A Year of Innovation: Incept to Clone, the Journey of a Decentralized Synthetic Asset Protocol
The past year has been extraordinary for us at Clone (formerly Incept), a decentralized protocol for synthetic assets. We’ve gone from a pair of co-founders to securing a successful seed round and expanding our team. We’ve experienced incredible growth, technological advancement, and generated exciting prospects for our project.
Clone was co-invented by myself, Mark, and my determined partner, Ku. In those early days, it was just the two of us putting countless hours into conceptualizing what has now taken shape as the next generation of synthetic asset exchanges. Our dream of creating a scalable, efficient exchange accessible to all, powered by our unique Comet Liquidity System (CLS), is now on the brink of becoming a reality.
On May 18th, 2022, we announced our private seed raise, garnering the support of 12 phenomenal partners. These partnerships not only fortified our vision but also catalyzed our ability to expand. We soon welcomed Aron, our Engineering Lead, and Brian, our Head of Frontend Development, into the fold. Together, we formed a powerhouse team focused on advancing our project beyond the prototyping stage.
A year ago, we only had a blueprint for the smart contracts that would underpin our exchange. We’ve now accomplished an array of impressive technical achievements. We’ve completed the smart contracts and built our health score functionality, providing users with a means to assess the health of their comet liquidity positions and their proximity to liquidation.
The team also developed highly efficient liquidation functionality, enabling the adjustment of risky comet positions. For Liquidity Providers (LPs), we created the Comet Manager Program. This program allows novice LPs to contribute capital to reputable LPs’ advanced liquidity strategies in return for a share in the success of the pool. Clone will also have its own sophisticated Clone Comet Manager Strategy, which will be available for anyone to contribute to on Mainnet.
One of the most significant features that we’ve developed over this past year is our Hybrid Collateral Model. This system allows us to accept 1:1 swaps between bridged tokens and onAssets. For example, it will be possible to mint 1 onBTC using 1 wBTC. By permitting users to freely interchange these assets, we’ve opened a gateway for arbitrageurs to capitalize on price discrepancies whenever Clone’s synthetic assets depeg. This feature not only provides profitable opportunities for traders but also aids in strengthening our price-pegging mechanism. The Hybrid Collateral Model is one of the key ways we’re ensuring Clone’s system remains robust, efficient, and finely tuned to market dynamics.
This past year the Clone team has also worked on the design and implementation of two distinct frontends, Clone Markets and Clone Liquidity. Clone Markets facilitates the trading of our synthetic assets (onAssets), while Clone Liquidity offers users an array of tools within the Clone ecosystem. This includes borrowing onAssets with overcollateralized positions and providing three different types of liquidity positions: unconcentrated liquidity, single pool comets, and multi-pool comets. These frontends will be publicly available on Devnet beginning June 30th.
Our vision is to continue expanding on Clone as the protocol grows. Upcoming projects include a liquidation bot, designed to automate our liquidation strategy, and the introduction of a third frontend, Clone Grow. Clone Grow is a platform that builds on Comet Managers, where users will be able to contribute to and benefit from even the most complex liquidity strategies.
It’s astounding to reflect on the journey from Incept to Clone. This past year has shown us that even in the complex world of decentralized finance, innovation and determination can create powerful solutions that redefine the synthetic asset space.
We want to express our gratitude to everyone who has been a part of this journey — our team, partners, and community. The road ahead is full of promise, and we look forward to continuing our journey in the ever-evolving DeFi space. Here’s to another year of growth, innovation, and success.
We look forward to showing everyone the results of our journey (so far!) with the opening of our protocol on the Solana Devnet, on June 30th.
👋 Join Clone Community
Website: https://clone.so/
Discord: https://discord.gg/3UH59b6BR9
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CloneProtocol
Want to join the team? https://clone-careers.super.site/
