Starfish Finance II - Attack of the (Dapp) Clones

Far beyond Earth and millions of miles past the moon, there’s a planet where Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and NFT-Fi meet on an interoperable network. First observed in 2022, the world known as “Starfish Planet” is home to degens, hodlers, frens and a starfish named Sean.

Starfish Planet is one of the many planets orbiting within the Astar Network ecosystem. While many have traveled to Astar at different times, they all chose this ecosystem for the same reason: the EVMs are being attacked by clones.

In this article, we’ll look at how Astar Network is fighting back with interoperability and innovation, and how Starfish Finance is set to lead the way for DeFi and NFT-Fi.

Yesterday’s decentralized exchange (DEX) on Ethereum is today’s DEX on Solana. The same goes for lending protocols, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces, GameFi and so on. Yes, the “new and improved” decentralized application (dapp) clone may have a cooler logo, sleek user interface and some chain-specific variation, but they’re still clones. Without innovation, these clones may soon take over, leaving the future of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) dapps stagnant.

Astar Network serves as a final stand against the EVM clones and a gateway to a multi-chain future for those who made the journey. While the clones may have copy-paste code and potentially infinite forks, Astar Network fights back with interoperability and innovation. Using Polkadot, Astar Network can connect to multiple layer 1 blockchains at once, making an EVM clone on Cosmos no different from one on Ethereum.

In a multi-chain universe, innovation sets EVM dapps apart, not blockchains. Equal accessibility to dapps favors the most comprehensive and innovative dapps that have built a community around them. Forced to be on the same playing field as other DEXs, marketplaces or lending protocols, the clones must learn to adapt or perish.

This is why Sean and the other settlers of the Starfish Planet have chosen to build Starfish Finance on the Astar Network. Starfish Finance has embraced the multi-chain future, innovating rather than imitating to save Web3 from the clones.

Born out of the Astar incubation project, Starfish Finance is one of the finest multi-chain DeFi and NFT-Fi platforms on the Astar Network. Ahead of an official mainnet launch, the Starfish app already has a growing community on its Discord and a wide range of features. Alongside the fact that Astar Network is one of the largest parachains on Polkadot with a rapidly growing TVL, Starfish has already received significant attention.

Starfish Finance recently closed a seed round led by Next Web Capital and participated in by GBV Capital, Parity, Acala, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Tokensoft, Paribus, Alphanonce, MindWorks Ventures, Popfield Ventures, MetaverseHub, Oriole Ventures and others. With the seed funding, Starfish will launch on the mainnet and roll out features.

Based on the Balancer version 2 model, Starfish Finance has created an enhanced infrastructure built around three pillars: stablecoin liquidity pools, cross-chain DeFi and NFT-Fi.

The first pillar of Starfish’s infrastructure surrounds stablecoin liquidity pools. Similar to Curve on Ethereum, users can participate in yield farming through Starfish liquidity pools. Through Starfish’s native interoperability, users can additionally gain more out of the stablecoin pools through farming Astar and Polkadot stablecoins as well as USDT, USDC and BUSD.

Currently, Starfish supports liquidity pools consisting of up to eight assets with customizable weighting, offering more flexibility and risk management for DeFi users.

Related: Decentralized Liquidity Is the Backbone of DeFi

In addition to stablecoin liquidity pools, Starfish will enhance cross-chain DeFi by boosting the efficiency of cross-chain liquidity. Starfish’s cross-chain liquidity is bolstered by its strategic partnership with leading cross-chain asset transfer developer Celer Network. In combination with Polkadot’s recent XCM update, users can bridge crypto frictionlessly across different layer-1 ecosystems.

As Starfish develops, it plans to work with its community to find new decentralized protocols beyond Astar Network to continue pushing the multi-chain future.

Finally, Starfish is enhancing the concept of NFT-Fi through the liberation of NFT liquidity. Whether you’re a degen or a collector, selling your grailed NFT can be an emotional process. Unfortunately, this has been the only option for hodlers who put all their crypto into non-fungibles but need liquidity.

This is why Starfish has created a way to collateralize NFTs for crypto loans on the platform. For borrowers, this means access to crypto while preserving your favorite NFT. For lenders, this is also an opportunity to earn yield through providing liquidity to the Starfish Reserve Vault.

To ensure proper collateralization, the Starfish team and community will screen NFT projects to ensure they are qualified for collateral. In the event of liquidation, Starfish community members holding the SEAN token can bid on NFTs at a discount. By holding SEAN, you can potentially gain access to the top blue chip NFTs on layer 1s including Ethereum and Solana for less than on other NFT marketplaces. After Starfish DAO is formed, SEAN holders will have voting power to whitelist other cross-chain NFT projects, giving access to the current and future blue chip NFTs of all ecosystems.

Related: 5 Ways to Earn Passive Income With NFTs

Starfish is a collaborative protocol that puts its community first, championing positive vibes and a sense of belonging. To best empower community members, Starfish continues to roll out features as the community needs and makes them through a straightforward, minimalistic UI. In the upcoming quarter, Starfish will also be looking toward its community to find key strategic partnerships with non-Polkadot native projects to help bring members into a multi-chain future.

To further the project’s direct involvement with the community, the Starfish team recently announced that it would hold an initial dex offering (IDO) on Tokensoft for its SEAN token. One of the most respected IDO launchpads, Tokensoft has previously launched popular projects including Avalanche (AVAX), Acala (ACA), Moonbeam (GLMR) and Tezos (XTZ). In September, Starfish will be added to the list, making SEAN the first Astar-based token to launch on the platform.