Radix — Where DeFi Thrives

Nothing in this guide constitutes financial advice. Before investing in anything let alone crypto you should seek the advice of an investment professional.

Disclaimer: I am working in partnership with Radix.

Introduction

The year 2021 has been a wild one for the world of cryptocurrency. A multitude of coins and projects are now dead in the water, while others continue to thrive with parabolic gains. As new projects launch, what should they be focusing on to ensure their user base and value continues to grow? If we take a look at some projects that are no longer around, we have some clues as to what helps cryptocurrencies thrive vs die.

For example, no one wants to use an insecure platform or network. If security is lacking or hacks and exploits are commonplace, users will leave and the project can quickly die. Community of the project is also a make or break element.

Ability to scale in functionality and transaction throughput is also a key element for virtually any technology these days. Everyone wants more features, wants it to be fast, simple, and secure and this lines up beautifully with what Radix offers. Since launching their ‘mainnet’ project, it’s clear they are seeking a thriving community based developer network with security and scalability being top priorities.

Let’s dive into Radix and take a closer look at what they do and how it works.

Radix Overview

According to Radix themselves, they are “the only decentralised network where developers will be able to build quickly without the constant threat of exploits and hacks, where every improvement will get rewarded, and where scale will never be a bottleneck.”

The main focus of Radix is to create a DeFi cryptocurrency network focused on building a rewarding and thriving development community.

Radix also promotes a focus on security and scalability. With nearly $1 billion worth of DeFi hacks in recent years, the last thing an investor or user would want is for their money to go missing overnight. The platform allows for secure, yet quick development to be performed. The cryptocurrency and technology landscape is constantly changing. Projects need to keep up not only with throughput demand on the networks, but functionally and interoperability between themselves and other projects or networks.

With a focus on community, security, and scalability, Radix has set its sights on being a top player in the space. Given that security and scalability are items that need to be developed; creating a system where these developers are greatly rewarded should attract top talent to contribute freely. Radix is establishing a “free to them” development for their ecosystem which will encourage growth and sustainability in the platform. Developers love a challenge and love being rewarded, so this type of system is an attractive one.

Advantages of Radix

What makes Radix stand out from the rest of the projects going on in the space? According to Coinconfidential, “Radix is so advanced it promises to solve problems other cryptos haven’t even thought of yet.” Below are the main reasons I think Radix stands out:

• Decentralised (DeFi): Radix understands the importance of finance not being centrally controlled. DeFi is finance designed for peer to peer transacting without an intermediary (bank) or governing body (governments). While Radix is not the first DeFi project, it’s changing the game from the ground up by focusing on some very specific areas.
• Community: A thriving, active, and rewarding community of developers and consumers. Radix was built around the idea of community and rewarding those who develop and use the platform. With this type of thinking, the incentives are there to attract and retain top blockchain talent as developers can freely contribute. The broader user within a community benefits from the establishing of this top talent.
• Security: It’s 2021 and in the world of tech, you will have no success if you have no real security. This is even truer in the world of digital finance and in the future of sound money, security is key. Radix built their platform and code from the ground up mirroring the same style of programming used in mission critical systems like nuclear power stations. It’s secure by design.
• Scalability: The ability to grow into the future. Technology is ever changing with standards, protocols, languages and even the way we interact with it. Radix has embraced this and built a highly scalable platform poised for natural growth as technology and needs change around the project and the crypto space as a whole.

How do you become a part of this growing Radix DeFi community? For most of us who aren’t developers, the potential opportunity lies with purchasing a form of the Radix token. The same tokens we are buying are being rewarded to those who are further building out the Radix platform. But what are these Radix tokens, why are there two and what are their purposes?

The Radix Tokens and their benefits

Most cryptocurrency projects have at least one token. Radix is no different. With their focus on being decentralised and with a core emphasis on community, they need a mechanism for transactions to occur on their network and between other networks. Radix has created two different tokens and both of them can be exchanged for a 1:1 ratio across networks.

The primary token of the Radix network is RADIX ($XRD). They launched this token mid 2021 on their own network with a max supply of 24Bn tokens. There are two main purposes for this token (besides simply transacting): staking and paying fees for transactions. Staking allows for you to ‘lock up’ or hold your $XRD on the network for growth, and to provide liquidity on the network. Every transaction has some sort of fee, and you can use the $XRD token to pay your transaction fees for usage.

The other token and the first Radix token to launch was E-RADIX ($eXRD), and it was launched on the Ethereum network (ERC-20) around November 2020. Before the Radix platform and before the network was live, they wanted a way of getting their name, network, and tokens out there (on a network that was already fully functional and popular). E-RADIX was created as a ‘wrapped’ representation of its mainnet token: RADIX ($XRD). There is a permanent one to one link with $eXRD and $XRD, so the max supply is directly identical to $XRD.

Radix has several real world use cases for their network and tokens. The following list is not comprehensive, but hits on the main focus areas.

• Flash Loans (Borrowing and returning funds within seconds of each other)
• Collateralised Lending (The use of your assets to secure a loan)
• Web 3 integrations (Connections to the future of a decentralised internet)
• Yield Incentives (You are incentivised for using the Radix network and tokens)
• Liquid Staking (Locking up your tokens to provide network liquidity and gain rewards)
• NFT’s (Non fungible tokens — AKA — unique, non replaceable digital items for purchase and keeping.

The Radix future is bright

Radix has launched an exciting, decentralised, and secure platform. With their focus on the developer community, they are poised to keep growing the network, number of users , and the functionality of their tokens. Speaking with the team regularly, I can attest to the fact they are focused, aggressive and organised on what the next year and beyond looks like.

After launching a wrapped token on the Ethereum network in November 2020, Radix launched their own betanet in April of 2021. In July 2021, the first Radix main net (Olympia) went live with their primary native $XRD token. Their next release (Alexandria), is scheduled to go live imminently and will start to unlock some of the DeFi developer experience building reusable features.

In 2022, Radix plans on releasing Bablyon — an open self-incentivising DeFi ecosystem. This will start to bring in some smart contract functionality, ramp up the royalty payment system for developers, and open up an on network blueprint catalogue.

Conclusion

No one can tell the future, but anyone can learn from the past. Taking a dive into what Radix is trying to build, we can see they have a clear plan for sustained growth well into the future. With a focus on building community, ensuring security and scaling for the future — Radix has plotted a good trajectory for the future of their project and this can only benefit the cryptocurrency space as a whole.

Fin.

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