As you may know, cryptocurrencies are digital, decentralized, permissionless forms of money that have been developed to remove intermediaries. But the truth is that today for buying cryptocurrencies and for providing their liquidity, you need fiat money. In other words, cryptocurrencies have not fully eliminated fiat currencies, and they are even reliant on them. In 2019, a new project was developed to reduce this reliance. This project is called “Reef”. In this article, we are going to cover Reef, take a look at its token and functions, and investigate its advantages. Stay with us.

What is Reef and how does it work?

Reef is a cryptocurrency built on Polkadot that aims to make Defi accessible to a wider range of users. Since Reef is based on Polkadot, it uses a proof of stake consensus algorithm, and it also doesn’t suffer from low scalability. It has a native token used for paying the fees and helping the network achieve its goals.

Reef aggregates liquidity from different sources. It then enters the Defi protocols and provides their liquidity. In other words, Reef’s main aim is “providing the Defi protocols’ liquidity”.

Reef is equipped with two motors, namely “the smart yield motor” and “an artificial intelligence motor” that have different functions.

The smart yield motor provides users with a list of coins and tokens that users can stake and earn rewards instead. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help users determine the time and the amount of their staking. It also has the capability to interact with different blockchains, and this is due to being based on Polkadot.

The artificial intelligence motor of Reef is also an off-chain oracle that connects to different resources and aggregates data. This data is then used in smart contracts. This motor observes the off-chain transactions, and is used for updating risk and reward models. Generally, the artificial intelligence motor is responsible for organizing the amount and the type of assets on small scale.

Who created Reef?

Reef was developed by a pioneer called Denko Mancheski in 2019. However, it officially started its work in 2020. Mancheski aimed to develop a platform that facilitates using Defi protocols for the newcomers. Before Reef, he worked as the CTO in Adel, and also as a CEO in Viewly. Since its creation, Reef has continuously been updating and advancing to provide its users with the best possible services. The reason they used Polkadot as their foundation was that they wanted to collaborate easily with networks like Cosmos and Ethereum, and also with exchanges like Binance.

Reef’s trading sign

As we mentioned earlier, Reef has a native token called REEF that is being traded on different cryptocurrency exchanges. At the time of writing, each unit of REEF is being traded at $0.003.

Functions of the REEF token

In general, the REEF token has 4 main functions in this network. These functions include:

• Participating in the management process: REEF holders can vote for the new updates and reorganization of some of the parameters;
• Paying for the fees: one of the most prominent functions of REEF is paying for the fees;
• Staking: REEF holders can stake their tokens and earn annual interest;
• Distributing the yield: REEF is also used to distribute the interest earned through the activities in the pools.

Advantages and disadvantages of Reef

Like any other new project, Reef has some advantages and disadvantages. Its main advantage is that it aggregates liquidity from different platforms and that it removes the high fees of Ethereum. In general, it facilitates using Defi platforms for amateur users. Besides, using Reef you don’t need different accounts and passwords, and this is another advantage of this cryptocurrency project. About the disadvantages, we can only say that Reef is so young and it has a lot of rivals. We have to wait and see if this network can establish its position and surpass its rivals or not.

Reef’s wallets

Like all other cryptocurrencies, you need digital wallets to store the REEF tokens. Some of the wallets you can use for this purpose include:

• Ledger (hardware)
• Binance Chain Wallet (software – browser extension)
• Trust Wallet (software – mobile)
• MetaMask (software – desktop and browser extension)

What is the future of Reef?

Predicting the future of projects in an everchanging environment like the cryptocurrency environment is so difficult. However, projects that are fundamentally strong usually have a bright future. Reef is among the projects that have a strong fundamental basis. It has aimed at a critical issue, and that is facilitating the process of using Defi protocols. If cryptocurrencies want to achieve public adoption, they should be able to attract users from different classes, not just developers and professional users.

Frequently-asked questions

As the final part of the article, we will refer to two frequently-asked questions about Reef.

Why wasn’t Reef developed on Ethereum?
Reef chose Polkadot because it wanted to have interaction with different networks. Using Polkadot, it is interactive with a lot of blockchain networks including Ethereum.

Is Reef safe?

Reef’s security is managed using Polkadot’s security model. Reef is a flexible network that can have new updates without needing forks.

Conclusion

Reef is a relatively new project with a practical aim: facilitating the usage of Defi. If you are familiar with the world of crypto, you know how critical this issue is. This practical aim is a big reason for the bright future Reef may have. By the way, in this world, nothing is guaranteed and only time proves what projects are really successful and which ones are not.