The Problem

Zest Borrow Markets

Before Zest, it was difficult for users on Stacks and Bitcoin to make use of their idle assets. The only options were to risk impermanent loss in liquidity pools or lock tokens in staking contracts - creating friction and potential for significant losses in capital.

Users in Stacks and Bitcoin that needed to borrow capital also suffered as there was no way to reliably get loans without serious counterparty and trust-related risks.

These two types of users, lenders and borrowers, both faced serious drawbacks when trying to accomplish their goals.

Zest Earn

Existing Bitcoin lending solutions carry too much risk, specifically counterparty risk.

To lend out or borrow against BTC, you have to trust a CeFi platform (or custodian in the case of wBTC) with handling your BTC funds. As a result, most Bitcoin sits idle in cold storage and isn’t used to grow the Bitcoin economy.

Any economy needs borrowing and lending to live, breathe, and grow - and so does the Bitcoin economy. Bitcoin holders need to be able to access liquidity safely without having to sell their BTC. Businesses need to be able to borrow BTC to scale up their activity in the Bitcoin economy.