Introduction

Argo is a lending protocol on Aptos that lets users collateral for minting and borrowing a dollar-pegged stablecoin USDA. 

Much like Maker Protocol on Ethereum, Argo will unlock liquidity for otherwise idle assets deployed in the Aptos ecosystem.

How Argo Works

Engines
An Argo engine is a single type of yield-earning asset pool with its own parameters, such as USDA borrow cap, initial collateral ratio, and minimum collateral ratio. These parameters are adjusted to account for factors such as asset volatility, liquidity, and/or overall safety. An engine owns many vaults.
Engines are the equivalent of ilks in Maker.

Vaults
An Argo vault is an individual collateralized debt position owned by a user, containing their deposited yield-earning asset and USDA debt balance. Each vault is independent, and can have different amounts of debt. A user can own many vaults, each belonging to different engines.

While collateral is in a vault, it will continue to earn yield (i.e liquidity mining rewards). Furthermore, USDA can be minted and borrowed from the vault.

With USDA in hand, a wide variety of opportunities are unlocked.

Team
The Argo core team is composed of developers with many years of software engineering experience in the crypto industry. Learning move (the smart contract language of Aptos) has been fun and we are confident our experience will translate into Aptos. We previously worked at big tech companies before transitioning to DeFi full-time.

USDA: Argo’s Stablecoin

USDA is a dollar-pegged stablecoin over-collateralized by yield-earning tokens deposited into Argo. USDA is valued at $1.00 when used for borrowing and repaying on Argo. USDA can be used like any other stablecoin.

When a user opens a vault and borrows, USDA gets minted and sent to the user’s wallet. Argo then charges an interest rate on USDA debt, based on the type of yield-earning asset engine. When USDA debt is repaid, the initial loan amount of USDA is burned, and the accrued interest is paid to the protocol treasury.