Original author: Azuma
Original source: Odaily Planet Daily
On May 13, Infinex, a comprehensive DeFi platform created by Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, officially opened account creation and deposit channels, and announced that it will distribute 377 million governance credit GP to all depositing users over the next 30 days.
截至发文，Infinex 合计已通过以太坊、Solana、Arbitrum、Base、Optimism、Polygon 等六条 Layer 1 及 Layer 2 网络吸收了逾 5700 万 USDC 的存款。
Infinex:通往无感 DeFi 世界的窗口
From a positioning point of view, it is difficult to find a concrete application category to define Infinex, although the industry has generally classified Infinex as a decentralized contract exchange when describing Infinex, but in fact Infinex wants to do much more than that.
Combined with Infinex's own description, you can think of it as a window to DeFi services - first, Infinex itself will be a non-custodial wallet covering multiple chains; Second, Infinex provides access to the major DeFi applications integrated with Infinex; Crucially, a series of complex concepts such as wallet addresses, cross-chain bridging, mnemonics, gas, etc., are abstracted away throughout the Infinex journey, and users can seamlessly access more DeFi applications like CeFi products without having to know or even know them.
The reason why Infinex was often pegged to decentralized contract exchanges in the past is that Infinex will first integrate with Synthetix Perps V3 after its official launch in the future, allowing users to conduct decentralized derivatives trading through the latter.
In Infinex's view, the project's vision is to bridge the experience gap between CeFi and DeFi through the on-chain experience layer it has created, and then integrate on-chain DeFi protocols to provide users with more tokens, more derivatives, more novel yield products, and ultimately serve its customers more efficiently. As a result, the demand for CeFI services will be drastically reduced, which in turn will drive further adoption of DeFi.
Experience with the account creation process
As mentioned above, the use of Infinex does not involve common wallet service concepts such as addresses and mnemonics, but instead relies on Passkey to create an account.
Passkey is the only option for users to log in to their account. When a user creates an account with Infinex, a public key is generated for authentication, the public key is stored on the Infinex server, and the private key is stored on the user's own device, which is required to be verified by both passkeys when logging in.
The next time the user attempts to log in, the Infinex server creates an encrypted "challenge" with the public key and sends it to the user's device, where the user can access their account by signing the "challenge" with the private key after verifying their identity using biometrics, PIN code, or USB security key.
The public key cannot be used to find the private key, and since the user's private key is stored on their device, hackers will not be able to log into the account without physical access, which will also effectively prevent potential phishing attacks.
After clicking "Create", Infinex will ask the user how they would like to store the Passkey, and Mac users can simply select "iCloud Keychain" to store it, and then wait a few minutes for the account to be created. The following table describes the account page after the account is created.
However, before making a deposit, users also need to set up fund recovery measures through "Settings", which can be used to restore dependencies such as Google accounts and Apple accounts, as well as Web3 address systems such as EVM addresses and Solana addresses.
Once you've set up the above settings, you can start making deposits to your account and accumulate governance points GP. However, judging from the user experience of the existing deposit link, it seems that Infinex still cannot rely on wallet addresses for the time being, which must transfer funds to a specified address.
Can GP be converted to governance tokens? The answer may not be ideal
For the time being, the reason why users actively participate in Infinex deposits is undoubtedly because they want to efficiently accumulate governance points GP, and the potential benefits of GP are mainly twofold.
One is priority access to future official Infinex launches. According to Infinex, more than 200,000 whitelist applications were received during the development of the project, so a screening mechanism was needed to determine which users to prioritize access to. Over the next 30 days, Infinex will distribute 377 million GP to all depositing users (the supply will be capped at 600 million), and users with the most accumulated GP will be the first to qualify for the experience when Infinex releases its first integration.
The second is the potential airdrop benefits that may not exist, although the points system (and even limiting the supply) tends to be more airdrop-oriented at the moment when Points-Fi is popular, Infinex mentioned in an early article published in September last year that "Infinex's interests will remain with Synthetix, so Infinex will not launch its own token".
All things considered, it's not too surprising for a project like Infinex, which is backed by a head-to-head protocol and a star founder, to achieve such excellent data on the first day. At a time when the abstract concept of chains is on the rise, Infinex's main strategies such as stripping away complex concepts and building non-sensory experiences are also in line with the narrative trend of the current market. However, if Infinex does choose a coinless strategy, its subsequent incentive flexibility and community loyalty may face a more severe test.