“We noticed that most DEXs still have the ‘DEX feel,’ as they’re not designed for traders and tend to provide clunky user experiences.” This, according to the co-founder known as Obie Dobo, was the incentive to build ApeSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Binance Smart Chain and Polygon that’s focused on providing an optimal experience through a community-driven environment.
ApeSwap’s creators believe this community focus is a powerful tool for growing its ecosystem to hundreds of millions of dollars in total value locked (TVL) while introducing the benefits of the decentralized world to new participants and the mainstream.
“Most DEXs are simply a product and/or platform. ApeSwap’s service offering extends past this to provide a friendly community and suite of engaging functionality, so that users feel part of something much larger than starting at an interface,” Obie Dobo explained.
In addition to ApeSwap’s array of DeFi products, incentives like its rare and exclusive NFT collection of 1,000 Non-Fungible Apes (NFAs) are designed to nurture and engage the community. To ensure provably fair rewards distribution to NFA holders, ApeSwap announced today that it’s integrating industry-leading random number generator (RNG) Chainlink VRF (Verifiable Random Function).
“Chainlink VRF has allowed us to bring randomness and utility to these NFAs by enabling us to fairly and provably distribute weekly rewards to a random subset of holders,” Obie Dobo said.
“Chainlink VRF has allowed us to bring randomness and utility to these NFAs by enabling us to fairly and provably distribute weekly rewards to a random subset of holders.” – ApeSwap Co-founder, Obie Dobo
Community NFA rewards will be distributed via ApeSwap’s new “Saturdays are for the NFAs” program, through which all NFA holders are automatically eligible to win a weekly award paid in ApeSwap’s native BANANA token. VRF’s transparent, tamper-proof RNG ensures that all NFA holders have a fair and unbiased shot at winning an award.
Before integrating Chainlink VRF, ApeSwap manually picked its random NFT award winners, a methodology that raised questions and created tension among community members. “Chainlink VRF enables us to go from manually selecting reward recipients to doing it in a fair and provably random way,” Obie Dobo said. “Now we can proudly announce that we’re using Chainlink’s VRF to handle reward distributions.”
Chainlink VRF also plays an important role in creating utility for NFAs, while enhancing their collectibility.
“We’ve been very delicate about the types of utility we’re introducing into Non-Fungible Apes, as tying them too closely to a specific dollar value can actually be harmful to their position as collectibles,” said Obie Dobo. “The randomized weekly winner selection, enabled through Chainlink VRF, threads this needle precisely to give our NFTs provably fair, random utility.”
To learn more about ApeSwape, visit their website, Twitter, Medium, Discord and Telegram.