ZERϴ Potential: the DeFi Experience

DeFi was fun at the beginning. Memes, fast profits, and big characters made it the opposite of the dull TradFi.

Fast-forward a few years, the space grew up and many degens got what they wanted: institutional investors to buy their bags. And in the process, DeFi became more boring… Luckily, not all is lost. The fun stuff will go to ZERϴ. This post outlines the potential for a new DeFi experience on the ZERϴ Network. 

DeFi: The Past, The Present, The Future 

If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll remember the crazy early days of DeFi. 

Yield farming, food tokens, insane APYs, and silly project names made DeFi profitable and entertaining. Of course, that was also when we learned about the risks of hacks, rugpulls, and (not) impermanent loss. 

To make sense of all that early chaos, Zerion launched its portfolio tracking app, which gathers all tokens, protocol positions, and rewards in a single interface. 

In less than five years, the number of DeFi protocols increased to thousands. Their combined TVL exceeded $100 billion during peak times. The whole space emerged into a serious industry that attracted the attention of major tradfi institutions. 

DeFi products also became more sophisticated.

Liquid staking, restaking, and real-world assets are now the most prominent narratives. These products offer reliable yields onchain to serious investors. However, they require substantial capital to generate any meaningful profits.

Meanwhile, OG DeFi protocols like Uniswap and Aave proved their staying power. They are now part of the global onchain infrastructure. Yet the lower yields for deposits and LPs in blue chip protocols now also mostly work for larger accounts.

But is that it? Is there any future for DeFi? 

Will decentralized finance only serve suits instead of apes? 

DeFi can be fun again. The key is to remove UX barriers to make it more enjoyable and rewarding. 

What makes ZERϴ different

DeFi was always open to everyone. Yet, not everyone could afford it in the early days.

During the DeFi Summer, gas fees often reached several hundred dollars for some transactions. While sky-high yields and a red-hot market made it worth it, low-bank players were usually priced out. 

Over the past few years, Layer-2 networks have brought gas fees down. Even mainnet Ethereum is now cheaper than ever as most transactions moved to L2s, reducing the demand for block space. 

However, $0.10 is still more expensive than zero. 

And the main problem with gas is not the cost but the friction it creates. You need to make sure you have enough to pay gas to deposit, withdraw, or swap. If you’re out of funds for gas, you’re stuck at least until you top up—and in a fast-moving market, this can lead to losses! 

That’s why at ZERϴ Network, we devised a way to eliminate gas fees. 

When making any transaction, you don’t need anything for gas. If you aped your whole account into a deposit, LP, or meme coin, that’s fine. You can still withdraw or sell without paying gas fees. 

Behind the scenes, gas fees still exist. Gas is abstracted away and paid for by Zerion and other apps. ZERϴ’s native account abstraction makes all transactions gasless and sponsored: 

• Sponsored — the paymaster smart contract pays gas on the user’s behalf… 
• Gasless — …using any token to pay gas fees

However, this gas-free deal is not for everyone. 

To fight bots and prevent spam, Zero Network will use Onchain DNA. It will evaluate each account based on its onchain history, unlocking free transactions only for real people. 

So, two things make ZERϴ Network stand out from other L2s: (1) fewer UX barriers for (2) real users. 

Now, let’s see what this means for DeFi buildoors. 

DeFi ZERϴ potential 

While any DeFi project is welcome to build on ZERϴ, the combination of L2 + wallet is particularly useful for protocols and dapps that make many transactions. 

Even on “cheap” L2s, making dozens of transactions is simply too annoying. You need to confirm the transaction every time. You need to make sure that you have enough for gas. And of course, gas costs spike right when you need to use DeFi — during big price moves, liquidations, and major token launches.

ZERϴ removes these hurdles by removing gas fees. 

Using ZERϴ in Zerion Wallet can bring the DeFi experience closer to Web 2.0 while maintaining full self-custody.  

In practice, as a user of ZERϴ, you can deploy 100% of your funds to DeFi. For example, if you have $1,000 on ZERϴ, you can swap it all into a token that generates the highest yield in some protocol. You don’t need to think about whether you’ll need $1 or $5 for gas costs to claim rewards or swap back.

Removing gas is only the first step. At a later stage, native account abstraction and tight integration with Zerion Wallet will open up new frontiers in DeFi UX. 

For DeFi protocols, account abstraction could enable new types of interactions, including batched, scheduled, and recurring transactions. As a user, you could move from one liquidity pool to another in one click (batching approvals, withdrawal, and deposit TXs). Then, you could automatically claim the yield every week (scheduled TXs). You might also pay a small fee (recurring transactions) for a portfolio managing subscription. 

As a result, we think ZERϴ will be the best network for DeFi protocols and apps that make lots of transactions, for example: 

• Derivatives 
• Leveraged trading 
• Memepads 
• NFTfi 
• Automated strategies 

While ZERϴ is still in testnet, it’s time to play around and prepare for the mainnet launch. Check out the ZERϴ Network docs to learn more. 

Try Zerion Wallet 

While you wait for the mainnet, you should also try using DeFi on other chains in Zerion Wallet. 

Zerion is already the best wallet for DeFi. Comprehensive position tracking, detailed charts and transaction history, P&L, and much more — all this makes Zerion the perfect companion for DeFi.

To bring this experience to the next level, Zerion is building ZERϴ to be the first L2 fully integrated with a wallet. The network will introduce UX improvements that are impossible to make at the wallet or app level.

That’s why we think the fun DeFi will eventually go to ZERϴ. See you there!