In the letter
- The Universal Market Access protocol will begin to reward developers who implement successful synthetic asset contracts on the network.
- Developers will be rewarded with UMA tokens based on the popularity of their creations, incentive for promotion, and continued work with the UMA protocol.
- Cash extraction has typically been aimed at DeFi users, but rewarding developers could benefit more from protocols over time.
Risk Labs, creators of the Universal Market Access (UMA) protocol e synthetic resources that don’t require any oracles or data feeds to be priced fairly, are pushing the crypto envelope again with liquidity rewards aimed at DeFi developers.
Risk Labs today announced the upcoming launch of Developer Mining on November 10th, rewarding developers with UMA tokens based on the popularity of the synthetic assets they create. The program will pay 50,000 UMA tokens (currently worth over $ 325,000) each week to attract developers and reward them for contributing to the UMA network.
It’s a new way to use cash-extraction incentives, which DeFi protocols were pioneered during the summer. It could help the network build its developer community at a time of intense competition in the cryptocurrency industry.
UMA developers can create contracts that track the price movement of an asset over time. Buyers can either long or short on the asset, which will fluctuate in price due to underlying changes to the asset. For example, developers can create tradable assets that track the price of gas tariffs for using the Ethereum network or property prices in a particular city. The UMA encourages the development of contracts that track non-traditional, but nonetheless measurable, changes in value.
Developers will be rewarded based on the locked value in UMA contracts, or how much users buy to bet on price changes. Total Blocked Value (TVL) metric is commonly used to measure the popularity of DeFi protocols, where more TVL often results in better interest rates or trading spreads for users.
You use DeFi smart contracts replicate financial services such as loans or interest on user deposits. Cash extraction, sometimes referred to as agricultural yield, took the cryptocurrency world by storm over the summer, paying users to deposit cryptocurrencies or take loans using DeFi protocols.
In its announcement, Risk Labs notes that the value deposited by users was fleeting and could quickly switch to other protocols. Conversely, rewards distributed to developers incentivize learning more about the protocol and help created contracts succeed, thus creating a positive feedback loop for the UMA protocol.
If successful, the UMA Developer Mining Awards, like other new UMA products, could provide a new roadmap for DeFi protocols and other blockchain projects looking to strengthen their network and community.