Who Wants Cake?! — Horizon Genesis’ First Birthday
Has it been a year already?! I guess time really does fly when you’re BUIDLing! On this exact date 1 year ago Horizon Genesis went LIVE on BNB Chain mainnet (back then still called Binance Smart Chain). So much has happened since, and not just on the Horizon Genesis front. In this article we would like to reflect on some of the highlights of the past year, but also look at what the future holds, and of course there are prizes to be won! But first of all we would like to thank you all for your support, we could not have made it this far without you!
First, here’s a brief introduction on what Horizon Genesis is and why it’s important to the Horizon Protocol ecosystem. Horizon Genesis serves as the backbone for all the synthetic assets — or zAssets — ever created. For the ecosystem to remain stable and healthy, and for synthetic assets to remain backed, a sufficient collateralization ratio is needed. Horizon Genesis provides its users with staking mechanisms as incentives for stakers to provide that collateral. Furthermore, for zAssets to exist, users need HZN to mint and collateralize them. Horizon Genesis plays a crucial role in this, as it allows the HZN token to be used as collateral to create zUSD (a USD stablecoin) which can then be used to trade for 20 other zAssets (at the time of writing) that represent various sectors of the real economy. By incentivizing stakers at a protocol level to proactively manage their own (and other users) collateralization positions, both stakers and the protocol are protected against systemic default risk.
Now let’s go back to that day, July 23rd 2021, when our journey began. The launch was met with much enthusiasm from team and community alike, as backed by approximately ~81% of circulating HZN tokens being locked in the first week alone. It was also the day that the monetary policy went into effect, rewarding early adopters.
The token issuance rate has since started reducing on a weekly basis as mapped out in our monetary policy while still granting new stakers a very respectable yield with no impermanent loss risk.
Additionally, Horizon Genesis is also currently offering three LP incentives, namely HZN-BNB, the stable coin pair zUSD-BUSD and, our latest addition, a BNB stable pair zBNB-BNB. These LP pools provide staking opportunities in addition to staking HZN and minting synthetic assets. The stable pairs, zUSD-BUSD and zBNB-BNB, have little-to-no impermanent loss risks, making these pools ideal for earning yield in volatile markets.
For those who are interested in staking in one of the LP pools: the zBNB-BNB LP pool provides a bonus to those who provide zBNB into the liquidity pool on Ellipsis Finance.
In conclusion: At the time of writing, the sum of HZN tokens locked amounts to 78.52%; which includes those staked in Genesis staking and the various liquidity pools.
Here are some highlights of what was accomplished the past year:
- 7/23: Horizon Genesis is born.
- 08/18: First community vote. This was an important first step in our journey towards a community-driven DAO. Community members got the opportunity to determine the lock period for the zUSD/BUSD LP, and with a 10% turnout this can be considered a great trial run!
- 08/25: Another milestone was reached on August 25th, when the total supply of zUSD crossed $1 million for the first time.
- 09/24: With the release of Horizon Dashboard another product was added to Horizon Protocol’s portfolio. This initial release provided stakers with network statistics and real-time data, such as token info, staking info, and liquidation info.
- 11/05: Identity contest: Every community needs a name, ours being no exception. A majority of the community member votes decided on HZNation!
- 12/15: The community asked for an AMA with the team. So we listened, gathered questions, and answered them categorically.
- 01/21: Horizon Protocol’s Discord server was launched, as part of our plan to expand our social network presence. If you’re not a member yet, you can join the server through this link: https://discord.gg/GxfGJn6afB.
- 02/25: Horizon Protocol integrates Chainlink’s price feeds.
- 03/25: Horizon Protocol announces plans to utilize and integrate Chainlink Keepers.
- 04/08: With products and content continuously being added, there was a need for more comprehensive docs. Therefore our legacy docs were replaced by the new Horizon Academy in preparation for a lot more content to come.
- 04/19: Our Educational Director Stanton Wong is publicly introduced for the first time.
- 04/22: Horizon Exchange is released with 20 new tradable zAssets!
- 04/27: Chainlink AMA with Stanton.
- 05/06: The introduction of Horizon Improvement Proposals, or HIPs.
- 06/03: Horizon Genesis 2.0 is released. Genesis 2.0 comes with important updates to the UI and new pages, such as a debt tracker and escrow tracker.
- 06/10: The Target C-Ratio is lowered. All three strategies have their target C-Ratios reduced by 100%. This was the result of our first HIP implementation.
- 06/29: Horizon Dashboard 1.5 is released. Changes were made and things were added based on feedback from the community.
- 07/05: zBNB/BNB Ellipsis LP is deployed. This is the result of HIP-1.
- 07/07: BNB Arabic AMA with Stanton.
- 07/08: Latest roadmap is released. This is where we are now. The roadmap shows the current priorities for Horizon Protocol. However as always, please feel free to leave suggestions through our social media channels on what you think should be prioritized.
- 07/18: BNB Portuguese AMA with CM JR.
As mentioned in the introduction, in light of our 1-year anniversary and to celebrate the HZN stakers in Horizon Genesis, we are having a birthday raffle! By participating you have a chance to win 5,000 HZN and an exclusive “Horizoneer” NFT!
“The “Horizoneer” NFT represents the pioneers of Horizon Protocol. They are the early adopters who staked their HZN in Horizon Genesis, minted zAssets and helped the protocol get to where it’s at now.”
Be a part of this celebration and own your exclusive “Horizoneer” NFT!
Here are the rules to participate:
- You can gain points that will increase your chances to win 5,000 HZN:
- Only submissions that meet the above requirement will get to be a part of the raffle. Each wallet will be verified prior to the raffle.
- 10 winners via lucky draw will be announced by the next update. Wallets with more points will have more chances to win (i.e. a wallet with +2 points will have twice the chances of a wallet with +1 point).
- You have one week to submit your wallet address via the Google form below, submission ends on July 29th 8pm SGT.
- All submissions that meet the above requirement will receive an exclusive “Horizoneer” NFT!
Submit HERE
The journey has only just begun; with the release of our core products and additional features being developed as we speak, we are excited to see what the future brings!
