ICON’s about to get a third DeFi platform.
Optimus is an on-chain yield optimizer web-app created by ICON DAO, aimed at maximizing investment returns with as low risk as possible. Adding to a flurry of DeFi products released in the ICON ecosystem during the past months, including Balanced and Omm, ICON DAO is aiming for a testnet launch in just a couple of weeks, with a mainnet launch expected within about a month.
Yield optimizer? Is that like yield farming?
A yield optimizer is a service that invests your funds on DeFi platforms for you and continually adjusts your position to keep your level of risk at an acceptable level. It also helps actively balance your liquidity pool contributions and the amount of funds you have lent, borrowed and reinvested to ensure you get the maximum possible return.
Without a yield optimizer, you’d have to do all this fiddly work yourself, and risk liquidation if you don’t pay close enough attention.
For those with knowledge of the Ethereum DeFi space, you might compare Optimus with yearn.finance.
Perfect synergy with the ICON DeFi ecosystem
Optimus will launch with yield optimization support for Balanced. Omm support is expected to launch in November 2021, after the testing and auditing process is complete.
Readers who’ve been paying attention to the ICON DeFi space already know how well Omm and Balanced are integrated with each other. For example, liquidity offered on Balanced generates OMM rewards, which can be staked on the Omm platform for even more rewards.
Now, you’ll have the option of depositing your funds on Optimus and letting the platform interact with both Balanced and Omm on your behalf, integrating with all the available DeFi strategies without you even having to lift a finger. It’s like a little DeFi block party, but you live in the house with the best DJ.
For borrowers, Optimus will continuously monitor your borrowing position to make sure it’s always within a safe risk-threshold, ensuring you never get liquidated.
For liquidity providers, Optimus supports ICX/sICX pools. Whenever deposited ICX is converted to sICX, as it is wont to happen on Balanced, Optimus will auto-magically unstake the sICX, reclaim your ICX and deposit it right back into the pool for you.
Focus on simplicity
Using Optimus will require only three simple steps: select an investment strategy, deposit ICX and then wait for the rewards to come. The team claims the design philosophy of “Maximum profit with minimum effort.”
“Our target is to make DeFi investment easier for not only crypto users, but also traditional investors,” an ICON DAO representative told The Iconist. “We have spent tremendous development time to make sure our UI looks as simple as possible. We believe ICON DeFi is one of the best ecosystems, with products focused on simplistic design and non-stop improvements.”
A DAO-built DAO
Optimus may be ICON DAO’s baby, but it’s soon to leave the nest and become its very own Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). The Optimus DAO will ultimately govern the platform going forward, and will even gradually take over the process of development. For this reason, the Optimus team sees maintaining transparency in customer relations as critical to the success of the DAO and the platform.
They’ll also be launching their own governance token, FIN, around the same time as the addition of Omm support. FIN will be distributed to anyone who deposits assets on Optimus, as well as to FIN liquidity providers on Balanced. FIN holders will have the right to vote on new strategies, changes to protocol structures and the allocation of DAO funds.
ICON DeFi’s competitive advantage
The streamlined UI seen in ICON’s DeFi platforms can not be overlooked. It’s an advantage that ICON has over many competitors seen in other DeFi spaces — which will hopefully grow the ecosystem as a whole.
“Our long-term goal is to build more competitive advantages to attract crypto investors from other blockchain platforms like Ethereum,” ICON DAO told us. “Optimus, as well as Balanced and OMM, will pioneer the spread of ICON DeFi to crypto users globally, making the very first steps to promote our ICON ecosystem.”
