Aave is a decentralized lending platform that runs on Ethereum Network which offers secure, peer-to-peer lending Smart Contracts. Aave strives to break through the traditional bank loans system with a more efficient solution. Aave also uniquely allows a borrower and a lender to decide on important loan details that can eliminate the need of a middle man. Due to the elimination of middlemen, process fee for a loan does not exist on this platform. This provide convenience to any lender and borrower to create loans on their agreed terms. Decentralized lending has fixed many issues and one of the reasons why is the transparency of loan. The Ethereum network provides a transparent ledger where all transactions are available to be inspected. Secondly, it isn’t necessary to find a trusted loan provider because all collateral which is the digital asset for loans are stored and locked in a smart contract and broadcasted on the public ethereum blockchain. It is also flexible for borrower to manage the collateral by refilling or withdrawing part of it. Borrower may make such changes when the lender is notified and aware of such movement. If the lender finds out that the action is not communicated, the lender is allowed to initiate a margin call. This year, Aave has made a major upgrades in its Q1 2018. They have deployed the new development for their peer-to-peer lending application named Alpha 0.3. The development process of Alpha 0.3 has started since the early of 2017. The new release also includes a completely new user interface which targets to lower the learning curve of user experience on the app. Furthermore, the new user interface has new sections to make lending process simpler such as including a ‘My Loan’ section, collectible badges and more. Other than that, the team is also in the process of developing more updates for the smart contracts. Hence, the team has decided to provide zero-fee lending with the use of LEND token as a medium of exchange, as an alternative to borrowing in Ethereum. The purpose of this is to provide a cross-blockchain lending currency which will prompt users to use LEND as the medium of exchange.
Digix makes it possible to buy gold in an efficient manner via cryptocurrency by providing investors with a tokenized version of gold so you don’t have to physically own or store it. Digix has two cryptocurrencies, Digix Gold (DGX) and DigixDAO (DGD), each of which serves a key role in the structure. The company proudly gets 99.99 percent of its gold from LBMA-approved refiners, with zero percent from fractional reserves, delivering confidence. With Digix, investors can take advantage of the stability and value of gold as well as the ease of cryptocurrency. Digix essentially tokenizes gold within Ethereum. It takes advantage of the Distributed Ledger’s immutability, auditability, and transparency, applying all these benefits to the precious physical asset of gold. Additionally, Digix has developed multiple technologies, such as the DGX tokens and introduced a new Proof of Asset protocol (POA). A key feature of Digix is its physical gold bullion. By investing, users buy bullion from the LBMA refineries, including the Assay Certificates from refiners like Nadir Bullion, PAMP Suisse, Valcambi, and others. For security, Digix includes third-party auditing from Bureau Veritas. Every quarter, it audits each gold asset within the safehouse vaults. This auditor has been in business since 1828 and is a world leader in certification, inspection, and testing services. With such a long track record, investors should be able to trust Bureau Veritas for their auditing services. Finally, Digix involves recast, which means customers can take their DGX delivery at the partnering custodial vault. Digix incorporated in Singapore in December 2014 and the DGD crowdsale took place on March 30th, 2016. It was the first ever crowdsale and major Distributed Autonomous Organization hosted on the Ethereum network. The sale intended to run for 30 days but met its 5.5 million dollars hard cap in just 12 hours, selling 1.7 million DGD tokens and reserving 300,000 for the Digix team. Pledges who sent over 15,000 USD worth of Ether received a special badge which will allow them to submit proposals to the DigixDAO. For better or worse, when you see the word DAO, you might think of hacking. In July 2017, over 4000 DGD were indeed stolen due to a vulnerability in the crowdsale smart contract. The bug was eventually fixed and the tokens reimbursed to the 35 affected addresses. In January 2018, the vast majority of the cryptocurrency market crashed. DGD was the only coin in the top 100 to rise in value in that time. Perhaps this is an early indicator that people will seek gold as a safe haven during times of market uncertainty. The ICO price of DGD was about 3 dollars, but in 2018, DGD reached an all-time high of over 400 dollars. When Digix finally delivers the DGX tokens and the rewards to DGD participants start rolling in, we might see an even higher demand for DigixDAO. When DGX goes live, it will be available for purchase with Ether on the Digix marketplace.