Why the Aave project launched its own stablecoin, review by Crypto Upvotes experts

The Aave project has launched a GHO token with a peg to the dollar exchange rate. We tell you how it works and how it can help popularize the sphere of decentralized finance

The Aave lending platform eliminates traditional intermediaries such as banks. And the service runs on the Ethereum blockchain and uses software smart contracts to automate lending and borrowing operations. Aave was founded in 2017 by Stani Kulechov, a Finnish entrepreneur with a legal and financial background.

A user-friendly interface and a number of innovative functional solutions have made Aave one of the leading DeFi platforms. The protocol allows users to earn interest on their crypto assets. And by investing them in so-called liquidity pools. From these pools, borrowers get loans. They pay interest on the funds. And that is shared between the lending users and the platform itself. Interest rates depend on market conditions and are set on the basis of supply and demand.

To work with Aave it is enough to have a cryptocurrency wallet with the function of signing transactions, such as MetaMask, and cryptocurrency to deposit into the protocol. Once deposited, there is an immediate opportunity to either lend the funds. And at the same time receiving interest, or to borrow some assets against their collateral. Borrowers have access to many assets, including the cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). As well as the largest by capitalization stablecoins – Tether USD (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Aave is now entering the territory of the latter, but is taking a slightly different approach.

Stablecoins linked to the dollar exchange rate are some of the most popular assets on Aave and other similar platforms

The most capitalized stablecoins are USDT and USDC, issued by Tether and Circle, respectively. Both coins are managed by centralized organizations. And which maintain reserves for their “stablecoins” in fiat currencies, gold, securities, and other assets. These reserves provide stability to the exchange rate. And the loss of that stability, even short-term, is considered an abnormal event for the market.

However, Aave’s own stablecoin, issued under the ticker GHO, is backed by assets backed on Aave. And is programmed so that its value on the Aave network is always exactly $1. This is another attempt by the crypto market to create less volatile cryptocurrencies that are not dependent on a centralized issuer.

Borrowers often pledge cryptocurrencies on Aave to borrow specifically stablecoins. Due to the lack of exchange rate volatility, they can be more convenient for payments than, for example, the same bitcoin.

There are already several decentralized (algorithmic) stablecoins on the market. The most capitalized of these is Dai (DAI), operated by MakerDAO, a credit DeFi platform that competes with Aave. Like Dai, GHO will not be issued by a single issuer. It will be managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) known as AaveDAO. And its issuance will take place in transactions on the lending platform. To oversimplify somewhat, it will actually be collateralized by collateral.

GHO platform stablecoin

The platform’s native stablecoin helps diversify [traditional] stablecoins. And that includes in the Aave protocol itself. As well as the GHO revenue generated by the interest. And charged to borrowers in the Aave protocol, will allow AaveDAO to allocate more funds to community participants. And including risk managers, developers and security experts.

Our experts say that GHO in its own way will help popularize DeFi as a non-volatile crypto asset. The company is also developing a social protocol called Lens. And it needs a network effect and interested users. On the basis of this protocol it is possible to build full-fledged analogs of existing social networks.