Vinyl Finance (website) is home to the grooviest algorithmic token fork pegged to $FTM on the Fantom Opera network and the first of its kind Vinyl tNFT Marketplace.
This ambitious project provided me the opportunity to work hands-on with cutting-edge Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) development practices. I selected the professional-grade development framework Hardhat as my framework of choice, taking the idea from inception to local chain deployment and ultimately to mainnet deployment.
Choosing Hardhat over Truffle—the first and more popular EVM development framework at the time—was a pivotal decision. Hardhat is now recognized as the de facto framework for modern EVM development due to its extensive tooling, which supports the entire application development lifecycle, including testing, package management, and deployments.
To build community trust and adhere to best practices, I authored extensive protocol documentation and underwent KYC (Know Your Customer) verification.
The Seigniorage protocol peaked at over $2,000,000 in Total Value Locked (TVL) in 2022, shortly after its launch. This experience served as a crash course in the “wild west” of decentralized finance (DeFi) development. At various points, I could have manipulated the protocol and misappropriated the community’s funds, exposing the underlying vulnerabilities in the trustless nature of DeFi protocols at that time. Additionally, I learned firsthand the exhausting nature of building a protocol and the relentless energy required to manage and engage with the community. Next time, I will ensure I have more support for community management.