What is Aave?
Aave is a protocol for earning interest on your deposits and borrowing assets. This year Aave pivoted from a P2P lending model to a pool-based model. Liquidity is deposited in a liquidity pool — think Compound.
Anyone can borrow from the pool by depositing a collateral (token). Interest is determined algorithmically. The less funds available in the pool at a specific time → the higher the interest (attracting more liquidity due to bigger fees for LPs).
Every asset in the pool has its own Loan-to-Value (LTV) parameter, which dictates the collateral ratio. If a position is undercollateralized it is liquidated for a discount (max of 50% of the loan can be liquidated). This incentivizes liquidators to buy the collateral.
How does Aave differ from its competition?
Aave differs from other lending protocols with:
- Flexible rates. Users can switch between two different interest rates — stable and variable.
- Flash loans. Undercollateralized loans that rely on the timing of repayment (only approved if repaid within the same block)
How does Aave’s roadmap look like?
Currently the Aave Lending Pool is the first pool built on the Aave protocol. The upcoming “Pool Factory Update” will allow anyone to create their own pool = multiple lending pools with segregated liquidity, parameters, permissions, and type of assets.
How does Aave’s governance work?
Governance is split into two parts:
- Protocol level — token holders vote on upgrades and parameters of the protocol (similar to MakerDAO)
- Pool level — LPs vote based on their liquidity amount. Governance includes pool specific parameters (such as collateral types).
👉 This means that every pool has their own governance separate from the protocol. LEND token holders control the protocol and LPs control the pools.
What’s LEND’s token model?
0.25% of every loan is collected and swapped to LEND. 80% of the collected fee is burned. 20% allocated to “referral integrators”.
Aave is about to release a paper on their upcoming upgrades for governance and token model (Aavenomics).
We are looking forward to the Pool Factory Update and the new token model! Aave is on track to become a serious competitor to Compound, and seems far ahead with their own token with both economic and governance rights.
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ELI5: What is Aave? was originally published in Token Terminal on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
