How Maple Finance is bringing DeFi to traditional clientele
Decentralised finance usually thinks of itself as a solution to the problems of traditional finance, which is a system that’s costly and tilted towards bigger players, among other things. DeFi is an ecosystem few people can participate in on the same terms as whales, at least in theory, because all that matters is money and smart contracts.
Throwing out “reputation-based lending” (basing a loan on the reputation and ability to repay of the borrower) has been one of the aspects of DeFi that’s worked against it, preventing the institutional borrowers that would be needed to elevate DeFi into the financial stratosphere from coming across.
As long as institutions need to commit more money than they’re borrowing in order to get a loan (“over-collateralisation”), that inefficient use of the company’s money was never going to be attractive. A company’s reputation is worth something, but a smart contract can never take that into account.
Enter Maple Finance.
Maple Finance was formed to dedicate itself to bringing the best practices of traditional finance, adding them to the natural advantages of the DeFi ecosystem. The result is a best-practice environment for institutional DeFi.
Maple has created lending pools that are run by industry experts, and a system of tokens and smart contracts that functions intelligently to balance reward for lenders vs protection against loan defaults. They are specifically for institutional borrowers, who are put through the DeFi equivalent of a credit check by “pool delegates” who then negotiate loan terms.
However, regular DeFi users can deposit money into pools and get high returns, with no minimum amount of investment and only a 90-day lock-in. At GCISL, we allow you to do this with even more ease.
Demand for Lending and Borrowing is Increasing
The DeFi space is growing, and the demand for lending (for better returns than traditional finance) and borrowing (easier access to capital) is also growing. The digital assets space has never been more full of start-up activity, and that all needs crypto funds to finance (USD Coins are always a favourite to borrow).
It’s not just America, though. The demand for lending and borrowing happens worldwide, with particular demand coming from financial centres such as Hong Kong.
Regulation Built-in
However, all this growth comes with an increase in scrutiny, and (more importantly) regulation, both from the US and from countries all over the world, each having its own different rules and regulations for institutional investment in crypto.
Luckily for institutions, regulatory compliance is built-in to Maple’s operation. For instance, the pool delegates do KYC (“Know Your Customer”) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering). That and assessing creditworthiness by actually looking at the company’s history are top-quality due diligence. This provides future-proofing for the crypto growth ahead, and an approach that big businesses and institutions find a lot more reassuring than the pseudo-anarchy sometimes encountered in regular DeFi.