What can we do with the Maya Protocol?
The crypto verse consists of various blockchains and often the holder of coins or tokens on a blockchain needs to convert assets from one blockchain to another.
How would he carry out this transaction?
This transaction can be carried out using a crypto exchange.
This can be a centralized crypto exchange CEX or a decentralized crypto exchange DEX.
If the user takes the Centralized Exchange CEX route then first
He has to open an account with the exchange
More often than not needs to furnish some documents and undergo a KYC or know your customer process which may require time and sharing of personal ID’s and information.
Deposit the crypto in the wallet of the exchange. The moment you deposit the crypto into the wallet of the exchange technically you lose custody of your crypto. Thus if the exchange goes bust your crypto vanishes with the exchange.
Let us say a user wants to go the decentralized route then one would have to wrap the tokens to make them compatible with the other blockchain.
For Example moving funds between the BTC blockchain to the Ethereum blockchain would require first converting BTC to ERC-20 tokens and then converting those ERC-20 tokens to Ethereum.
This can be time consuming and subject to price fluctuations. Besides one needs to be technically savvy to carry out such a transaction. Also one needs to be able to perform token wrapping and bridge operations.
Enter The Maya Protocol
Using the Maya Protocol one can exchange native tokens from one blockchain to that of another.
This ecosystem consists of two chains the MAYAChain and the AZTECChain
Together they create an ecosystem to exchange assets across blockchains.
This exchange ecosystem has the advantage of a centralized as well as a decentralized exchange sans the disadvantages of these two individual systems of exchanges.
MAYAChain is already live
The MAYAChain performs the role of an Automated Market Maker (AMM)
In a lot of ways, it can be said to be similar to Uniswap. However when it comes to providing liquidity for exchange the MAYAChain provides a Cross chain liquidity so that a user can carry out the swap without any difficulty.
How MAYAChains Cross Chain liquidity is different?
As of now, cross chain liquidity has been achieved by way of wrapping assets and using bridges.
This process has seen many hacks in recent times and such mechanisms are always prone to serious security risks.
Going by the Chainalysis report a mammoth $2 billion worth of assets were lost to bridge hacks in 2022.
These represent 69% of all the DeFi hacks for 2022.
MAYAChain provides an exchange mechanism that does not rely on the risk prone wrapping and bridge technology.
Instead, it is managing funds directly in secure on-chain vaults. The funds in these vaults are secured by way of Economic security.
The security mechanism is implemented using the Tendermint consensus engine, Cosmos-SDK state machine, and GG20 Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS).
The MAYAChain provides a robust functional AMM based on three elements
1 Enhanced Security via Functional, Procedural, and Economic Security measures.
2 Increase the liquidity of the network: This is implemented by TVL or total value locked as well as better UX for providing liquidity by way of savers.
3 Boosting the network volume: This is facilitated by way of the swap UX using both synths as well as the order book feature as well as by way of efficient wallet integration.
AZTECChain the smart contract part of the Maya Protocol
The AZTECChain is still under development and once functional would impart the ecosystem with the smart contract chain.
This would enable the MAYAChain to provide Smart Contracts as well as economic capabilities in addition to the cross-chain liquidity it already does.
Using this feature it would be possible to create and use
- Algorithmic stablecoins
- Derivatives like Synths
- CEX style order book trading etc
The Three Tokens of the Maya Protocol
The $CACAO, $MAYA & the AZTEC tokens would be the native tokens of the ecosystem.
The $CACAO & $MAYA tokens are already functional and in circulation, whereas $AZTEC is still to be released and is under development.
What can one do with the Maya Protocol
As the MAYAChain is already a function one can perform the following functions using the MAYAChain
- Swap Assets
- Provide Liquidity
- Withdraw the Liquidity that one has already provided
The Maya Protocol is a non-custodial service which means that the users would hold their funds in their wallet for this the Maya Protocol has designated a number of wallets to integrate with its ecosystem.
Setting up a wallet to use the Maya Protocol
Choose a wallet
- ElDorado wallet
- ThorWallet
- MAYANode Cli
- by importing Ledger hard wallet into XDEFI
- using Ferz wallet (iPhone)
- using Ferz Wallet (Android)
We use the ThorWallet web app in this post to explore the functionality of MAYAChain
In the next few steps, we would set up the ThorWallet
Setting up the wallet is easy and involves a couple of simple steps which are illustrated with the help of the images below
Let us set it up on a computer using a web browser
1 ) In the browser open the THORWallet DEX website by visiting https://app.thorwallet.org/ and click "Connect."
2 ) Accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of the website
3 ) Select the "Create Keystore." option
4 ) Create and confirm a password for the keystore file. Make sure to use a strong password and save this password securely.
Next, You would need it to open the keystore file.
It is very important to save the 12 words seed phrase. If you lose this you would not be able to restore your wallet and may end up losing access to your funds.
5 ) Next Click the "Download" and save the thorwallet-keystore.txt keystore file in a place that is safe this could be a folder that only you access on your computer's local drive.
6 ) On the connect screen option make sure to select the "Keystore" option to create the wallet that you have created.
7 ) Select the new keystore file (thorwallet-keystore.txt) that you have saved on your computer's local drive and input your password and click "Unlock."
This is the option screen shown in firefox browser and
This is how it appears in chrome though both function in the same way.
8 ) From the left sidebar select "My Assets"
9 ) Search for the MAYA token in "Search assets" at the top part of the drop-down menu as shown in the image below.
10 ) Make sure to Change the tab from "Send" to "Receive" - once you do this change there, you would be able to see the Maya wallet's receive address. copy your new Maya wallet address. It should begin with "maya..."
11 ) Make sure to save your new Maya wallet address, as well as the Keystore that you create on first use in a safe place.
How to perform an asset swap using MAYAChain?
Visit https://app.thorwallet.org/
1 ) Click on the connect button
2 ) This brings up a pop-up to select the wallet you want to select.
For this step, we connect the Keystore that we have already created in the earlier steps.
Once you select this option you need to scroll down the scroll bar so that you get to see the connect option.
3 ) Next select the swap options
The top menu is the blockchain from which you want to swap the tokens and the below field is the blockchain into which you want to receive the assets.
If I select BTC as the source blockchain and Rune as the destination blockchain then I get two options.
One is to select Thorhain and the other is to select Maya
I have selected Maya
From the advanced menu, one can select the slippage.
If you are new to this setup then feel free to check out the various swap pairs.
If we select BTC & ETH as the swap pairs then the preview swap shows the details of the transaction that would be executed.
Do check the value that you receive and the fee before confirming the transaction.
The swap transaction can be completed using the swap now button shown above.
4 ) You would be prompted to sign the transaction using the connected wallet. Once you do so the transaction would get executed. For this, you would need to enter your wallet password. Wait for the transaction to be broadcasted and confirmed. After some time You would see your new balance under “My assets”!
Exploring the opportunities to earn with the MAYAChain
On the sidebar of the dashboard post login one can find the opportunities to earn
How to provide the liquidity?
Proving liquidity is a method of choice to earn for many crypto investors.
Liquidity can be provided by
- Using Custom Memos
- Using ThorWallet Mobile App
- Using ThorWallet(Web App)
For this post, we use the ThorWallet(Web App) option
Visit the site https://app.thorwallet.org and connect the wallet as
shown in the steps aboveClicking on the Liquidity Pool shows us all the liquidity pools.
From the top one can select from the Thorchain and the Maya protocols
Currently we see a number of pools into which one can provide liquidity these include
BTC, USDT (ERC-20), ETH, RUNE, USDC (ERC-20) All these pools have CACAO as the standard pair.
As you explore the most profitable pool to put your crypto in do explore the analytics section to see more information about the volume and the analytics
The analytics section can be accessed from the side menu.
Or by visiting the URL https://analytics.thorwallet.org/
Earning via saver vaults
Saving in Saver Vaults is another way to earn using your crypto
One select the Saver Vaults option from the side menu of the dashboard
In a saver vaults option a single crypto can be added and it earns interest for the period it stays in the vault.
Staking option
The Staking option gives a 13.66% APY for staking the TGT (ERC-20) tokens
It offers three sets of offerings namely
- Standard
- Community and
- Community Plus
The staking option can be accessed from the side menu from within the dashboard
Currently the dashboard shows three Community Tiers to choose from based on the TGT tokens a user wants to stake.
The main advantage of staking the TGT (ERC-20) tokens is that as a user stakes more tokens, the liquidity fee charged to him goes down.
The Standard plan shows a 1% Liquidity and 1% Trading fee
The Community Plan shows a 0.3% Liquidity & 0.3% Trading fee and
The Community Plus Tier shows a 0.1% Liquidity and 0.1% Trading fee.
Thus the staking of the TGT tokens is the way to go in case you wish to reduce your Liquidity and Trading fee.
Maya Protocol at a glance
For a new user these can be too many concepts to understand at one go so looking at the following graphic should help understand its functional part better.
Conclusion & Takeaways
Using the Maya Protocol gives a user a number of advantages when it comes to trading his crypto.
The transactions are Non-Custodial that is the user keeps complete control over his funds and the Maya Protocol does not hold or manage the user's assets or his keys.
It makes direct Cross-Chain swaps possible and seamless across different chains.
For those providing Liquidity to its pools, it offers Impermanent Loss Protection so that the user who provides LP would either make a profit or at least be able to recover his investment within a 50 day time period window.
Additionally, investors can run Liquidity nodes which provide a bond by way of $CACAO & LP units. Users are incentivized and paid to secure the MAYAChain ecosystem.
More and more centralized exchanges are forcing KYC compliance and restrictions on the use of crypto the Maya Protocol paves the way to better trade, earn and stake your crypto.
The Maya Protocol universe provides ease of use to the users however a lot of complex
Protocols and processes run under the surface. For a deeper understanding of the Maya Protocol feel free to follow the following links
Official Website
The White Paper
Twitter
Discord
All images taken from Maya Protocol official website & Thorwallet webapp