September 6, 2021

Polygon’s DeFi Interview Series- C.R.E.A.M. Finance

This series brings the views of top DeFi applications integrated on Polygon. We had time to sit down with the C.R.E.A.M. Finance team to learn more.

Please tell us more about your project and your team.

C.R.E.A.M. Finance is a decentralized lending protocol for individual accounts and protocols to access collateralized lending services. Part of the Yearn Finance ecosystem, C.R.E.A.M. is a permissionless, open-source, and blockchain agnostic protocol serving users on Polygon as well as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Fantom.

While C.R.E.A.M. began as a Compound fork in 2020, C.R.E.A.M. has innovated new products such as the Iron Bank and features like Boosted Savings, Collateral Cap, and decentralized Listing Committee.

The C.R.E.A.M. team and community are global with a stronghold in the APAC region.

Where are we in the hype cycle for DeFi?

“Hype” is not really a way we like to describe DeFi or the cryptocurrency industry at large, because we believe that the problems it solves and the benefits it provides are longer-term than the sugar hit that comes from “hype”. That said, we are seeing continued growth in this space, new entrants to the market both at a larger commercial scale as well as individual users. The key will be to move beyond “hype” and build long-term differentiated value for the users of DeFi and of course, to never stop building.

I think we are headed towards mainstream adoption. While we aren’t too concerned with micro trends — and there of course will be volatility — Crypto, Defi, and NFTs will only get more popular in the coming years, leveraging transparency and automation to address the challenges in today’s financial system

Who are some thought leaders you follow in the space?

Andre Cronje is a key thought leader that we follow, but also more broadly, we follow the people that are focused on building and educating within the cryptocurrency space at large. Whether this is the people building new chains, new tools for specific chains, or working to educate new users as they enter crypto — each has a unique voice and role that they play.

What are some best ways for newbies to get up to speed in the space?

One way is to experiment directly with DeFi — starting small with Lending and earning a yield on their assets. One reason we love Polygon is that its low transaction fees are perfect for onboarding new users to DeFi. Additionally, we recommend new users spend time learning from the educators within the industry, Ceazor and DeFi Dad both do a great job at explaining complex ideas in a way that’s easy for new users to understand.

What is one thing that most people don’t know about your project?

C.R.E.A.M Finance serves DeFi users with more than just lending and borrowing. We also run validator nodes to help secure the chains that we are deployed on, enabling users to increase the yield on their native tokens through validator proceeds.

We also LOVE leverage and NFTs ;)

Why did you choose to build on Polygon?

We are chain agnostic, so it’s important for C.R.E.A.M. Finance to always be building and focus on delivering value for DeFi users. We see a positive future for Polygon and we look forward to the future.

About Polygon

Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building and connecting Secured Chains like Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium, etc, and Standalone Chains like Polygon POS, designed for flexibility and independence. Polygon’s scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption with 500+ Dapps, ~567M+ txns, and ~6M+ daily txns.

If you’re an Ethereum Developer, you’re already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon’s fast and secure txns for your Dapp, get started here.