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ARTICLES
VIDEOS
TWITTER THREADS
LINKS
- Website - https://acala.network/karura
- Whitepaper - https://github.com/AcalaNetwork/Acala-white-paper
- Twitter - https://twitter.com/KaruraNetwork
- Discord - https://discord.com/invite/6QHVY4X
WHAT IS IT
Karura is a one-stop-shop DEFI hub. It is a It's a layer-1 smart contract platform that's scalable, Ethereum-compatible, and optimized for DeFi. Karura has the following → Dex/AMM, LP pools, Lending/borrowing, Bridges, Staking, Liquid staking, and Minting of stable coin aUSD. Karura “The Defi hub of KSM” aims to have the aUSD stable coin as the standard for the DOT ecosystem.
Built with the substrate technology, and a parachain on Kusama the Karura network shares the security and architecture as DOT, being natively interoperable and allowing for forkless upgrades, along with (XCM) Polkadot Cross-consensus Messaging so parachains can all communicate.
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kUSD STABLE COIN
The kUSD stable coin is unique. It is different than other major stable coins like UST (soft pegged to the US dollar) and backed by Terra/BTC. kUSD is an “over collateralized Stable coin” meaning the amount you need to “Mint” will be more than you get. This allows for more stability
Being “multi-collateralized” you can MINT it with a number of different Dotsama ecosystem coins.
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The kUSD stable coin is native to the Karura network (which is on dot), they have a Big sister network on Polkadot called Acala which has almost an identical architecture. On the Karura network, the stable coin minted is kUSD, there has been a proposal to change it to aUSD and have a unified stable coin through the Dotsama ecosystem.
EVM+
Many new blockchains that claim to be faster and cheaper than Ethereum, will still keep the Ethereum compatibility, to attract Solidity developers allowing them to reuse existing toolchains and migrate existing contracts with minimal effort.
The Karura EVM delivers the following benefits and features from the best of both Ethereum and Substrate platforms:
COMPOSABLE DEFI STACK
Smart Contract Dapps deployed in Karura EVM can directly use native and cross-chain assets such as DOT, ACA, aUSD, renBTC, as well as directly use Karura DeFi primitives (DeX, stablecoin lending, and liquid staking), bridges, oracle infrastructure, native and cross-chain liquidity
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ERC-20 tokens deployed in EVM can also be made available at runtime level, to be listed in the DeX, or (by governance approval) to be used as fee tokens. For example, Ampleforth will deploy AMPL contracts on Karura EVM, which will be made available as a native token, so it can be used to pay transaction fees and listed directly on our DeX.
FLEXIBLE FEES
With the Karura EVM, fees can be paid in any accepted tokens, such as ACA, aUSD, DOT, and wrapped BTC, KSM, KAR. More tokens can be supported as native fee tokens with a simple governance approval.
EVM ACCOUNT
Users can use one extension/wallet, and a single Substrate account to interact with the Substrate runtime, contracts in EVM, and wasm contracts or a hybrid of these. If a user wants to use a particular Ethereum address, then simply link it with his/her Substrate address (basically proving the user owns both addresses), thereafter the user can just use the Substrate account with Polkadot{js} extension or alike to sign any Ehtereum transactions seamlessly.
This allows users to use all functionalities within Karura and cross-chain capabilities without managing multiple accounts or wallets.
EVM ACCOUNT ON-CHAIN AUTOMATIC SCHEDULER
On Ethereum and most other EVM platforms, there is no way to automatically schedule a transaction natively. This means many useful and perhaps essential financial services that we take for granted today, such as subscriptions, are not possible.
On Karura and Substrate, the automatic scheduler is a native feature of the blockchain. It is now made available in the Karura EVM in the form of pre-compiled contracts that any smart contract can call upon.
This will enable a wide range of use cases such as automatic and recurring payment rails, subscription services such as a Web3 version of Stripe, automatic profit-taking, reinvestment mechanisms, and a means to liquidate risky positions without external actors like keepers.
ROAD MAP
This is an updating Notion that shows the Karura roadmap and progression. Each window will have a detailed description of how the team is going to take action.
KARURA TREASURY
The Karura treasury is a reserve of digital tokens, native and foreign to the Karura ecosystem governed by KAR holders, and funded by the fees with the purpose of enabling long-term network self-sustainability and growth.
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Acala can vote to use some of its Treasury if they want to or see somewhere the Acala network can benefit from.
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TOKENOMICS
Like all other layer-1 networks the token KAR can be used for Governance, transaction fees, and the following...
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The ACA coin as of April 4th 2022 has a Market Cap of $53m, and a Fully Diluted of $185m → only 29% of coins are circulating.
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INFLATION
The website for Karura also claims to have 0% inflation but they are running a Liquidity Mining program right now.
https://medium.com/acalanetwork/karura-token-holders-vote-to-enable-the-karura-dollar-kusd-the-first-stablecoin-on-kusama-kar-e2dfcd7b87b5
Along with Messari showing an inflation rate of 38% for this year.
https://messari.io/asset/karura/metrics/supply
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TEAM
Dan Reecer
Chief Growth Officer @ Acala and Karura. Previously launched Polkadot and Kusama @ Web3 Foundation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cHB4YP7frk 10:30
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