About Badger DAO

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have emerged as a novel way to coordinate and govern blockchain networks and protocols in a decentralized manner. Badger DAO is one such organization that is focused on building products and infrastructure to accelerate the developing bitcoin and decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

History and Founding of Badger DAO

Badger DAO was founded in December 2020 by a team of DeFi builders including Chris Spadafora, Albert Castellana, and Alberto Cevallos. The founders aimed to create an open and transparent community focused on building DeFi products for bitcoin and adjacent cryptocurrencies like WBTC.

The Badger token was launched in December 2020 to govern Badger DAO. The protocol adopted a fair launch model with no pre-mine or founder shares. This established Badger DAO as a community-owned and governed protocol from the start.

Purpose and Goals of Badger DAO

The goal of Badger DAO is to build DeFi products that allow bitcoin to be used seamlessly in decentralized finance applications. This increases utility for bitcoin holders while driving further adoption of DeFi.

Some of the core objectives include developing bitcoin on-ramps, liquidity infrastructure, integrated wallets, lending platforms, and other services that interoperate between bitcoin and DeFi ecosystems. Badger DAO aims to make bitcoin a first-class citizen in DeFi.

Governance Structure

Badger DAO follows a governance structure that is controlled by BADGER token holders. BADGER holders can vote on protocol changes, allocate treasury funds, add new features, and manage other aspects of the DAO.

Voting power is based on the quantity of BADGER held. This gives more influence to community members with larger stakes and alignment with the protocol’s success. Daily operations and development are managed by the Badger Council and various working groups.

This governance model follows a decentralized ethos aligned with bitcoin and other community-driven networks.

Products and Services

Badger DAO has built and maintains a suite of products across wallets, interfaces, lending, and bridges.

Notable products include the Badger Wallet which supports BTC, WBTC, and other tokenized bitcoin assets. Badger.Finance serves as a dashboard interface for users.

Sett is a yield aggregator that allows lending and earning interest on BTC and WBTC. Bitcoin/renBTC Bridge allows moving bitcoin across different blockchains. Additional tools and services create a comprehensive infrastructure for the tokenized bitcoin ecosystem.

BADGER Token Utility and Value Accrual

The BADGER token acts as the cornerstone for the Badger DAO platform, facilitating both the project’s expansion and empowering its community with decision-making capabilities. As the primary asset of the platform, those owning BADGER have the right to vote on proposals aimed at enhancing the ecosystem’s growth and evolution.

The platform rewards its users through decentralized finance (DeFi) applications developed atop its own infrastructure, with BADGER token holders benefiting from a share of these rewards. This arrangement not only adds to the token’s growth in value but also integrates users into the project’s success.

To ensure a balanced circulation and prevent rapid value inflation, Badger DAO implements specific strategies. It maintains the ecosystem’s vitality by carefully managing the token’s rate of appreciation. Additionally, to support a gradual increase in the token’s worth, Badger DAO applies token burning strategies to reduce BADGER’s available supply, with a total cap set at 21 million tokens.

Partnerships and Integrations

Badger DAO has formed partnerships with leading projects across DeFi, wallets, protocols, and CeFi companies.

Notable partners include Yearn Finance, renBTC, Bancor, Polygon, FTX, and Ledger among others. These partnerships expand Badger’s reach and adoption and help drive further composability between DeFi and bitcoin infrastructure.

Integrations with centralized entities like FTX also aim to increase bitcoin’s accessibility to mainstream audiences from CeFi onramps.

Future Roadmap

Looking ahead, Badger DAO aims to become a hub for bitcoin-based financial services in DeFi. Planned developments include launching native options and derivatives protocols, tokenized real-world assets backed by BTC, and portfolio management tools.

Internationalization is another priority to increase accessibility and decentralization of the community. Badger DAO also aims to be blockchain-agnostic by expanding beyond Ethereum to additional Layer 1s and sidechains.

As DeFi grows in utility and adoption, Badger DAO is positioned to lead innovation at the intersection of bitcoin and decentralized finance.