Linear Finance
Linear Finance (LINA) (founded in 2020) is a DeFi (Decentralized Finance) delta-one asset protocol capable of instantly creating synthetic assets with unlimited liquidity. The project opens traditional assets like commodities, forex, market indices and other thematic sectors to cryptocurrency users by supporting the creation of “Liquids” — Linear’s synthetic asset tokens.[1][2]
The protocol consists of various products like Linear.Buildr, a DApp used to manage Liquids using Linear (LINA) and other tokens as collateral. The exchange is specifically created to enable trading of a variety of Liquids with rapid confirmation times and robust security.[3]
The main goal of Linear is to provide a superior user experience with better scalability and greater speed. Linear Finance intends to provide a simple solution for users that want exposure to traditional assets while still benefiting from the features enabled only by blockchain technology.
The ticker symbol is LINA and its total supply is 10,000,000,000 LINA.
LINA Token
LINA is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum network whose main purpose is as collateral for Liquids (using Buildr) and for community governance of the protocol. All token holders have access to the Linear DAO, enabling them to vote on different initiatives and proposals, helping to shape the development of the Linear Ecosystem.[4]
Overview
Although Linear Finance is built on top of the Ethereum network, the protocol allows users to access other supported chains and transfer assets to them. In addition to digital assets, Linear enables customers to access traditional assets like forex and commodities through dynamic price feeds which act to solve the systemic front-running problem that occurs with many Decentralized Exchange (DEX) protocols.
LINA tokens serve as the base collateral to mint Liquids. However, customers can also use other digital assets like ETH and wBTC to cover 20% of this base collateral. The Linear Exchange provides unlimited liquidity for Liquids and lowers the settlement timeframe to as low as one second per block — making it suitable for high-frequency traders and those running algorithmic trading software.
One of Linear Finance’s most unique features is its proposed liquidation mechanism, which will be decided based on community governance. LINA holders are able to help choose transaction fees and how much to allocate to the insurance fund, among other options by voting.
Founders of Linear (Team)
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Kevin Tai | Chief Executive Officer |
| Drey Ng | Chief Technical Officer |
| Aedreon Marshall | Chief Marketing Officer |
| Jonathan Lei | Lead Blockchain Developer |
Number of Linear Coin Circulated
The total supply of LINA is currently 10 billion tokens. Linear utilizes an inflationary system with a decreasing rate until a terminal floor is reached. The inflation rate is initially set at 75%, but this decreases at 1.5% per week— and is subject to modification if a consensus is achieved by the LinearDAO.
Linear Finance secured a $1.8 million investment from reputable seed investors like Alameda Research, NGC Ventures and Hashed. In addition, the project conducted a small initial coin offering (ICO) in September 2020, raising a total of $310,000 by selling LINA tokens at $0.005 with a personal cap of $500 per participant.
Of the total supply, 40% is reserved for staking rewards, 15% for the Linear Finance reserve, and 10% to the ecosystem. The team also has a 10% allocation, while advisors have 5% — both team and advisor tokens are subject to a vesting schedule.
As per early projections by the Linear team, 40% of the LINA supply will be in circulation around 40 months after the genesis event, though this may be lower due to potential token burns.[5]
Linear Protocol’s Backbone
The backbone to Linear’s protocol is the collateralized debt pool that is backed by the Linear token, DAI, and eventually other assets. So users who provide collateralized assets to the debt pool are able to create “Linear USD”. Linear USD can then be used to purchase other synthetic assets (Linear Liquids) on the exchange. The collateralized assets are then pooled to enable instantaneous liquidity and act as a counterparty. The Linear token will also act as a governance token allowing holders to vote on distribution models, future assets, oracle selection, pledging ratio, and more. The Linear Token holders in the debt pools will also receive a proportion of fees from the synthesization of assets.
LinearDAO
To facilitate the proper functioning of the Linear platform, the LinearDAO will be in place to overwatch the platform. LinearDAO will consider important functions and parameters of the platform including:
- Pledge Ratios
- LINA inflation rewards and frequency
- Split of transaction fees including: burns, fee claims and Linear Reserve
- New functionalities and technological roadmaps
- Processing community proposals and voting to ensure best optimization for platform
Collateralization
When it comes to collateralization, Buildr, the decentralized dApp, takes a hybrid approach. To generate a synthetic asset, users need to deposit a mixture of LINA and other cryptocurrencies. The ratio must be 80:20 where 80% of the collateral must be LINA and the other 20% is other cryptocurrencies.
Staking
Staking is a crucial part of Linear Finance ($LINA). There are various incentives in place to incentivize users to stake their LINA tokens. Users are able to earn rewards via:
Exchange Fees Rewards: Currently, the initial transaction fee collected from users on the Linear platform is set at 0.25%. These fees are then distributed to LINA stakers at a pro-rata basis if their Pledge Ratio (P ratio) is above the threshold. For non-LINA stakers, the rewards may also be available depending on the decision of the community’s governance council in the future.
Inflationatory Rewards: As of right now, the starting inflation rate is at 75% which will diminish on a weekly basis of 1.5%. Stakers will be able to receive such rewards weekly as well if their P ratio is above the threshold.
Yield Farming Campaign Rewards: With the explosion of yield farming and the DeFi (Decentralized Finance) market, Linear has also added the crucial element of yield farming. Yield farmers will help maintain Linear’s debt pools and the whole platform, itself. During the first two years of the platform, users who are active on the exchanges can receive token bonuses. All of these token bonuses will then be able to be transferred into other liquidity pools like Balancer, Curve, and Uniswap.
How to get LINA Tokens
Normal Users:
- Get LINA tokens via fiat payment gateway partners
- Staking LINA tokens via Buildr to build “l”USD
- Get Liquids exposure using “l”USD and exchanging among different Liquids via Linear.Exchange
- Claim the transaction split and inflationary reward
- Convert the Liquids exposure back to “l”USD
- Burning the “l”USD to unlock the staked LINA tokens
Market Makers:
- Get LINA tokens via fiat payment gateway partners
- Staking LINA tokens via Buildr to build “l”USD
- Depending on net position of a particular Liquid, marketmaker can help stabilize the debt pool by going the other way; example: long position of “l”XAU, marketmaker goes short on XAU
- Linear will incentivize the marketmaker to act by giving extra yield (LINA token) with the inflation reward and transaction split for their efforts in stabilizing the debt pool
Linear.Exchange
In order to solve the fundamental issues of speed and interoperability of many traditional crypto exchanges, Linear created their own exchange in hopes of addressing key issues. The team created a platform where transactions will occur faster with almost unlimited liquidity. The exchange will allow the Liquid settlement time to be lower down to seconds with the help of blockchain technology (compared to T+2 in traditional securities).
Linear is currently working with BSC to lower the settlement timeframe as it has a blocktime as low as 1 second as well as instant finality. Linear.Exchange is able to combine the best of both worlds: infrastructure of Ethereum, high TPS of BSC, and the most looked for tooling. Another benefit of the system is that when creating Liquid there will be minimal transaction fees as compared to traditional gas fees paid on Ethereum. With the platform’s BSC-based oracle, it will allow quick refreshment of fees in seconds while benefiting from lower fees. [6]
Exchanges Listed
The top exchanges for trading in Linear are currently:
- Huobi Global
- FTX
- Upbit
- Bithumb
- Hoo.
Partners and Strategic Investors
Linear has carefully chosen its partners for their potential long-term growth, development and sustainability.
Investors
- Alameda Research [7]
- CMS [8]
- BlackEdge [9]
- DuckDao
- Evernew Capital
- Huobi Global
- GBV
- Vendetta Capital
- Moonrock Capital
- Soul Capital
- NGC Ventures
- Kenetic
- Hashed
Strategic partners
- 3Commas
- BitMax.io
- Band Protocol
- ellipti
- Hex Trust
- imToken
- Moonbeam
- Nervos
- Panony
- Slowmist
- Umbrella
- Winkrypto
