What Is Atlantis (ATLAS)?

Atlantis (ATLAS) is a blockchain-powered decentralized reserve currency protocol based on the ATLAS token. Each ATLAS token is backed by a basket of crypto assets, ensuring that the intrinsic value is retained. Meanwhile, a decentralized reserve currency protocol (DRCP) administers its currency with cryptocurrency reserve assets, like how central banks manage their cash with reserve assets.

Traditional decentralized finance, also known as DeFi 1.0, aspires to deliver finance to the masses. Still, it is limited in terms of scalability, security, and liquidity. DeFi 2.0 is the second generation of DeFi protocols, which tries to address these issues and improve the user experience. In DeFi 2.0, there has been a growing emphasis on sustainability and protocol-owned liquidity. Many initiatives have forked the early movers in the decentralized reserve currency field. In contrast, rather than imitating existing protocols, Atlantis seeks to develop its native liquidity base.

Atlantis uses a protocol-owned liquidity (POL) pool. The platform owns the bulk of its liquidity via its bond mechanism. By being the most extensive liquidity provider, the network earns most of the LP (liquidity pool) fees, which provides another source of income for the treasury. Hence, the platform doesn't need to distribute high farming rewards to incentivize liquidity providers. The POL is critical because it avoids a liquidity exodus for the DEX on Atlantis during severe market volatility. 

 ATLAS is the native token of the Atlantis platform. The token resides on the Binance Smart Chain, or BSC (a parallel chain to run smart contracts on Binance exchange), and is deflationary. This means that when users stake ATLAS to earn more ATLAS tokens as rewards, the protocol burns a percentage of the repurchases, reducing the token's circulating quantity and causing the price to rise. Cryptocurrency burning occurs when a fraction of tokens are sent to a wallet with no private key. In other words, tokens that are burnt are lost forever. Tokens are usually burnt to reduce availability and increase market value. The platform seeks to burn a portion of the trading fee in the form of ATLAS tokens charged by the DEX. 

Additionally, the platform brings new economic dynamics to the market through staking and bonding procedures. Staking is the most common way to make money with the platform. At the same time, bonding serves as a secondary approach for accumulating value by offering ATLAS at a discount in exchange for Binance USD (BUSD), Binance Coin (BNB), and so on. The protocol informs the user about the bond price and the quantity of ATLAS tokens entitled to the bond's maturity period. Before the maturity period, the investor can claim some advantages (ATLAS tokens). Users can also claim the entire amount, including the principal, at the end of the period.  

History of Atlantis

Atlantis is a project by the AutoShark team, seasoned participants in the DeFi space with an ecosystem to build on. The team envisions AutoShark DEX as having the flexibility and independence of a decentralized exchange and the ease and comfort of yield optimization tool. In addition, the DeFi initiative provides high-value NFTs, improving incentives and engaging the community. On November 21, 2021, the team sold ATLAS tokens in an initial coin offering (ICO) to acquire funds for the project. The ICO fundraising event sold 200,000 ATLAS tokens intending to raise $2 million.

How Are New ATLAS Tokens Created?

Staking is the primary earning method on the Atlantis network. Single-staking ATLAS yields are in two forms: stake for BUSD or stake for ATLAS. The ATLAS documents mentions that the system does not create new tokens to restrict the rapid supply of ATLAS. This method assures that the token's value rises over time due to staking mechanisms. Users can also use the yield optimizer to stake ATLAS for more ATLAS tokens and receive compounded yields. 

Users can place ATLAS tokens in fixed deposit locked staking plans with guaranteed returns, like traditional fixed deposit schemes. The platform documents claim Atlantis is the first project to adopt this fixed deposit staking mechanism to benefit the ecosystem.