Within the earliest days of crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi) was little greater than a imaginative and prescient. Buying and selling digital belongings with out centralized exchanges posed vital challenges, and liquidity was fragmented, inefficient, and troublesome to entry. In opposition to this backdrop, Bancor emerged in 2016 as a foundational drive in decentralized finance with the introduction of the primary Fixed Product Automated Market Maker (AMM) — a breakthrough that redefined onchain liquidity and formed the way forward for DeFi.
However Bancor’s origins hint again even additional. The imaginative and prescient behind its creation was formed by early experiments in user-generated currencies and the conclusion that with out environment friendly, automated liquidity, these digital economies struggled to outlive. Recognizing this problem, Bancor pioneered a brand new method to decentralized trade — one that will turn out to be a defining pillar of onchain finance.
This weblog is the primary in a DeFi Q&A collection exploring the applied sciences, challenges, and breakthroughs that shaped- and proceed to shape- onchain liquidity. Dr. Mark Richardson, Mission Lead at Bancor, shares deep insights into the important thing improvements that outlined this house — beginning with the origins of Automated Market Makers (AMMs) and the creation of the Bancor Protocol.