dForce (DF) is a cryptocurrency and interoperable network of DeFi (decentralized finance) and financial smart contracts, protocols, and decentralized applications (DApps) built on Ethereum. The protocol is governed by the DF token. In April 2020, dForce announced that it secured $1.5 million in a seed round led by crypto VC fund Multicoin Capital^[3].

Overview

dForce advocates for building an integrated and interoperable open finance and monetary protocol matrix, including asset protocols (USDx, GOLDx, dToken), lending protocols, and liquidity protocols.
On April 15, 2020, dForce announced a $1.5 million funding round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Huobi Capital and China Merchants Bank International (CMBI), the investment arm of one of the biggest banks in China.
On April 19, 2020, dForce lost about 99% of its assets in a hacker attack. In several days, the hacker that drained $25 million in cryptocurrency from dForce sent back almost all the stolen assets.
On April 19, 2020, dForce lost about 99% of its assets in a hacker attack^[1]. In several days, the hacker that drained $25 million in cryptocurrency from dForce sent back almost all the stolen assets^[2].

Asset Protocols

USDx

USDx is a synthetic coin that offers price stability and is backed by a reserve asset. Presently, its underlying portfolio includes 80% USDC, 10% TUSD, and 10% PAX, which is adjustable through on-chain governance. It also runs with a systematic interest system. To earn interest, users need to deposit the USDx into the USR contract.

USR

USR (USDx Saving Rate) is the systematic interest of USDx. USDx holders are entitled to a systematic interest by simply depositing USDx into the USR contract. They should expect additional interest income by supplying USDx to lending protocols integrated with USR. Instant withdrawal capability is also supported.

GOLDx

GOLDx is sponsored by physical gold and doesn't have denominations in the more common Troy ounce but in grams. This token has zero charges during on-chain transactions and has great compatibility with all DeFi (Decentralized Finance) protocols (with the singular exception of transactions with PAXG, which remain levied by Paxos Standard).^[4]

Yield Markets

dForce's yield market interface is user-friendly and accessible for a yield aggregator. The user operates through the ERC20 token and after depositing, receives dToken that is proportionate to the stake in the pool.

Liquidity Protocols

dForce Trade

dForce Trade (an upgrade of dForce Swap) is a smart contract deployed on the Ethereum mainnet in October of 2020.

dForce trade involves an instant swap of stable assets and accepts swapping for the majority of the globally accepted and dominant Stablecoins, including USDx, Tether (USDT), HUSD, BUSD, USD Coin, PAX, TrueUSD, DAI. Traders can also swap between ERC20 Bitcoin assets like HBTC and WBTC. The exchange rate on the platform is dependent on and determined by the real-time price of each asset. The average rate over various sources is obtained to offer the best user experience and competitiveness with no fees attached to transactions on dForce trade.

The trading limit of each asset remains conditional and dependent upon the available liquidity of each asset, first-timers are required to sign twice when trading. The first signing is required to activate the traded asset and the other to validate the transaction.

dForce Trade integrated GasToken (GST) which can effectively smooth out the price of gas. GasToken is an Ethereum ERC20 smart contract that lets users tokenize gas, storing gas when it is cheap, and use/deploy this gas when it is expensive.

The security audit of the dForce Trade was carried out by one of the world's best security companies in blockchain called PeckShield.

Lending Protocols

The dForce network does not run an active lending protocol, though the platform is currently working on and will soon release the following:

1. Hybrid Lending Facility: Allows users with unique needs and risk tolerance to interact with a variety of separate borrowing pools
2. Fully Open and Permission-less Protocol: More risk control parameters in place and various capital supply sources.

Tokenomics

dForce Token (DF) is the utility token that facilitates governance, risk buffers, and interest alignment across the dForce Network. The token has a total supply capped at 1 Billion DF tokens.^[8]
$DF is currently being traded on the following crypto exchanges:

• Binance
• gate.io
• Huobi global
• Uniswap
• Phemex.
• Bitrue, etc.^[9]

Allocation of tokens by the dForce network:

DF Mining

Champagne Power Pool (dToken)

1. To receive dToken automatically, supported assets (USDT, USDC, or DAI) should be deposited through the dForce Yield Markets.
2. To earn DF, dToken received through the dForce staking portal should be staked.

$GOLDx Rush Pool (GOLDx/USDx liquidity mining)

1. USDx and GOLDx of equivalent dollar value should be prepared.
2. Deposit should be made of the GOLDx and USDx through the Uniswap GOLDx/USDx Pool.
3. Uniswap LP shares Token (UNI-V2) reflects in the user's wallet after deposit.
4. Using the platform of the dForce Staking Portal, Uniswap LP Share Token received should be staked to earn DF.

Singularity Pool (DF/USDx liquidity mining)

1. USDx and GOLDx of equivalent dollar value should be prepared
2. A deposit should be made of the GOLDx and USDx through the Uniswap DF/USDx Pool.
3. Uniswap LP shares Token (UNI-V2) reflects in your wallet after a deposit is made.
4. Using the platform of the dForce Staking Portal, Uniswap LP Share Token received should be staked to earn DF.

Lendf.me

How to supply and borrow assets on lendf.me
Lendf.me is a DeFi (decentralized finance) protocol that was created by the dForce Foundation under the dForce network to grant access to lending operations for users on the Ethereum platform.

Lendf.me Hack

dForce secured a $1.5 million funding round, one that had Huobi Capital and CMB International in participation led by the crypto venture fund Multicoin Capital. The company had made a statement earlier that funds gotten from the investments were to be used to expand its team and also for product offering development.
On April 19, 2020, news broke that $25 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) was stolen from dForce’s lending protocol Lendf.me by hackers that took advantage of a known security weakness in ERC777 token imBTC that was integrated into the system. The company later released an official statement confirming the news. According to DeFi data aggregator DeFi Pulse, the total value of funds locked in dForce’s protocol fell from almost $25 million to just $10,000 overnight. After an investigation, it was discovered that funds were sent to Compound and Aave protocols. This incident led to temporary freezing of transactions on Lendf.me and a shutting down of its official website.

Funds Restored

On April 21, 2020, the hackers returned the stolen funds. Through an exposed IP address, a negotiation was carried out with the hackers using blockchain transactions. By May 4, 2020, dForce team returned 100% recovered funds to Lendf.me users, which was around $23.8 million. The difference could actually be narrowed down to the drop in the price value of Bitcoin within the period.

Following the recovery, the dForce team shared the set of actions dForce planned to take, including:

• Airdrop 2,000,000 DF tokens to Lendf.Me users who were exposed in the hack;
• Create a dForce Secure Asset Fund for Users (dSAFU). The dForce Foundation elected to allocate 50,000,000 DF tokens into this dSAFU as its start-up capital
• Set up a bounty program of a total of $500,000 to incentivize the responsible whitehat hackers to stress test the protocols operated under dForce
• Implement a new risk management standard that addresses three critical components: code security audits, financial risk management, and operational risk management.

dForce Protocols

dForce Lending

dForce Lending is a pool-based multisided lending protocol where interest rates are driven by market demand. Fund supplied to dForce Lending will be automatically converted to iToken as a receipt of your deposit.
At the fundamental level, dForce Lending is a money market protocol that allows instant accessibility and liquidity by matching supply and borrowing of any ERC20 (Ethereum/Arbitrum/Optimism) or BEP20 (BSC) compatible assets worldwide^[5].

USX

USX is the most important DeFi primitive within dForce’s protocol matrix, starting off with an over-collateralization design, where supported assets can be used as collaterals to mint USX within the respective approved LTV ratio (similar to DAI)^[6].

dForce Trade

dForce Trade is a DEX aggregator utilizing an algorithm to search for the best trading price and aggregate proper liquidity across multiple platforms to deliver an optimized trade.
Currently, dForce Trade has been integrated with the following DEXes on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and BSC:

• Ethereum: Uniswap V2, Curve, Sushiswap, Balancer, Oasis, Unisave
• Arbitrum: DODO
• BSC: DODO, Pancake V1, Pancake V2, KyberDMM, MDEX, Unisave.^[7]

Partnerships

dForce partners with Band Protocol
In August 2020, a strategic partnership with Band Protocol was announced by dForce Trade. With the addition of Oracle services provided by Band Protocol, the dForce team was able to create custom decentralized oracles with parameters that provide complete access to external real-world market and price data for GOLDx. dForce uses Band Protocol’s oracle script to query the PAXG/USD price feed from various selected data sources that are reputable and trusted while also customized to update once every 2 minutes or upon every 0.1% price deviation.

“We are thrilled to partner up with Band Protocol’s unique and scalable oracle solution that captures all dForce’s external data needs and high-frequency update parameters without being limited by exorbitantly high fees for our swap services for digital gold token GOLDx as a start, and will expand the oracle coverage to other protocols as our network matures. The prioritization of security from the Band Protocol has been displayed as both our teams have been working in recent months to continuously test and iterate the oracle layer for GOLDx trading that will power the entire DeFi protocols integrated with this asset across ecosystem and network that lives on dForce Network.” Mindao Yang, Founder & CEO of dForce

The price feed is used for determining the exchange rate of GOLDx against multiple supported assets such as USDx, Tether (USDT), USDC, BUSD, and more via dForce Trade.