Decentralized lending platform and its uses
The blockchain technology that fuels cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and peer-to-peer lending are a natural fit that may help overcome some of the inherent challenges with many peer-to-peer lending platforms today. Many experts believe that this innovative technology will prove itself as a groundbreaking solution leading to a new economic system, often called the blockchain economy. In this new financial system, rules defined by smart contracts will make sure that agreed-upon transactions are enforced autonomously. That’s why peer-to-peer lending in many ways seems like the perfect use case for blockchain technology as it can potentially allow lending platforms to establish a much less dependent trust relationship between lenders and borrowers. This use case is what we know of as decentralized lending platforms.
Decentralized lending platforms allow users to deposit and lock their funds into smart contracts from where other users can borrow and pay interest on them. Decentralized lending platforms are available to anyone, anywhere, and most require only an Ethereum wallet to use. One example of a decentralized lending platform is JENCO. JENCO offers an API toolkit that connects to all major lending platforms; such as Poloniex, DDEX, Aave, Argent, Compound and InstaDapp, to make sure participants will accurately lend out their crypto asset and receive in time without compromising security.
LENDING
Crypto holders can lend on decentralized lending platforms so that they can earn passive income on their holdings through the interest fees paid by borrowers. This is an attractive opportunity for crypto holders as lending can help them earn relatively lowrisk interest on their existing holdings without the need of giving away their private keys to a centralized third party service.Â
BORROWING
The most popular use case for borrowing crypto is margin trading. Borrowing from decentralized lending platforms allows traders to get leverage which multiplies gains and losses while trading. It also gets leverage from short selling, which is a trading strategy which makes money when the price of an asset goes down.Â
Collateralized Borrowing At the moment, the most popular decentralized lending platforms use a form of borrowing called collateralized borrowing. Collateralized borrowing means that users who are looking at borrowing crypto must lock up collateral of greater value than the value of what they’re borrowing. The collateral serves as an insurance that lenders will be repaid even if the borrower never repays the loan. For example, a trader wants to borrow $100 worth of LTC. The trader needs to lock up more than $100 worth of collateral in another asset.
Conclusion
In the past years, we have seen the emergence of decentralized lending platforms. It has provided different opportunities to crypto holders and traders. The ability to borrow and lend on a completely open platform is a fundamental advancement in financial markets and is already gaining a lot of traction.