A “NFT Platform” allows you to take your digital item, transform (“mint”) it into a NFT, list it for sale, and then allow it to be resold in the marketplace. Each platform caters to a certain type of creator, collector and audience.
Charged Particles is a decentralized, no fees platform with a truly unique NFT offering. Charged Particles’ protocol allows users to deposit tokens into an NFT. With Charged Particles, you can create a truly unique NFT, and it’s important to note that NFTs created via Charged Particles are still standard non-custodial NFTs (ERC-721s) that can be resold on popular marketplaces like Rarible or Opensea, but you’re enabling them to easily hold other tokens and have programmable principal & interest.
We sat down with Ben Lakoff, one of the Founders and Business Lead at Charged Particles, to learn more about what they are building.
Ben, tell us about your background and how did you get the idea to start Charged Particles?
My professional background started in Finance - going the whole way getting my CFA certification before diving more full-time into Crypto in 2017, turning full-time that year. Since then I’ve been involved with a number of startups, including a few ‘failed’ companies that really helped me learn so much about operating companies - much harder than it looks from the outside!
Rob Secordactually had the idea for Charged Particles, I definitely cannot take credit for that. He was talking about the idea of NFTs holding interest-bearing assets in late 2019, then started thinking more seriously about this concept when thinking about eGift cards represented as NFTs with the ability to grow in value. One of the main things he was trying to solve at the time was enabling small businesses to receive revenue through gift cards so that they might keep their businesses open during Covid. For example, a $50 eGift card (as a NFT) = $25 stays in card earning interest through DeFi protocols, and $25 to the business immediately with store credit.
NFTs are so much more than just art - and the idea of in-game items (NFTs) being able to hold and accrue real value that equates to more power during the game, very powerful and just one of the potential use cases when NFTs can hold an accumulating value. It creates an entirely new token mechanic that we’re really excited about. DeFi’s interest-generating qualities combined with provable scarce digital goods like NFTs... Near infinite possibilities for creative mechanisms around ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens inside of NFTs.
I read on your Medium that Charged Particles allows you to turn your favorite NFT into a Goal-Based interest earning Piggybank. How does this work?
Exactly. This actually was an idea from one of our team members, Sam. The way that it would work is you’re essentially turning your NFT Artwork into a Piggy Bank, depositing assets inside that NFT as you save up for a goal. Assets deposited into this NFT Piggy Bank are converted to yield-generating assets with DeFi Protocols such as Aave or Compound (with many more to be added)
The really fascinating thing is that each NFT Piggy Bank could be a separate “Goal-Based Savings Account” with an image that changes based on the amount of accrued interest in the NFT. This then would help savers visualize what they're saving for, e.g. the NFT's image could be a gray car that turns into a colored-in one as you get closer to your goal by depositing more principal and accruing more interest toward that goal.
Parents could even set this up for their children, and time-lock the principal amount so the child couldn’t withdraw the principal amount until they reach a certain age.
The joy of this digitization of Art / NFTs is that these NFTs - e.g. Savings Account NFTs - will eventually be able to be used as collateral for a loan. So even though you have a (growing) goal-based savings account, using that as collateral and unlocking the value for today’s expenses, totally possible.
How do you innovate in the space and differ from your competitors?
What is a LEPTON NFT?
In February, we released the LEPTON NFTs which are digitally scarce, ERC-721 NFTs that have “superpowers.”
Once activated, LEPTON NFTs act as a rewards multiplier or booster, giving its owner additional rewards earned when the Charged Particles Governance Token liquidity mining goes live in May.
LEPTON NFTs enable its owner to earn up to 5.1x the normal rewards during liquidity mining distribution - and stacking of LEPTONs is permitted. So if you have multiple (different) LEPTONs in use, there are multiplied rewards.
Each LEPTON v2 is a standard ERC-721, non-custodial NFT that is able to be resold on popular secondary markets like OpenSea.
This is a really unique use of the Charged Particles technology highlighting the ability of NFTs to act as a basket of both Interest-generating assets as well as other NFTs.
Does Charged Particles have a governance token?
At Charged Particles, we believe in Progressive Decentralization and plan to launch a governance token at some point in the near future. The majority of the token’s allocation will be allocated to the community and will be distributed via liquidity mining programs to help bootstrap the use of the Charged Particles platform. We will announce more information before the launch.
Who are your partners and how do you work with them? Whom would you like to partner with in the future?
We’ve had some fantastic help in building Charged Particles. Rob and I met at Gitcoin Kernel, and the first investor in the company was a decentralized VC fund, The LAO. Our growing team, community, investors and advisors have been a tremendous help in building what we have today.
Currently, we’re announcing a number of key partnerships - currently interested in partnering with the numerous NFT Platforms that are starting up. We'd love to whitelist their platforms, so their users can ‘charge’ up the NFTs created on those platforms and talk about deeper integration where their users can 'charge' up their NFTs directly on those platforms. We’re also interested in talking to new blockchain-based games that are interested in the integration of the Charged Particles protocol into their in-game NFT offerings.
What is your roadmap for 2021?
2021 is gearing up to be a VERY big year for NFTs. While we’re excited about the traction and attention that Art NFTs have received this year, it’s only the tip of the iceberg with the true potential of NFTs in general.
Key Milestones on our 2021 Roadmap include:
- Additional Features for our DApp including: Supporting Layer 2 solutions, Improved UI/UX, and support for additional DeFi Tokens.
- Whitelisting external NFT platforms to allow their NFTs to be ‘charged’ up with Charged Particles
- Integration with external NFT Platform(s)
- Protocol Audit
- Launch of Protocol Governance Token and Liquidity Mining programs.
- DAO Launch
Masha Prusso, Co-Founder of Crypto PR Lab interviewed Ben Lakoff, founder of Charged Particles.
