Onomy provides rails for the $6.6T per day forex market to plug into DeFi

  1. Introduction
  2. Market Overview
  3. What is Onomy protocol?
  4. Core pillars of Onomy
  5. Key product differentiators
  6. Strategic Partnerships
  7. Tokenomics
  8. Accomplishments & Roadmap
  9. Team
  10. Conclusion
  11. Resources

Introduction

The foundation of Onomy is the desire to have every money in existence represented on-chain. This transition from centralized banking to decentralized finance is not only inevitable but also impending, as evidenced by the growth of USD stablecoins by more than $100 billion between August 2020 and August 2021. This offers a chance to represent conventional Forex exchanges on-chain and go beyond the USD. Furthermore, probably one of the requirements for unlocking global financial inclusion and releasing the world’s liquidity for the new paradigm of finance is interoperability across significant blockchain economies.

Onomy protocol aims to offer the necessary infrastructure to converge traditional finance with decentralized finance. Onomy does this by providing the entire ecosystem necessary for the Forex market to plug in to DeFi directly. The complete suite of products include Onomy network, Arc Bridge hub, Onomy exchange, Onomy access wallet & Onomy reserve. 

Market Overview

Although fiat currencies have long been a great vehicle to transfer wealth, they are beginning to seem a little stale in the face of the digital revolution. After all, they aren’t the most transparent when it comes to their supply and are difficult and expensive to move across borders. They also don’t easily interface with blockchain-based protocols. 

Stablecoins, on the other hand, alleviate all of these problems but are not readily available to holders of fiat currency. 

With an ecosystem of blockchain-based solutions, including a stablecoin issuance protocol, native blockchain network, decentralized exchange, inter-chain bridge, and wallet solution, Onomy Protocol aims to close this gap between the fiat and stablecoin worlds.

What is Onomy protocol?

The Onomy Protocol is a Layer-1 ecosystem with interoperability designed to combine decentralized finance and forex. A DEX enabling an orderbook experience combined with AMM liquidity pools, a bridge hub, an unique multi-chain wallet, and a stablecoin issuance system are among the products.

Based on Cosmos, one of the most cutting-edge blockchain systems now in use, Onomy Protocol’s application-specific blockchain has 100x the efficiency of Ethereum, huge throughput capacities, and a working inter-blockchain communication protocol (known as the IBC).

The purpose of Onomy is to reduce the complexity of DeFi, which is hampered by the requirement to use many protocols and browser add-ons for asset management and trading. With all goods available from a single, decentralized interface, its systematic approach enables improved composability and opens cross-chain possibilities through the built-in bridge hub and IBC compatibility.

A multi-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) is being built by Onomy Protocol intended to serve as a bridge between the established world of traditional finance and the burgeoning decentralized finance sector (DeFi). 

By enabling users of virtually any significant smart contract-capable chain to access the same array of products, the platform seeks to break the tight reliance growing around Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. 

In order to avoid the walled approach of today and ensure that both individual users and corporations may maximize the liquidity of their assets without worrying about specific chains, Onomy is poised to provide a genuinely integrative on-ramp to DeFi across all blockchains.

By constructing a Forex/CeFi to DeFi bridge, Onomy aims to open up the $6.6 trillion per day Forex trading market, significantly increasing market liquidity and offering a more straightforward entry point for people seeking exposure to digital assets without the volatility. In accordance with this, Onomy has created a unique bridge hub to enable users to move their assets between supported chains without any hassle.

Core pillars of Onomy

The core pillars of Onomy protocol include Onomy network, Arc Bridge hub, Onomy exchange, Onomy access wallet & Onomy reserve. These pillars combined makeup a strong self-governed monetary stabilization system. They’re briefly discussed below.

  • Onomy Network –  Layer 1 application-specific blockchain that uses the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint BFT consensus. 
  • Arc Bridge Hub – Bi-directional bridges between well-known blockchains inside and beyond the Cosmos ecosystem are powered by the Arc Bridge Hub, including Avalanche, Polygon, Moonbeam, and IBC capable chains. 
  • Onomy Exchange (ONEX) – Decentralised exchange that attempts to mimic the experience of a conventional centralized exchange in order to resolve the large volume needs of the entire world in a decentralized, non-custodial manner. It combines AMM Liquidity Pools with an Orderbook UI, enabling traders to use well-known order book trading methods that enable market, limit, stop, and conditional orders while allowing liquidity providers to generate income. The ONEX supports many chains and is cross-chain. Users may easily exchange native assets across several blockchains or assets native to a single blockchain when ONEX is used in conjunction with Onomy Access and Onomy’s bridge network. 
  • Onomy Access – A non-custodial multi-chain mobile wallet app that allows users to control all assets from connected blockchains. Staking, governance, asset transfers, and even viewing your NFT collections from other blockchains are all possible with just one wallet software. Cross-chain and multi-chain user experiences are smooth thanks to Access. The need to connect numerous browser extensions in order to access Web3 is no longer necessary. Instead, connect to dApps by simply scanning a QR code. 
  • Onomy Reserve – Denoms, a type of decentralized stablecoin, are minted by the Onomy Reserve. The collateralization ratios are one of the several criteria that the Onomy DAO votes on. Denoms can be used for settlement, lending, payment, and remittance in addition to forex.

Key product differentiators

Onomy has a number of distinctive features that are intended to improve the DeFi experience, increase liquidity, and encourage participation. Onomy’s main differentiators include things like: 

  1. Stable Denominations
    Denoms, a brand-new variety of stablecoin, are presented by Onomy. These combine the benefits of both digital and fiat currencies, combining their steady, widely accepted value with their usability (i.e. they are cryptographically secure, counterfeit-proof, and borderless). They provide a more efficient way to trade various stable denominations of value, while opening up new lines of utility via the blossoming field of DeFi.
  1. Chain agnostic
    No matter the preferred blockchain, Onomy uses a range of cutting-edge technology to give consumers a uniform experience. In order to give ONEX users the best possible experience, this makes sure that users may create Denoms on Onomy’s native chain while trading and bringing liquidity from different blockchains.
  1. Hybrid DEX
    The DEX uses a hybrid paradigm that integrates order book and AMM functions, expanding on the Onomy Exchange. Stop-loss orders, limit orders, and sophisticated charting became available, which were previously only available on traditional centralized exchanges. Cross-chain trading of Denom stablecoins, the NOM token, and other cryptocurrencies will be supported through Onomy’s Exchange. 
  1. Single Sign-on
    Users often need to maintain numerous wallets and carefully control how and when they sign into different applications, making managing private keys and utilizing DApps across many blockchains a hassle. With its non-custodial single sign-on private key management solution, Natural Rights from Onomy, this friction point is removed. This makes it possible for QR logins to be addressed using different blockchains.
  1. Staking
    A decentralized network of validators upholds the integrity of Onomy’s proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, which is built on the Cosmos platform. Through a reward system based on NOM, they are encouraged to perform honorably and may face consequences for breaking their duties. By assigning their NOM to the validator of their choosing, individual users may participate in the validation process and earn rewards. Both Denoms and the NOM cryptocurrency will also receive additional staking methods. 
  1. DAO Governance
    Holders of NOM will control the governance of the Onomy Protocol as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and they may participate by voting on governance proposals and voicing their opinions on important choices affecting the growth and evolution of the Onomy ecosystem.

Strategic Partnerships

One of the most important components of a new ecosystem are valuable partnerships since they enable interoperability between protocols, which may be profitable for both parties involved. So let’s look at the procedures they have so far partnered with. 

The most recent alliances formed by Onomy were with several blockchains to offer a vast multi-chain ecosystem that allows users to quickly switch between protocols: 

Avalanche partnership – Onomy will create connections and roll out a native version of its DEX using Avalanche. 

Near X Aurora partnership – Onomy will introduce their hybrid DEX to their ecosystem through Near x Aurora, which will also provide inter-chain bridges between the two chains. Through Aurora’s EVM (Near’s EVM chain), this is accomplished. 

Polygon partnership – Similar to their collaboration with Near, they want to expand their DEX to include Polygon while simultaneously boosting the use of Denom. 

Harmony One partnership – Onomy will use Harmony One to deploy their DEX along with the other players on the ONE chain.

Tokenomics

$NOM is the Onomy Protocol’s native currency. NOM is a collateral type for the minting of Denoms through the Onomy Reserve, used as payment for transaction and bridge fees, used to secure the network through staking, and is used for governance in the Onomy DAO. NOM is deeply integrated into a number of Onomy Ecosystem products, such as programmatic buy & burn using Onomy Exchange AMM earnings. 

The genesis supply of the Onomy Network is 100 million NOM, distributed as shown.

Tokens for backers, teams, and advisors vest over 24-36 months in a straight line each month, with a 12-month cliff.

Inflationary incentives and bridges from the bonding curve will result in an increase in the $NOM supply.

The NOM token will be distributed in a manner that is rather distinctive: a Bonding Curve Offering (BCO). This token model will automate the link between supply and demand, ensuring that the price never remains constant. Rather than having a fixed price through an ICO, the tokens will be continually created over time using an AMM contract.

Accomplishments & Roadmap

As of Nov 2022, on the Onomy testnet, more over 800,000 transactions have been made, and $NOM is now trading above the $10 notional price. 

A total of two thirds of the $NOM available have already been linked with the Onomy mainnet, with around 100 million tokens locked. 

Over 40,000 unique NOM addresses, 120K+ Ethereum transactions, 12 active regional communities, and considerable community development have all been noted.

Mainnet accomplished metrics as of today are as follows,

The product roadmap is built & launched in phases as follows,

Team

In December 2020, Lalo Bazzi and Charles Dusek co-founded Onomy. Bazzi is a former Microsoft cloud solution strategist and a former associate at Fidelity Investments. Before switching to blockchain full time in 2017 with Bazzi, Dusek was a former ConocoPhillips engineer with more than ten years of experience working in engineering, energy finance, and private equity. 

Together, they created mining equipment using ASIC processors and built a network of partners for the world’s infrastructure. They have both been actively involved in the blockchain business for the past five years, gaining expertise and understanding over the many cycles.

A team of 20 or more people, including well-known engineers, designers, researchers, and marketing experts, work with the two founders.

Conclusion

Onomy is at the nexus of DeFi and Trad-Fi: if they can establish themselves as a multi-chain exchange for all assets that is fluid through all chains, decentralized, and quick – while having CEX-like (but decentralized) luxuries – then it opens up DeFi to everyone, most importantly the non-crypto natives, especially with the Access Wallet enhancing cross-chain and multi-chain asset management and user experience. 

The protocol’s initial strength comes from its capacity to combine CEX’s functions with a DEX, which, together with its wallet, delivers a conventional but highly functional trading and asset usage experience on-chain.

There will undoubtedly be greater value if it starts issuing its Denom stablecoins and boosting institutions as a consequence, since its stablecoins may potentially be used for everything, including payments, loans, yield, settlement, along with trading in both crypto and non-crypto pairs. There is a chance they may capture a sizable market share that is now untapped by connecting the $6.6T per day Forex market to DeFi and utilizing its innovative consensus engine for high-frequency trading at scale.

Resources

  1. https://linktr.ee/onomy
  2. https://docs.onomy.io/introduction/overview-and-core-pillars
  3. https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-onomy-protocol
  4. https://onomy.io/#eco
  5. https://medium.com/@onomyprotocol