.
All of these opportunities have created a platform with many opportunities, as well as complexities. Today’s announcement of SNX Link aims to streamline these complexities to facilitate the onboarding of the next wave of DeFi users.
SNX Link is the first real platform entirely based on @Synthetix
Our goal is to bring mass adoption to Synthetix:
– Automating tedious recurring tasks
– Setting the autopilot to your investmentswith the UX of the most used portfolio management platforms. But non-custodial. pic.twitter.com/DTgPCdvbbD
— SNX Link (@SnxLink) April 28, 2020
SNX Link is a non-custodial asset management platform built entirely on Synthetix. With SNX Link, users will be able to leverage all of the opportunities and strategies in the Synthetix ecosystem through an easy, intuitive dashboard. Most importantly, the platform is non-custodial – allowing users to remain in total control of their funds at all times.
The dashboard aims to automate your Synthetix portfolio to ensure stress-free, effective management. This includes automating some of the tedious, recurring tasks with using Synthetix – like ensuring your C-Ratio is above target to claim your staking rewards or setting up weighted portfolios that automatically rebalance according to your trading strategy.
Tying this all together, SNX Link will enable users to easily manage a diversified Synth-based portfolio, claim weekly rewards, adjust their c-ratio, and more. Thanks to the Synthetix Hadar upgrade and the ability for delegation, all of this is possible in a non-custodial fashion as SNX Link operates off a collection of smart contracts with the ability to perform actions on behalf of Synthetix users. Some of these include:
With that, let’s dive into some of the features available with today’s announcement.
SNX Link is starting off by releasing a Portfolio Dashboard, providing a single reference point for all important data surrounding your Synthetix positions. This includes data points on Synth allocations, trade history, and historical portfolio value.
The platform is also launching with an “Auto Claim” feature. For those unfamiliar, if you stake SNX, y0u’re required to connect to Mintr every week and claim your rewards. If you don’t, they’re get redistributed back into the incentive pool. The SNX Link dashboard streamlines this friction by automatically claiming rewards on a weekly basis by leveraging a specific set of SNX Link users called Keepers. By using the service, Keepers are granted the ability to request the rewards on behalf of the user through the SNX Link platform.
The platform features Keepers, or users with the ability to execute functions on behalf of others in exchange for a reward. SNX Link has designed a two-sided decentralized platform allowing users to pay for delegating certain tasks and Keeper execute them while getting paid. With this in mind, V1 of SNX Link also features the Keepers Dashboard where prospective Keepers can easily get set up via the dashboard (no coding experience required).
Closing Thoughts
With Synthetix’s growth in the past year, it’s great to finally see other tools being built leveraging the permissionless derivatives protocol. The introduction of SNX Link should provide users with a more seamless, intuitive experience for participating in the SNX ecosystem – whether it’s through managing a portfolio of Synths or staking SNX to earn rewards.
SNX Link is being led by Simone Conti and Emiliano Bonassi, two members from DeFi Italy community. The founders have also actively contributed to the DeFi community via tracking tools for the Maker SCD to MCD migration as well as taking part in forming the Backstop Syndicate for MKR Debt Auctions.
What’s interesting about this new Synthetix management tool is the team is seeking funding via the Synthetix Grants DAO. While the team has built the initial version, they’re looking to expand their efforts with roughly 220K of SNX (valued at $170k) in funding from the GrantsDAO. The proposal is still under consideration by the members of the DAO.
If you’re interested in exploring SNX Link, you can do so by visiting the official dashboard here. Please note that this is an early-stage project and anyone looking to use it should do so in a limited capacity. The smart contracts have yet to be audited.
To stay up to date with SNX Link, follow the team on Twitter or join the official Discord here.
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Analyst at Bankless – one of the leading resources for open finance. Lucas is an active contributor to the DeFi ecosystem with appearances in other notable DeFi outlets including The Defiant and Our Network. He has years of experience working with dozens blockchain and token startups where he focused on token economics, marketing, and growth.