Take control of your own money, be your own bank. That’s always been the core of cryptocurrency, but until recently, the capabilities of cryptocurrency didn’t compare much to the wide offerings of a bank.
2020 has been the year of decentralized finance (DeFi). It’s not a new concept, but this year it has really taken off. Before DeFi, cryptocurrency enabled cross border transactions and personal asset custody, but now with DeFi, things have changed. Just look at the interest DeFi has gained this year.
DeFi has taken off because of an influx of new offerings that are unbeatable in the traditional financial world. Lenders have seized the opportunity of earning huge interest rates from anonymously staking their assets. It’s easy to see why DeFi has proved so popular.
However, the growth of DeFi hasn’t come without its problems. You see, the bulk of DeFi is hosted on just one network, the Ethereum network, which already has a history of scalability issues. Combine that with a significant increase in usage, and you get terrible network congestion.
The result? Fees go up, transaction times go down. The increase in fees has made DeFi almost unapproachable for the average user at the worst times. For example, in order to interact with a smart contract you sometimes have to pay $50-$100 just for one transaction, and there will be at least two transactions involved with any DeFi interaction. Therefore, if the transaction isn’t going to be worth hundreds of dollars to the user, then it doesn’t make economical sense to follow through.
To add to this, DeFi might be great for the average crypto user, but we’re a long way away from mainstream adoption. It’s still challenging to go from fiat to DeFi applications. Most people don’t know how to create and manage blockchain wallets. They’re at risk of losing all of their money.
Right now, DeFi is in a strange state. It needs a shake up. The concept is there, the users are there, but the ecosystem can’t function on Ethereum as it currently exists. Things need to change to allow DeFi to continue growth.
Introducing PlasmaPay
PlasmaPay is a cryptocurrency project that caught on to DeFi early. They’ve been building since early 2018, as they were convinced that DeFi was going to be the next big thing in crypto, and it was going to be a core part of the next wave of crypto. PlasmaPay is aiming to use their products to bridge the worlds of CeFi and DeFi, by providing a simple to use platform that’s also ideal for developers to build applications on top of.
PlasmaPay has designed their product to improve DeFi, making it more scalable and most importantly, easier to use. Their first priority is making getting into DeFi simple, so they built a straightforward fiat on and off ramp, which enables users to buy crypto assets on PlasmaPay with multiple methods. Card payments and bank transfers are accepted. Right now you can use PlasmaPay to buy 16 different cryptos, but soon you’ll be able to buy any DeFi token out there.
DeFi Dashboard
When you’re interacting with multiple wallets and protocols, it’s easy to get lost in the DeFi world and lose track of where you are and, more importantly, where all your money is tied up.
The PlasmaPay DeFi dashboard enables users to view their portfolio and to take action all in one place. Trade, stake, borrow, lend and farm, all from your dashboard, available and synced across both mobile and desktop. It’s a one-stop-shop to the DeFi world, making everything as simple as possible. The most popular DeFi applications will be integrated, such as Uniswap, Compound, Balancer, Aave, Yearn and more.
Fast, free transactions
At the core of the PlasmaPay ecosystem is the Plasma Chain, which is where the magic happens. Up to 50,000 transactions per second with zero fees. This enables people to trade as much as they want and interact with DeFi protocols built on Plasma Chain instantly, without paying anything.
PPAY token
PPAY is the native token of the PlasmaPay ecosystem. It has a number of functions, including staking, governance, payment and reward distribution. By holding the token you will gain access to voting rights and a portion of the fees earned, and it will also entitle you to earn extra rewards too.
Summary
PlasmaPay is a new DeFi platform that is aiming to improve DeFi by making it much simpler to use. On top of this, they have built Plasma Chain, a new blockchain that will be able to facilitate up to 50,000 transactions a second with zero fees. If new DeFi applications were built on top of this chain, the DeFi experience would significantly improve.
*This article has been sponsored. The Daily Chain encourages you to carry out your own research before you make any form of investment and educate yourself about how to stay safe in the crypto space.