Introducing Veda
By tokenizing the most complex DeFi interactions, Veda grants protocols the power to embed yield for superior user experience.
Today we are proud to introduce Veda, the first native yield layer for DeFi. We’re building Veda to solve DeFi’s core challenge: accessibility. Veda enables tokenization of arbitrarily complex sets of DeFi positions, serving as a foundation for protocols, wallets, and exchanges to offer accessible yield products to users.
The Problem: DeFi Lacks Abstraction
DeFi has the unique potential to create financial freedom through an open and transparent system free from hidden risks and value-extractive intermediaries. DeFi has already partially delivered on this promise, enabling its users to participate in a rich and growing ecosystem of decentralized financial primitives.
However, participating in DeFi today requires that users directly interface with a complex network of chains, protocols, assets, and bridges. The result is that the value created by DeFi is only accessible by a select group of technical users. To DeFi builders, these high barriers of entry create frictions in the user onboarding process and low capital efficiency within their ecosystem.
Broadly, there are several areas where abstraction is lacking causing DeFi UX to fall short:
Usability and Accessibility: Many DeFi protocols feature complex interfaces, coupled with transactions that require in-depth technical knowledge.
Risk and Security: Without standardized risk disclosures or a universal scoring system, users struggle not only to compare but also to fully understand the risks associated with different protocols and assets
Dynamic Market Environment: Users have difficulty keeping up with the constantly evolving DeFi yield environment and interoperability infrastructure.
The Solution: Native Yield
“Native Yield” means embedding yield in the user experience. That is, providing a simple or default way for users to earn on their capital and participate in an ecosystem. The Native Yield thesis is that most users will interact with DeFi through streamlined products that manage the complexities of underlying protocols, enabling users to effortlessly access and benefit from attractive yields.
Bold First Steps: Blast and Ethena
Blast, the protocol which coined the term “Native Yield”, is an L2 where bridged capital is automatically staked through Lido to earn yield. Blast’s key innovation is that its users earn yield by default which lowers the opportunity cost of onboarding to their ecosystem. Ethena is a synthetic dollar that tokenizes a managed basis trade. Users earn yield from this sophisticated strategy by simply holding (and staking) a token.
While innovative, these approaches are not extensible. The native yield infrastructure implemented respectively by Blast and Ethena are narrow and proprietary. Until today, protocols wishing to offer native yield must effectively develop their own solution. This is suboptimal for two important reasons:
Developing yield infrastructure is a resource sink and typically orthogonal to the goals of a protocol (e.g. improving developer experience for an L2).
Yield optimization requires specific expertise, and protocols should be able to outsource this while retaining control and security guarantees.
The technical challenge lies in developing infrastructure that is flexible enough to capture yield over a diverse set of chains and protocols while retaining security.
Veda: The First Native Yield Layer
Veda democratizes native yield, enabling any protocol to effortlessly integrate native yield and thus allowing them to refocus on their core mission.
Veda is the first protocol that can tokenize arbitrary strategies over any set of chains and DeFi primitives. To better understand Veda’s value proposition, we introduce the Native Yield Stack.
Veda Native Yield Layer
Veda's native yield layer is designed to transform how native yield is created and delivered in DeFi. This innovative layer offers a robust and adaptable platform with several distinctive features:
Black Box Yield Optimization: Veda's approach to yield optimization is intentionally flexible, accommodating a range of strategies managed by anything from a DeFi strategist to an AI agent. This flexibility ensures that Veda is futureproof for the evolving needs of the DeFi landscape.
Verifiable Constraints on Capital Allocation: The system implements on-chain verifiable constraints that govern capital deployment. These constraints can be tailored to limit exposure to specific assets, protocols, and leverage ratios, enhancing security and risk mitigation.
Modular and Extensible Architecture: Veda is built with modularity at its core, enabling rapid integration with new protocols and assets. This design not only ensures that Veda can quickly adapt to changes in the DeFi landscape but also facilitates seamless expansions and upgrades.
Secure Cross-Chain Operations: Recognizing the importance of interoperability in DeFi, Veda is engineered to operate securely across multiple blockchains. This cross-chain functionality not only broadens the potential for yield generation but also enhances user access to diverse DeFi ecosystems without compromising on security.
Primitives, Assets and User Interfaces
Situated above Veda are the Primitives, which include essential financial components like money markets, DEXs, CDPs, and more—what people commonly refer to as DeFi. However, within this Primitives layer, we also include Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains because we anticipate they will increasingly incorporate Native Yield into their offerings. On top of these primitives are Assets, which are optimized to generate yield. These yields are then tokenized and delivered seamlessly through user interfaces on exchanges, wallets, and Dapp websites. In short, Veda harnesses all layers of the Native Yield Stack to deliver accessible DeFi yield to everyone.
Veda's Mission
Veda is dedicated to its mission of enabling anyone to participate in the value created by blockchains. As the first native yield layer, Veda is empowering DeFi builders to create a more inclusive and free financial future.
Conclusion
Veda stands at the forefront of accessibility in DeFi, providing DeFi builders with the flexibility and security to seamlessly deliver tokenized yield in a complex DeFi world. As we continue to power the Native Yield Stack, we invite you to join us on this journey to make DeFi accessible and beneficial for all.