Community Update: Q1 2022
Product, growth, and community initiatives.
From a product and engineering perspective, Q1 2022 has been our most successful quarter to date. We scaled our blockchain integrations almost 5x versus 2021 and released the first of our flagship AI and machine learning features.
We are now well-positioned to transition from Private Beta to Public Launch.
A Public Launch means more users, more TVL, and more traction for the project as a whole. While the markets have been down slightly year to date, we’ve taken this opportunity to get us closer to this big milestone.
Performance Summary
The most current and best measurements of our traction are platform developments, user growth, and partnerships. Here are the most recent stats for both KeyFi Core and Pro apps.
User Traction
KeyFi Core
- Launched December 2020
- 68,000 unique visitors as of April 6, 2021
- Several Pro-level features will be available for free users in the near future, such as asset tracking on all 14 available blockchains
KeyFi Pro
- Launched December 2021
- Currently in Private Beta only for our community of $KEYFI stakers; more access options will be available in Public Launch
- 2,685 unique visitors since December 30, 2021
Note: User traction data will improve over time as we implement ways to track MAU. We will also be presenting a new governance proposal in the near future which will “simplify” our two app offerings.
New Integrations
This quarter, we saw the integration of QuickSwap DEX, along with 11 new networks:
Strategic Partnerships
We also saw QuickSwap, OKC, and Aurora join us as strategic partners. The list already comprised of Polygon, Alkemi, ApeSwap, and SelfKey.
Development Grants
We are proud to reiterate that Aurora (NEAR Protocol) and Moonbeam have joined Polygon in our roster of supporters in Q1. Each have provided us with generous development grants to expand further into their ecosystems, and we will be prioritizing their networks’ DEX, platform, and protocol integration efforts.
Growth Strategy
The short-term growth strategy is simple — 5–10x our blockchain, platform, and protocol integrations. This “Multi-Chain Strategy” is modeled off of the most successful aggregators in the industry, whose missions were to effectively create the “Coinbase for DeFi”.
By following in those footsteps and launching asset tracking and basic transactions like swapping, earning, and borrowing on as many networks/platforms as possible, we both de-risk KeyFi as a business and position ourselves for user growth.
That comes with a caveat — we differentiate ourselves and have unique selling points, which are described in the Unique Selling Points section below.
Multi-Chain Strategy
Although KeyFi’s differentiator is mainly on the AI, data, and machine learning front — less on integrations — it is a worthy and relatively tried-and-true model for growth due to several benefits:
- By leading with value — mainnet integrations and multi-wallet asset tracking — we develop meaningful partnerships with different ecosystems
- Joint marketing opportunities such as marketing, AMAs, interviews, product tutorials, and ecosystem portal listings
- Grants and other financial opportunities, e.g. Polygon, Aurora, and Moonbeam
- Introductions to and partnerships with their top DApps, e.g. DEX and lending protocols, which in turn yield more marketing and financial opportunities
- KeyFi becomes future proof; as we operate on the app layer, we don’t rely on any one chain or platform; we represent diversification across DeFi
As a result, ecosystems and their projects benefit in several ways:
- Their users are better empowered to manage their DeFi portfolios
- Front end redundancy — as we integrate directly with their largest DEXs and platforms, their users now have an alternative app to interact with
- Access to innovative AI features
As you’ve seen in Q1, we have started delivering on this key initiative, all with the aim to increase user adoption and create more exposure for KeyFi.
Product Positioning
The position chart below demonstrates KeyFi’s pivot to a multi-chain strategy (“1”). To put us into perspective, companies A, B, and C represent different aggregator types:
A. “General” aggregators whose goal is to offer basic functions like asset tracking across 100–200 integrations. Their target users are typically beginner to intermediary retail DeFi users.
B. Institutional-level aggregators with moderate amounts of integrations, for example MetaMask Institutional’s Portfolio Dashboard.
C. “Ecosystem” aggregators that are built for one particular network, most notably Step Finance, the “Front page of Solana”, and Acala, the “DeFi Hub of Polkadot”.
B2B Strategies
At its core, KeyFi is an R&D company specializing in AI and machine learning. Our job is to build out a powerful back end, curate a wide breadth of unique and valuable data, and empower our users through a convenient front end.
The front end is a canvas upon which we can build tailored experiences for both institutions and ecosystem partners. Although conversations are early stage, we envision more aggregators powered by KeyFi’s back end, featuring:
- A consolidated view of an institution’s or ecosystem’s assets and platforms
- Token positions
- Lending and borrowing LP, farming, and rewards
- Governance
- NFTs
- Other positions
While our multi-chain strategy (1) is the priority, we are exploring additional “ecosystem-focused” (2) and “institutional” (3) product strategies long term. More on this later.
Unique Selling Points (USPs)
With the launch of our first AI features this quarter (see “Product & Engineering” below), it’s important to reiterate our USPs:
- While the most popular aggregators are focused on monitoring assets, we focus on interacting (with platforms). That requires us to integrate deeper into each ecosystem, i.e. integrating with smaller DEXs.
- Again, as an AI and data company specializing in machine learning, we can develop algorithm-driven features such as Market Analysis and Discovery Engine.
- A powerful Research Dashboard and custom DeFi strategy creating using the Strategy Manager. See the tutorial below for more information.
Product & Engineering
This month, we’ve launched the first of our AI and machine learning features built by our data scientist, Brian Chan, PhD, and overseen by Ben Gervais, co-founder and CEO. This is a first sneak peek at these features before we officially announce them.
Discovery Engine
Currently in beta, the Discovery Engine is effectively an AI engine that analyzes the token holdings in your wallet, analyzes 100k+ of the largest wallets in the world, and finds wallets that are most similar in holdings as yours.
It then returns/presents the delta — in other words, the tokens that you do not own from the AI-generated “model portfolio”, along with corresponding scores.
Finally, with Discovery Engine’s voting functionality, you can approve or decline each presented token, which in turn “trains” the AI model, allowing it to present tokens that are more relevant to you, the user, long term.
One of the most innovative aspects of blockchain technology is its transparency — anyone can view any transaction on the public ledger. This has spawned all sorts of gamifications, such as “whale watching” and “copy trading”.
The Discovery Engine effectively “automates” whale watching for discovering new tokens…
… In that it analyzes many more wallets than a human can and saves you a tremendous amount of time.
Qualitatively, it also provides a different, AI-driven model for discovering new tokens than the traditional CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap discover pages.
Market Analysis
Our second AI feature released this month, Market Analysis, collects market data for the top 100 tokens by market cap and writes short market updates using AI.
In other words, Market Analysis automatically collects news, social media, and user sentiment from all over the world for the top tokens and creates cohesive write-ups to help you quickly and conveniently stay on top of the markets.
Notable details:
- Algorithmically collects data from global crypto news sources, market data sources like CoinGecko, price momentum signals, social media sentiment, and more
- Text generated using cutting-edge machine learning technology
- Currently available for top 100 tokens by market capitalization
- Content is updated daily
Community Update
Marketing
As discussed above, we are currently marketing by means of expanding to new ecosystems, engaging their users, and integrating with as many DApps in those ecosystems as possible.
As we have received two grants from Aurora (Near Protocol) and Moonbeam, we will be integrating their projects first. This includes at least two DEXs, and two borrow/lend protocols.
The official launch and partnership announcements for Avalanche, Fantom, Cronos, Moonriver, and Metis are coming soon, not to mention there are many more networks in the pipeline.
We believe generating users and token holders through these initiatives will build a strong, engaged community.
New Governance Proposals
There are currently at least three governance proposals being drafted, proposals that relate to these three areas:
- Product
- Token
- User acquisition
We will be presenting these proposals to the community one by one, over the next month or so, starting with a product decision that we believe will greatly improve our project’s presentation, branding, messaging, and development.
Roadmap Update
By popular demand, many of you have asked for an updated roadmap, and we agree. Based on our multi-chain strategy, we’ll need to add a lot more blockchain and platforms integrations to the roadmap.
Other updates:
- KeyFi DAO (full decentralization) is still on track for EOY
- KTX Vaults (modeled after Yearn Vaults) is still in legal review
- KeyFi Pro Public Launch has been moved to this quarter
We will publishing the new roadmap on our website as soon as possible, and we will notify the community right away.
We thank you for your dedicated time. We ended the quarter with a minimum lovable product, and a Public Launch in sight. One that truly showcases our AI capabilities, while offering good UX and ever-improving latency.
When we launch KeyFi app to the public (Public Launch), anyone will be able to:
- Swap cryptocurrencies
- Lend and borrow
- Create and share custom watchlists
- Read news organized by your favorite tokens
- Customize DeFi strategies
- Discover new tokens using AI
- Read AI-driven analysis for the top 100 tokens
- Review your transaction history
- Earn rewards
- Create custom price alerts
We look forward to our next important public announcements.
🚀 Onwards and upwards,
The KeyFi Team 🗝
About KeyFi
Built from the ground up, KeyFi is a DeFi aggregator used to track, manage, and deploy your capital intelligently across DeFi. We seek to solve user challenges such as juggling multiple wallets/platforms/chains, manually comparing interest rates, and the lack of historical data. This is all in service of KeyFi’s ultimate goal: to become a premier dApp for sophisticated users who want fine grain control over their assets.
