Hifi Finance (HIFI)

What is Hifi Finance?

Hifi Finance is a fixed-rate, fixed-term decentralized cryptocurrency lending protocol operating on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform allows investors to borrow and lend digital assets to the network for yields.

It was officially launched in 2021 following its rebranding from the Mainframe network.

On Hifi Finance, digital assets are tokenized against the underlying assets – tokens the user deposits – to create a synthetic version. These variant assets are pegged on a 1:1 basis to the underlying assets.

Techopedia Explains

Tokenization is a key feature of the protocol. The decentralized lending network provides a permissionless environment where real-world assets like real estate, stocks, bonds, and others can be digitally represented.

Additionally, these tokenized assets can serve as collateral for borrowers or liquidity for liquidity providers (LPs) who provide virtual funds to the decentralized pools on the network.

However, Hifi Finance’s capabilities extend beyond traditional assets. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) also find a home within this decentralized application (dApp). Users can easily trade off their unique NFT assets as collateral to gain access to crypto-backed loans.

What is the HIFI Token?

Powering the Hifi Finance protocol is the HIFI token. Besides serving the crucial role of facilitating the payment of transaction costs, it is used for:

• Governance: HIFI token holders are potential decision-makers as it runs on a decentralized community framework. As a result, the DeFi protocol’s service offering and development are decided by these entities.
• Staking: Like most new-generation proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols, staking is a key cog in the wheel. HIFI holders can lock up their digital tokens to secure the network. In return, more HIFI tokens will be distributed to the owners of the locked funds.

How Does Hifi Finance Work?

Hifi Finance is built on a decentralized finance (DeFi) application called Yield Protocol. As per its operation, it allows users to borrow and lend.

The Borrowing Process

To borrow, users must deposit a digital asset, such as ETH, as collateral.

Next, the resultant token will be minted. It usually comes with the ‘h’ suffix, representing a synthesized version of the digital asset.

With this newly minted token, they can participate in other DeFi applications to earn more yields. In the future, borrowers can also exchange the hToken they received earlier to recover their original assets.

The Lending Process

On the other hand, the lending process in Hifi Finance is different. Lenders can acquire the synthesized token asset at a discounted rate relative to the quoted face value.

This serves as a form of liquidity within the platform, allowing anyone to deposit these funds into liquidity pools designed specifically for this purpose.

Collateralization and Interest Rates

All borrowings are highly collateralized on the Hifi Finance protocol. In fact, in line with industry standards amongst DeFi lending protocols, Hifi Finance is over-collateralized.

As a result, users are often required to provide more collateral than they intend to borrow.

This decision enforces good behavior from borrowers and serves as a safety net for the protocol in the event of defaults.

However, there is no fixed collateral ratio for borrowings except for the ether token, which has a 125% ratio to the amount of borrowed funds. For instance, if an investor wants to borrow $1,000 in digital tokens, they must provide 125% of that amount before the funds are released.

Other digital assets’ collateral ratio is based off:

• The known quality of the digital token;
• The reliability of the digital asset’s price feed;
• The current market conditions surrounding the underlying asset.

Once a digital asset meets all these criteria, the collateral ratio is displayed, allowing the borrower to mint the corresponding hTokens directly into their crypto wallet.

On the other hand, interest rates follow a similar tricky path. They are not determined by the DeFi protocol developer but by the open market forces of demand and supply.

The Bottom Line

Hifi Finance is a new generation of DeFi lending protocol, opening up many opportunities for DeFi investors. This innovative dApp enables users to tokenize their cryptocurrency assets, utilize their digital holdings as collateral to secure crypto-backed loans, and participate in lending activities.

Amidst the escalating interest in tokenization, Hifi Finance holds strong promise for the years ahead.