User types and use cases: who is Panther for and how can they use it?

Through the outstanding results of our Public Sale (sold out in 90 mins!) and the explosive growth of our community, as well as the registrations for our upcoming decentralized private launch, you have all demonstrated you believe in the importance of privacy by default in DeFi. It’s as if we’re witnessing a collective, much needed “enough is enough!” in front of our very eyes.  

Now that we have concluded a couple of important milestones and are on track to release our v1 to the public, we believe it is time to start laying down how you will all achieve privacy through Panther. In this article, we will outline how using Panther will look and feel like as well as:

• The two types of Panther users and how they can benefit from their interaction with Private Finance (PriFi).
• The upcoming components of the Panther ecosystem and how they will work.
• The principles and features that make Panther the best possible solution to infuse the current DeFi ecosystem with on-chain privacy.

Let us start from the very basics and build towards painting a comprehensive picture:

To span across DeFi, we need to be as useful as possible.

We have talked about the principles of decentralization and privacy throughout our many articles, AMAs and recordings. And, of course, these principles remain the #1 most important thing for our protocol! However, it is about time that we go deeper into the How of Panther’s Why.

The objective of Panther Protocol is to infuse the whole DeFi ecosystem with privacy, which is only possible if we stay true to the open-source principles of our cypherpunk heritage. Aside from building unique technology that comprises the many innovations brought forward by Panther, to succeed, we also need to make them accessible, allowing the whole DeFi ecosystem and crypto community to use it.

However, this presents a unique challenge

As we explored in our article about Multi-Asset Shielded Pools, there is a delicate balance that projects aiming to provide privacy need to pursue while remaining decentralized: On one hand, it would go against the very idea of decentralization to build a fence around the project to retain the project’s exclusivity. On the other hand, having too many copy-cats or alternatives would result in all of them being tiny and therefore weak at providing privacy for their users.

The best possible option we can create, then, is something incredibly transparent in the way it provides privacy and that very easily allows everyone to plug into it while retaining robust privacy features. Since we’ve explored the first and last of these points in detail before, let us focus on how existing users can plug into Panther in a convenient, decentralized way.

The two types of Panther users.

The only way to create a lasting, useful solution that the crypto ecosystem can adopt is to tailor it to the market’s current needs. Many innovations have failed because of expectations that users will adapt to a product instead of creating products users need. Panther seeks to avoid this trap by creating user journeys that can seamlessly integrate to the existing ecosystem, whether users find Panther by themselves or use it without knowing it.

There are two types of DeFi users: Institutional players and retail investors. They have unique characteristics such as their mindset, savviness, expected results and financial reach, among others.

To both, Panther offers something unique:

• Institutional users can benefit from Panther’s privacy by conducting their trades through the protocol. This will, in turn, help them avoid some of the dangers of public ledgers, such as front-running, sandwich attacks, etc. They can trade, utilize DeFi protocols and invest privately and securely while retaining the faculty to disclose their history retroactively to comply with the law.
• Retail investors can use Panther for the same reasons as institutional users, although they might also find utility in Panther’s zero-knowledge Reveals. As individuals, retail investors are more concerned about their personal privacy (others finding out their identity, holdings, etc.) than they are about their DeFi history, particularly given some governments’ ambivalence about cryptocurrencies. Panther Reveals are a way for users to retain as much of their own privacy as possible while complying with the requests of any Service Provider (including other KYC registrators) that accepts these proofs.

How can these users access the Panther protocol?

As we mentioned, we aim for Panther to seamlessly integrate with the existing ecosystem, as well as for it to stand on its own. We have devised five user journeys that DeFi newcomers and power-users alike can go through.

1. Utilizing a Panther dApp: Of course, the v1 release of Panther includes the Panther Wallet, Multi-Asset Shielded Pools, and Vaults to provide users with a direct way to start benefiting from default privacy. Panther will also progressively release more applications, such as the Interchain OnyxDEX for users to conduct private swaps, Panther Reveals, and others. These dApps aim to facilitate users and the DeFi ecosystem with a direct entrance to Panther’s products and services.
2. Directly within their wallet: Panther aims to integrate with existing wallets and partners to incorporate access to Panther’s contracts directly within their applications. This could mean, for example, for the user of a wallet to directly send funds to a Panther Pool from their wallet, or vice versa. Wallets are a vital entry point for user adoption, as they typically also serve as fiat on/off ramps.
3. Within DeFi protocols: Existing DeFi protocols can list zAssets themselves or incorporate functionalities that take advantage of Panther Pools. These cross-functionalities could be as simple or as complex as the protocol decides them to be, particularly as, with Panther providing interoperability across chains at a later stage, Panther could also become a gate for projects to scale across chains.
4. Through aggregators: Aggregators are a key instance upon which a DEX gains discoverability. Panther’s Interchain DEX will likely benefit from users that (knowingly or not) will trade through these tools. Fine-tuning the features of the OnyxDEX will, then, be essential for it (and therefore, Panther) to drive significant volume that helps improve the underlying privacy of users.
5. Through the direct use and exchange of zAssets and $ZKP: With several value accrual mechanisms, utilities, rewards, staking and other features in place, the ZKP token itself should be a driving force for Panther’s adoption. Users of zAssets on third-party platforms, exchanges, and projects may benefit from Panther’s underlying privacy and even contribute to the protocol thanks to this.

Composability is a principle, but its application relies on design

That Panther aims to eventually be fully open-source and composable with the greater DeFi ecosystem constitutes almost a should within the industry. However, it will be up to each project that wants to integrate it to decide how. Whether by utilizing Panther’s primitives invisibly, benefiting from its features, or by linking to our protocol, the net benefits should create a ripple effect across the industry. Panther also will deploy tools to build integrations to its smart contracts and systems, including APIs and SDKs.

We should mention that none of the options for the DeFi ecosystem to use Panther mentioned above should be classified as “ideal”. Although some might take more or less work for development teams and users, and therefore be harder or easier for teams to apply, it is ultimately up to them to decide how they infuse their projects with privacy.

In Summary: Privacy is for everyone!

A user can do myriad things in DeFi, and this number exponentially grows as protocols become more popular, long-standing, and innovation sparks. Since we aim to create a system that anyone can embrace to protect themselves from the dangers of surveillance, Panther is committed to building practical tools to do this at a user or protocol level.

Stay tuned to this channel if you believe privacy is a human right!

About Panther

Panther is a decentralized protocol that enables interoperable privacy in DeFi using zero-knowledge proofs.

Users can mint fully-collateralized, composable tokens called zAssets, which can be used to execute private, trusted DeFi transactions across multiple blockchains.

Panther helps investors protect their personal financial data and trading strategies, and provides financial institutions with a clear path to compliantly participate in DeFi.

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