ZapperFi

Basics

• Aka Zapper Protocol

• Started in / Announced on:
• Mainnet release:
• Based in:

• DeFiZap and DeFiSnap merged (1-5-2020) to be ZapperFi: "now track and trade your DeFi together".
• From this (14-12-2019) Kyber Network update (this project is part of their Kyber Virtual DeFi Hackathon):

"DeFiZap allows users to gain instant exposure across multiple DeFi protocols based on their investment goals and risk profiles."

• From Token Tuesdays (8-1-2020):

"DeFiZap is a system of smart contracts, called Zaps, that can deploy a single asset (like ETH and soon Dai) across multiple DeFi protocols in a seamless fashion. DeFiZap has recently surged to prominence after winning the Kyber Network Hackathon in November by leveraging its liquidity protocol to create a frictionless mechanism for participating in multiple DeFi protocols in a single transaction. 

Nodar, DeFi Zap Founder, also founded DeFi Tutorials and is an active contributor to the Ethereum ecosystem. After winning the Kyber Hackathon, DeFi Zap was deployed on main-net in early December and recently received a grant from MetaCartel.

Generally speaking, Nodar thoroughly outlines his previous accomplishments within the DeFi ecosystem along with highlighting his plans to improve the protocol through adding a number of “Venmo-like tools” to make the process as intuitive as possible."

History

• From Crypto Briefing (1-10-2020):

"Official co-founders include Seb Audet, Suhail Gangji, and Nodar Janashia. Each of them has a strong background in UX design, crypto development, and financial management, respectively.

Before forming Zapper, Audet helped build DeFi Snap, a dashboard that allowed users to view their DeFi activity on one simple interface. 

Gangji and Janashia worked together to found DeFi Zap, a similar product that allows users to create bundled transactions to interact with multiple smart contracts simultaneously."

Tech

• Whitepaper can be found [insert here].
• Code can be viewed [insert here].

Implementations

• Ethereum.
• From EthHub (23-3-2021):

"Zapper will support all sorts of chains from layer 2’s to sidechains to other layer 1’s starting with Polygon and adding others over time."

Other Details

• Has been forked by iEarn's Andre Cronje to move (3-3-2020) Curve Finance's Curve v3 to v4.

Their Other Projects

Pool Pipes

• Pool Pipes (6-2020) are a feature released by the ZapperFi team that aims to help reduce liquidity fragmentation throughout DeFi.
• From The Defiant (27-5-2020):

"A way for users to seamlessly transfer liquidity between various capital pools in the click of a button. Pool Pipes are geared at solving liquidity fragmentation, ultimately creating channels to bridge capital between leading projects like Uniswap, Curve and Balancer. Best exemplified by Synthetix and their recent SNX incentive adjustments, Pool Pipes helps people migrate sETH Uniswap liquidity to sUSD Curve liquidity all in one transaction for a fraction of the cost."

Zapper Exchange

• From their blog (16-12-2020):

"Zapper Exchange is a DEX aggregator, conveniently located on your Zapper dashboard under Exchange. We released this months ago with our own design for how to source the best trading rates and least slippage in DeFi. However, we quickly learned how much more powerful the 0x API is at sourcing liquidity. Now, Zapper Exchange offers the same competitive rates you’d find using the popular Matcha.xyz DEX aggregrator."

Audits

• Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].

Bugs/Exploits

• ZapperFi turned out to have some bugs within its wrapper contract on Polygon for a couple of months. When they found out, they did a white hat hack and no funds were lost (14-6-2021).
• Sushiswap/Uniswap v2 Zap out also had an exploit. Post mortem is here (12-6-2021):

"The Zapper team was notified of a vulnerability in our Sushiswap and Uniswap V2 Zap out contracts. This vulnerability could have allowed an attacker to transfer liquidity pool tokens (LP) from a user’s account into these contracts via malicious calldata inside the permit function. This was only possible if a user had previously granted approval for these contracts to interact with their LP and the user had an LP balance. As most users Zap out their entire balance, the attack surface for this vulnerability was limited. In addition, we have been unable to find a single instance in which this vulnerability was exploited."

Usage

• From EthHub (30-11-2021):

"The Zapper platform now has 1 million monthly active users and has processed over $10 billion in total transaction volume."

• From their blog (16-12-2020):

"$887M in total Zapper transaction volume

$866M in total Zap volume*

$19.5M traded on Zapper Exchange (and $15.5M since Dec 1st!)

$110M in transaction volume in November

*Adding/withdrawing liquidity, excluding staking."

Competition

• A comparison between Zapper and Zerion can be read here (1-10-2020):

"Zapper has a clear edge for LPs. For example, providing liquidity to a Uniswap pool can be done using just ETH on Zapper, slimming the process from two steps to one.

On Zerion, however, the user needs to manually sell half their ETH for DAI first and add the two assets in the correct proportions. Thus, Zerion’s only advantage over adding liquidity on Uniswap’s native interface is that it also connects to other protocols.

Zerion’s dashboard is cleaner than Zapper’s when viewing an address’ transaction history. But Zapper once again comes out on top in terms of the depth of information available. 

For active LPs, Zapper has a very obvious edge. But for those looking to dabble with DeFi and test all its moving parts, Zerion is the perfect partner."

Pro's and Con's

• From DeFi Weekly (23-1-2020):

"DeFi Zap has been doing great in terms of ETH gone through the system but unlike Uniswap fails to build meaningful liquidity moats as value passes straight through their system. Their contracts are fully open source and can be redeployed without any cuts (should they be implemented). Front end defensibility only goes as far as the value differentiator in the product. One potential way to mitigate this would be to have money go through their smart contract wallet contracts and then move into the DeFi debt refinancing game which Instadapp is a lone wolf in. Zaps in their current form of a business aren't very strong as any revenue earned will result in DCF valuations (which isn't lucrative in crypto yet unless you're in the margin/exchange business)."

Pros

• From Crypto Briefing (1-10-2020):

"Zapper is by far the easiest way to interact with liquidity pools, automating the split of capital between the pool assets. By aggregating Uniswap and Balancer markets – the most liquid DEXes – Zapper finds the best trade amongst these two and presents it to users. Since the trade isn’t split, transaction fees are the same as interacting with Uniswap or Balancer directly."

Cons

• From Crypto Briefing (1-10-2020):

"The platform’s biggest boon is also a bane – a lack of support for some of DeFi’s largest markets. Three of the top six (Aave, Maker, Compound) DeFi protocols by liquidity are in the business of borrowing and lending. 

Zapper is yet to tap into this market, thus limiting the activities its user can do."

Team, Funding, etc.

Team

• Nodar Janashia; founder (DeFiZap)
• Seb Audet; founder (DeFiSnap)
• Suhail Gangji; co-founder
• DeFi Dad; Chief DeFi Officer (9-2020).

Funding

• Recieved a grant from MetaCartel and a grant from Gitcoin in its fourth round. It was the 5th largest in Tech Grants.
• Closed (3-7-2020) a $50k investment from MetaCartel Ventures.
• Zapper closes a $1.5M Seed Round led by Framework Ventures and Libertus Capital with participation from MetaCartel Ventures, CoinFund, The LAO, CoinGecko, and Zee Prime Capital.

And additional support from angels Michael Dunworth (Wyre), Kain Warwick (Synthetix), Mariano Conti (Maker), Anthony Sassano (Set Protocol), Meltem Demirors (CoinShares) and Stefano Bernandi. With an extension from Coinbase Ventures and Delphi Ventures (16-10-2020).

• Had a Series A round of $15M, led by Framework and Mark Cuban (17-5-2021).

Partners

• Is part of (2-3-2020) the first members of the Ren Alliance, as an Utility member integrating RenVM or adding renBTC, renZEC, etc.
• Is part of the Global DeFi Alliance, created by Huobi (15-9-2020).