In June 2021, Solend emerged as the winner of the Solana Season hackathon with just a prototype of its lending protocol. Now, in August, the open-source project has officially launched on the Solana mainnet and has garnered over $100 million in user deposits and $40 million in borrowings.
The anonymous developer, Rooter, who leads the Solend team, discusses the team’s rapid growth since the hackathon. He shares the challenges and rewards of building on Solana and his thoughts on the recent downtime and technical difficulties.
Rooter explains that they turned to Solana because Ethereum has become more suitable for large companies and whales, excluding the average person due to high costs. They recognized the need for a lending protocol on Solana, considering the success of Aave and Compound on Ethereum. Despite the competition, Rooter believes that Solend is performing well.
Building on Solana presented challenges for the team since it was a new blockchain. Rooter himself had experience with Ethereum but had to adapt to Solana. The developer tooling ecosystem was not as developed, and they had to build certain tools themselves, which slowed down their progress.
However, Rooter highlights the best thing about building on Solana—the speed and cost-effectiveness. He recalls the amazing experience of using the app they built during the hackathon, where transactions were confirmed instantly and at minimal cost. Building on Solana reminded him of the early days of Ethereum when transactions were fast and cheap.
Regarding the recent Solana downtime, Rooter acknowledges that it was not ideal for a network of its size. However, they were fortunate that the market did not experience significant movement during that time. To mitigate potential risks, Solend increased the liquidation threshold temporarily. Rooter hopes that such incidents do not occur again in the future.
Solend relies on the Pyth Network oracles for price feeds. Although they plan to upgrade to time-weighted average price (TWAP) oracles, they are currently investigating an incident where one user was affected by a flash crash in the BTC/USD feed. They also mention the possibility of using other oracles like Switchboard.xyz and Chainlink for additional security.
As a lending protocol, Solend understands the importance of an insurance fund. They are cautious about the assets they list and the potential risks they pose to the protocol. They aim to grow their insurance fund through their token generation event and the Solend Treasury, with the goal of reaching $10 million to $50 million.
Looking ahead, Solend’s roadmap includes the launch of a token and liquidity mining program. They also plan to introduce permissionless and isolated lending pools to reduce risk and expand the range of assets available for lending. Solend expresses interest in listing Saber Protocol but notes the need for sufficient trading volume and liquidity.
Regarding the launch of the Solend token, Rooter states that it should be released next month. Early adopters who have been supplying or borrowing on Solend will be eligible for retroactive rewards. Solend’s liquidity program will have a different approach from traditional liquidity mining and aims to address the flaws of previous versions.
In conclusion, Solend has experienced significant growth since its win at the Solana Season hackathon. Despite the challenges of building on Solana, the team has overcome them and is focused on further developments and improvements for the protocol.
