As part of the Ethereum Argentina conference that took place in Buenos Aires last August, CriptoNoticias had the opportunity to speak to someone who identifies as Chebin. He is a young Argentinian and a member of the development team of the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, Beefy Finance.
“What is Beefy Finance and who do they compete with?” was the first question we asked. Chebin explained that to us Beefy is automation software. “We build our vaults, which are our main core product, in addition to farming capabilities on different blockchains,” he explained.
As an example, he added: “You can deploy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) on PancakeSwap and earn CAKE issued by them.” Our software automates the sale of this cake for more BTC and ETH. So we sell the CAKE you generated and buy more BTC and ETH so your position grows without getting exposure to that other currency.
Upon entering the website from Beefy Finance, as seen in the image below, Chebin’s explanation becomes clear. The page allows you to choose between different cryptocurrency networks and then view a list of tokens that can be escrowed in the protocol’s smart contracts. Then these tokens are automatically invested in different DeFi platforms (user’s choice) and the proceeds are used to buy more original tokens, generating compound interest. Also, the percentage of annual return on investment is given.
In response to the second part of the first question (What is Beefy Finance’s competition?), Chebin answers:
“I don’t think there’s anyone doing exactly what we’re doing because we operate on 18 different blockchains, we have 600 active exchanges and you won’t find anywhere else that has this level of supply.” Closest maybe one of the bigger or older performance optimizers like Yearn Finance. In fact, Beefy started out as an offshoot of it, but we’ve evolved to this day. In addition, we have not been hacked for 3 years, and that is quite serious.”
Chebin, a member of the Beefy Finance development team.
In Chebin’s words, Beefy Finance’s motivation is: Make it easier for users of decentralized finance platforms. They want to achieve this by automating processes.
Chebin explains, “We’ve focused heavily on one of the biggest pitfalls of DeFi today: the input bar for someone who has no idea how to trade, uses metamask, etc.”
“We are trying to lower that bar as much as possible. If you look at the page you can see that within each exchange there is a section that reports how the position you entered is constructed, what the historical API was, how it performed during the price, the price, the total value stored etc.
We want to disclose everything so that the user who comes in has as much information as possible and we also try to make it easier for them.”
Chebin, a member of the Beefy Finance development team.
In this whole process The Beefy Finance team makes a profit by charging a fee for the interest generated (which the user already sees discounted in the annual yield reported by the platform).
On an organizational level Beefy Finance is structured as decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Although the pseudonymous developers who created the project in 2020 retired, they left everything together so the DAO could continue. Who holds the BIFI token (which is already fully issued and of which only 80,000 units exist and will exist) can vote for the DAO.
About regulations and legal framework conditions
The dialogue with Chebin flowed towards Regulatory issues and legal framework related to the cryptocurrency industry. “Is there a legal structure in any jurisdiction?” we asked. And the developer replied, “We’re not resident anywhere, we don’t have an entity anywhere, we’re 100% pure DAO for now.”
Chebin adds that he currently sees that as a good thing. He explains, “If you think about what’s happening in the United States, as soon as you have a registered business, you start attacking you… it’s complicated.” I think if there’s a little more clarity in the regulations everywhere, you can only then think about where to settle or where to form a legal entity.
The developer recognizes that in certain cases it can be useful to have legal records. In this way, for example, some commercial alliances can be formed more easily.
Finally he adds:
“I think at some point regulators will have to understand it. This is something new. Don’t try to fit us into a traditional company. But I think it will take a while for them to understand and create a framework for regulation. We are still years away from that.”
Chebin, a member of the Beefy Finance development team.