NearPad Launches v2, Rebrands to Unify Ecosystem

What is in a name? On the one hand, it’s intended to serve as an identifier for a particular subject. On the other hand, it’s meant to provide more information about that subject and set it apart from others in its class. Names are important. They not only tell us what someone, or something, is called, but they also subtly convey a sense of its character.

Knowing that the name defines the identity of any subject, NearPad was christened as such in order to closely cement it to the ecosystem it was developing for — the NEAR ecosystem. NearPad has been a return to form for blockchain innovation where development is driven by a desire to solve palpable problems rather than abstractions. Developed on the emerging NEAR blockchain. Focusing on interoperability, accessibility, negligible gas fees, and scalability, NEAR’s development has incorporated some of the best research in the field with none of the weaknesses, creating a blockchain ready for mass consumption and adoption.

However, in the many months that we’ve been live, there’s been criticism and feedback from our community regarding the brand and product identity which can be broadly summarized as follows:

• The “pad” suffix is almost ascribed to launchpad platforms, hence the common perception from most newcomers to our ecosystem is “NearPad is just a launchpad”
• The absence of unified interface that puts all our products within a single-click for all users

After careful consideration and deliberations with ecosystem stakeholders, it is with great pleasure that we announce the rebranding and new look of NearPad.

NearPad is now Pad.Fi

https://youtu.be/Rn1aZZU4GqQ

IMPROVED UI

Pad.Fi showcases a fully custom UI that is more information-rich, and adhering to NearPad’s emphasis on design and user experience, bringing forward an all-in-one platform.

Everything you need in one place

Launchpad/DEX

Pad.Fi aims to optimize its ecosystem to the user’s needs, retaining the simplicity of our most powerful tools.

Pad.Fi is positioning itself to be more than yet another launchpad in recognition of the fact that DeFi users will also need access to tools and interfaces for maximizing their portfolio’s potential, some of which are:

• DEX

Pad.Fi’s DEX aggregator allows users to benefit from different connected decentralized exchanges in a single interface, offering a better token swap rate and access to liquidity pools.

• Limit Order

Want to buy ETH for no more than 500$, but don’t want to stay glued to the monitor? Place a limit order! Our v1 launch supports 5 assets — PAD, WETH, USDT, NEAR, WBTC — and 9 pairs. The UI filters out unavailable pairs, so when you select an asset, you will only see its available trading pair. We will be adding more assets and pairs. v1 goes live within 24 hours

• Yield Farming

Through yield farming, token holders are incentivized to stake their assets, either as single staking or liquidity pool token, for users to borrow or deepen the liquidity pool for trading asset pairs. In return, liquidity providers and stakers earn returns on their staked assets through annual percentage yields (APY) as high as five digits depending on how early they are.

• Staking

Maximize yield by staking PAD and earn rewards.

When your PAD is staked into the PAD staking pool, you receive iPAD in return for voting rights and a fully composable token that can interact with other protocols.

What’s Next?

Pad.Fi is set to pave the second leg of where NearPad left off, now even more welcoming to users, backers, budding projects and most importantly the community. Our development in the coming weeks will reflect this development and is set to include:

• Lending and Borrowing: Using a custom implementation for improved capital efficiency and composability within the ecosystem
• DEX Aggregator: Given the proliferation of DEXs on the network resulting in liquidity fragmentation and disparate ecosystems for DEX governance tokens, a unified interface for users to easily locate the best source of liquidity for the asset they want to acquire and competitive rates across other sources will go a long way in easing the pain point of new users on the network
• Token Unification and DAO: With v2 marking a critical launch in our development, a revamp of the token and its reward mechanism is also needed to bring all its various functions under one token class. Once this is achieved, the governance module will be deployed for the DAO to start proposing and voting.