Cronos Chain Pros and Cons...

I noticed that Cronos Chain recently made it into the T10 of DEFI Protocols for Total Value Locked - it currently sits just above Arbitrum with just under $2 billion of assets staked or pooled, although it's a long way off Polygon's $5BN TVL which currently sits at P8.

I've had a few hundred dollars pooled in one DAPP based on CRONONS - CroDex for almost two months now, but I recently pulled that money out and put it, and some more funds, into another DAPP - CronaSwap.

Below is a brief overview of my experience...

Pros of Using Cronos Chain

Firstly, BOTH of the Dapps linked above offer a decent return on pooling both stables and stables-CRO, around 20% on most stable pools and 50% on most stable-CRO pools - the options typically being DAI/ USDC and USDT

If you've already got CRO sitting around especially and aren't too precious about whether you end up with CRO or stables, the stable-CRO pools are very attractive!

The rates currently on offer at CronaSwap.

There'a also the usual options of BTC and ETH with most of the above for the standard (if you're used to CUB DEFI on BSC) 30 odd %.

Secondly, IF you already use the Crypto.com app and can cope with it's clunkiness, CRODEX is a great choice to park some of your funds which you may have sitting around in your wallet.

The only way you can get funds to CRODEX ATM is by sending CRO from your Crypto.com account to your CRONOS CHAIN address ('ETH' address) and then swapping from there.

Thirdly the FEES are reasonable, just above what BSC charges, and predictable too. I seem to have always paid around 0.5 CRO to swap with staking costing nearer the 1.5 CRO mark.

Fourthly - It works, I haven't had a stuck TX yet, at standard GAS fees.

Fifth - There have been a lot of new DAPPS built on CRONOS in the last couple of months, it's growing, with the like of AUTOFARM getting onboard too....

Sixth - With Crypto.com being so well established, and the credit card being an easy off-ramp for crypto into FIAT I can see this chain becoming increasingly popular, so there's a possibility that even the 'DEFI tokens' on some of these DAPPS maintain a decent price.

The Cons of Using CroDex

Firstly the CRO fees are quite pricey - you're looking at $0.50- $1.50 to exchange or pool, so if you want to transfer CRO in, then exchange and then pool, you're looking at around $2. Then if you want to claim and swap, another $1 a pop, or claim and trade and pool anew, $2 again.

So if you want to 'claim on a weekly basis' you probably want a minimum of $500 staked in any one pool, based on my experience of using both CroDex and CronaSwap

Secondly - some of the DAPPS are a bit 'wild west' - you have to DYR - I can certainly advise avoiding CroDex which was my introduction to DEFI on CRONOS - So far, the rewards you receive on staking only run for 30 days at which point you have to remove your funds and re-pool them to receive rewards anew, and as you might expect the rewards for the V2 pooling are lower than for V1.

I only had a couple of hundred pooled initially as this was a test, and I still made a decent profit, but with the relatively high fees this would have been marginal had I been looking at more sensible APRs rather than those for a new platform.

Thirdly, at the moment CRONOS chain is a bit of an island, as you can only get assets there by sending CRO via the Crypto.com app.

A cross chain bridge with ETH which will support a few of the major tokens (ETH/ BTC/ USDC and a few others) is planned, but isn't yet available, and who knows how much longer it will take for bridges to more sensible chains such as BSC and Polygon to emerge?

Fourthly

And this might be the nail in coffin for many - I don't think CRONOS is the truly decentralised DEFI protocol we're looking for, it's not ETH - AND especially with it currently being reliant on the Crypto.com app to get funds out, which does that horrible 'delay before deposits or withdrawals being authorised' thing, it might just be that this whole thing isn't really decentralised at all!

Cronos Chain final thoughts....

I've got a bit of CRO and I'm not too precious whether I end up with more of it, or more stables, so I'm happy to park most of my CRO with some stables for a 50% APY and hopefully ride the wave of what I think looks like the closest viable alternative to Binance Smart Chain there is - and by that I mean a not very decentralised but functional version of DEFI.

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta