Overview of the 17 projects awarded AAVE GRANT in July and August

Author: DODOResearch

Second only to the Ethereum staking protocol LIDO, AAVE is currently the second largest protocol in the DeFi world by total value locked (TVL), with a TVL of 4.69 billion USD. In addition to continuously developing its own protocol, AAVE actively incubates and sponsors many ecosystem-related protocols, such as the all-in-one DeFi server DeFiSaver, the cross-chain bridge Li.Fi, and the options protocol Lyra Finance, all of which have received support from the AAVE GRANT ecosystem fund.

Today, the CryptoSnap weekly report will take you through the 17 projects and plans recently announced by the AAVE ecosystem fund AAVE GRANT that received ecosystem rewards in July and August 2023.

July Award Winners

1. Range Protocol

Range Protocol is a DeFi automated strategy management platform that offers multiple different token vaults and strategies for users to choose from, providing the best yield returns. The product vision includes AMM DEX liquidity management, liquid staking LSD, NFT Fi, and derivatives protocol strategy management, but currently only AMM DEX management has been launched.

The incentive received from AAVE GRANT will focus on the $GHO stablecoin vault, utilizing liquidity management strategies with $GHO and other stablecoins such as $USDC and $DAI to provide users with the highest annual yield and deepen the liquidity of $GHO.

2. Roll a Mate

Roll a Mate has won numerous awards at the recent ETHGlobal Waterloo 2023, with the project vision of providing low transaction fees on the Ethereum mainnet, where users only need to pay transaction fees ranging from 0 to 0.04 USD.

Users only need to pay a one-time GAS fee to deposit money into the smart contract deployed by Roll a Mate, after which they can enjoy various transactions with close to 0 GAS, including loan repayments on AAVE.

Currently, the protocol is still in development and has not yet launched on the mainnet.

3. LangWallet

LangWallet is the first fully interactive AI wallet, characterized by the ability for users to chat with the bot (via text or voice), allowing the AI to extract user needs from the conversation and respond to questions or execute corresponding transactions, whether buying or selling tokens, NFTs, setting limit orders, or even borrowing and repaying on lending platforms.

Currently, the project has not yet publicly launched, and its demo video shows that communication can be done through APPLE's iMessage with a specific AI account, without the need to download a specific application.

4. YaspFi

YaspFi is an all-in-one DeFi wallet service, featuring both a plugin wallet and a web interface (with a mobile app currently in development), providing users with a front-end service to interact with multiple DeFi protocols and consolidating various farm yield annual rates for easy comparison of annual yield differences between protocols.

5. AwesomeQA

AwesomeQA is an AI question-and-answer bot service that supports three platforms: Discord, Telegram, and web. It organizes the most frequently asked repetitive questions by reading project documentation and historical chat records, and automatically replies when users inquire again.

Currently, well-known projects including AAVE, Scroll, Dune, and ChainFlip are already using the AwesomeQA bot service in their communities to provide better support to users.

6. Nilla Connect

NillaConnect is a P2P leveraged lending protocol that uses AAVE as the underlying liquidity pool. When P2P lending demands cannot be matched, funds will be placed into AAVE to earn interest, and when a match is successful, funds will be automatically withdrawn and lent to the borrower, helping AAVE better utilize idle funds through leverage, reducing capital costs, and creating better returns for users.

Additionally, NillaConnect collaborates with Li.Fi, using the Li.Fi SDK as a cross-chain solution, and has also received a LI.FI grant.

7. Concero

Concero is a terminal on-chain trading platform that positions itself as a cross-chain DEX and staking aggregator, providing services such as instant token news and candlestick charts.

The staking aggregator part has already integrated AAVE and other pools for comparison, and their cross-chain DEX aggregator will allow users to swap from any chain and stake tokens in AAVE liquidity pools.

8. Aave Alarm

Aave Alarm is an open-source mobile application project that can monitor users' health factors on AAVE and provide notification services. The application is currently available on the iOS App Store and Android Google Play.

9. Breezepay

Breezepay is a Web3 payment project dedicated to creating convenient cryptocurrency payment tools for everyday users, supporting mainstream tokens including USDC, USDT, DAI, SOL, ETH, and Ripple.

Their AAVE integration plan uses lending functions on the Ethereum mainnet to facilitate a smoother payment experience.

August Award Winners

1. Compass Labs

Compass Labs' Dojo is a DeFi simulation software that can simulate various tests of DeFi strategies on EVM smart contracts. Users can conduct comprehensive experiments on strategies using simple Python commands on their local machines.

Dojo has already integrated with UniswapV3 on Ethereum and is working on integrating AAVE, as well as expanding simulations to Polygon and Arbitrum.

2. Sommelier

Sommelier Finance is a Layer 1 blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint POS consensus mechanism, which has established a specific application chain on Cosmos aimed at optimizing various DeFi protocols. It provides automated vault services that allow various strategy providers to offer complex DeFi strategies for ordinary users to deposit tokens and earn high annual yields.

The main reason for this award is the excellent performance of its Turbo GHO vault, which has surpassed 2 million USD in TVL and has performed well in the Uni V3 GHO LP pool, providing over 56% of the trading volume while only accounting for 44% of the total TVL.

3. CIAN Protocol

CIAN Protocol is an automated vault strategy protocol focused on improving LST token yields, currently offering multiple strategy vaults based on ETH, Matic, and Avax.

The AAVE GRANT funding will be used to help CIAN utilize AAVE as the core lending/custody protocol and accelerate the development of new delta-neutral strategy vaults.

4. Altitude

Altitude is an automated lending management tool aimed at solving the common capital efficiency issues in current lending projects. It automates the management of lending positions, depositing excess collateral into farming protocols to earn annual yields, and automatically deposits collateral into farming when prices drop to avoid liquidation.

5. DeFi Simulator

DeFi Simulator provides users with a friendly UI interface to simulate various changes in AAVE positions. Users can modify risk parameters and simulate their impact on AAVE positions, allowing them to instantly understand how changes in risk parameters affect health factors, liquidation prices, and borrowing capacity.

6. Aave RFPs & Service Provider ToS

Aave RFPs & Service Provider ToS is a framework proposed by Ben O'Neill regarding governance proposals for AAVE, aimed at improving the selection of service providers and collaboration with Aave DAO, and establishing a set of rules.

7. Revelo Intel

Revelo Intel is a crypto research and education platform, and this reward is primarily based on its previous research reports on various data metrics related to AAVE, including studies on changes in TVL and competitors, protocol fee income, vault governance, roadmaps, and AAVE tokens, among other comprehensive research.

Source: https://revelointel.com/snapshots/aave-270823-to-260923/

8. Laval University - Introduction to Blockchain & DeFi course

This project is a blockchain course taught by Laval University professor pierreyves.eth, where students are tasked with designing a project that interacts with Aave V3 on Arbitrum and directly retrieves information from the v3 contract to calculate their own account health scores, LTV ratios, liquidation prices, and more.

Author's Perspective

The cryptocurrency market has been persistently sluggish recently, especially with the ETH/BTC exchange rate dropping to a 15-month low, reflecting the low activity on the Ethereum mainnet. However, the so-called perseverance during a bear market will yield results in a bull market. Despite this winter, there are still so many projects continuously developing and operating, supported by many foundational DeFi protocols like AAVE, playing a nurturing role, which signifies that the strength of the Ethereum DeFi community remains robust.

I personally have a relatively optimistic view of many of the DeFi vaults and all-in-one front-end services in this incentive. These protocols aim to simplify DeFi products. Users do not need to understand the complex principles and various bewildering protocols behind them; they can easily see which offers high returns and what the risks are through an all-in-one front-end service/vault, enjoying the high yields of DeFi building blocks. However, there are currently many similar platforms in the market, and how to achieve breakthroughs in marketing to capture the most users will be a challenge for such projects, as competition in this space is quite fierce.