HARD Protocol Version 2 introduces significant changes and enhancements to the HARD cross-chain money market. Catering to the needs of institutional players will take DeFi to the next level of mainstream adoption.
HARD Protocol is a decentralized money market built on the Kava platform and enables lending and borrowing of cross-chain assets. In the Version 2 upgrade, several enhancements will become accessible to financial institutions looking to explore the decentralized finance industry. Providing an option for the companies that hold the largest currencies in the world including Bitcoin to earn +25% APY without counterparty risk is a gamechanger for decentralized finance.
The Kava 5.1 public testnet launch event was earlier scheduled for March 31, 2021, which was postponed as it didn’t receive enough votes from the community to implement Proposition 40. As Kava is a decentralized project and dependant on the community to implement any proposal, it has renewed the attempt by floating another upgrade proposal that will be opened for voting soon. When the event concludes, Kava 5.1 will launch on the mainnet, as does the HARD Protocol V2 upgrade. The technology to expand Kava’s appeal and the HARD money market confirms the team’s vision to bring cross-chain DeFi solutions to a global audience.
Brian Kerr, the CEO and Founder of Kava underlined the importance of community involvement and voting on proposals by saying, “Bitcoin and other blockchain platforms have enabled users to take control, removing the need for banks and middlemen. Now users can custody their digital assets, store value and make payments without the fees and regulators who censor financial freedom. However, with this new great power comes great responsibility. The old centralized paradigm has users as passive clients where they give all the responsibility to the centralized counterparty. The new decentralized paradigm that makes platforms like Kava possible places control and power in the hands of the users that use it. It’s the collective power of users that dictates when Kava can upgrade or make changes based on how they vote democratically. We can build great software all day at Kava Labs, but we need the Kava community to step up and be active participants, vote on what software upgrades they want, and ensure the evolution of the Kava blockchain continues.”
With HARD Protocol Version 2, borrowing with variable interest rates will become available to all users. Additionally, the upgrade introduces support for distributing the HARD token, the governance token of the HARD Protocol to both suppliers and borrowers of assets which further improves the effective yields offered to lenders on the platform and ensures all users, lenders and borrowers alike, get a say in the ongoing governance and evolution of the platform.
As part of the HARD Protocol Version 2 upgrade, developers and end-users across of a wide range of cryptocurrency asset types will now for the first time have the ability to earn interest denominated in their native asset.
Additionally, the HARD Governance model will undergo some changes and enhancements. The HARD community of token holders have the power to update protocol parameters, add money markets for additional crypto-asset types, and update allocations of HARD token rewards in each money market to drive demand and usage through the built-in governance processes. Not only will this help grow the appeal of the HARD money market, but it will also empower our users further.
HARD Protocol continues to flexibly adapt to how retail users and financial institutions use the cross-chain money market to earn superior yields on digital assets. Enhanced governance by the community plays a crucial role in those proceedings as we seek to optimize the system even further. Hard Protocol will continue to evolve, upgrade, and make future changes through its decentralized governance process to ensure it will always suit the needs of its growing user base.
More details about HARD Protocol can be found at https://www.kava.io/hard-protocol