WeFi: Decentralized On-Chain Bank, Integrating Traditional and Crypto Finance
The WeFi whitepaper was released by the WeFi core team in Q4 2024, aiming to address the pain points of fragmented liquidity and complex user experience in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.
The theme of the WeFi whitepaper is “WeFi: Building the Next Generation of Decentralized Finance Aggregation and Optimization Protocol.” What makes WeFi unique is its proposal of a cross-chain liquidity aggregation mechanism and AI-driven smart routing algorithm; the significance of WeFi lies in providing DeFi users with a one-stop, optimized, and seamless financial service experience.
The original intention of WeFi is to solve the problems of fragmented liquidity, operational complexity, and insufficient cross-chain interoperability in DeFi. The core viewpoint presented in the WeFi whitepaper is: by integrating liquidity across multiple public chains and utilizing smart routing, it strikes a balance between improving DeFi usability and efficiency, thereby achieving efficient asset utilization and minimizing transaction costs.
WeFi whitepaper summary
What is WeFi
Friends, imagine if banks could become as smart, open, and user-controlled as the smartphones we use today—what would that look like? The WeFi project is like a prototype of such a “bank of the future.” It’s not a traditional bank, but a “decentralized on-chain bank” (Deobank) built on blockchain technology. You can think of it as a digital financial platform that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, aiming to bring traditional banking services—such as deposits, payments, and lending—onto the blockchain, making them more efficient, transparent, and secure.
Specifically, WeFi aims to offer global payments, yield generation, and potentially even ATM withdrawals in the future. Most importantly, it uses a “non-custodial account” model, meaning your funds are fully under your own control, not held by any centralized institution. Additionally, it’s a decentralized money market protocol, allowing users to earn interest or invest by lending digital assets. In simple terms, it’s like a financial supermarket in the digital world, offering a variety of financial products and services, and striving to enable seamless asset flows across different blockchains, making your digital assets easier to use.
Project Vision and Value Proposition
WeFi’s vision is ambitious: it seeks to reshape the traditional banking model we’re used to, transforming it into a more inclusive, intelligent, and resilient system. Imagine a world where, no matter where you are or your economic status, you can easily access financial services—transactions are instant, transparent, and free from the many limitations of traditional banks. This is the future WeFi wants to realize.
The core problems it aims to solve include: inefficiency and high costs in traditional banking, slow and expensive international transfers, and poor asset interoperability between blockchains. WeFi’s value proposition includes:
- Self-custody model: You control your own money. Through smart contracts (think of them as self-executing digital agreements), users have full control over their funds, without relying on any intermediaries.
- Transparency and security: All transaction records are publicly recorded on the blockchain, ensuring transparency while also protecting privacy.
- Capital growth tools: Offers staking, liquidity pools, and yield farming, giving users opportunities to earn returns from digital assets.
- Low fees and high speed: By leveraging blockchain and stablecoins (cryptocurrencies with stable prices), it significantly reduces the cost and time of international transfers.
- Interoperability: Integrates cross-chain solutions like LayerZero to simplify asset transfers between blockchains and improve liquidity.
Its biggest differentiator is that it claims to be the world’s first “decentralized on-chain bank” (Deobank), combining AI and blockchain to address the shortcomings of traditional banks. It merges DeFi innovation with the security, transparency, and resilience of traditional finance, ushering in a new phase for digital finance.
Technical Features
The technological foundation of the WeFi project is blockchain, which you can imagine as a massive, publicly transparent digital ledger where all transactions are recorded and maintained collectively by network participants, rather than controlled by a central authority.
Its core technologies include:
- Blockchain foundation: As a decentralized digital ledger, it ensures transaction transparency and security.
- Smart contracts: These are codes stored on the blockchain that automatically execute when preset conditions are met, without third-party intervention. This enables WeFi to implement trustless protocols, not relying on credit scores or centralized enforcement.
- Consensus mechanism: WeFi uses Proof of Stake (PoS), a more energy-efficient way to validate transactions compared to traditional Proof of Work (PoW).
- Decentralization: The system has no single point of control, making it more censorship-resistant and harder to attack.
- Cross-chain technology: To solve asset incompatibility between blockchains, WeFi integrates cross-chain solutions like LayerZero, allowing assets to flow freely across different blockchain networks.
- AI-driven compliance and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK): WeFi uses advanced AI for compliance management, combined with zero-knowledge proofs (a cryptographic technique to prove something is true without revealing specific information), ensuring transaction privacy and security.
Together, these technologies form the backbone of WeFi, enabling it to provide a secure, efficient, and user-friendly financial platform.
Tokenomics
The core of the WeFi ecosystem is its native utility token, symbol WEFI (or WFI). You can think of it as the “fuel” and “shares” of this digital banking system.
- Token symbol and issuance chain: WEFI (or WFI), described as the native utility token of the WeChain blockchain, and also an omnichain token, meaning it can circulate across multiple blockchain networks.
- Total supply: The total supply of WEFI tokens is capped at 1 billion. This limited supply is intended to increase its potential value as network participation grows. (Note: Some sources mention a total supply of 100 million; refer to the latest official data for specifics.)
- Issuance mechanism: WEFI tokens are mainly obtained through “mining,” which requires setting up and running ITO nodes to support network infrastructure, contributing to its security and operational efficiency.
- Token utility: WEFI tokens play multiple roles in the ecosystem:
- Trading: Tradable on decentralized exchanges (DEX) and centralized exchanges (CEX).
- Collateral: Usable as collateral in the Deobank for various financial services.
- Liquidity pools: Contribute WEFI to liquidity pools to earn passive income from trading fee distribution.
- Transaction and gas fees: Used to pay network transaction and gas fees, improving transaction efficiency.
- Staking: Staking WEFI tokens earns additional WEFI as rewards, encouraging long-term holding and network participation.
- Computing power: Provides computing power for AI nodes.
- Remittance and stablecoin management: Facilitates remittance and stablecoin management.
- Token allocation:
- Referral rewards: 127,931,034 WEFI tokens are allocated to reward users who invite new users through referral programs.
- Exchange listing reserve: 10,000,000 WEFI tokens are reserved for exchange listings to provide liquidity and accessibility.
The design of WEFI tokens aims to incentivize user participation in the ecosystem and power platform functions, making it a bridge between Web3 innovation and real-world financial services.
Team, Governance, and Funding
The success of any project depends on the efforts of its team and effective governance mechanisms.
- Core members: According to public information, WeFi’s core team includes:
- Maksym Sakharov: CEO and co-founder.
- Loic Claveau: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
- Alice Tärk: Chief Operating Officer (COO).
- Team characteristics: The team is committed to integrating decentralized networks and the latest technological advances into financial services, while ensuring compliance with global and local regulatory frameworks.
- Governance mechanism: WeFi’s documentation mentions governance, and its decentralized nature means there is no single point of control, typically achieved through community voting and other decentralized governance methods.
- Funding: WeFi has completed its initial decentralized offering (IDO) funding round. Investors include Zebpay, Lemon Grass Fund, and individuals such as Mithil Thakore, Raj Kansara, and Rajat Gahlot.
- Audit and security: To ensure project security, WeFi has successfully completed smart contract audits and KYC (Know Your Customer) verification. Auditors include Solidproof, Peckshield, and Quillhash. This means the core code has been reviewed by third-party security agencies, helping to reduce potential technical risks.
Roadmap
The WeFi project officially launched in September 2024. While a detailed timeline roadmap is not available, public information reveals some key development directions and upcoming features:
- Achieved:
- Project launch: September 2024.
- Completion of smart contract audit and KYC verification.
- Future plans (upcoming):
- High-yield stablecoin savings: Plans to launch stablecoin savings services with yields up to 18%.
- Collateralized and uncollateralized loans: Collateralized and uncollateralized loan services are coming soon.
These “upcoming” features indicate that WeFi is actively expanding its range of financial services to realize its vision of a “decentralized on-chain bank.”
Common Risk Reminders
Any blockchain project, including WeFi, comes with certain risks. It’s crucial to understand these risks before participating in any cryptocurrency project, and this is by no means investment advice.
- Technical and security risks:
- Smart contract vulnerabilities: Although WeFi has undergone smart contract audits, no code is 100% bug-free. Even minor vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers, resulting in loss of funds.
- Platform stability: As an emerging decentralized platform, its long-term stability, scalability, and ability to handle extreme market conditions still need time to be proven.
- AI technology risks: The project mentions AI applications; risks related to AI model accuracy, bias, and potential misuse should also be considered.
- Economic risks:
- Market volatility: The cryptocurrency market is known for its extreme volatility. The price of WEFI tokens may be affected by various factors, including market sentiment, regulatory policies, and competitor performance, potentially leading to significant value fluctuations.
- Liquidity risk: If token trading volume is insufficient, users may find it difficult to buy or sell at desired prices.
- Uncertainty of “upcoming” features: The development progress, actual effectiveness, and market acceptance of features mentioned in the roadmap are uncertain.
- Token supply data discrepancies: Different sources report different total supplies for WEFI tokens (1 billion vs 100 million), which may affect its scarcity and long-term value expectations and requires further clarification.
- Compliance and operational risks:
- Regulatory uncertainty: Global regulatory policies for cryptocurrencies and DeFi are still evolving. Future policy changes could have a major impact on WeFi’s operations and development.
- Competition risk: The DeFi sector is highly competitive, with new projects constantly emerging. WeFi must continue to innovate to maintain its competitiveness.
- User education and adoption: For users without a technical background, understanding and using decentralized financial services can be challenging. User education and outreach are crucial for the project.
Remember, any crypto asset investment carries risk. Always conduct thorough independent research (DYOR) and make decisions based on your own risk tolerance.
Verification Checklist
To better understand the WeFi project, here are some key pieces of information you can check and verify yourself:
- Block explorer contract addresses: Look up WEFI token smart contract addresses on different blockchains. This helps you verify the authenticity of the token and view on-chain transaction data, holder distribution, etc. Since WeFi is described as an omnichain token, you may need to check on multiple major blockchains (such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, etc.) using their block explorers.
- GitHub activity: Visit WeFi’s GitHub repository to check code update frequency, number of contributors, issue resolution, etc. This reflects the development team’s activity and transparency.
- Official whitepaper/documentation: Although a direct PDF whitepaper link was not found, WeFi’s official documentation (such as “WeFi Docs - WeChain” and “Introduction to WeFi | WeFi”) is an important source for understanding the project’s technical details, economic model, and future plans.
- Audit reports: Review smart contract audit reports from third-party security agencies like Solidproof, Peckshield, and Quillhash to see their security assessments and whether identified issues have been resolved.
- Official social media and community: Follow WeFi’s official Twitter (X), Telegram, Discord, etc., to stay updated on project news, community discussions, and team interactions.
- Team background verification: Further verify the backgrounds and experience of core team members (Maksym Sakharov, Loic Claveau, Alice Tärk).
Project Summary
In summary, WeFi is an ambitious blockchain project that seeks to create a new “decentralized on-chain bank” (Deobank) ecosystem by combining DeFi and AI technologies. Its core vision is to make financial services more inclusive, transparent, and efficient, empowering users to truly control their digital assets.
WeFi plans to offer a range of services that blend traditional banking and DeFi, including global payments, high-yield savings, lending, and cross-chain asset swaps, with an emphasis on self-custody, low fees, and high speed. Its native token WEFI plays a key role in the ecosystem, used for trading, collateral, fee payments, and incentivizing network participants.
The project team has completed smart contract audits and KYC verification, which enhances its credibility to some extent. However, as an emerging blockchain project, it faces technical, market, and regulatory risks, such as inherent crypto market volatility, potential smart contract vulnerabilities, and regulatory uncertainty.
For those interested in WeFi, I recommend maintaining an objective and cautious attitude. It offers an intriguing vision for the future of finance, but any participation should be based on thorough understanding and awareness of risks. Be sure to do your own research (DYOR), consult official sources, and make decisions based on your own judgment. This is not investment advice of any kind.