When they hear “blockchain investing,” most people will immediately think of crypto investing, where investors are purchasing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and alike. And, while some are excited about the opportunity, many would see the downside of it, such as the lack of regulations, high volatility, potential to lose your money to a hacking attack, and alike, which are all fair points and real concerns that continue to trouble investors and cryptos themselves to this day.
However, blockchain investing is no longer limited to cryptocurrencies alone, and there are now other products that users can invest in while enjoying the benefits that blockchain investing has over traditional finance, such as cheap and fast transactions, immutability and transparency, and alike.
This is why Shadows (DOWS), a Polkadot-based project, is trying to raise awareness and deliver more blockchain-based non-crypto products for people to invest in, and along the way, it is solving the issues that prevented developers from offering such assets in the past.
How Does Shadows (DOWS) Work?
Shadows is a project that aims to redefine investment opportunities on-chain. It aims to be a hub for issuing, trading, lending, and borrowing derivative assets. It estimates that the derivatives market is worth over $1.2 quadrillion, and as such, it is a huge opportunity to get into it via the blockchain, especially early on.
As a result, Shadows sees this as a huge market, untapped by the members of the crypto world, which is why it developed a dApp that allows users to issue, trade, and stake derivative asset classes. Of course, in the heart of the project is its token, DOWS, which is used for everything from issuing derivatives to staking, governance, and more. The project is also interoperable, currently existing on Polkadot and BSC.
And, even if users are not interested in derivatives themselves, they can still profit from the project by engaging in lending, staking, and transacting. In return for participating in these activities, users stand to gain DOWS rewards and make passive income.
What Problems Does Shadows (DOWS) Solve?
Shadows is attempting to solve a number of issues, one of the biggest of which involves bringing off-chain assets to the blockchain and offering them to investors. In other words, its solution is solving issues like:
Issuance of synthetic assets
Shadows has come up with ways to issue synthetic assets within its network, essentially allowing users to lock up its DOWS tokens as collateral inside its smart contracts. In exchange, they get to issue synthetic assets — derivatives, which can also be traded on its platform that supports even lending and borrowing of derivative assets, allowing crypto investors to enrich their portfolios by holding derivatives such as gold, stock, oil, and more.
Decentralized derivatives trading platform
Shadows has also developed a decentralized derivatives trading platform rich with features, all of which were specially considered to enrich the users’ trading experience. The project did not add anything that doesn’t need to be there, and it made sure that investors will have all the tools and features that they could ever need to make informed decisions and increase their chances of making a worthy investment that will bring them profits down the road.
Interoperability
Lastly, Shadows is also aiming to unlock scalability and interoperability, and investments in Polkadot itself, as well as Binance Smart Chain, are what is going to help achieve that goal, and potentially make it more than just a derivatives trading platform. Instead, it will make it the leading derivatives trading platform of Web 3.0, once the internet is finally ready to transition to it.
Benefits of Shadows (DOWS)
While Shadows’ goals and ambitions are certainly interesting, you might be wondering what does this project offer you?
Rewards
The first thing to note is that Shadows allows users to earn rewards from multiple activities, such as transaction rewards and staking rewards. In both cases, all that users need to do is buy DOWS tokens and lock them up for as long as they can afford to. In doing so, they will continuously receive rewards as long as they do not withdraw their cryptocurrencies, which is possible to do at any time. The longer the coins remain locked up, the longer the user continues receiving rewards, which can amount to quite a sizable profit after a while.
Collateralized lending
Next, Shadows can also function as a lending project, as well. Users are required to provide collateral, however, in order to get funds from the project, but there are significantly fewer complications in taking out a loan with Shadows than there are in traditional banking.
Access to derivatives via the blockchain
Of course, issuing derivatives via blockchain is Shadows’ main feature, which makes accessing such products in the project’s derivatives exchange one of the main benefits of working with Shadows. As mentioned earlier, anything can be issued in the form of a derivative, as long as it has real-world value and someone is willing to provide their own DOWS tokens in order to issue the products.
System Governance
Finally, if you buy DOWS tokens, you will also be eligible to participate in the project’s governance, meaning that you will be allowed to vote on proposals regarding the future changes to the project’s network or publish them yourself if you have an idea on how to make the project better.
Bottom Line
Over the last few years, the crypto industry has been seeking ways to offer its own version of what traditional finance has to offer, which led to DeFi protocols. However, many believe that traditional finances will never completely be replaced, and that the key is to combine traditional and modern, or digital.
With that said, on-chain derivatives are likely to emerge as a massive trend at some point in the future, and as an early adopter and a leader in the sector, Shadows has great potential to explode into one of the biggest projects that the crypto sector will see.
