Kujira Journey - Gen Z Turned Degen

I’d like to start this article with the well-known saying ‘ThIS iS NOt FiNANciaL AdViCe’ but seriously, especially from me. This article is to share my user experience within the Kujira Ecosystem and my honest thoughts on the Dapps. To start this project I was kindly gifted $100 USDT by Kujira Academy to play around with all their Dapps and to keep any (keyword there ‘ANY’) profits I make. The project was spaced over 4 weeks to give me enough time to try out the vast ecosystem Kujira has to offer.

Contents Page

A Rookie’s Kujira Experience

GHOST

Day 1, my first ever look and interaction with a Dapp. After hearing a common narrative of ‘Dapps are complicated’ and ‘UX is poor’ I must say I was extremely surprised with how easy Kujira was to use and how satisfying the UI was, so credit to the devs for that. I started off with Kujira Ghost, a lending and borrowing Dapp that allows users to lend their money to gain APR. My first trade was swapping $20 from KUJI – AXLUSDC to lend the AXLUSDC for an APR of 6.13%. I also decided to Lend USK for an APR of 6.18%, which commenced trading on Day 1.

ORCA

To start off the second day, I wanted to explore another Dapp in Kujira’s ecosystem. The first stop was Orca. From my basic understanding, Orca allows you to buy out liquidations at a discount of your choice, Kujira alerts the user of assets at risk of liquidation and the degen himself bids anywhere from 1% discount to 30%. Without a full understanding, I decided to leave Orca till the end of the experiment.

BOW

Moving off of Orca, I found myself on a Dapp called Bow. Bow allows users to LP in a variety of different pairs with various liquidity and APR rates. Upon opening the Dapps you’re faced with the option to look at Pools or to Swaps, which is a great addition for the UX to be able to change to the correct pair in a matter of a few clicks. Once selecting the pools tab, you’re faced with a few common pairs with high liquidity and nice APRs. For my more degen folks out there, just scroll down and you’ll find some less common pairs with very low liquidity but high APRs. Even though my eyes lit up at 628% APR on 21-day trading for a (LUNC/USK) pair, the fact it had $2000 totally liquidity made me sway for the more conservative pair of (KUJI/ATOM) with a mild 50.72% APR.

After swapping some tokens for KUJI & ATOM I was able to provide $20 of each asset into the pool. Once I provided my liquidity, I opted to further increase my gains and stake my LP balance. The UX is seamless in every aspect, whether this is your 4th bull run or first, you will be able to use any Dapp on Kujira with ease. With 40$ lending and $40 LPing, I finished Day 2 of trading with $20 liquid.

BLUE

Leaving my investments to earn me millions, I headed back to Kujira on Day 5. Great news for KUJI holders as the Token had risen 60%! Bad news for me as I was LPing – #Impermanent loss. After wiping my tears, I found myself on Kujira BLUE. BLUE allows the user to delegate their staking to a validator of their choice. You can see how much that validator has staked with it, how much voting power they have and the commission they charge for staking your asset. I see BLUE as a very useful staking method for long-term holds whilst earning a nice APR. Due to this experiment being short, I decided to not dive into BLUE as the ROI for me would be low.

Kuji Kommunity Love

A few more days had passed before I returned to Kujira in which I had decided I wanted to explore and use Orca. After consulting in the Kujira community telegram I now had a full understanding of how the Dapp works and the measures to take to be successful. Before using Orca I needed to get some capital back. In order to do so, I took back my liquidity from the pools and withdrew the $40 of AXLUSDC and USK I was lending which was super easy and completed within seconds. With trading fees and Kujira pulling back after the pump my balance now sat at $92 (-$8). The Kujira community were incredibly helpful in this endeavour, something I have not experienced in crypto so far!

Understanding ORCA Analytics

As mentioned above, Orca allows you to buy liquidations at a discounted price. When on the Kujira platform you will see a golden Orca logo in the top right-hand corner, if you hover your mouse over it you’ll be able to see the value of collateral above a risk ratio of 95%. If you were to click on an asset you would be taken to a graph that shows ‘Cumulative Collateral by Risk Ratio’ and ‘Collateral by Risk Ratio’. Once you’ve analyzed the graphs, click the ‘Submit Liquidation bids’ in the top right-hand corner to discover the discount you can get on the collateral.

My first encounter showed that $120k of gPAXG was at risk. A token that has a value of $120K above a risk ratio of 95% brings a ‘Golden’ opportunity. But, gPAXG is tagged to physical gold so the chance of it moving over the liquidation threshold is very low, Therefore I choose to wait out for an opportunity.

Over the next week, I checked multiple times a day for opportunities on Orca but with the market being pretty flat, no collateral was being liquidated. This was until an opportunity arose for $8K of LUNA. To place a bid I need to use USK. After using the seamless platform Kujira Blue offers, I was able to swap my assets in just a matter of clicks. Succeeding this, I went to analyze the ‘Cumulative Collateral by Risk Ratio’ and ‘Collateral by Risk Ratio’ graphs to find that $8000 of Luna tokens were being liquidated at a 9% discount. To be on the safe side, I placed my $91 worth of USK in a liquidation bid of 8%, confirmed my bid, and waited.

Down On My Luck

From reading this article you might see the pattern. That pattern is that my luck within this experience isn’t the best, from experiencing Impermanent Loss, Kujira pricing dropping as soon as I withdrew my LPing and now the market gaining momentum for the upcoming (now approved) Bitcoin ETF, my bid for LUNA wasn’t fulfilled. Even though my bid was not fulfilled, I was able to see several successful bids making a lot of money through speaking to peers in the Kujira telegram.

Conclusion

To conclude, even though I wasn’t successful in 1000x my starting capital, I was successful in becoming a ‘Degen’ and jumping into the world of Dapps. Now I can’t speak for all Dapps, but Kujira completely crashes the narrative that Dapps are complicated and have ‘bad UX’. Having never used one before, I wasn’t sure what to expect but it’s clear to say that I think my parents could successfully navigate their way around Kujira (note, they still have problems switching HDMI ports).

Dapps like Ghost are a great way to earn a small APR and have your money work for you. Bow allows users to provide liquidity in many different pairs with pools that provide good APR. BLUE allows users to delegate stake, helping communities grow whilst again earning APR, and last but not least Orca. Orca gives users great opportunities to make some good profits in volatile markets.

I’d like to thank Kujira Academy for allowing me to do this experiment and it’s safe to say it won’t be the last time I use the Kujira Ecosystem.

Written by Sam Brummer

Kujira Academy is a platform that aims to bridge the gap between young entrepreneurs and Web3, providing them with tangible education and career acceleration opportunities. Built by students, for students. Learn more about the academy and our vision here.

To register your interest and become a student of Kujira Academy, click here.