What is ALEX
What is ALEX
We are ALEX and we are the first one-stop DeFi services platform on Bitcoin via Stacks. The sea change of DeFi begins as simply as lending and borrowing Bitcoin. The smart contracts that govern those loans can be used to create bonds. Using these decentralized bonds we can recreate derivative products, leverage and all the other functions of higher finance, replacing it with the algorithms of an Automated Liquidity EXchange or ALEX.
In a decentralized financial platform, you need to have security and transparency for scalability. Alex is built on Stacks which uses the security and finality of the Bitcoin blockchain. Stacks uses POX (proof of transfer) as the consensus mechanism, which is more secure than the POS (proof of stake) consensus mechanism used by the Ethereum network. The smart contracts used in Stacks are written in the Clarity programming language. Clarity provides enhanced security as it is what is known as predictable code. With predictable code developers are able to determine what the program will do, how much data it will use and the cost of running the application before executing it. This is preferable to Ethereum’s use of Solidity, a language that is not predictable and is more of a black box. Critical to any exchange, the transaction fees on Stacks are lower. As far as regulatory compliance, Stacks STX blockchain was the first cryptocurrency to receive SEC qualification for a sale in the United States.
The purpose of traditional centralized finance, or CeFi, is to connect those who have capital with those who need capital. This was once done in person within a central physical bank but is now possible over a decentralized network. We will be the first DeFi application to provide a full suite of crypto financial services on a single platform secured by the Bitcoin network. To raise capital, CeFi has to underwrite IPOs, whereas we have a launchpad enabling the creation of liquidity pools and tokens for new projects. CeFi offers fixed income products and so do we through borrowing and lending Bitcoin. CeFi has a foreign exchange desk and we have our advanced DEXs for trading tokens. Finally, CeFi provides leverage products and we do as well through margin swaps and yield farming with more derivatives to come.
Traditional centralized finance is an industry that’s ripe for radical disruption. It is a slow and inefficient maze of endless middlemen that still operates much as it did over a century ago. DeFi and ALEX are as profound a change to the financial services industry as carbon paper was to copy clerks. Middle office, back office, compliance, risk management, legal department and all of the bloat which is traditional banking will be made obsolete. ALEX will help lead the DeFi revolution disrupting CeFi to its very core. We write transparent predictable code, then the decentralized network and its users have it take on a life of its own creating their own financial system.
Until Stacks enabled smart contracts on Bitcoin, a thriving DeFi community was only possible on Ethereum and other chains. Over the past 12 months DeFi has exploded in growth, a sector that accounts for 30% of Ethereum’s market cap, which has grown from $8 to $138 billion. The Bitcoin market is three times the size of the Ethereum market, and it is underserved in the DeFi space. We are positioned to become the largest DeFi platform by offering our full suite of services on Bitcoin.
To date we have built:
· A launchpad, where our cohorts and other projects can launch token to meet their financing needs through liquidity bootstrapping pools.
· An advanced DEX, where we combine the best of two worlds: Automated Market Making and Orderbook DEX
· Fixed and variable rate lending and borrow of Bitcoin, without liquidation risk
· Leverage products such as margin swaps and yield farming
With these instruments in place, the over $1 trillion in value of Bitcoin can be unlocked and put to work serving as the foundation of new financial world. Who better to help build this DeFi world than a team of veteran Wall St quants, the “math wizards” of the financial world? The founders of ALEX have built multi-billion-dollar Quant businesses at white-shoe Wall Street banks. And they know firsthand the inefficiencies of the traditional finance world, where it is often the loudest rather than the most intelligent voice that is heard.
CEO Chiente Hsu, Ph.D, is a recognized expert in the field of quantitative investing and has worked as the Global Head of Alpha Strategies at Credit Suisse and Global Head of Quantitative Investment Strategy Research at Morgan Stanley. Her co-founder Rachel Yu, M.S., is an alumni of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Asia, where she led the China institutional sales team. She co-founds ALEX after successfully building a high frequency data and machine learning trading firm. Chiente and Rachel have been involved in nearly every segment of the financial industry — as an executives, authors, academics and as advocates for women in finance. Together they have assembled around themselves a handpicked team of over 15 experts in financial engineering, smart contract development and cryptocurrency insiders, each representing the brightest minds they have met across their careers.
ALEX is taking DeFi to entirely new level of service, security, compliance and transparency. There is ocean of money in Bitcoin, hundreds of billions of dollars sitting idly in wallets that could not only be growing in value, but also contributing directly to toppling traditional finance. ALEX above all will be working to build not just a user base but a dedicated community that shares our values and our vision for a new economic future. To everyone who’s been charged checking fees, overdraft charges, and late fees or who are fed up with the influence of “too big to fail” banks, ALEX is the asteroid that wipes out the dinosaurs. Together we can make it happen, and it will happen quickly. Follow us to learn more!
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