December 4, 2021

Serum: A Blend of Speed, Convenience and Trustlessness

Okereke Innocent

Serum blockchain

As the next-generation exchange system, Serum is making waves in proving its credibility in crypto-trading and decentralized finance transactions. It provides faster and frictionless orders with its automated order book system.

Serum provides incentives to its users which in turn favors so many developers. Some of these incentives are Serum Token (SRM) and MegaSerum Tokens(MSRM). With these tokens, one can achieve passive crypto income by staking their tokens on Serum. 

Serum allows every member to stake their tokens. It doesn't only allow members with the highest token to stake, it also allows members with small tokens to stake too. 

Seeing that Serum DEX has so much to offer, there's a need to know so much about it. In this article, we'll extensively discuss Serum DEX and its features. Also, we'll discuss the values and how it relates to other blockchains. Enjoy!

What is Serum?

The Serum is a decentralized exchange system built on the Solana ecosystem to provide unmatched low costs and speedy DeFi transactions. It charges as low as 0.0001 cents for transactions. 

The system aims to offer users faster settlement times and zero centralization. 

In offering a non-centralized side of its architecture, it centralizes price fees even without using Oracles services. Hence, we say the Serum system functions without Oracles. Oracle is a centralized service used by Defi protocols to verify, authenticate and query external data then send them to an already closed system.

Because Serum is based on the Solana blockchain, it offers fully decentralized services that are easy, fast, and affordable to use. 

In Serum DEX, users can easily transfer assets amongst different blockchains and even trade stable coins and wrapped coins or even convert coins from one coin to another. For instance, converting Ethereum to FxT. Some of the projects build on Serum DEX are:

Furthermore, users can create customized financial products as they deem fit. 

The Serum uses native Serum tokens(SRM) as its main governing assets and incentive for its ecosystem. With SRM, users can stake, trade, or participate in burn and buy fee incentives for reduced trading costs.

Also, with the SRM, users enjoy a further reduction in Serum-based transactions.

Aside from all of these, Serum aims to enhance frictionless cross-chain contracts in DeFi while traders trade synthetic assets. It provides many synergies with the Solana blockchain serving as its host application.

Solana Blockchain 

As the fast-growing blockchain system, Solana has secured a spot in the top 10 cryptocurrency projects according to the market cap. Being able to carry out fifty thousand transactions in a second(TPS), Solana blockchain has demonstrated to be the quickest blockchain anywhere on the globe. So, Serum building their project on the Solana network will allow for quick fast transactions on the Serum network. 

Solana, with all of its functions, is a layer-1 blockchain. So, to function effectively, Serum functions solely on a layer-1 solution system without layer-2 solutions. It operates solely on a decentralized clock that monitors time-stamps transactions together with an advanced Proof-of-Stake(POS) mechanism. 

In recent times, blockchain developers have been designing decentralized applications using the Solana blockchain. This widely accepted choice from blockchain developers is due to Solana's reputation in providing fast and scalable smart-contract-enabled blockchain. It's this advanced blockchain system that the Serum network is built on. Clearly, Serum is just a project on the Solana ecosystem.

That said, Serum DEX mirrors the cost and speed of the Solana network. With this, it offers a fully decentralized trading arena with easy trading on centralized exchange systems. It also offers inter-operable features that allow users to exchange assets such as Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoins (BTC), SPL-based tokens, and ERC-based Tokens. 

Serum Token (SRM)

A unique thing about the Serum token (SRM) is its means of collecting values. It accrues values via hyperinflation.

SRM accrues values through adoption and utility. Some are:

  • All Serum's net fees go to burn. 
  • 50% off on all Serum fees on holding a token.
  • Fees payment with SRM.

That said, most SRM have extensive unlocking terms with all sales fees inclusive. Serum achieves this by locking the tokens. SRM are locked cryptographically in a smart contract. It takes about a year or less to unlock a locked token.

The period where you cannot unlock a locked token is its unlocking period. Most SRM have an unlocking period of one year.

In some cases, some SRM take up to 6 years to unlock. This type equates to 1/2190 SRM in a day.

SRM amount to a maximum of 10 Million tokens, creating about 175 million tokens in its circulation. Because of this high number of tokens in circulation, Serum has been able to provide liquidity to their project. However, several token stakeholders have decided to hold on to a large number of their tokens thereby reducing the number of tokens in circulation. 

Moving on, several traders stake SRM to achieve passive crypto income. They also do this by rescuing fees and staking rewards when trading on Serum DEX. 

Howbeit, traders with SRM can still partake in on-chain governance. Traders who do this will vote on updates to specific markets on the project. 

MegaSerum Tokens (MSRM)

A MegaSerum(MSRM) is equivalent to one million SRM. It means you have to have a million SRM as they'll amount to one MSRM.

MegaSerums are rare and there are only 10%. This is so as there are just fewer users that show belief and commitment to the Serum network. It's just those 10% that can lock their SRM with MSRM.

Project Serum Cryptocurrency Ecosystem 

The project Serum, built on the Solana ecosystem, provides usable services to developers and other users from the start of their project to its deployment. On a large scale, this ecosystem provides a suitable platform for non-technical users planning on delving into Decentralized Finance(Defi). This they can do on Serum's user-friendly App(dApp).

That said, in the Serum ecosystem, developers are automatically eligible for grants once they build on this network. With this, projects receive the support and funding to enhance their user adoption and brand awareness. 

A good example of a project like this is the Phantom project. The Phantom project is a Defi(Decentralized finance) and NFT crypto wallet. Another example is Coin98 that offers users smooth running payment gateway services. 

Also, Project Serum provides developers contact points and resources. With that, you can view on-chain codes, clients codes, and repositories. The project also offers tutorials for developers which can be found on the "Developer Resources" on its website.

Finally, the Project Serum allows users to comprehensively overview all Serum's tokens and integration within its ecosystem. And to top it all, the project provides a link to its whitepaper.

Serum and Staking Nodes

Before one becomes a Serum node, one must take at least 10million SRM including a minimum of 1 MSRM. However, at 100 million SRM or 100 MSRM tokens, nodes stop staking tokens. 

Nodes collect several rewards based on their network participation, the aggregate of activity, and performance within the Serum ecosystem. Generally, nodes are in charge of some blockchain operations like cross-chain settlement validation.

Staking

Oftentimes, traders can't continue the Serum project and earn passive income via Defi because they can't stake 10 million Serum tokens. This shouldn't be a challenge as there are alternatives to this.

Serum token holders can now stake tokens as regards a node. A node is formed by a leader and consists of members of that network. The node leader doesn't necessarily have the highest tokens. But the leader can be the founder of the node and will receive small fractions of node staking fees.

In a node, anyone or the leader can stake a node on behalf of another member. Still, Serum nodes will offer trading fees and governance rights within its ecosystem. 

However, there're mechanisms to provide an overload of tokens in the ecosystem. As many readers stake their SRM tokens, the system cools down following unstacking tokens. This period, known for just a week. 

Node Rewards

In a node, rewards are distributed through native SRM. However, the nodal leaders receive more proportion of the node than other members. Commonly, the leader receives 15% of the rewards while the 85% is distributed among other members. 

Annually, nodes receive a 2% percentage yield (APY) based on their staked funds. However, this percentage can increase to around 13%. This can only be possible if members of a node increase their performance duties and challenges. Also, nodes get special rewards for special challenges. One of these challenges includes providing collateral for SRM tokens. The aim of this is to prevent funds from burning. 

How to Use Serum

Serum exchange doesn't require that users own an account before a transaction. All you need to transact on Serum DEX is an internet connection, a wallet, and some cryptocurrencies. 

First, if you're carrying out a transaction on Serum, you’ll be needing a Solana wallet. Asides from the Solana wallet, there are other wallets that Serum interacts with.

Some are:

To switch between the wallet, click on the change wallet at the top right corner of the interface. Then pick your desired wallet.

Here is a breakdown of how to use the Serum before we delve into each process extensively.

Create a Solana wallet

  • After creating a Solana wallet, on the first opening, you’ll be asked to write down your recovery keys. Make sure to write them somewhere first as you’ll be needing them some other time.
  • Often, we advise users to create a password immediately after creating their Solana wallet.
  • After creating a password, you’ll be asked to re-enter your new password for confirmation.
  • After doing this, you click on continue. There you have it. You have just created your Solana wallet.
  • On your Solana wallet, you can deposit Eth and convert it to Sol and vice versa. As you’ll expect, there are conversion fees associated with this.
  • From another exchange system, you can click on the cryptocurrencies you have there and transfer them to your Solana wallet. In withdrawing your cryptocurrencies, you’ll be needing your already copied Solana wallet link to be able to receive your money.
  • To successfully withdraw, you will need to authenticate your transactions.
  • After a complete authentication, you can head to your Solana wallet. It’s critical to mention that this transaction doesn’t take long. It only takes a maximum of two minutes to complete a transaction.

Seeing that your cryptocurrency has arrived in your Solana wallet, you can add tokens by clicking on the add token feature on the interface. One may choose to add Serum unwrapped Bitcoin to the Sol.

  • These wrapped tokens can then be in the deposit and become real underlying assets.
  • Also important to note is the small fee attached to adding tokens to a Solana wallet.

The next thing to do is to find a Serum-based DEX to connect to this wallet.

Connecting your Wallet to Serum DEX 

Connecting your wallet to Serum DEX shouldn’t be challenging provided you follow these easy steps. Below are simple steps on wallet connection.

  • On the Serum DEX interface, click on "connect" on the top right corner of the interface.
  • Ensure you must have selected your desired wallet before clicking connect.
  • And if you wish to change your wallet, you must disconnect from the current wallet, then, you can click the select wallet feature to pick your new wallet.

The Value of Serum

As of the time of writing this article, Serum values was the 11th most trending cryptocurrency. On the other hand, it was 141st on the coin market cap on that same day.

On the coin market, Serum was $8.10, a market price of $404.8 million, and a 24-hour value of $117.71 million.

To Wrap It Up

Serum DEX offers a platform for developers and other users to trade speedily and conveniently. For developers, it provides contact points and resources. Such that, they can view on-chain codes and attend tutorials. All that Serum offers is because of its conjunction with the Solana network. 

Also Read Solana: Exploring the Blockchain

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