How to Buy

Hifi is a decentralized finance protocol that enables lending and borrowing of crypto at a fixed interest rate. It consists of decentralized interest rate markets that mature on specific dates. Hifi markets employ an Automated Market Maker model, where users supply tokens to liquidity pools and an algorithm determines the interest rate based on supply and demand. Users can participate in active markets by supplying liquidity, borrowing, or lending. Borrowers pay a fixed interest rate to lenders without the need to negotiate terms like maturity, interest rate, or collateral. By supplying tokens to liquidity pools, users can earn rewards while facilitating peer-to-peer lending and borrowing.

Hifi Governance is the community-driven process for managing the Lending Protocol. HIFI is an ERC-20 token that allows owners to delegate voting rights to any address, including their own. The delegate's voting rights automatically adjust with changes in the owner's token balance. Hifi Governance empowers the community to propose, vote on, and implement changes through the administrative functions of the Hifi Protocol. Proposals can modify system parameters, support new markets, introduce new collateral types, or allocate resources to specific causes.

Hifi was originally known as Mainframe when it launched in November 2017. Initially, Mainframe aimed to be a decentralized communications layer for Web3 but later pivoted to Decentralized Finance and rebranded as Hifi in early 2020.

Hifi was founded by Mick Hagen, an early adopter of blockchain technology. Mick Hagen stepped down in early 2020, and Doug Leonard took over. Doug Leonard is an avid NFT collector and is known to have financed the purchase of his familys minivan using early crypto protocols. Leonard has led the Hifi rebranding and pivot into decentralized finance.

Hifi stands out by providing a higher level of predictability compared to similar protocols. This predictability arises from Hifis fixed interest rate markets. Borrowers know the exact amount they will pay to borrow upfront, while lenders know their earnings before lending any funds. This feature offers users more predictable outcomes in decentralized finance compared to similar protocols with variable interest rates.

The total supply of HIFI is 126.25M. Currently, 101.25M (80%) coins are in circulation, and 25M will be distributed over 2 years to Hifi Labs.

The emission rate of HIFI may change over time as the community governance can pass proposals to increase or decrease the emission rate.

Hifi is built on a protocol of smart contracts that allow users to deposit collateral and mint hTokens, which represent on-chain obligations settling on specific future dates.

Lenders can purchase hTokens at a discount and redeem them at full face value on the specified maturity date. The protocol enforces a collateralization factor to ensure that all debt remains overcollateralized at all times. If the collateral value falls below the maintenance threshold, it will be sold to liquidators at a discount. The proceeds will pay down a portion of the loan, while the remaining amount restores an acceptable collateralization factor.

This arrangement, enforced by smart contracts, helps borrowers maintain their collateral levels, provides a safety net for lenders, and creates earning opportunities for liquidators.

MFT is available for trading on several exchanges, with cryptocurrency and stablecoin pairs currently supported.

As of February 2021, Binance offers the highest liquidity for MFT. Bittrex also provides a Bitcoin (BTC) pair, and Upbit has a KRW pair. For a decentralized option, MFT can be purchased on Uniswap V2.