Let’s explore further the project called ClayStack. The main page of the project indicates that:
ClayStack is a decentralized liquid staking platform that enables you to unlock the liquidity of staked assets across multiple chains. You can stake your assets and use the issued staking derivatives across the DeFi ecosystem.
In simple words, it means this. We all know that staking is one of the ways to make profits of your assets. But once assets are staked you have no control over them. Not only that — usually you will have to wait while the unbonding period is over. This makes your assets become illiquid. And we know that the crypto market volatility forces you sometimes to move fast, causing losses otherwise. This is where ClayStack comes to help. Once you stake with ClayStack, the staking derivatives get issued and can be used across the DeFi ecosystem.
In can be described through its major features:
- Flash Exit — no unbonding periods. Withdraw your assets whenever you feel is right. With 1:1 liquid derivatives for your staked assets;
- Fully Backed — ClayStack’s staking derivatives are 100% backed by staked assets;
- Cross-Chain — you can use any chain which reduces the costs of operations and simplifies things;
- No minimums —made for everyone, not just whales. Even when you are small ClayStack is good for you;
- Transparent — everything including transactions, reserves, and vaults is trackable on-chain;
- Yield Staking — use ClayStack to rebalance DeFi money and construct the most rewarding strategy using staking derivatives and earn rewards from multiple streams.
The project is being built by 12+ incredibly passionate people. The core team is responsible for building the next-generation liquid staking protocol and fostering a community of fervent enthusiasts. So far the team has successfully developed a robust architecture.
Liquid Staking — An Innovative Solution
Various cryptocurrency giants have attempted to resolve staking issues by enabling liquid staking.
Through tokenization, liquid staking protocols allow token holders to get liquidity on staked assets and enable their usage in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to earn additional rewards.
There are primarily five categories of liquid staking solutions:
- Native — These are protocols that issue the derivative for staked assets at the core protocol level and make it ineffective for other platforms to create liquidity representations. Example: Acala Network
- Collateralized Loan — In this approach, a separate trustless protocol issues liquidity for staked assets and allows users to mint stable coins making their assets liquid. Example: Ramp Defi
- ETH 2.0 — These are protocols specifically catering to Ethereum (ETH) and issue the derivative for staked assets at the core protocol level. Example: Rocket Pool
- Custodial — In this approach, a centralized entity controls the private keys and issues representations of staking rewards. These platforms may also require users to do a KYC. Example: Stakehound
- Exchange — In this approach, centralized exchanges allow token holders to participate in other products on their platform. Example: Binance, Kraken
While each approach has its potential strengths and weaknesses, they don’t qualify all the characteristics of an ideal liquid staking solution.
ClayStack provides a novel approach towards staking. The use of oracles and relayers based on interchain communication makes it utilitarian with any blockchain.
Tokens deposited to ClayStack’s smart contracts return the equivalent derivative token minted directly on Ethereum.
The tokens are staked to the professional validators, and the rewards are sent daily to all the derivate token holders, while users can still use the derivative/synthetic tokens in DeFi applications further and maximize their earning potential.
The project has raised $5.2 million in seed funding co-led by CoinFund and ParaFi Capital, with participation from prominent funds including Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Group, Animoca Brands, LedgerPrime, Hypersphere, Hashed, Solana Foundation, Genblock Capital, Ascensive Assets, DeFiance Capital, Republic Labs, SkyVision Capital, The Lao, Hillrise Ventures, Shima Capital, and D64 Ventures.
There is also immense support from industry leaders and are fortunate to be backed by remarkable angels, including:
- Meltem Demirrors (Chief Strategy Officer, CoinShares)
- Larry Cermak (Director of Research, The Block)
- Illia Polosukhin (Co-Founder, Near Protocol)
- Tegan Kline (Co-Founder, Edge & Node)
- Robert Leshner (Founder, Compound Labs)
- Stani Kulechov (Founder, Aave)
- Kain Warwick (Founder, Synthetix)
- Tarun Chitra (Founder, Gauntlet)
- Richard Ma (Founder, Quantstamp)
- Stefan George (Co-Founder, Gnosis)
- Josh Hannah (Partner, Matrix Partners)
- Tyler Scott Ward (Co-Founder, Barn Bridge)
- Jack Herrick (Founder, wikiHow)
- Raj Gokal (Co-Founder, Solana)
- Sandeep Nailwal (Co-Founder, Polygon)
- DeFi Dad (Head of Marketing, 4R Capital)
- Jon Callaghan (Co-Founder, True Ventures)
- Phil Black (Co-Founder, True Ventures)
- Toni Schneider (Partner, True Ventures)
- Kevin Rose (Partner, True Ventures)
- Adam D’Augelli (Partner, True Ventures)
- Jeffrey Veen (Partner, True Ventures)
- Richard Li (Founder, 4K Protocol)
The project is currently looking to add more ambassadors to the team. So feel free to apply using the form on their website.
For more details make sure to follow social networks:
- Telegram: https://t.me/claystack
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClayStack_HQ
- Website: https://claystack.com/
- Announcements: https://t.me/claystackchannel
- Discord: https://discord.gg/yCDV2CgZMb
