Review of 2023

Advancement, Outlook, and Creativity This rewording expresses the same meaning but in different words. In 2023, crypto can be described as uncertain, demanding, stimulating, and eventually beneficial for both Optim and the complete field. The year started off following the most disruptive and complex period in recent recollection, with the FTX failure in late 2022 coupled with high inflation and stern monetary clampdown. The year wraps up with a revitalized enthusiasm as creators, speculators, and the general public drive web3 further ahead with determination. The tough times in the first half of 2023 caused an upheaval throughout the industry. Many companies and projects went out of business, some shifted direction, and Optim actually reduced in size, only to return with greater strength in the second half of 2023 as a viable path became visible. Being able to adjust, endure, and think innovatively were essential attributes. The expansion of the Cardano system is continuing. The Cardano community is getting larger, allowing more individuals and organizations to benefit from the technology. The growth of the ecosystem will bring new users, developers, and investors to the platform, providing an even greater range of opportunities for all. Cardano's DeFi ecosystem saw remarkable growth and maturation in 2023. This being only the second year of smart contracts on the platform, many tremendous accomplishments occurred. Costs of development dropped, resources for developers enhanced, liquidity increased, fresh protocols launched, and already existing protocols were improved. About 50% of Cardano's leading DeFi protocols made their debut in 2023, and the total value locked rose from 200m to 700m ADA, securing the DeFi ecosystem in the highest 10 rankings. The use of Aiken language becoming widespread and progressing rapidly has lowered development timelines and expenses. We predict this will be the driving force behind quickening the process of innovation, refinement and implementation in the following year. More and more tools and new design processes such as transaction chaining are being taken up and enhancements are emerging from collective input, which is promoting development. The enhanced liquidity and trading seen on Cardano's DeFi platforms has allowed for further development of interoperability, due to the availability of more data for financial modelling and parameterization. An illustration of this is the secondary market data for Optim Bonds on Danogo's marketplace. Gaining insight into the market clearing rates and volumes after they have been issued helps lending networks such as Liqwid to determine the right parameters for utilizing Optim Bonds as collateral. Grasping the dynamics of collateralized liquidation is necessary for a well-functioning and robust lending system. This past year marked the groundwork for the deployment of more modernized products and procedures. Over the next two years, groundwork was laid for a strong DeFi ecosystem, including launching core DeFi protocols, setting high standards, learning design patterns, and strengthening security. enable investors to invest in the fixed income market without any hassle. Investors can easily take part in the fixed income market with Optim Liquidity Bonds. In December 2022, our inaugural product, Optim Liquidity Bonds, was released. Through 2023, we have continually been making improvements to the protocol. Initially meant to encourage SPOs to become more active through additional delegation, Liquidity Bonds have primarily been utilized to leverage ISPOs. Borrowers have been keen to back ecosystem projects and take part in ISPOs with more ADA than they possess or are able to obtain through overcollateralized lending. Lenders, meanwhile, have been pleased to gain around double the base staking return by selling their ADA staking rights for a predetermined duration. Optim's TVL rose to an impressive 50 million ADA in the middle of the year when Cardano experienced its "DeFi summer". During 2020, Liquidity Bonds managed to yield a total of approximately 80 million ADA and is now stabilized in the range of 20-30 million TVL. Lenders in the market were able to reap an average APY of 6.5%. As Liquidity Bonds have shifted to more frequent emission of high-yielding, minimal-duration ISPO Bonds, the Optim DAO's fees have increased significantly; December saw it receiving 27,000 ADA in fees. We take pride in having created a viable marketplace that produces 'real yields' for creditors without being sustained by subsidies in the form of token emissions. During 2023, millions of ADA have gone toward interest payments to borrowers. Even though OPTIM tokens were distributed to liquidity providers at the onset of the year, emissions were halted without significantly affecting the market. Liquidity has remained robust, with over 3.5 million ADA granted in the previous period (456). Volume may be unpredictable and largely depend on a reliable supply of high-quality ISPOs, however the protocol is already fully-functional and requires very little upkeep from Optim Labs. We anticipate that the demand for Liquidity Bonds will remain strong for the entirety of 2024 due to increasing development on Cardano and the consistently strong backing of the ISPO for token distribution. have been created A Optim Token and a DAO have been established. This October, the launch of the $OPTIM token and Optim ODAO marked a major step towards decentralization. There are now around 1,500 $OPTIM holders and this figure is expected to increase with future airdrops to protocol participants. Furthermore, four ODAO votes have taken place, with one of them still ongoing, on a variety of essential matters. For instance, the ODAO has been driving the development of Optim by proposing, debating, and deciding on topics such as the formalization of the governance structure and liquidity parameters owned by the protocol. Votes for the ODAO have been cast by more than 10% of all $OPTIM that are in circulation. Since no members of the team or investors have voting tokens, the participation is purely driven by the community. Keeping this decentralized nature of the ODAO will be our priority in this year as more tokens unlock and certain actions will be taken to avert the usual problem of a consolidated voting block that is often found in many DAO's. As Optim steps into a new age of development and expansion on Cardano, it is important for the ODAO to keep up with the pace. We anticipate assisting in the optimization of governance to be in line with the protocol, as the number of choices made through decentralization increases. Up to the present Optim has been employed. Optim initially intended to pursue 'yield aggregation' for Cardano, however, this pathway wasn't viable during 2022 and 2023. This was a result of the delayed launch of DeFi primitives caused by technical obstructions along with a severe drop in market prices. Thus, we had to rethink our approach and ended up creating the Liquidity Bond product. Our new strategy of creating independent products with the aim of providing yield opportunities was met with great success with the unveiling of Liquidity Bonds. The demand for Liquidity Bonds relies on a sustained source of superior ISPOs on Cardano. We surmise that ISPOs as a viable and usual fundraising way will become obsolete in a period of 18–24 months if staking yield slips into the 2% range. Even though projects could still utilize ISPOs for advertising and token circulation, the fraction of supply apportioned is likely going to diminish, making taking advantage of borrowed stake a less attractive option. Liquidity Bonds are fully functional already and would not need much effort from the Optim team to stay that way. During Q2 and Q3 of 2023, Optim forged ahead by constructing a tranched lending platform to enable Cardano to comply with real-world assets (RWAs). Predictions are that the crypto realm of this emergent field will see remarkable growth in the upcoming 5-10 years, with EVM chains registering about $4 billion in RWAs in 2023. The majority of these resources are covered by US Treasury bills, like sDAI (MakerDAO) and stUSDT (Tron). We had largely completed designing the protocol and the back-end smart contract code, but then realized that native fiat-backed stablecoins wouldn't be available. Since a large proportion of RWAs necessitate the involvement of fiat-backed stablecoins, we had been hopeful when we discovered USDA (Emurgo) and USDM (Mehen). Nevertheless, this resulted in us suspending the project until these important assets of DeFi are accessible to Cardano. The remaining period from Q3 of 2023 through Q4 of 2023 was dedicated to creating the $OPTIM token, ensuring that the ODAO was secure, and planning the protocols that will determine the destiny of Optim. We at Optim are delighted to present our new era. Our advanced program of modern tools and systems provide a range of fresh possibilities. We are thrilled to announce our new era at Optim. Our cutting-edge program, which features modern instruments and systems, has opened up a range of exciting options. Optim is determined to continue realizing its mission of driving yield through creative protocols built on Cardano, but current situations have compelled us to contemplate newer and more daring approaches to achieving our goal. Optim has always put a premium on utilizing Cardano's distinctive features to the utmost. We relied on the native liquid staking system to construct our Liquidity Bonds, which can't be found elsewhere on the blockchain. As we aim to take our efforts to the next level, we have developed Leviathan, an L2 protocol. This necessary framework will let us launch more elaborate yield protocols and assist the DeFi network in surpassing numerous restrictions. To make real progress with DeFi as the years go by, it is essential to speed up processes, make various components work together seamlessly, and make the whole system interoperable. Leviathan capitalizes on Cardano's exclusive probabilistic transactions and its standout capacity to function properly due to genuine decentralization. While the phrase 'L2' has manifold interpretations, and there are those who may consider Leviathan a 'L1.5', we don't want to get distracted by phraseology. Our mission is to install hyperspeed, amalgamation, and interoperability in a practicable manner. As time goes on and more contributors join, we will steadily refine, enhance and progress the system. The fundamentals of Leviathan can be found in this article, and the whitepaper V1.1 should be available in the upcoming weeks. Significant advancement has already been done on Leviathan, with design and coding in progress. Optim has created a range of yield generation products, the first of which is OADA, tailored for use on Leviathan. More details can be obtained here and further documentation will be available in January. We are working to make the Cardano platform more dynamic by addressing technical challenges and extending its capabilities. Our aim is to supply a smooth and useful scaling solution that will be beneficial to the DeFi ecosystem. As we continue work on Leviathan and OADA, we anticipate having enough certainty to devise timetables and a release plan for the public by mid Q1 of 2024. Our focus in 2024 and beyond is directed towards embracing our own futures, pursuing an ambitious vision, and designing cutting-edge protocols that bring about growth, rapidity, and returns.

Source: https://optim-labs.medium.com/year-in-review-2023-6bf9db27fa39?source=rss------fintech-5