Abstract
Zcash (renZEC) liquidity has been growing steadily on Ethereum since it became possible to wrap it, and has increased 10x in a month, signaling an organic interest in utilizing it within the DeFi ecosystem. Given its limited integration by other protocols, C.R.E.A.M. has an opportunity to capture the lending and borrowing market for this asset. renZEC’s recent whitelisting on Balancer already supports earning yield on the asset, and its consideration by MakerDAO to be added as a collateral type further strengthens the case that this asset will find a home on Ethereum, especially when listed by C.R.E.A.M.
Ren Project Background
The Ren Project launched RenVM, a byzantine fault-tolerant network that is able to securely in a decentralized manner do ECDSA threshold key generation and signing via sMPC, which allows RenVM to securely manage (ECDSA) private keys of different assets like Bitcoin and Zcash, and wrap these assets on smart-contract chains like Ethereum (soon also Binance Smart Chain and other chains). Since launch, RenVM has processed around $1B in total volume of Bitcoin, Zcash and Bitcoin cash going to and from Ethereum.
RenVM is a decentralized crypto asset custodian that:
- enables universal interoperability between blockchains: anyone can use RenVM to send any supported asset to any application on any supported host chain in any quantity.
- has robust security*: large bonds, large shard sizes, and continuous shuffling make RenVM extremely difficult to attack, even for irrational adversaries. In the unlikely event of a successful attack, RenVM can restore lost funds through seizing bonds.
- is scalable: as more assets are locked into the custody of RenVM, the algorithmic adjustment of fees allows RenVM to automatically scale its capacity to meet demand.
- provides an optimal user experience: users can interact with multiple assets, applications, and chains with only one transaction.
*when rolled out in the next mainnet phases, currently the network is centralized to allow time for bootstrapping network security as more nodes in RenVM are coming online
renZEC is a tokenized representation of ZEC on the Ethereum blockchain. It is implemented as a standard ERC-20 contract, and backed 1:1 by native ZEC locked in RenVM, a decentralized custodian. It is redeemable at any time for native ZEC. Individuals can acquire renZEC by minting it with native ZEC via the RenBridge, or through trading it on decentralized exchanges.
The benefits of onboarding renZEC for C.R.E.A.M. include:
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Being the first mover on supporting Zcash in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem, supporting a cool asset which provides positive marketing about C.R.E.A.M., and capturing this asset’s money market on Ethereum
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Creating pipes between C.R.E.A.M’s Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain money markets, as renZEC (and renBTC etc.) will be launched on Binance Smart Chain in the coming weeks, allowing for users of C.R.E.A.M. to easily move their loans or locked supply within C.R.E.A.M. on one chain to the other chain through the bridging by RenVM, fortifying C.R.E.A.M’s role within the DeFi ecosystem as the first cross-chain lending platform
