Hello everyone — and welcome to a short discussion of blockchain ecosystems. EmiSwap is building something new in DeFi — an ecosystem that will be both profitable and very engaging. Why is it so important and different from the usual approach?
‘Ecosystem’ must be one of the most often used (some would even say abused) words in the blockchain. For many, it’s just another way to say ‘platform’, but if you look it up in a dictionary, you’ll find something different. “Ecosystem: a system, or a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment” — or, in a non-literal sense, a complex network or interconnected system’ (Oxford Languages).
Interconnectedness and interaction are the most important words here. In DeFi (or any other P2P system) users offer services to each other, but there is also an intermediary layer that they interact with. A simple platform that offers services for money isn’t an ecosystem.
In terms of interconnectedness, DeFi is a bit like a Russian doll: it’s a big overarching ecosystem that contains within itself smaller ecosystems. Let’s look at this hierarchy in more detail.
The structure of DeFi
If we look at the whole DeFi industry as a ‘community of organisms’, which organisms would that be?
- Blockchains: for now it’s mostly Ethereum, but there are already DeFi projects on EOS, TRON, and Waves, and the arrival of Polkadot and Cosmos is surely going to shake things up (if you remember, we told you about our partnership with the Polkadot-based NFT project Xeno);
- Nodes and validators: servers (users) that confirm transactions and add blocks to the blockchain
- Wallet developers: where would we be without MetaMask? :)
- dApps: individual trading, swapping, asset-issuing, and lending platforms, such as EmiSwap, Compound, or Aave;
- Liquidity providers: regular users (mostly individuals, but also institutions) that deposit funds in dApps, allowing them to operate;
- Decentralized oracles: services that allow smart contracts to obtain data from external sources (Chainlink is an example);
- Interoperability layers: emerging frameworks that allow blockchains to exchange data and assets (such as Polkadot);
- Aggregators: protocols that let users shift their funds from one DeFi protocol to another (example: Yearn)
- Blockchain security companies: they audit DeFi smart contracts to make sure that users won’t lose their money.
This list is far from complete: you could also include founders, journalists, marketing agencies — all those who make DeFi possible.
Zooming in to individual ecosystems
On a deeper level, every quality DeFi project is a complex ecosystem of its own: you could compare it to a cell within an organism. Taking EmiSwap as an example, the ecosystem’s elements are:
1) The dApp: a combination of code and a graphical front-end interface;
2) Liquidity providers that supply crypto to swapping pools;
3) Traders: those who swap tokens and pay transaction fees;
4) ESW: our platform’s native token;
5) NFT Magic Cards: unique digital objects that add a powerful gamification element;
6) Yield farming: a system allowing users to ‘grow’ new NFT Magic Cards by depositing liquidity in trading pools;
7) Magic Cards marketplace: a place for EmiSwap users to buy and sell Magic Cards;
8) Tournaments: gamified events for Magic Card holders that further increase engagement;
9) Partnerships: connecting links to other individual DeFi ecosystems, such as Xeno;
10) Governance: the possibility for ESW token holders to participate in decision-making.
As you can see, an ecosystem includes both dApp modules (such as trading, farming, and governance), assets (ESW, NFTs), and types of users (liquidity providers, yield farmers). They are all ‘organisms’, and they all interact.
Why is the EmiSwap ecosystem so special?
We should note that EmiSwap has more interactive potential than most DeFi ecosystems out there, mostly thanks to the integration of NFTs and gamification. Let’s be honest: apps like Uniswap or Compound are very useful, but not particularly engaging or fun. You won’t want to spend any more time with them than necessary.
By contrast, EmiSwap with its collections of colorful Magic Cards that you can farm, trade, or battle over in tournaments, will become a real blockchain entertainment hub. Users will interact in many more ways than simply swapping tokens — and we do hope that our gamified concept will become an example for many other platforms to follow.
Would you like to be among the first lucky users to experience this visionary gamified ecosystem? Then join the EmiSwap token sale and buy at least 500 ESW: you’ll receive your first NFT Magic Card for free! For details, contact us through our official Telegram chat.
