When I was first getting interested in cryptocurrencies a little over a year ago, my blockchain mentor told me about a new project that was going to be launching called EOS.
The main thing about EOS which drew my attention was the promised ability to lease your tokens(stake) so that people could interact with the blockchain.
With most actions on the EOS chain requiring either RAM, CPU, or Bandwidth, some users would find themselves lacking the resources necessary to perform certain tasks.
The idea of being able to lease out my stake and make some interest on it was very appealing to me as I am a big fan of passive income.
Enter "Chintai"
The Chintai Dapp was one of the first EOS leasing platforms to be developed. After the EOS mainnet launch in June 2018, the gambling Dapp EOSDice was becoming very popular. Gambling Dapps like that, were a prime example of why people would want to lease resources to be able to interact with the chain.
Assuming you already have an EOS account, the process to start using Chintai is very easy. Simply visit the Chintai exchange site and login(Requires Scatter).
At first sight, the Chintai dashboard can seem a bit intimidating. I have used it many times and I promise it isn't as bad as it might look. There are three key components of the dashboard that you will mainly be interacting with, and I have indicated them with the large green numbers below.
1 - Markets
This is where you can see what the current rate is for an EOS lease of a given length. Be advised these numbers fluctuate and may not be the same as my screenshot when you visit the site.
You can see that the leasing periods are seven, fourteen, twenty one, and twenty eight days. Sometimes one lease period will have a more attractive interest rate than another one. Which one you choose depends on how long you want your EOS to be unavailable to you.
I typically pick the twenty one day lease as this provides a decent return without tying up my EOS for too long.
The interest you receive on a loan is paid out as soon as someone accepts your loan. Getting the interest at the onset of the loan was a definite shift for me in the way I generally perceive loans.
It is important to remember that when you lease out EOS you have to unstake it. When your EOS is unstaked it is no longer available for you to use when voting for Block Producers.
2 - Order Entry
Order entry is very simple. It is important to make sure you have the correct loan length selected in the "Markets" area of the dashboard. You will see what loan length you are suggesting at the top of the order entry area. In my example it says "EOS21D" which implies a 21 day loan.
At that point, you simply enter the interest rate you are asking (I typically try to stay close to what the market ask is), and then the amount of EOS that you want to lease out.
After you have everything entered the way you want it, you simply click "Submit Order". You will probably be prompted by Scatter to approve the transaction, but then you are all set. Now it is simply a matter of waiting for someone to accept your lease. As I said, as soon as they do, you will see the interest EOS added to your account.
The majority of my interactions on Chintai have been from the leasing side, but you can also borrow if you have the need. The process is just as simple, the key difference is you can adjust where you want the EOS to be distributed.
For example, if I wanted to lease 100 EOS at a rate of .10% I can then distribute fifty of the EOS to "CPU" and fifty of it to "NET".
3 - Open Orders/Order History
The open orders/order history area gives you an really good overview of what is going on with your lease. It is also very self explanatory. After I have submitted a lease, I frequently view this area to see if it has been picked up by someone yet. It is also a really good way to track your leasing stats.
As you can see, at one point I had a lease that earned me .50% interest. That is a quite a difference from the .10% a twenty one day lease is currently going for. Due to the decrease in rates, I have held off from submitting any new leases for the past couple of months.
Overall Thoughts
Though it currently holds a rank of 213 on State of the Dapps, I feel that Chintai could possibly be one of the top finance Dapps of 2019. Especially with the growth and development that the EOS blockchain is expected to see over the next year.
The clean, easy to use interface is one of the biggest benefits I see to using Chintai. Additionally, Chintai is in the process of releasing the "CHEX" token which will add value, profit maximization, and leasing for any utility token on the EOS blockchain.
Though a handful of other leasing platforms have been implemented in the past couple of months, Chintai is by far the oldest and most established for EOS. The team at Chintai had a vision before the mainnet was even live and have worked diligently to make it a reality.
My two biggest concerns about Chintai relate specifically to the amount of money I can make through the platform:
First, I am not please with how drastically the rates can change. That is probably to be expected given the relative volatility of the crypto market as a whole. As more Dapps are developed on the EOS blockchain I think there should be some normalization.
Second, there has been some concern about the amount of time that your EOS is tied up when you lease it out. For example a twenty one day lease can often turn into a thirty one day lease depending on when your lease started and finishes.
When you setup a lease, you are delegating the EOS to Chintai and they are acting as an intermediary. This means Chintai needs to first undelegate the EOS which can take three days. Then, after it is undelegated, Chintai releases EOS back at fixed intervals. This means if your lease ends at the beginning of that interval, it can be three days from the end of your lease before it shows up in your wallet.
I feel the positives more than outweigh those minor drawbacks and merit a four(out of five) star review from me.
Take a look at the top finance Dapps of 2019 on State of the Dapps and see how Chintai stands alone among EOS Dapps.
Links
Chintai
Chintai Telegram
Chintai Reddit
Chintai Twitter
Chintai Medium
State of the Dapps
Disclaimer
This is not financial advice. Please do you own research before investing in cryptocurrencies or any digital asset. This blog post is done for entertainment and knowledge purposes only.
All Screenshots were taken and edited by me.