From Via to Ally, A Journey

In the vast and intricate world of DeFi, finding optimal ways to trade and transfer tokens across chains and protocols can be a labyrinthine task. To try to solve this problem, we initially developed Via Protocol, a cross-chain aggregator designed to streamline token swaps across different chains. Via gained some good traction and, among other achievements, earned the second spot in the 2022 Golden Kitty Award for Web3 Product of the Year on Product Hunt.

However, the DeFi space is ever-changing and dynamic, with trends and preferences evolving rapidly. A notable trend we observed over time was a significant decrease in aggregator usage across DeFi platforms. Aggregators like Socket or 1inch had initially served as go-to platforms, displaying the best ways to swap or bridge tokens, and even performing these actions on behalf of users—all from a single interface. Despite the convenience, users eventually found it more convenient to search for the best swapping routes on aggregators and then execute the swaps directly on DEXs and bridges, saving on gas fees and mitigating risks associated with aggregators' proxy contracts.

These transformations prompted us to reevaluate our product and consider what would truly serve users' best interests. On top of offering a tool that could really satisfy users’ needs, we also had the ambition to do so without charging fees while ensuring the protocol’s sustainability.

The result of these guiding principles is Ally, an innovative protocol designed around three pillars:

1. Enhancing the User Experience: Providing a superior and fee-free token exchange service, setting a new industry standard.

2. Monetization Without Fees: Finding sustainable revenue sources without charging users and sharing this revenue stream with them.

3. Unifying with the Ally Token: Introducing a native token with true utility, sustained by a tangible revenue stream and generating real yields, eventually binding all elements together and propelling the Ally ecosystem forward.

Ally’s Product Philosophy

Drawing inspiration from successful enterprises in Web2, where specialization reigns supreme, at the core of Ally's mission lies a simple yet profound philosophy—to excel in doing one thing exceptionally well. Our focus isn't on being a one-size-fits-all solution for DeFi; instead, we strive for mastery in a specific functionality, providing the most intuitive and efficient product for token exchanges.

Ally, Your Trusted DeFi Gateway

Web3 and DeFi have been on a journey to constantly innovate and refine products to best serve the evolving users’ needs. DEXs marked a significant milestone, enabling users to trade a wide array of tokens in a transparent and permissionless manner—a significant departure from traditional finance.

As the number of blockchain chains and protocols proliferated, it became challenging for users to identify the optimal ways to swap tokens. Traditional DEX aggregators like 1inch played a revolutionary role in simplifying user experience by consolidating access to multiple DEXs across various chains within a unified interface. However, they achieved this via routing proxy contracts instead of direct calls to the DEXs’ smart contracts. This intermediary step brought forth several potential disadvantages:

1. Costs. Swapping tokens through aggregators may result in higher gas fees than swapping directly on DEXs and lack positive slippage. Moreover, if the aggregator is integrated into a wallet, like MetaMask or Rainbow, an additional swap fee would apply.

2. Security (1). Proxy contracts, an intermediate layer between users and the DEXs’ smart contracts, add trust assumptions and introduce a new potential attack vector.

3. Security (2). In the case of bridges, aggregator proxy contracts frequently lead to problems primarily because bridge transactions lack atomicity. When bridges update something on their side without providing advance notifications to aggregators, they can cause funds to be locked within the aggregator's contract.

Enter Ally— a powerful new aggregator that facilitates user experience without relying on proxy smart contracts. Instead, Ally compares quotas and then calls DEXs and bridges contracts directly. This novel approach substantially benefits users, maintaining the convenience of a unified interface while eliminating the need to exit the platform and visit individual DEXs or bridges—which used to happen with traditional aggregators once users discovered it was cheaper and more secure. At the same time, by connecting users directly with DEXs and bridges’ smart contracts, Ally avoids relying on proxy routing contracts, resulting in a more cost-efficient and secure solution.

Ally's core capabilities include direct calls to major DEXs; direct exchanges on central exchanges (CEXs); and direct access to cross-chain bridges such as Arbitrum and Stargate. Additionally, Ally allows users to place limit orders across various DEXs like 1inch, CowSwap, 0x, and the soon-to-launch UniswapX.

Ally Add-ons: Empowering the Community

The journey of VIA to deliver a seamless experience for end users and protocols encountered an unforeseen challenge where many projects were more focused on enhancing their tokens’ utility and introducing new features than prioritizing user-centric design.

Given the prevalence of this approach, it's understandable that interest in our user-focused solution was limited, as limited were the opportunities to directly collaborate with these protocols. This realization led to a significant shift in our strategy when developing Ally.

Enter Ally Add-ons.

Rather than exclusively creating features in-house, we've developed a robust add-on architecture that empowers the community to contribute and enhance the Ally experience. This approach enables anyone to design and implement features that, once properly vetted, can be made available to all Ally users. Users, in turn, can activate these add-ons based on their needs and preferences. Add-ons can range from upgrading protocol interfaces, integrating with wallets, enabling gasless exchanges, and incorporating new platforms like DEXs and bridges, to facilitating direct crypto-to-fiat conversions.

By opening up the contribution and development process to the community, those who actively use the platform and possess the deepest understanding of its inner workings have the power to drive faster improvements and perfect the user experience. This collaborative approach ensures that the Ally ecosystem remains community-driven and that every feature, whether it originates from our team or the community, aligns deeply with our core mission: perfecting the art of token exchange in the growing domain of DeFi.

💡 If you are excited by this open approach and interested in contributing to the Ally ecosystem, consider joining the Developer's Group → https://t.me/+APtOYIdQoMQ3ZDky

Revolutionizing Ad Monetization: A Win-Win for All

One of the lessons from the VIA experience is that no matter how good the user experience is, users are reluctant to pay for a service they could access for free or at a much lower cost on other platforms. This challenge was magnified by the additional expenses of proxy smart contracts, as previously discussed. At the same time, protocols need a reliable source of monetization, and depending solely on investments is rarely a sustainable path. Consequently, our team had to explore alternative sustainable and healthy revenue sources that wouldn’t extract from users. Our CEO, leveraging his background in successful affiliate marketing and co-founding a mobile advertising network, devised a logical solution.

While our front end might not attract sufficient traffic for substantial and consistent ad revenue, we realized we could display advertisements on third-party websites already featuring ads. As a Google Chrome extension, Ally can unilaterally replace ads displayed on third-party websites with ones willing to pay to access its users. For example, Rabby, a wallet extension, can change the text "Connect MetaMask" to "Connect Rabby". Similarly, Ally identifies an advertisement banner on third-party websites, such as Etherscan, and substitutes it with an ad that compensates Ally for reaching its users.

What's even more exciting is our endeavor to disrupt the advertising industry by sharing most of the revenue generated from ad views with users. Users will be exposed to ads, but in return, they will earn something, akin to rewarded ads in mobile games or Brave Rewards in the Brave Browser. In collaboration with several Web3 ad networks, we have developed a solution that rewards users with a share of the tokens that advertisers pay for displaying their ads. This innovative approach ensures that users can capture a portion of the revenue they contribute to generate, significantly upgrading the advertisement business model by aligning it with the principles of Web3 and creating a sustainable and equitable ecosystem.

💡 For more details on how this process works, we invite you to read through our Docs.

The Role of Ally Token: A Beacon of Utility and Value

Ally, guided by a commitment to transparency and delivering value, implements a business model that relies on free trading, user rewards, and comprehensive growth.

While the ad monetization strategy described above enables free usage for users while ensuring a sustainable source of revenue for the Ally protocol, the Ally native token is the cornerstone of the ecosystem's value and growth.

The Ally token is a global payment solution, a vehicle for distributing value and ownership, and thus a real-yield token with tangible utility. Users will directly capture 80% of ad revenue generated by ads they watch, which can be paid out in USDC or Ally native tokens. By staking Ally tokens, users can earn a share from an additional 18% of the ad revenue and gain access to governance. This design provides the Ally token with real utility while limiting malicious farming and volatility.

Furthermore, the Ally token propels the ecosystem's growth by incentivizing contributors through its DAO. 2% of every ad view is allocated to two sub-DAOs, the DeveloperDAO and the MarketingDAO. The DeveloperDAO utilizes these funds for the continuous enhancement of Ally, particularly with add-ons for the extension. Simultaneously, the MarketingDAO utilizes its share to amplify Ally's presence and reach, encompassing everything from articles to advertisements. Given the unparalleled impact of organic, community-driven growth, a significant portion of this budget is dedicated to our referral program, an incentive for users to spread the word, ensuring that Ally's growth benefits all community members.

The Ally DAO serves a broader purpose than just treasury; it's a vehicle for fostering community engagement and sustaining the growth of the Ally ecosystem. The DeveloperDAO and the MarketingDAO are the two working groups responsible for fulfilling these objectives.

💡 To learn more about the token allocation and the opportunities for affiliates, we invite you to read through our Docs.

The Flywheels of Ally: A Path to Sustainable Growth

In the dynamic landscape of DeFi, sustainability and growth are paramount. The Ally ecosystem is designed to leverage one of Web3’s most unique advantages, the ability to align participants' interests, resulting in powerful flywheels that fuel sustainable growth and ensure network longevity.

Flywheel 1: Advertisers and Users

Users interacting with Ally view advertisements, generating impressions that attract advertisers. This generates advertising fees for users, incentivizing more users to join Ally. As the user base grows, more impressions are generated, attracting larger advertisers and resulting in greater advertising revenue for users.

Flywheel 2: Users and Contributors

As more users utilize Ally, they generate more impressions and advertising revenue. This means that the Ally DAO, specifically the DeveloperDAO, has more budget for developing add-ons. This will encourage developers to build on top of Ally, thereby creating more value for users and ultimately attracting more users to the protocol.

Flywheel 3: Protocol and Affiliates

A positive network effect exists between users and affiliates associated with the MarketingDAO. More users joining the protocol due to affiliate efforts lead to increased protocol revenues and popularity. This, in turn, expands the budget available to the protocol and the MarketingDAO for advertising campaigns, incentivizing more affiliates to participate.

Redefining DeFi, One Seamless Exchange at a Time

Ally is not just a platform; it's a new philosophy in the DeFi world. We're committed to redefining the space by ensuring power and value truly belong to users. By eliminating fees, focusing on core functionalities, adopting innovative monetization via web3-ads, and using tokens to ensure fair value distribution, we reflect our deep-seated beliefs. These principles, combined with the synergies in the Ally ecosystem, embody our pledge to sustainable growth and a thriving community.

Our vision is clear: redefine token-swapping to be both accessible and rewarding.

With Ally, DeFi isn't just close; it's right in your hand, guiding you through the decentralized financial realm. As we shape the DeFi future, we invite you to be an integral part of this journey. 🚀

Dive in with us! Mint your Beta Pass at myally.xyz and pioneer the next phase as a cherished beta user.