Project Introduction

Usual Labs is a startup focused on stablecoin technology, founded by Pierre PERSON, a French politician and member of parliament who is a leader in French cryptocurrency legislation. Usual has recently secured $7 million in seed funding, led by IOSG Ventures and Kraken Ventures, with notable investments from the Layer 2 network project Starkware (developer of Starknet) and Mantle. The core product of the Usual protocol is the stablecoin USD0. Unlike traditional stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, USD0 is backed 1:1 by assets with very short maturities, including RWA assets and government bonds. This backing provides higher security and stability and reduces the likelihood of discounted liquidation in the event of asset runs.

In Usual’s introduction, they frequently use Tether, the issuer of USDT, as an example and point of comparison. They argue that after issuing USDT, Tether has not returned the profits from these stablecoins to users.

https://x.com/momir_amidzic/status/1812120424521822369

Tether distributes nearly $10 billion in annual profits to only a few individuals, despite having fewer than 100 employees. As a result, Tether is often regarded as one of the most profitable tech companies in the world.

Usual aims to return the ownership and profits generated from token issuance back to the users. In the Usual Protocol, users can earn USD0 by depositing assets, which serves as their deposit certificate (LDT) in the protocol.

Holders of USD0 can choose to lock their tokens to provide liquidity or issue liquidity bond tokens (LBT), effectively converting USD0 into USD0++ to participate in the DeFi ecosystem and earn corresponding rewards. These rewards include airdrops of the project’s governance token, $USUAL, and potential deposit earnings.

In its project design, Usual creatively represents the deposit certificates as “purple pills” and refers to the concept of “Break free from the banking matrix,” evoking the iconic sci-fi film The Matrix from 20 years ago.

In The Matrix, the Matrix is a virtual reality system that controls and confines humanity after a failed war between humans and robots, preventing them from seeing the real world. Usual’s concept of the “Banking Matrix” seems to metaphorically compare the current banking system or centralized stablecoin issuers to this virtual reality. It suggests that, like the Matrix in the film, the traditional financial system binds people, preventing them from recognizing or experiencing the true potential and freedom of decentralized finance.

The purple pill designed by Usual echoes the red and blue pills from the movie. In the film, the protagonist faces a choice:

• The red pill represents escaping the virtual reality system, even if the reality is painful, to know the truth.
• The blue pill represents choosing to remain in the comfortable illusion of the virtual world, not disrupting the status quo.

Usual’s purple pill, a blend of red and blue, emphasizes a balanced choice. This suggests they aim to break free from traditional banking systems or centralized institutions in a revolutionary way, while also providing a secure and reliable stablecoin (USD0) as a replacement.

This design incorporates the awakening and change associated with the red pill and the safety and stability of the blue pill, presenting a novel and intriguing approach.

On July 10, Usual announced the official launch of its mainnet and started a points activity. Users can earn Pills (points) by providing liquidity or holding USD0++. These points can be converted into $USUAL token airdrops in the future. The airdrop will account for 7.5% of Usual’s total supply and the activity will run from 22:30 on July 10, 2024, for four months. Let’s look at the specific steps for interacting with Usual.

Project interaction

1. Points activity

https://app.usual.money/#SJYPG

First, visit the project website or enter the invitation code “SJYPG” in the lower left corner.

Follow the official Twitter account as required and connect your wallet.

Follow the prompts and continue until you reach the deposit interface. Users can choose to deposit assets at this step to convert them into USD0. This deposit operation is conducted on the Ethereum mainnet. If the transaction fees are high at the moment, you can click “skip” in the upper right corner to temporarily bypass this step and complete the deposit later.

The points reward rules are as follows:

• Directly holding USD0++: Users can purchase USD0++ with USD0. Each USD0++ gives a one-time reward of 5 pills, and users will receive 3 pills daily thereafter.
• Providing liquidity: Users can add USD0/USDC or USD0/USD0++ liquidity in Curve. Each $1 of LP can earn 1 or 3 pills per day.

If you don’t need to perform these actions right now, you can skip them.

Once everything is completed, users can view their current number of pills and the daily pill earnings on the project homepage.

If assets were not deposited in the previous steps but you want to perform actions later, click “Drugstore” in the left sidebar to see options for holding USD0++ and adding LP.

Additionally, at the top of the page, there is a growth multiplier. As users deposit or provide LP over time, the rate at which pills are earned increases. The multiplier can grow by 2% daily, reaching up to 10 times. Users can withdraw their assets at any time, but if they do, the growth multiplier will reset to 1. This means that users who deposit earlier will accumulate more pills until the end of the activity.

In addition to earning pills through deposits, users can participate in referrals by inviting friends to join the activity. For each friend invited, the referrer will receive 10% of the total pills earned by the friend as a reward.

2. Galxe activities

https://app.galxe.com/quest/usual

In addition to the pill collection activity on the official website, Usual has also launched a new “Pills Campaign” on Galaxy. This campaign includes various common social tasks, which are relatively simple. Interested users can participate in these tasks as well.

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This article is reproduced from [Biteye], original title “Can rising stablecoin star Usual successfully challenge USDT?”, the copyright belongs to the original author [Crush], if you have any objection to the reprint, please contact Gate Learn Team, the team will handle it as soon as possible according to relevant procedures.

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