How did it start?
Angel Protocol is built around the idea of community and the origins of the project are no different. It began with an idea and a single tweet from Chauncy St. John, proposing to integrate Anchor functionality with charitable contributions. The Terra Twitter community sparked into life immediately, and within no time at all Angel Protocol was in its formative stages. The project joined Orion Money, Apollo DAO and other emerging names in the Delphi Digital Hackathon, where it first started to take shape in May.
What does it do?
Angel Protocol has the goal of creating ‘perpetual charitable endowments’, ultimately aspiring towards a system where charitable organisations are self-sufficient, to the need of not needing donations. This is made possible by Achor Protocol, and the current 20% fixed interest rate produced. Angel Protocol is harnessing the power of compound interest to boost the power and utility of these donations, all available in a simple interface designed to be accessible for non-cypto users. One of the clear benefits is that smaller organisations will have a more defined picture of future incomings and be able to draw out plans accordingly. Beyond this, Angel Protocol also established themselves as a validator in June, harnessing staking commission as a secondary route for donation revenue.
Is there anything else out there like it?
Angel Protocol is a very unique entity in the Terra Ecosystem – so much so that many other projects are getting behind it by joining the Terra Charity Alliance. Projects including Alice Finance, Spar Finance, StarTerra and Loop have all pledged to commit 1% of their total revenue to support Angel Protocol’s charitable endeavors. The notion of charitable giving from crypto communities is by no means new: Vitalik made headlines by donating more than $60M of his unrequested Shiba Inu allocation and there are several organisations such as Giveth who operate on different blockchains. Angel is unique however, in the way that it aims to utilise Anchor Protocol to create sustainable donations which can grow over time.
What happens next?
One of the main hurdles for Angel Protocol is how UST is trusted and perceived by those who want to donate. Their model is specifically built around the concept of long-term donations, so a robust and trusted stablecoin to underpin it all is essential. In this regard, the recent development in UST peg insurance from Unslashed and Anchor smart contract cover from Nexus Mutual, InsurAce and Bridge Mutual is a significant step in the right direction. Angel Protocol’s roadmap (pictured below) aims for the end of 2021 for full market functionality and the important step of off-ramp integration. Beyond this, there is huge scope for integration across the Terra ecosystem; for example, Angel has hinted at utilising the upcoming Pylon Protocol developments for more tailored giving opportunities or team up with third parties for additional rewards and yield opportunities from donations.