Umee Project Overview
Umee is a permissionless, autonomous, rate algorithm built as a blockchain that is pioneering the next generation of globally accessible financial markets. As a base layer blockchain, applications and money primitives can be built on top of Umee to access cross chain leverage, liquidity, and debt instruments. The Umee Blockchain facilitates interoperability between the Cosmos ecosystem, Ethereum, side chain architectures, layer two scaling solutions, rollups, and alternative base layer protocols.
Vision
Umee is the first borrowing and lending platform aimed at offering universal cross-chain DeFi functionality that combines the strengths of blockchain architecture with the fundamentals of traditional debt markets. Umee will replicate the $200 trillion global debt capital markets using open source code, crypto primitives and web3 technology, constructing a universal yield curve and enabling a foundation for a modern monetary policy that is globally unified, transparent and decentralized.
Foundation of a Web3 Native Debt Market
Umee combines traditional debt market fundamentals with the next generation capabilities of blockchain technology.
Traditional debt market fundamentals will provide Umee with the basis to create:
A term structure that uses time-to-maturity and credit-worthiness to determine rates;
The crypto format for debt primitives such as notes, bills, bonds, CDS, structured products, and other assets.
Umee’s web3 architecture will enable:
— Decentralization;
— Transparency;
— Immutability;
— PoS-based interest rates;
— Decentralized credit rating systems.
Security & Audits
There are certain industry standards in place to help protect users, including the extensive auditing of code to find any potential weaknesses before a product is launched and any real money is at stake. Security is a priority for Umee, which is why Umee has contracted several top auditors to inspect every line of code and flag any potential vulnerabilities before going live.
Gravity Bridge
What is Gravity Bridge?
Umee’s Gravity Bridge is a chain-specific bridge optimized for transfers between Ethereum and the Umee blockchain, with plans to integrate an Omni-EVM feature (includes the ability to transfer to and from multiple EVMs) in the future. The advantages Umee’s gravity bridge affords over generalized bridges is security and capital efficiency. The bridge’s multisig which signs off on state changes (account balances) for cross chain transactions is controlled by Umee’s 100 decentralized and permissionless validators, greatly enhancing security and minimizing trust assumptions. In this documentation we dive further into the economics of Gravity Bridge and Peggo, which is an orchestrator for the Gravity Bridge that assists relayers in cross-chain messaging.
Functions
The main function of Gravity Bridge is to securely transfer ERC-20 assets to Cosmos, and vice versa. The key stakeholders of Gravity Bridge are the users, relayers, and validators. Validators are the same actors that secure the Umee blockchain. In order for validators to relay transactions, they must run a software on their nodes called Peggo, which is the orchestrator that allows them to validate events (changes in account balances) occurring on both Ethereum and Cosmos. All of Umee’s 100 validators must sign-off on the multisig for Gravity Bridge via Peggo, making the bridge decentralized and robust in its security setup.
Token Utility
Validator Infrastructure
The Umee Blockchain is built on a network of validators that contribute Tendermint BFT consensus to the protocol. Tokens are bonded to validators that stake to provide Proof of Stake consensus to the network. Validators come from an open ecosystem of contributors and infrastructure providers. Tokens can also be delegated to validators by users to participate in the underlying consensus mechanism. This helps ensure the Umee network remains decentralized.
Network Fees
Network fees will be earned in the form of UMEE tokens by validator infrastructure providers.
Validators earn block rewards in the form of UMEE similar to how transaction fees are processed in native blockchain protocols.
Protocol Governance
The native UMEE token is also a protocol governance token used to facilitate on-chain governance for the Umee Blockchain. The UMEE token, when staked, can be used to vote on protocol parameters and upgrades for improving functionality of the blockchain infrastructure. The UMEE token will also govern DeFi parameters of applications that sit on top, community grants, and future development.
Project Resources
Twitter | GitHub | Telegram | Discord | Docs
