BENQI is a decentralized non-custodial liquidity market protocol, built on Avalanche. The protocol enables users to effortlessly lend, borrow, and earn interest with their digital assets. Depositors providing liquidity to the protocol may earn passive income, while borrowers are able to borrow in an over-collateralized manner.

BENQI aims to alleviate these problems by providing a Liquidity Market Protocol on a highly scalable and decentralized platform. With a focus on approachability, ease of use, and low fees, BENQI will democratize access to decentralized financial products by providing permissionless lending and borrowing where users can:

Instantly supply to and withdraw liquidity from a shared liquidity marketInstantly borrow from a liquidity market using their supplied assets as collateralHave a live and transparent view of interest rates around the clock based on the asset's market supply and demand

Using the protocol

To use the protocol, the user deposits their preferred asset that is accepted by the protocol. Users will be able to earn interest based on the asset's market demand for borrowing. Additionally, deposited assets can be used as collateral to allow the user to borrow other assets. Interest earned by depositing funds offsets the accumulated interest rates from borrowing.Additional token pools will be added as the platform grows. The additions into the protocol will be initially decided by the core team and as the protocol's governance transitions into a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), additional pools will be approved based on community votes and proposals, using the QI governance token.

Storage of funds

Funds are administered by Smart Contracts.Depositors/Lenders will be given tokenized yield-bearing tokens (QiTokens) which will be used to withdraw funds from the pool on-demand when required. QiTokens can be transferred and traded as any other crypto-asset on Avalanche.

Risks

No protocol within the blockchain space can be considered entirely risk free. The risks related to the protocol may potentially include Smart Contract risks and Liquidation risks. The team has taken necessary steps to minimize these risks as much as possible by undergoing audits and keeping the protocol public and open sourced.

BENQI (QI) token

The QI token is an native asset on Avalanche and oversees the entire ecosystem of the BENQI protocol, including the Treasury, and future iterations of the protocol.

QI is required to vote and decide on the outcome of proposals through BENQI Improvement Proposals (BIPs). The protocol will initially be governed by the founding team, and will eventually transition to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). As part of the DAO, holders of the QI token will be able to initiate proposals and vote on issues that will steer the direction of the protocol.