On March 18, 2023, we had an AMA with Australis. This project was the main focus of this AMA session. During this AMA, we received some amazing questions from the public. Australis also provided thorough project descriptions to the broader public. Let’s read this article to get a better understanding of what the AMA is saying.
Introduction
Aurority: Hi guys, I’m Landon- the community builder with Aurority. We update the latest information on Aurora about the ecosystem, analyze data, analyze projects, and provide instructional content. We also support users on how to use and integrate into the ecosystem. Welcome to a wonderful AMA with Australis. Can you introduce a little bit about yourself, the project, and the members?
Australis: Hi, nice to finally be here. Today we’re here to represent Australis.finance. I’m Asch, I’m in charge of Marketing and promotions. We have Nomikyn with us, he’s our tech lead and senior web3 dev. There are more blockchain enthusiasts involved in the development of the project like Moro, Electra, El Capitan, Curtis, and others, some of whom have been developing on web3 for over 5 years now. They’re incredible front-end, back-end, and blockchain devs.
Australis is a DeFi lending protocol on the Aurora Network that allows users to deposit their crypto assets, lend them out, and earn interest. We can also use it as collateral and borrow up to a percentage of their collateral from the liquidity pool in a different asset. The idea of building an LB protocol has been around the team for quite a while and the guys have been following up on the expansion of NEAR and their L1 solution for a while until they came across Aurora and how it works. It was pretty impressive and an amazing infrastructure to build on especially for a Lending and Borrowing protocol due to high transaction speed, low gas fees, and ethereum compatibility. So that’s when the idea came full circle and Australis came to be after which, considering the benefits, Aurora has to offer. We also decided to add flash loans to the protocol.
Answer the question from the community
Question 1 from ɐuᴉʌɹoſ ʇᴉʞ
“How does “flash loan” really works, considering that a user can borrow any amount of assets without providing any corresponding collateral? And what are your safeguards to avoid the ill effects of non-payment and defaults?”
Australis: Flash Loans enable users to borrow assets as long as the liquidity is returned to the protocol within one block transaction. They’re initially designed for developers and expert traders due to the technical knowledge required to execute one. Because it’s basically a smart contract that should be customized to include any other transactions that are supposed to generate a sort of profit for the borrower. Since it’s a smart contract, if the conditions are not met, the transaction will be failed, it’s like they’ve never taken the liquidity out of the protocol in the first place.
Question 2 from RokoN
“What is the roadmap for development and expansion of Australis DeFi in the coming years? How does Australis DeFi compare to other DeFi platforms in terms of functionality and user experience?”
Australis: We have mapped out the upcoming features and events that should take place in the next year and a half. We’re planning to release this roadmap together with our new landing page to contribute to the transparency of the project so be sure to stay tuned for the release date.
As for the second part of your question, we believe that we already have a better UX than the majority of the Web3 applications on the market. We will continue to build on top of that and always offer unparalleled user experience to our users.
Question 3 from maxone.lens
“May i ask: How much is the liquidation penalty? and How can I avoid getting liquidated? Thank you”
Australis: The liquidation penalty depends on the asset used as collateral; The liquidation Threshold for NEAR and AURORA is 65%, ETH and WETH 82.5%, WBTC 75%, DAI, and USDC 80%. Like most protocols, we’ve provided a health factor on your home page. After you connect your wallet you can find your status, including your health factors. To avoid liquidation, make sure your health factor doesn’t drop below 2. To give yourself more margin to avoid liquidation, you can repay all or part of your debt or add liquidity to the protocol and use it as collateral. Although, repayments can increase your health factor better than deposits can. You can check our precise parameters on doc.australis.finance.
Question 4 from Indieca
“What are the highlights Australis technology and products that you believe will help you succeed? How revenue does Australis generate to sustain the project, and what plans do you have to attract more users in the future?”
Australis: As we mentioned before, currently we are introducing flash loans to the Aurora network. We believe it has a significant impact on the capital efficiency and liquidity of the network. In terms of revenue, Australis takes a small cut of interest paid to depositors which would suffice for the sustenance of the project. But we want to expand and add features to attract more users. So we are planning to raise funds to reach our active wallets and TVL goals.
Question 5 from Miss Babycrypto
“Could you please tell us, what tools does Australis offer that will allow it to be competitive in the market and attract the attention of users for a long time. Besides this, could you also tell us if they offer any kind of rewards within this platform?”
Australis: We have briefly covered the features and tools in the previous questions. But I’d like to add that we’ll also be looking into collaboration with the ecosystem’s existing projects pretty soon so plenty of surprises there.
Within the protocol, liquidators who’re an essential part of any LB platform are constantly rewarded 5 – 10% of their liquidations.
Outside of the Dapp, we’ll definitely have many rewards across a series of marketing campaigns. We’re only just beginning our marketing and collaborations but we have our first campaign scheduled for Q2-3 2023 for which we’re currently fundraising. The rewards include specific NFTs, a small liquidity pool in several tokens, and discounts, you will find out soon enough.
As for the future, as soon as we hit a certain benchmark, we absolutely will have to provide the proper incentives to invite users outside of the Aurora community in. But obviously, the core community, the first joiners are going to benefit from being involved in the earlier plans.
Question 6 from PANGESTU
“What steps is Australis taking to ensure the security and integrity of user funds on its platform, and how does it leverage the benefits of decentralization to mitigate potential risks?”
Australis: We have based Australis on the most secure and battle-tested DeFi contracts. We have audits in negotiation. So we will continue to monitor the risks coming from Oracle and bridged assets very carefully.
Question 7 from Agg
“How does AustralisFi, as a lending protocol on the Aurora Network, leverage the advantages of the network’s scalability, interoperability, and speed, to provide users with a seamless and efficient DeFi experience, compared to other lending protocols in the market?”
Australis: We are leveraging Aurora’s seamless fast, secure network and bridge. With upcoming features such as Aurora Cloud and cross-contract calls, we seek to improve Australis’s composability.
Question 8 from Tufan
“How many mainnet’s and coins are supported in the Australis ecosystem? Can you give information about this? #AustralisFi has a token burn mechanism to limit inflation like other tokens?”
Australis: We are on Aurora mainnet. And we’ve listed NEAR, AURORA, ETH, WETH, WBTC, USDC, USDT, and DAI so far. At the moment Australis has not released any form of a utility or governance token besides our contracts’ debt token (astToken). There are new forms of governance introduced every day. We’re also aiming to innovate and build on Aurora. That is what has been setting this network apart from others so far. If we ever decide that Tokens are the way to go, we’ll release a full whitepaper and tokenomics about it and do a separate AMA on it.
Question 9 from ♪ Cΐℓli๏naire♛
“What is your plan for global expansion? At present, which regions are you focusing on building and growing to gain customers, users and partners?”
Australis: Pretty good question, since I have already covered the details of our marketing plans earlier. I’ll avoid repeating myself but let us answer this question with some perspective. DeFi in its nature is supposed to be global and free of borders. That’s what we’ll always be aiming for when it comes to expansion: transparency, decentralization, and development of personal sovereignty. So for starters, we’re focusing on Aurora’s existing community, regardless of region. We’ll continue to do so as long as we’re not breaching any specific guideline over which we have no power. Afterward, we’ll continue to build, raise awareness and focus on partnerships that make sense for us and the ecosystem.
Question 10 from It_Is_Eye
“Tell us some of the unique features of Lending & Borrowing services? Is there a “credit score” system for the lending system? What Terms & Conditions will apply? Is there a fixed loan amount such as (min/max, interest & collateral)? ”
Australis: The core concept is the same across all LB platforms; you deposit assets, use them as collateral and borrow another asset or deposit assets and lend to earn an interest based on the APY. But the features are different. Some platforms offer flash loans, p2p lending, isolated liquidity pools, cross-chain lending, innovative forms of governance if they’re decentralized, Staking, etc. We’ll publish a blog post about each of these features soon.
There is no credit score system when it comes to DeFi lending (unless you try out some p2p uncollateralized lending or a crypto line of credit). Because you’re already securing your loan in an over-collateralized manner. This means you can borrow up to a certain percentage (LTV) of your collateral (the highest I’ve seen is 85%). And as long as the value of your collateral doesn’t close in on the value of your loan, your collateral won’t be liquidated. I hope this covered all parts of your question.
Conclusion
Aurority: Thank you and the Community for being here today. Don’t forget to join and follow Australis Twitter and I am sure that the community will be looking forward to Australis’s event in the near future.
In addition, you can participate in many other great community activities organized monthly by Australis, I believe it will be very interesting and exciting.
And we have another event for the community. Follow me to get a chance to receive the reward and explorer the Ecosystem
We had a great Q&A session today with lively community discussion, do you have any last words to say to our community?
Australis: You can follow us on twitter.com/australisfi for more exciting news and updates and keep an eye out for our campaign, it’ll be super exciting. A new landing page is on its way that pretty much covers every access point you’ll need to reach us. Don’t forget to check out our docs to understand the specifics of Australis.finance. You can also get a testnet faucet from Aurora.dev and try a couple of transactions on testnet.australis.finance to get a grasp of the whole situation. That’s about it! Thank you for participating and for your amazing questions.
You can listen to the Recording of the AMA:
Contact us:
Australis Twitter | Medium | Website | Discord
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