Symbiosis Explained for Mommas, Poppas, Newbies and Dummies

For those who spend all day on the internet looking at acronyms, candlestick charts and red and green numbers, here is a simple guide so that your equal knows that you are not wasting time but making money. Or so I think…

Mommas & Poppas

- Mom, this is productive work, I'm making money!

- But son, you don't go to any office, you're awake until dawn and sleep until past noon, you don't talk to anyone, you don't make any call or receive any call, you spend your time locked up. What kind of job is that?

- It is a job, but is different from what you consider to be a job.

- I don't understand son. Working is getting up early in the morning and occupying the day with a physical or intellectual activity and someone pays you for it.

- What I do is work, but not in the definition that you have. Let me explain it with a very concrete example. With the Symbiosis platform, which is a multi-chain AMM DEX and liquidity protocol, I can earn money exchanging tokens through different blockchain networks with a simple and friendly UX…

-What have you said?

- Look… If I have a token in a blockchain, let's call it Blockchain 1 that allows only one type of currency created on it and I want another token, but it's in another Blockchain, let's call it 2, with Symbiosis I can exchange it without intermediaries, person to person, or peer to peer…

- I still don't understand anything, son. You're talking to me about something I don't comprehend in a way I don't grasp. I'm already grown up and I can't follow the logic of these things.

- Mom, calm down. I will explain it to you in another way, analogically. Imagine that you want to buy yourself something. Suppose you want to buy a USB stick. You have three options: walk to a physical business chain that is in block 1 to buy it; or you can buy it virtually online in a centralized marketplace; or you can physically buy it from someone you know. And you have a fourth option: buy it from someone you don't know, but you do know who will do the delivery to you.

- Would you buy the USB in any of the four options?

- Yes, but I don’t trust the fourth.

-OKAY. You walk to the chain store, and they don't have what you want. What will you do?

-I do not buy it.

- Now…, in that business they tell you that they don't have what you want there, they only have memory cards. The USBs are only sold in the businesses chain that is on block 2 and is far from where you are, and you have neither the time nor the desire to go. What will you do?

- Well, I don't buy it. I'll get on the bus and go buy the USB whenever I feel like it. But I don't know if they still have it.

- Okay, mom. What other options do you have?

- To never buy it.

- Perfect. And if I told you that there are two ways in which they can give you the USB at that moment in the business chain of block 1 without having to take the bus, would you go to the businesses chain in block 2?

- Of course not! It is much more comfortable and better that they give it to me there. But how are they going to do it if they don't have it?

- They'll synthetically "3-D print" it on the spot and give you a USB, but wrapped as a memory card that works exactly like the USB at the store on block 2 or they'll give you a memory card in the business chain of block 1 that will be equivalent to the USB that you wanted, and they will have it waiting for you until you go to look for it at the business chain of block 2.

- But son, let's see... I'm not fooled by the wrapping! I live in Argentina, land of cheats and turncoats! If it's USB what I want is USB what they must give me and if it's a memory card what I'm looking for is a memory card what they must give me. It is clear? This smells like cheating! Also, the USBs will run out if you save them for me when I go looking for them. I don't know when I can go.

- Aha, mom, both statements are logical, but wrong! To understand it we first must think beyond what we know and current physical limits. We must think that the raw material of the USB, in this case plastic, is available in the store "in liquid" and that it can be adapted now to what you need. Also, we must understand that, even if what you are looking for is not in a place, there is a way to get it without cheating or trickery, by signing an incorruptible smart contract.

-This is not possible! If the salesperson, whom I know, does not have it, do you think that a total stranger from a place I did not go to is going to keep his word to give me what I need by signing a smart contract?

-Yes, that's how it works.

- Son, you are naiver than an ENRON shareholder.

- Not mom. When the USB is wrapped as a memory card it represents the value of the original USB that you want. Nothing changes except the packaging. The functionalities are the same, the value is the same, your property is the same. The same thing happens with the equivalent they give you in exchange for what you want. There is no physical movement of products, but value, functionality, and ownership are maintained. You understand?

- No son, I still don't understand anything.

- If I get you the USB, regardless of where I get it, will you be happy?

-Yes.

- That's Symbiosis. A way to get and find what you are looking for, even if it is not exactly what you want. To use it, you need to broaden your mind, open your eyes, and look beyond what you know. This is a novelty within novelties. It is beyond cutting-edge or bleeding-edge. This is innovation. It is a decentralized, multi-chain liquidity protocol with unlimited assets and in which you do not lose ownership of your assets.

- Son, I'm going to cook some sausages and you can continue with that incomprehensible and mysterious world of the internet and cryptocurrencies, liquidity and multi-chain... Just remember to tidy up the room when you're done!

Newbies

-Very good. Here I am sitting in front of the computer. Now what do I have to do to use Symbiosis?

- First things first: turn on the computer.

- Oops! Sure… Done.

- Now you must go to https://symbiosis.finance/ and start swapping.

- Sure, how do I go to that address?

- You write the address in the browser with the keyboard, you hit enter or click with the mouse and that will take you.

- Aha!

- (…)

- (…)

-Are you ready?

- Yes, a pasteurized green screen has appeared with a Consolas font and a strange octopus making a typical heavy-metal gesture. I think I messed up and got into a 90's HTML page.

- Hahaha… that's the page. Creative, right?

- The truth is that it is not creative if they use something that was used thirty years ago, but at least it draws attention. I'll give you that!

- On the home page you will see a message that says that you can move liquidity across any chain, have you seen it? It then says that Symbiosis aggregates decentralized exchange liquidity across any EVM and non-EVM networks. Swap any token and transfer liquidity. Yes, any.

- Yes. Let's go by tiny steps to be able to understand this first paragraph of which I did not understand a single word. What does “move liquidity” mean?

- That you can dispose of the assets that you have.

- What does “move liquidity across any chain” mean?

- That you can dispose of the assets that you have in one place (blockchain) and they can be transferred to another place (blockchain) even if those places are incompatible.

-Understood. And what does Symbiosis aggregates decentralized exchange liquidity mean?

- That they take care of the delivery of sending the tokens and nothing else. They don't have the assets, they don't keep your key, and you transfer from wallet to wallet.

- I don't fully understand that, but tell me, what is any EVM and non-EVM networks?

- EVM is the Ethereum Virtual Machine. It is one of the key pieces in the operation of the Ethereum blockchain. Its function is to allow the execution of programs or smart contracts to deploy a series of added functionalities for users on said blockchain. Non-EVM are networks like Terra and Solana that need a compatibility bridge to interoperate.

- OKAY. I understood that first paragraph. Am I ready to use Symbiosis?

- Yes. You just need to log in and use the app that you can see here: https://app.symbiosis.finance/swap, connect your wallet and you can start. You have two options. Use the Testnet with Rinkeby to learn how it works or go directly to the Mainnet and start trading real tokens and earning money and time.

Dummies

- I want to tell you about Symbiosis. A decentralized multi-chain liquidity protocol...

-I do not understand!

- I know, that's why I want to explain what it is and how it works. As I was saying, Symbiosis is a decentralized multi-chain liquidity protocol. It allows users to exchange assets between all blockchains while remaining the sole owner of the funds.

-I do not understand!

-What do you not understand?

-I do not understand anything!

- I'm going to go slowly and little by little. Symbiosis protocol is simple, like Uniswap.

- What is Uniswap?

- You can find it on Investopedia: Uniswap is a decentralized exchange that enables peer-to-peer market making. Uniswap is also a cryptocurrency with the symbol UNI. The Uniswap platform enables users to trade cryptocurrencies without any involvement by a centralized third party.

- Let's go back to Symbiosis. You told me it's simple, like Uniswap… What else?

- It is completely decentralized, interoperable, non-custodial…

- What does non-custodial mean?

- It means that no one (even the Symbiosis team) has access to your funds.

- I don't like the home page. But beyond tastes, what can be done from there?

- The front-end is a web interface or mobile application. It collects information about assets on the blockchains supported by the Symbiosis protocol, builds optimal routes for swaps (the routes with the best price), helps users to sign and send transactions to the blockchains.

- How do they do that?

- With the cross-chain liquidity engine. The cross-chain liquidity engine is a set of smart contracts implemented on each blockchain that supports the Symbiosis protocol. It operates concentrated cross-chain liquidity pools and off-chain routing mechanisms, allowing AMM liquidity to be leveraged across all blockchains.

- What is AMM?

- AMM stands for Automated Market Maker. A smart contract that creates a liquidity pool of ERC20 tokens, which are automatically traded using an algorithm instead of an order book. The price is determined by the proportion of assets on the exchange.

- OK, I understand… I think… What I didn't understand and I don't think I'll ever understand is what “The relayers network” is…

- Well… this back and forth of questions and answers has been very long. I'll explain it in detail at another time but imagine it's a crowd of people thumbing up or down on things that happen in the protocol. Or at least that's what I think they do...