Suppose you’re a very active trader on decentralized as well as centralized exchanges. In that case, you might have experienced low liquidity and difficulties switching from one to the other, and that is before considering the gas fees you pay.
Orion Protocol, created by Alexey Koloskof, former CEO and chief architect of the Waves Dex, aims to provide a smoother trading experience, facilitating trades across ecosystems. He describes the mission behind Orion as:
“Although it’s clear the future should be decentralized (after all, it’s what crypto is fundamentally built on), it’s impossible to ignore the prominence of centralized entities.
Orion was born out of the need for an intermediate solution that bridges the gap between the centralized and decentralized worlds of crypto. Our ambitions for Orion have always been to push beyond what was currently possible. In what we’ve built to date and in our roadmap we’ve done that, having built a protocol that will change the future of DeFi for the better.”
Development for Orion started in 2018, and in Q2 2020, the team reached a significant milestone with the release of their public test. After rigorous testing for half a year, the main net went live in December 2020.
Orion Protocol extends farther than existing aggregators like 1inch or matcha, which focus solely on decentralized exchanges. Orion brings together features of exchanges, brokerages, and instant trading apps. To facilitate fast trades, it’s built on the most advanced liquidity aggregator and brings together liquidity and orders from CEXs and DExs all in one platform.
Instead of having to go through various exchanges to perform a specific trading action, traders can use Orion to access in a non-custodial manner the crypto markets they wish to trade.
The protocol itself is powered by the “delegated proof of broker” consensus algorithm.
Delegated Proof of Broker
Anyone who is running the Orion Broker Software on their node is a Broker in the ecosystem. They execute the trades that are routed through the Orion aggregator.
To be chosen as Broker, these nodes have to stake the native platform token ORN. The more they stake, the higher their chance of being picked to execute trades.
There are also non-broker stakers in the ecosystem who stake their ORN to vote for a Broker of their choice, based on the broker's rewards. This incentivizes Brokers to offer attractive rates to Non-Broker-Stakers to grow their own stake. The process of non-broker stakers voting for Brokers is similar to how token holders in dPOS blockchains delegate tokens to their chosen node.
As a completely non-custodial system, Brokers never have access to the trader's funds nor accounts. Once they sign a trade, they basically commit to exchange the asset at the terms specified by the trader.
Smart contracts protect all the assets. Upon order creation, funds aren’t transferred yet. Only once the order is filled by a broker will assets be moved. The transfer happens atomically within smart contracts. Therefore brokers won’t ever touch the other parties' funds.
To further disincentivize Brokers from behaving maliciously, Orion protocol has established penalties for Brokers. If any malicious activity is detected, Brokers risk losing their collateral. When applicable, the collateral is then used to reimburse traders.
The Delegated Proof of Broker is a non-inflationary consensus algorithm, meaning that ORN is removed from circulation over time.
The Orion Token
The Orion team is dedicated to creating a utility token with real utility within their ecosystem. ORN, as mentioned previously, is used for staking and participating in the execution of trades. It is also required for all payments and enables holders to unlock advantages such as additional functionality on the trading terminal and discounts on transaction fees.
For DeFi projects using the Orion enterprise solution, the value of the ORN token lies in the vital role it plays in brokerage. They also benefit further as a profit share from each transaction is funneled back to them as ORN tokens.
18 different revenue streams across the Orion ecosystem generate network fees and operational profit in ORN.
The maximum supply of 100,000,000 ORN.
Orion Protocol Products
Since its creation, the Orion Protocol has delivered various products for traders, enterprises, and DeFi Projects to use their platform, including:
- Orion Terminal: this is the interface used by most individual traders or institutions looking to execute trades across exchanges. It provides a one-stop gateway to access liquidity of the entire market in a non-custodial, decentralized way. It’s also chain-agnostic, meaning; you can trade any asset across any blockchain through it.
- Orion Liquidity Boost plugin: this is a plugin geared towards exchanges(centralized and decentralized) that can add to improve liquidity and order book depth on their platform.
- Orion Enterprise Widget: acts as a middle layer between new token projects and traders or companies looking to buy their token. Through the Orion Enterprise Widget, token projects can make their tokens accessible directly through their website. At the same time, in the background, the Orion protocol executes trades tapping into the entire available liquidity of that token.
ORN is now trading on Bitcoin.com Exchange with BTC and USDT pairs.
