African DeFi Credit Union Platform Xend Finance Goes Live on BSC

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What Is Xend Finance?

Xend Finance was founded in 2019  by Aronu Ugochukwu and Abafor Chima. The Nigerian startup took part in both the Binance Incubation and Google Launchpad Africa Accelerator programs. The efforts were fruitful, and the company has secured some $2,200,000 from various investors, including Binance and Google, and alongside firms like Hashkey, NGC Ventures, and TechFusion Africa. TechFusion Africa, a software service provider, also made the Xend services available to its 5000 credit union members.

A credit union is a member-owned financial cooperative, providing services to members similar to retail banks services.

Xend finance describes itself as a cross-chain DeFi Platform for Credit Unions and Cooperatives. The project ultimately aims to fight the devaluation of native currencies as can be seen in many developing countries worldwide. The devaluation (inflation) is very high in some African countries. This was also the reason for Ugochukwu to start Xend Finance, helping people preserve value. The Nigerian Naira currency faces an inflation rate of 17%. 

To prevent (future) users of the Xend platform from losing more value over a night's sleep, Xend has created the solution in their smart contracts.

The platform lets users put in cryptocurrency or fiat money which will then be converted into crypto stable coins. The smart contracts will then stake the assets in: Compound, Aave, Fulcrum, dYdX, Venus, ForTube, DeFi Dollar, and Yearn Finance  De-Fi protocols. This secures the best yield over your savings. With promised yields up to 15%,  Xend surely beats any bank’s interest rates.

So instead of losing value, the Xend smart contracts will increase the value of staked assets. A big win for those fighting inflation of their currency.

Users can also utilize the possibility to take out a loan. These loans can be set up with flexible repayment terms.

Core Products

The straight-up user interface (UI) for both the web UI and mobile app makes staking very easy even for non-experienced users.

For the African Website, users are encouraged to make use of the Xend Mobile App, which opens a variety of features. The app supports features such as sending and receiving money via the telephone or just for paying a bill. Sending money to a telephone number is possible even if the other party does not use Xend. African Xend users also have access to an on-ramp into crypto or fiat money.

Xend also features another app on their website for the African market, an app called Geena. It is a marketplace enabling anyone to become a merchant with a broad reach. The app also lets you monitor business activities, keep track of sales, available products, and more. Together with the Xend app, users can really improve their financial situation.

For the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) website, there are three main ways to stake your assets;

• Personal Savings:

save up your money and be able to withdraw whenever you want. Users can choose from a fixed or variable interest rate. Currently, only $BUSD can be used for this form of saving. The current yield is 15% for fixed interest.

• Essusu:

Esusu describes traditional forms of cooperation in African societies. This involves groups of individuals who contribute to informal savings and credit associations for their mutual benefit. 

Funds are locked until the last contender has been paid his/her ROI. ROI can be withdrawn immediately though.

• Cooperative savings:

A user can create a savings plan and set parameters such as dividend cycles, number of users, and amount of funds. Other users can then join this "union." This is also a widespread way of saving in Africa, but, Xend is on the blockchain, and people can participate worldwide. This system utilized on the blockchain makes this kind of union more efficient.

For Essusu and Cooperative savings, a small fee is applicable for early withdrawal. These fees are on top of the usual fees to be paid for contract interactions (network fees).

By launching on the BSC the Xend Finance project is the first African-based project to have launched on the BSC. According to Binance's own CZ (Changpeng Zhao), "Africa is one of the most important continents, representing the future and emergence of DeFi and blockchain capabilities.” 

Xend Token

The $XEND token is the project's utility and governance token. The token is used to pay incentives to stakers and governance voting over protocol parameters.

There is a maximum supply of 200,000,000  $XEND tokens. The token exists on two chains (Ethereum and BSC), on the BSC there are 587,355  tokens in circulation.

Token sales were conducted in March 2021 on the Balancer and UniSwap platforms. Initial token price was set at $0.30 and the token is trading at $1.24 at the moment of writing. The token can be traded on various AMM's including PancakeSwap and UniSwap, and some Centralized exchanges like Gateio and Hoo.

Roadmap

For the future of the project we can refer to the project's roadmap in which it states that there will be an integration with Matic Networks (planned Q2 2021). Fiat on/off ramps in Europe and America is planned for Q3 as well as support for more crypto assets in the protocol.

The governance functions will also be enabled in the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the protocol continues to strive for more Centralized Exchange listings and partnerships with new credit unions throughout the year.

The Xend contracts have completed full Certik audits and CertiK offers Decentralized insurance. This is significant as the team aims for safe environment contracts are constantly monitored to find any un-cached "loopholes" or bugs in the contracts.

Summary

Xend Finance aims to help a lot of people to not only escape the devaluation of their native currencies but also provide banking services. This will enable many people in the world to perform transactions they normally could not. It also allows people to enter the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency, especially De-Fi.

The backing by Binance, Google, and the audits performed by Certik give a sense of safety to the protocol. This comes alongside the easy-to-use interfaces, understandable instructions, and documentation that helps out even the most inexperienced users.

With the launch of the BSC, users can enjoy low-cost and fast transactions. This should open the doors of Xend to more users as the BSC is readily available worldwide. Be your own bank, utilize the power of the BSC, and Xend for more stability and extra income.

Interested in more information? Check out Xend's website and social media:

Website

African Website

BSC Website

Twitter

Telegram

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