Shadows: a decentralized synthetic asset issuance protocol built on Substrate

Shadows Network is a new crypto project that defines itself as a decentralized protocol, developed on Substrate, capable of issuing synthetic assets using its own governance token, DOWS, as the underlying asset. A bit like Synthetix (which requires SNX tokens) or Linear (with the Lina token), the latter being a project recently reviewed on our portal!

Shadows Network

As explained in the official Shadows docs, the exchange of synthetic assets is nothing more than an exchange of debts between two people, but in this case, it is done through smart contracts, avoiding any intermediary. This feature becomes useful in several cases to solve problems that we may encounter both in the crypto world and in the trading world, such as:

• The need for stablecoins to avoid volatility
• The problems of liquidity or slippage
• The inability to make the most out of your asset: for example, if you hold BTC you can’t participate in DeFi and earn significant yields, but if you trade your BTC for BTC on the Ethereum network or other blockchains then things change completely.

Shadows Network, unlike similar government-regulated products, allows ANYONE to create assets out of thin air and exchange them on-chain with other users; it operates in an industry worth trillions of dollars every year and will use Polkadot, a chain that has been on the rise in recent months; it avoids middlemen, saving you money and shenanigans, as well as avoiding problems of trading slippage; it fixes the problem of censorship as the blockchain has no limits or censorship, a problem often present in real life due to governments, institutions or other entities that would like to control the world. Your privacy is of course also safe as the protocol does not require KYC or any other kind of verification to allow using their innovative service. 

The Shadows Network DOWS token

Like any self-respecting crypto project, Shadows Network has launched its own token which is now freely tradable on Uniswap and other DEXs. The maximum supply of the token is 36,999,999 tokens, while the circulating amount at the moment is much lower. The current price is approximately $3.70, with a fully diluted market cap of just over $100 million. The token was added on CoinGecko just 1 day ago and currently shows an All-Time Low of $2.89 and an All-Time High of $3.87. Not too high numbers considering the markets at the moment. Solid projects manage to touch even a 1 billion market cap in these recent bull-run weeks. 

Clearly, the DOWS token has a lot of uses besides the ability to create synthetic assets with it (800% collateral). In fact, every transaction generated on the Shadows Network has a small fee which is then redistributed to the Dows token holders. This token can also be staked in order to get even more DOWS and lower the fees. Finally, the token gives access to the governance of the entire project, allowing the user to participate in various votes to improve the project over time. In short, the uses are manifold and holding it seems like a good idea in this case!

The team behind the project is public and clearly visible on the home page, which inspires a lot of confidence. The advisors include Kyle Chasse, founder of Paid Network, another successful project launched only a few days ago on the Polkastarter platform.