Loopring is an open protocol for building decentralized exchanges. Loopring has quickly gained visibility as one of the decentralized exchange options that’s making progress on trading across multiple blockchains. Loopring’s solution utilizes ring transactions and order matching to facilitate asset exchanges. Essentially, it aggregates the order books of other exchanges. This allows any exchange, decentralized or centralized, to utilize Loopring’s protocol to match orders. Part of providing an open protocol is remaining blockchain agnostic. Hence, the first Loopring token (LRC) was launched on Ethereum, but it also plans to launch Loopring NEO (LRN) and Loopring QTUM (LRQ). The plans to launch Loopring NEO are coming along. The distribution of the new tokens, LRN, has already begun. Essentially, the token distribution involves two phases: an investor sale and an airdrop. This guide will look at both phases, how to buy LRN, and what to expect from Loopring NEO. The big selling point of Loopring’s exchange solution is you never have to deposit funds to Loopring. With most exchanges, even other decentralized exchanges, you still have to transfer funds to their wallets. On Loopring, you can keep your funds in your own private wallet when trading. Of course, that creates a challenge for Loopring because the exchange no longer controls the wallet and that means smart contracts need to do the work of verifying that transactions are legitimate and confirmed. When a trade occurs, it happens user to user, with no middleman. Loopring finds the match and coordinates the terms of the trade, but it never controls the assets. Loopring is one of the first projects to attempt launching across multiple blockchain ecosystems. This experiment is interesting and exciting. It also has the potential to be lucrative if Loopring continues to increase in value.
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.