1. Coda

Coda is the first cryptocurrency protocol with a concise blockchain. It is a new form of digital currency that compresses blockchain data to a fixed byte size using zero-knowledge proofs. Current cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum store hundreds of gigabytes of data, and their blockchain size only increases over time. But with Coda, the blockchain always remains the same size, around 20KB (the size of a few tweets). This means that verifying the blockchain remains convenient no matter how many transactions are made, and everyone has access to it. It can seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency into developers' applications.

The team currently consists of 21 individuals, with front-line developers being active members of the functional programming community. The non-technical team includes Claire Kart as the Market and Community Lead, who was previously the Community Lead at Ripple, and Emre Tekisalp as the Business Development Lead, who previously worked on the USDC business line at Coinbase.

The project's advisors include the CEO of Coinlist, the author of a digital currency MOOC on Coursera (a professor at NYU), and the inventor of Bulletproofs.

Investment institutions: Coinbase, Dragonfly Capital Partners, O(1) Labs

Tokens: Coda

Mainnet launch: Q4 2021

Total supply: 1 billion

2. 1inch

1inch Exchange is a project that originated from a hackathon and was showcased at ETHNewYork in 2019. The project was created and developed by Sergej Kunz (Co-founder and CEO) and Anton Bukov (Co-founder and CTO).

1inch Exchange is an on-chain DEX aggregator that executes token exchanges at the best possible prices in a single transaction. The common issue with all DEXs (decentralized exchanges) is the lack of liquidity due to being a relatively new concept. 1inch is addressing this liquidity problem by optimizing algorithms to split trades across different exchanges, allowing for the most efficient trading. The 1inch protocol taps into liquidity from a wide range of DEXs, making it a single entry point for DeFi (Decentralized Finance) trading and creating an ecosystem experience.

Currently, 1inch has gained support from numerous top DEXs, including Uniswap, Kyber Network, Airswap, Oasis, Bancor, Balancer, and Curve, among others.

In addition to improving existing Automated Market Makers (AMMs), the 1inch team launched their own AMM called Mooniswap in mid-August. Mooniswap allows liquidity providers to capture a portion of profits from price slippage.

Investment institution: Binance

Tokens: 1INCH

Total supply: Undetermined

3. Balancer

Balancer is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) protocol that allows anyone to provide liquidity to existing Balancer pools or create their own liquidity pool. It also incorporates the concept of an index fund. Each Balancer pool acts as a self-balancing index fund. In traditional index funds, investors must pay fees for rebalancing services. However, in Balancer pools, liquidity providers can actually earn returns. Balancer can be seen as a combination of Uniswap and Set Protocol.

Balancer Labs started distributing governance tokens called BAL to liquidity providers in Balancer pools on June 1, 2020. The total weekly distribution is 145,000 BAL tokens, with a total of 7.5 million BAL tokens distributed annually.

Investment institution: a16z

Tokens: BAL

Circulating supply / current supply: 8,023,831 / 37,175,000 (at the time of writing)

Total supply: 100 million

4. MakerDAO

MakerDAO is a smart contract system on Ethereum that operates on a dual token model. It not only provides the first decentralized stablecoin called Dai (pegged to the US dollar) and derivative financial products but also includes another token called MKR for equity and governance purposes.

Dai is issued and collateralized by on-chain assets, maintaining a 1:1 peg with the US dollar. Individuals and businesses can hedge assets and obtain liquidity without centralized risk by exchanging or borrowing Dai against collateral. The Maker platform has real-world applications in collateralized loans, margin trading, international remittances, and supply chain finance.

MKR is the equity and governance token in the MakerDAO ecosystem. When users redeem their collateralized Ether, they need to pay MKR as a stability fee, which is then burned. As more people use Dai, the stability fees increase, resulting in more MKR being burned, making MKR more valuable.

Investment institutions: a16z, Polychain

Tokens: Dai

Circulating