Pontoon Finance Raises $3.2 Million In Funding with Testnet Version Ready for Launch

Blockchain has been one of the greatest advancements we’ve witnessed in the past few decades and maybe even in history. Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto created it with a view to upend traditional financial institutions and remove the middleman from the majority of transactions.

Based on a trustless system where ‘miners’ authenticate transactions through a consensus mechanism, Bitcoin revolutionized the way we use and think about money. Since then a host of technologies have been developed based on the groundwork made by the anonymous Satoshi. Now, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance, and many others are now household names in many places.

The road to actualization has been rocky and cryptocurrency’s popularity has allowed for new developments within and outside the space. One such innovation is decentralized finance(DeFi). As crypto has gotten increasingly popular, it has also become very centralized with a few big players taking up most of the liquidity and market share. DeFi is the revolt against that. Rather than relying on centralized exchanges, it puts the power back in the hands of the individual users.

In place of these intermediaries, it uses programs called smart contracts to automate these transactions and ensure trustlessness.

Problems with Decentralization

The problem with this decentralization is that it has become fragmented. With new projects popping all over the place, the Defi space can sometimes seem like whack-a-mole. The low barrier to entry means anyone can create a project on any blockchain and with such a plethora of choices native to multiple chains, liquidity becomes a problem.

With the number of users constantly migrating into crypto to test its offerings, you would think that liquidity would be a foregone conclusion. However, the popularity of particular centralized exchanges means that they usually get the majority of the new traffic and DeFi is left short-handed.

The liquidity problem now slowly begins to become more apparent. The problem is not that there is not enough liquidity but that the liquidity is not efficiently distributed. Some platforms have enough and some are constantly struggling to keep their head above water.

Successful Fundraise of $3.2 Million

Pontoon Finance’s liquidity mirroring protocol is addressing the liquidity fragmentation issue that hinders the mass adoption of DeFi. In order to provide a relatively better user experience, Pontoon Finance is working towards bringing cross-chain liquidity mirroring along with trustless bridges to make it easier for users to transact seamlessly across various chains. It aims to ease the interactions of users with DeFi applications and diverse blockchain networks. Through its decentralized relayer networks, it aims to make the transactions cost-effective and trustless.

Names such as Amesten Capital, X21, Morning Star Ventures, Black Edge Capital, Draper Dragon Funds, Ex Network, and GenBlock are just some of the few that have thrown their backing behind the multichain liquidity project, Pontoon. That support has also been backed up with $3.2 million worth of capital as Pontoon continues its vision of making multichain liquidity a reality.

Along with this, they have also gained support in the form of advisors such as Ravindra Kumar the Co-Founder of Frontier Wallet, Sandeep Nailwal the Co-Founder of the popular Polygon Network, Joel John of Ledger Prime, and others.

Advanced Roadmap with Incentivized Testnet and Upcoming IDO

So far Pontoon is still in its early stages. It is currently working towards auditing its smart contract code and forming strategic partnerships with credible projects in the space. Currently, it has the incentivized testnet ready which would emerge very soon and has finalized its decision to conduct its IDO on cross-chain tool suite, Hot Cross.

A successful testnet is paramount for startups and showing a working prototype of your product could bolster investor confidence attracting even more investments and bolstering your project. The project will also be announcing its whitepaper shortly on its social channels. Should the IDO be successful, it could buttress the investments already received, pushing the project’s goals closer to the finish line.