Welcome Back, Professional
It’s been a busy month at Synonym HQ! We’re continuing to build a best-in-class cross-chain lending experience for our community. We’ve got a few important updates to share with you including exciting new partners, our plans for asset listing and timelines.
Merger Outcomes
Our merger with New Order DAO was very successful and had the largest voter turn out of any proposal (alongside a 99%+ approval rate). This merger has allowed us to rapidly build Synonym and pursue improvements faster than our competitors.
Development Update
Synonym has been steadily expanding its development team and capabilities and has completed the overwhelming majority of core protocol development work. The codebase has been fully audited by OtterSec, a leading smart contract security firm that protects over $5B in crypto assets. Our development team is currently building out our token and rewards contracts that will eventually power our tSYNO, vlSYNO and rCT systems. We’ll also be completing a full second audit by another security and formal verification firm, Runtime Verification.
Testnet Timeline
We’ve made the decision to push the official testnet program into Q4. Why do you ask? To build the extremely efficient cross-chain liquidation mechanism that DeFi Professionals deserve. We’ve officially partnered with Gauntlet to build a leading cross-chain liquidation system for Synonym. Gauntlet protects $9B in assets and is trusted by Uniswap, Aave, Compound, Maker and more. Even better, Synonym will benefit from Gauntlet’s ongoing real-time monitoring and quantitative analysis services. Expect more efficient pools, friendly LTVs and an upgraded UX. While the delay into Q4 isn’t major, the improvements to Synonym will be. If you’ve already signed up for testnet there’s nothing you need to do right now - your sign up slot is reserved for you and will remain valid.
Asset Cohorts
Our goal is to ship the best possible cross-chain borrowing and lending experience for our users. This means striking a balance between quality assets, liquidity and interesting strategies that aren’t available anywhere else. With this in mind, we’ve opted to plan our asset market launches via cohorts. Synonym will start with bluechip assets first, including tokens like wBTC, wETH and USDC. In cohort two, Synonym will add a suite of LSDs/LSTs to our cross-chain markets. These cohorts will give Synonym the solid liquidity foundation it needs to host even more exciting assets and strategies.
Up Next
As mentioned, the official Synonym Testnet Beta Program will be kicking off in Q4 instead of late Q3. Registered testnet users will have the opportunity to thoroughly stress-test our platform (testnet sign up is available here). After testnet is complete Synonym HQ will work through a final round of bug fixes prior to our official mainnet launch. We’ll be releasing more updates on releases throughout Q4 as our launch timelines solidify. Until next time, Professionals.