Early Token Project Stars in the Ethereum Ecosystem
February 17, 2019 by William Peaster
After the ICO boom in 2017, Ethereum caught flak for becoming a breeding ground for scams and unnecessary token projects. But among the bad has come the great. A handful of projects in Ethereum have already proven to have impressive potential in the here and now.
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Maker (MKR) and Dai (DAI)
Leveraging the Ethereum blockchain, the Maker team have created a dual-token ecosystem that allows users to lend themselves dai, a stablecoin pegged to the dollar, using ether as collateral in so-called collateralized debt positions, or CDPs.
MKR is used for governance voting and fee payments on the Maker smart contract platform underpinning the dynamic feedback systems that maintain the dai’s dollar peg.
As for dai, it’s proven to be an early hit in the Ethereum community. Around two percent of the present circulating supply of ether is currently locked up in Maker CDPs, with more than $70 million USD in dai issued at the moment accordingly.
And the stablecoin autonomously maintained its USD peg amid the 2018 cryptoeconomy downturn even as Tether lost its own dollar peg.
So MKR and DAI are visible reminders that open finance is already here. Self-lending via smart contracts cuts out the need for trusted third parties and portends a future of increasingly decentralized finance.
Augur (REP)
The Augur prediction market finally went live last summer to much ado after the Augur team held their REP token offering back in 2015.
While use of the platform’s been modest so far, its introduction to the wild has been Ethereum’s most high-profile example yet that such decentralized markets aren’t only possible, they’re likely just start of what’s to come.
For example, the Veil predictions and derivatives platform, which leverages Ethereum, Augur, and 0x simultaneously, launched earlier this year. The project is an early case study for what’s possible going forward with Augur as a foundational layer.
Aragon (ANT)
Aragon (ANT) is a dapp play that’s aimed at allowing anyone to create decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, via its platform. The Aragon Network is set to go live on Ethereum in late 2019.
If Aragon can continue to make inroads, its network may eventually prove to be a catalyst for companies adopting DAO infrastructure in their mainstream operations.
And while the Aragon team has said they’ve explored expanding elements of their operations to smart contracts platform Polkadot, the project’s leadership has confirmed they remain excited and in the trenches in the building Ethereum’s future.
What’s your take? What token projects in the Ethereum ecosystem are in your top five? Let us know in the comments section below.
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