The Story
In 2018, the THORChain team began working on an unprecedented technology for cross chain liquidity and swaps using Cosmos SDK and Tendermint.
Today, THORChain has been live for two years and boasts a TVL of ~$125M, recently passing 70k total wallets that have used the protocol.
Swap volume brings fee based THORChain DEXs like THORSwap and THORWalletDEX $1-5k in weekly revenue.
In 2021, a motivated team conceived of Maya Protocol, the first attempt at forking and improving THORChain’s model. Due to the technical complexity required to recreate the feat of THORChain, no other teams had tried then or have tried now.
Maya was born in collaboration with THORChain as a “friendly fork”, with investment and partnership with ecosystem partner Thorstarter. For the duration of 2022, the Maya Protocol team raised, built, and grew.
In Spring of 2023, Maya finally conducted its fair launch liquidity auction, raising $11.5M, which would allow the protocol to launch with nearly $25M in TVL in the depths of a bear market.
With the demonstrable success of THORChain, Maya is now poised to erupt on the multichain scene by offering greater capital efficiency (50% more per unit TVL versus THORChain) utilizing a novel and innovative approach to bonding of capital assets in "Liquidity Nodes". In addition, Maya will have its own programmable L1, Aztec Chain —something THORChain does not have in any form, set to go live in the summer of 2023.
The technology is in place. The funds are raised. The scene is set for a Maya/Aztec Multichain Cambrian Explosion.
El Dorado will be the central development hub for Maya Protocol and its upcoming Aztec Chain — Funding, Launching, Listing, and Facilitating Transactions for Aztec and Maya’s breakout decentralized companies.
The scope of the project includes but is not limited to becoming Maya and Aztec’s:
- Primary Native DEX
- Decentralized Lending and Borrowing Hub
- Funding Mechanism (Launchpads may not be referred to as Launchpads in the next cycle, we are planning to call our Funding Mechanism/Launchpad a “Fair Launcher”)
- VC Entity (with enough success, El Dorado will grow a venture arm to fund projects)
2022 was a credibility crisis for all blockchain related businesses. Centralized entities failed repeatedly, egregiously, including the notable collapses of centralized exchanges FTX and Celsius, and the entire Terra Luna ecosystem.
In 2023 the talk of the web is crypto decoupling from traditional equities markets, inflation driving the public to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and the clear need for decentralized alternatives to centralized exchanges.
Now the world needs the next step: Maya Protocol and projects built on Aztec, and El Dorado aims to be a central pillar fostering development on both.
In Conclusion
- THORChain has proven the ever-expanding market need for cross chain DEX technology.
- Maya Protocol is building on and improving the THORChain value proposition to a new community outside the THORChain silo.
- El Dorado will endeavor to help Maya expand, making inroads into novel ecosystems untouched by THORChain starting with Cardano, Kujira, and Dash (with more to come).
- El Dorado will also be a central fixture to help fund, launch, list, and popularize projects built on Maya’s Aztec Chain.
We're headed for the City of Gold — El Dorado, and you're invited.
*For a full, in depth exploration of the origins and details of Maya, including the many differences between it and THORChain, there is no better place to start than the Maya Protocol Whitepaper*