Fantom Ecosystem Spotlight – Cask
What is Cask Protocol?
Cask is a decentralized non-custodial protocol for powering money flow automation in web3. Money flows include NFT subscriptions, auto investing (DCA), recurring peer-to-peer payments, and automatic decentralized protocol interactions. Cask believes that automation is key to web3 adoption and is committed to building additional automations to bring value to web3.
How do you introduce Cask to a novice, or someone who knows relatively little about DeFi?
Cask facilitates recurring transactions to make moving money on web3 convenient, secure and automated.
Can you give us a quick rundown of what Cask offers?
Cask Protocol’s automated money flows on Fantom provide users, projects, and protocols with a convenient, accessible, and cost-efficient way to move money on web3 on a recurring basis. Examples of money flows include the ability to accept payments on web3, auto-buy crypto on a DEX, or send recurring peer-to-peer payments.
What are some of the innovative use cases that Cask enables?
Cask has a growing number of automated money flows that include:
- Auto-invest in crypto on DEXs – Cask provides a simple, convenient, and cost-effective way to make recurring crypto purchases on Fantom decentralized exchanges (DEX) such as SpookySwap from a non-custodial wallet. Schedule auto-buys to dollar-cost-average (DCA) buys daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Auto-investing money flows can be funded by holding a balance in a Cask Wallet or by setting an allowance in a Personal Wallet (Metamask or WalletConnect).
- Web3 subscriptions – Cask enables anyone to start accepting recurring payments or contributions. Providers can create plans that specify the terms of the recurring payment agreement, such as how much and how often. When users subscribe to a plan, they are minted an NFT which can be used for access control or token-gating content. If a user stops paying for the subscription, that NFT is burned, and access is removed automatically. Cask offers both plug-and-play solutions such as a web3 checkout widget as well tools for developers including a webhook bridge and web3 payments SDK.
- Providers can also offer automated web3 discounts based on a user’s on-chain activity. Discounts can be triggered if a user holds an NFT from a defined collection or hold the minimum number of a specified token. Discounts based on NFTs will open up new opportunities for communities and brands to engage their users with ways to earn NFTs before receiving a discount.
- Peer-to-peer payments – Whether you need to send funds to split bills, pay contractors, or help out family, Cask’s peer-to-peer money flow makes it simple to automate sending stablecoins on a schedule. Automating peer-to-peer transactions increases convenience and reduces the risk of forgetting to make a payment.
How did you come up with Cask/what inspired you?
Web3 has progressed at a phenomenal rate, but it was missing some key infrastructure. In traditional finance, it’s easy to automate your financial transactions (subscriptions, bill pay, investing, peer-to-peer payments) through centralized services. But, on web3, these basic automations were not possible, thereby limiting many fundamental use cases of web3. For this reason, the Cask team decided to build the infrastructure, a common good protocol to empower money flow automations for web3.
How did you learn about Fantom?
The Cask team has been active deFi users on Fantom over the past few years and are thrilled to now be participating in its builder community as well.
Why did you decide to build on Fantom?
Cask chose Fantom because of its fast speed, low fees, a growing roster of dApps, and community support by the Fantom Foundation. Also, to make the Cask protocol recurring money flow magic happen, we look for EVM chains like Fantom that have:
Smart contract automation — Chainlink keepers on Fantom ensure that recurring money flow transactions keep happening.
Stablecoin yield — Yield-generating protocols such as Beefy Finance allow users to earn a yield on their Cask balances (soon).
Fast and inexpensive transaction costs — It’s what users expect.
Oracles — Chainlink price oracles on Fantom provide the necessary data feed on Cask assets.
DEXs – Decentralized exchanges such as SpookySwap allow Cask to facilitate auto-investing on Fantom.
What has your experience been like, building on Fantom?
Many Fantom builders have been receptive to partnering and working with Cask, which benefits the larger Fantom ecosystem. Cask currently relies on several important partners in the ecosystem, including Chainlink, SpookySwap, and dApps, who are integrating Cask money flows.
How did the community receive Cask?
Fantom users have been engaged and supportive of our mission to provide a common good protocol for empowering money flows automations for web3. For the community, this means being able to do new things with their money on web3 including auto-invest on DEXs as well as subscribe to services with stablecoins using their non-custodial wallet.
What’s coming up for Cask? Free alpha!
The Cask team is actively building and testing new protocol automations that bring convenience to users as well as drive revenue & retention.
Is there anything that you would like to add, about which we haven’t asked?
Cask believes that the success of web3 depends on interoperability and integrations. Please contact the Cask team if you think your project or protocol might benefit from automations.
