Bloq Enters DeFi World With Simplified Staking Product 'Vesper'

Blockchain infrastructure firm Bloq is rolling out a new product to make it easier to invest in decentralized finance (DeFi) by asking users to stake their crypto, indicate a risk preference and letting the platform conduct the due diligence and actual farming for them.

Announced on Wednesday, Bloq’s new platform, dubbed Vesper, is marketed as an easy-to-use platform for DeFi products. The platform will offer users the option to stake ether (ETH), wrapped bitcoin (wBTC) or USD Coin (USDC) using one of its “holding pools,” starting mid-November.

Jeff Garzik, co-founder of Bloq, said that after depositing their crypto, users could indicate their risk preference between aggressive or conservative, and their crypto would be staked to earn yield. According to Garzik, the DeFi protocols invested in under a conservative risk preference would be well-known ones such as Aave or Compound, whereas an aggressive approach would invest in lesser-known projects with limited due-diligence on their code.

• Initially, Vesper will offer only conservative-strategy pools for staking in mid-November but Bloq said it plans to add other investment strategies and cryptos to the platform in the future.
• Bloq said the Vesper platform is powered by its native token VSPR, which will be used to distribute rewards among users and developers. While the initial investment strategies will be developed by the platform, it will also invite strategies from developers who can earn rewards in VSPR if their strategy is accepted by the community.
• The platform itself will charge users 5% on the interest earned on their staked crypto and a 1% withdrawal charge if they choose to cash out of the “holding pools.”
• “It’s the simplicity, the passive income and the kind of 'set it and forget it' type of product,” said Garzik. He said Vesper’s approach was somewhat like the one followed by stock market exchange-traded funds (ETFs), wherein the due-diligence on the investment product is largely done by the issuer.
• Garzik announced the product at CoinDesk's invest: ethereum economy virtual event.