Make DeFi Better (MDB): A Safe Haven in a Sea of Failure
Are you tired of watching your net worth evaporate? Are you sick of chasing 6-figure APYs, hoping you can win the game of investor chicken and exit before the project plummets? Are you fed up with irresponsible teams who couldn’t manage their way out of a seatbelt, let alone run a multi-million dollar protocol?
Then I have the project for you! … Okay, enough of the OxyClean hard sell.
Mention the term DeFi to people who don’t know about crypto and they will cock their heads like a confused puppy. Mention DeFi to crypto enthusiasts and you will hear a barrage of complaints about how it is just a bunch of hyperinflation scams waiting to take your money.
It is true, most of this fringe sector of crypto are nothing more than zero-sum games on steroids; the endless shuffling of capital from late investors’ wallets into the wallets of those who were early. With most token charts sloping downward like a black diamond ski run, it is easy to see why this space has quickly earned its ‘scam central’ reputation.
There is one project however redefining everything we thought we knew about DeFi. One trying to make the space safer, leading by example, becoming a beacon of integrity, and acting as a safe haven in an otherwise sea of failure. That project is aptly named, Make DeFi Better (MDB).
What is MDB?
Make DeFi Better is a deflationary, mutual fund-like ecosystem designed to grow in value over time. A robust treasury fuels the growth of the protocol and its suite of tokens/features. The treasury is carefully diversified among yield-bearing investments, resulting in significant revenue to expand the protocol and grow the value of the ecosystem’s tokens.
Deflation is the key element that separates MDB from the majority of DeFi protocols. Certainly not the first to do it, this project may be the one that has so far executed the concept best. Treasury revenue, along with buy and sell taxes on their primary token, accumulates supply and the team strategically burns tokens.
The Phoenix is the personification of these buybacks and eventual burns. A strategic and pragmatic bird, she is precise in her deployment. As of September 18th, less than five months after launch, 14.2% of the initial token supply has been destroyed forever. Some within the community project as much as 50% of the supply could be burned by the end of 2023.
The team describes the overall project concept using the metaphor of a football stadium. The tokens are tickets, and the treasury is a pot of gold sitting in the middle of the pitch. As time passes, tickets (tokens) are burned, and the pot of gold (treasury) grows. Over time, the result is you have more money spread out over fewer tickets. It is like Squid Game, but more fun with less blood and death.
The Ecosystem’s Tokens
There are a total of six tokens that make up the current MDB ecosystem. Details for each of these tokens can be found in the MDB documentation so we won’t go into too much detail in this article.
The primary token of Make DeFi Better carries the same acronym as the project, called Million Dollar Baby ($MDB). This is the mother token of the ecosystem and all subsequent roads lead back to $MDB. This token is subject to a 10% buy tax and a 15% sell tax. Launched at $0.0025, $MDB has grown consistently to a high of $0.0187 (+648%) on September 18th.
MDB features two ‘stable-backed’ appreciating assets; $MDB+ and $Phoenix+. Stable-backed means the tokens themselves are 100% collateralized via a smart contract with a stablecoin (BUSD). The tokens appreciate slowly over time due to very small buy and sell taxes that get folded back into the contract. Further details can be found in the MDB docs.
The fourth token in the ecosystem is the Phoenix Fire Club (PFC) NFTs. Not just a colorful jpeg, these NFTs offer holders lifetime monthly rewards in the $MDB token. The built-in utility provides an additional layer of value to the MDB ecosystem and the NFT holders. 500 PFC NFTs were minted between $750-$900 over three rounds, with their floor price currently sitting at $1,600 (avg. +100%).
The final two tokens revolve around the newly launched Infinity token ($INF) and 300 Infinity Yacht Club (IYC) NFTs. $INF presaled and launched at $0.20 on September 22nd, currently trading around $0.60 (+200%). 300 IYC NFTs sold out in less than 60 seconds, minting at a price of $1,000. Their floor price currently sitting at $2,700 (+170%).
Infinity is a new protocol within the MDB ecosystem that executed a wildly successful presale, raising $1.5 million in less than four hours. It is an exciting, powerful new wrinkle in the MDB ecosystem and I strongly recommend checking out the YouTube intro video for more details.
All of the MDB ecosystem assets are appreciating during this bear market and the team has completed everything on their roadmap. It is an accomplishment almost unheard of in crypto, without delays and excuses.
Why You Should Care
It is not the purpose of this piece to explain the tokenomics and the minutiae of protocol mechanics. You can read the documentation to gain a technical understanding of the project. Joining the main community on Discord and asking any questions you may have of the team/community directly is another great way to learn about the protocol.
I want to discuss what makes MDB different from almost every other protocol in the DeFi space. Without just considering the massive gains experienced by $MDB investors thus far, there is so much outside of the dollars and cents that need to be considered.
In traditional DeFi, getting in early and selling out early makes the most money. That has been the reality for investors for years now. This results in short life cycles for most projects and significant losses for most investors. That is not the case with Make DeFi Better.
Many of you will look at the chart and tell yourself, “I missed that one…” and you’re wrong to think that way. That is conditioned fear, left over from dozens of Tomb (and forks), OHM (and forks), and Safuu/Titano failures. That mindset does not apply to this protocol.
Consider MDB the anti-DeFi protocol. Short-term investors are dissuaded by buy/sell taxes on $MDB, smaller APYs on staking/yield farming, and a methodical team more interested in thriving long term. Additionally, the team actively avoids poor partnership and investment situations that put the treasury’s capital at risk.
What’s in a Team
I have been in crypto since 2014, and I have seen hundreds of projects launch, live, and die. Some got exploited, some were scams, and some were just bad ideas that didn’t have the legs. The one thing that dooms most projects to failure? Incompetent teams.
I’ll try to say the next part in the nicest way possible… Crypto attracts talented developers, naturally. And talented developers often become incompetent project leaders, naturally. The greatest failure of crypto in the last decade is allowing the belief that a great developer can also be a great project leader.
The truth is, almost all of them have never run a business before. And unfortunately, many developers inappropriately project their confidence and talents with code onto other aspects of a protocol. They shouldn’t. Coders code and leaders lead.
I’m not saying a dev can’t be a good leader. But more often than not, a good dev believes they are a good leader, when they aren’t. I have seen dozens of great ideas and potentially great projects fail because a talented developer also thought they were a good leader.
Too many times, devs suffer from a god complex made out of glass; it looks magnificent but under stress, it becomes incredibly fragile. Humility is a forgotten attribute. And this industry would flourish if more developers took time to reflect on what they don’t know and what they aren’t good at.
Behind the Curtain
With all that being said, the strongest attribute of MDB, which separates it from all the other DeFi protocols, is the team.
The leader of the project is Danny, who goes by the moniker ‘The Godfather’ in the Discord community. He’s not a developer; he’s a leader. His background is in Fortune 500 tech companies and cutting-edge start-ups. He knows as much about executive leadership as Vitalik knows about Solidity. And he is humble enough to be embarrassed by that previous declaration.
Balancing out Danny is Alice, known as Mina in Discord. She is the yin to Danny’s yang. Alice runs the social media, marketing, branding for MDB, and Gravity project coordination, along with countless other initiatives to ensure the community stays engaged and Danny stops telling everyone the project’s secrets.
Surrounding Danny and Alice is a group of highly qualified, motivated, and engaged specialists who focus on their assigned objectives with cutthroat precision. Not all of them are pictured above but each is equally as important to the success of the protocol. Most importantly, all of them are professionals within their specialty and have years of experience.
Time and time again, the team behind MDB has proven their integrity and commitment to the community are unimpeachable. They give failing project investors a second chance through their Gravity program, they extend trust to others first in an otherwise trustless industry, and they have cultivated a community of like-minded investors who are equal parts open-minded, peculiar, and self-deprecating.
If you don’t believe me, go ask them why they love the word ‘granular’ and how important baby wipes are. Oh, and if Mario regrets his life choices.
Great leaders are building future wealth in this bear market. They don’t blame things they can’t control. They don’t throw their hands up and surrender because the market isn’t behaving. And they certainly don’t stop striving to achieve the best possible outcome for their community.
There is so much more to leadership than the 1s and 0s, the dollars and cents. MDB is doing its best to raise the bar for what investors should expect from their project leaders; a change it desperately needs.
On the face of it, the average crypto investor may skeptically think to themselves, “what do these people know about DeFi?” When they were starting out, not a lot. They will admit it to you openly. They are honest like that. However, I would ask a different question: “what does your dev know about leadership?”
If I’m going to trust someone with my precious crypto during the darkest days of this bear market, I am far more interested in the answer to the latter question. And so should you be.
If you’re interested in learning more about Make DeFi Better, check out the official links listed below:
Website — https://www.mdb.fund
White Paper — https://docs.mdb.fund
Twitter — https://twitter.com/MDB_DeFi
Discord — https://discord.gg/BapRWqDsk2
Telegram — https://t.me/mdb_defi
YouTube —https://tinyurl.com/29wkdb62
Author Note: I was not paid or compensated in any way by the MDB team to author this piece. I am financially invested in the protocol.
