In my previous article I showed you how to bridge over your BCH from the Bitcoin Cash blockchain to the SmartBCH sidechain. (If that sentence doesn't make much sense to you, please have a look at my previous article. I explain that in detail.)
This article will discuss the first decentralized exchange (DEX) on SmartBCH: BenSwap. I will describe the project and its native token Green Ben - also known as $EBEN. In the next article I will show you how to use BenSwap, how to provide liquidity for the exchange and how to use both the pools and the farms for that 1,000% APR (annual percentage rate) that everyone is currently crazy about.
Disclaimer 1
Nothing in this article should be interpreted as financial advice. I am only explaining how to do something. I'm not telling you to do anything. I'm also not implying that you should do anything that is shown or explained here. I'm also not saying that it is a good or a bad idea to do anything that you see here. You decide for yourself what you want and what you don't want to do with your own money, crypto and life.
Disclaimer 2
SmartBCH is a new blockchain and as such it is not yet battle-tested in the real world. In the worst case, you could lose all of your funds that you send to SmartBCH due to bugs or vulnerabilities.
Disclaimer 3
The BenSwap code on SmartBCH has not yet been audited. That means in the worst case, you could lose all the crypto which you stake in its "pools" or its "farms" and you could lose all the crypto which you provide as liquidity to BenSwap.
Disclaimer 4
Only risk what you can afford to lose if the worst case happens. I cannot be held responsible for any financial losses you may suffer. "Don't sue me, bro!"
BenSwap - the first DEX on SmartBCH
Alright, with that out of the way, let's talk about BenSwap and its token Golden Ben - also known as $EBEN.
Everything that I'm stating here is my own opinion and I don't receive any financial compensation for writing this article - other than the tips I may or may not receive on this platform and which are publicly shown below. These tips don't influence the content of this article.
BenSwap is a decentralized exchange which started out on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) - if it is even possible to build any DeFi (decentralized finance) project on a blockchain with questionable decentralization... 😉
For the start of SmartBCH, BenSwap was ported over from BSC to SmartBCH. As of the time of writing, BenSwap is the only DEX on SmartBCH, but other DEXes will follow in the future.
To make this point clear: There are now two different BenSwaps - the new one on SmartBCH (benswap.cash) and the older one on BSC (benswap.finance). I will briefly discuss the BSC version before I focus on the SmartBCH version.
The $BEN token started as a token inspired by Elon Musk and Dogecoin on Binance Smart Chain with the goal of having fun and supporting animal charities.
As far as I can tell, BenSwap started on BSC to help popularise $BEN, but BenSwap wasn't very successful on BSC, because other DEXes on that chain were much more popular.
In addition to $BEN, there is a second token connected to BenSwap BSC. It is called Golden Ben or $GBEN. The price performances of these two tokens were not spectacular. After an initial pump, both $BEN and $GBEN dropped significantly and haven't recovered to their previous levels yet.
You can find more information about BenSwap here or in their Telegram group - which contains links to all their information on other platforms.
Note that BenSwap has separate websites for their DEX on SmartBCH and on BSC, but they only have one Telegram group for both DEXes. And as a result this Telegram group has a very low signal to noise ratio, unfortunately. The moderators and some group members really seem to enjoy to create FOMO (fear of missing out) for $EBEN and they try to pump its market price.
Why? Maybe because there is a 9% developer tax on $EBEN. And in addition, the developers can stake their coins or provide liquidity to the DEX, too. Therefore, I would watch out for potential dumps!
In addition to the moonboy-ism in the Telegram group, the Benswap moderators also try to get BCH supporters to switch over to Benswap BSC. Why? Probably because they hold a ton of $BEN or $GBEN and they hope that the BCH community will pump their bags - so that maybe they can dump on us?
This is pure speculation, of course. An exercise in "imaginary horribles" - if you will. However, I have to admit that I got a bit annoyed yesterday while doing my research. Therefore, I had to post on noise.cash about it...
Other than the moonboy-ism in the Telegram group, the dev tax on its native token and a possible dump as a result, BenSwap seems to have a capable developer who follows BCH news - which is the reason why BensSwap was ported over to SmartBCH so early. However, the fact that they want us to use their exchange on BSC indicates to me that they don't understand the first mover advantage which they have stumbled into. And they don't seem to comprehend the matter of fact culture of the BCH community. Before my "rant" above I posted about this on noise.cash, too.
Pros and cons of $EBEN
Pro
Currently the only DEX on smartBCH
Low trading fees (0.2%)
Most of the fees go to liquidity providers (0.17% to LP, 0.03% to the developers)
Claim to donate some of the profits to animal charities
Fair token launch with presale and launch pool
No extra fee for staking and unstaking (at least not yet - on BSC they charge up to 4%)
Code will be audited by September, 12th (estimated)
Cons
Moonboy community(?)
9% Dev tax on the native token $EBEN
Devs can additionally stake their $EBEN to increase the effective dev tax even further
$EBEN dumps by devs are possible
Code has not yet been audited
Links to more info: https://docs.benswap.cash/links
Green Ben $EBEN
Green Ben or $EBEN is the native token of BenSwap.
The token is actually only useful for staking and as a trade pair on BenSwap. It is also supposed to be a governance token for BenSwap - so unfortunately, there will probably not be a governance token airdrop in the future.
There was a presale of $EBEN to get the token launched for about $0.15 per $EBEN. After the presale, new coins are being minted at a starting rate of 10 $EBEN per block. Each week this rate is reduced by 10% until it reaches 1 $EBEN per block.
Note that for every 10 coins minted, an extra coin is minted and sent to the developers - which corresponds to a developer tax of about 9%. Note also that the developers can stake their $EBEN or use it to provide liquidity to increase the effective developer tax even further with APRs (annual percentage rates) of more than 1,000% in the beginning...
If you want to get some $EBEN, you can exchange sBCH or other SEP20 tokens (which are tokens built on SmartBCH) for it on BenSwap.
Another way to get $EBEN is to either stake $EBEN or wrapped sBCH in the (launch) pools.
Alternatively, you can provide liquidity in a few crypto pairs and stake your liquidity tokens to get $EBEN rewards on top of the trading fee in sBCH.
The website states that $EBEN will be deflationary, but so far, no deflationary mechanism has been announced.
Here is the official website for $EBEN:
https://docs.benswap.cash/tokenomics/green-ben-eben
You can find the chart with historical data here:
https://chartpro.benswap.cash/?token=0x77cb87b57f54667978eb1b199b28a0db8c8e1c0b
Conclusion
As much as I love SmartBCH and as much as making insane gains in crypto and getting 1,000% APR can be fun, DeFi also opens the door for scams, rug pulls and projects that are just bad.
I'm not saying that BenSwap or $EBEN is any of the above. My personal opinion is that the code audit will most likely give a positive result. And in that sense BenSwap is safe to be used as an exchange.
However, be aware of the risks of DeFi. I am especially curious to learn if BenSwap is run by the developers with admin keys - and if so to which extent can they be used to change the code - or even to possibly steal the crypto staked by the users. We will have to wait for the audit to find that out - unless someone is willing and capable to check the code themselves. Just be advised for future investments that staked crypto can potentially be stolen with admin keys - if the code allows it. That's why audits are so important in DeFi.
Furthermore, I see problems in the $EBEN tokenomics. The developers do get quite a big portion of the supply from the 9% developer tax and they can stake their $EBEN or provide liquidity for the $EBEN - sBCH trading pair. Note that they also get some sBCH for free from the trading fees and they can influence the APR they receive for staking. Currently, a high APR of above 1,000% is assigned for that trading pair. With that they can outperform all other ways of acquiring $EBEN.
Will $EBEN dump after an initial pump just like $BEN and $GBEN- the tokens of the Binance Smart Chain Version of BenSwap - did? I don't know. And according to their website the tokens used a different launch mechanism. Therefore, it is possible that the faith of $EBEN will be completely different to its BSC counterparts. But the developers certainly have the potential to crash the $EBEN price - which is hopefully not in their best financial interest.
That was all for today.
Thank you for reading!
Stay tuned for the next article in which I will show you how to use BenSwap!
And let me know in the comments what you think of $EBEN, BenSwap and SmartBCH.
That's why users should take the risks and only invest what they can afford to lose. It also happens to other DeFi.. The beginners should read this.
But it's quite FUD though 🤣🤣