Origin Protocol NFT project review

What is Origin Protocol?

Origin Protocol is an Ethereum-powered platform that aims to bring NFTs and DeFi to the masses. 

Founded in 2017 as a decentralized e-commerce platform, Origin has since shifted its focus to crypto-specific commerce opportunities. Origin’s flagship products are NFT Launchpad, designed to simplify NFT issuance, and Origin Dollar (OUSD), a stablecoin that earns yield automatically in users’ wallets. The NFT platform has hosted NFT drops from top creators, including an album from electronic music producer 3LAU and Ryan Tedder’s cartoon collection.

How does Origin Protocol work?

The Origin platform has two main products: NFT Launchpad and Origin Dollar (OUSD).

The NFT Launchpad gives creators tools to issue and sell NFTs on their own website or Origin’s domain. In contrast to other NFT marketplaces, Origin gives creators direct control over the content, branding, and pricing models through the self-serve platform Origin Story. The platform allows the creation of custom NFT storefronts where NFTs are not required to be pre-minted but are rather minted upon the sale. Smart contracts can be deployed anytime when the creator is ready to sell. 

NFT Creators can opt to pay a platform commission (paid upon the sale) or get an OGN fee refund with a 6-months lock-up period of OGN tokens. Among the payment methods, not only cryptocurrencies are available, but also credit or debit cards for those who have a bank account registered in the US, Canada, or Europe.

The Origin Dollar (OUSD) lets users automatically and passively earn yield while holding tokens in their wallets. OUSD is an Ethereum-based stablecoin pegged to the U.S. Dollar and backed 1:1 by other stablecoins like USDT, USDC, and DAI. Users can convert supported stablecoins to OUSD at the official Origin Dollar DApp to start earning yield. No staking or lockups are required, making OUSD easy to transfer. OUSD smart contracts generate yield by automatically rebalancing funds in a set of protocols such as Aave, Compound, and Curve.

How to use Origin Protocol?

To interact with the Origin app, users need to connect their wallet with it, currently the Origin wallet support only includes MetaMask. Origin fees are distributed to OGN stakers after a governance proposal was submitted and passed in April 2022.

The OGN token

The Origin token (OGN) is an ERC-20 token with a total supply capped at 1 billion. 32.97% of the total supply was distributed through the token sales — advisor (4.38%), strategic (23.75%), and CoinList (4.84%) sales. The remaining distribution is as follows: 20.24% allocated to the team, 1.69% to the advisor grants, 0.73% to the long-term partnerships, 12.99% to the ecosystem growth funds, and 31.37% to the foundation reserves.

The token is primarily used for Origin’s NFT and DeFi ecosystem governance. OGN holders can create proposals and vote on them to govern the protocol.

OGN also serves as a value accrual token allowing OGN holders to benefit from any protocol revenues and fees generated from the products built on the Origin Platform.

Users can stake OGN to earn additional OGN by locking their tokens on the ousd.com platform for a chosen period of time.

Is Origin Protocol safe?

The Origin team was established by Josh Fraser and Matthew Liu. Fraser previously co-founded multiple tech companies, including Torbit, which was acquired by Walmart Labs. Liu was an early hire at YouTube and worked at a variety of startups including Bonobos and Qwiki, which was acquired by Yahoo.

In November 2020, there was an Origin hack, or exploit, that resulted in around $7 million worth (at the time of the attack) of ETH and DAI tokens being stolen from the platform. The attack was made possible through a flash-loan transaction as often seen in the crypto field exploits. 

The Origin Protocol team’s solution to the exploit was to relaunch the Origin Dollar pool in January 2021, following an upgrade and “rigorous internal auditing” as well as new code reviews. The platform also compensated the affected by the attack users with $1,000 worth of OUSD tokens, as well as additional compensations split between OUSD and OGN tokens.

Partners

Origin partners with Nexus Mutual and InsurAce Protocol, blockchain-based platforms that offer decentralized insurance products. These partnerships allow for more effective risk management by OUSD holders. Anyone who purchases coverage for the Origin Dollar on Nexus Mutual or InsurAce can start a claim to be reimbursed in case any issues arise with the OUSD smart contracts. 

What’s next?

In the near future, Origin intends to form additional partnerships with mainstream influencers and iconic brands to power its NFT commerce initiatives. 

The team will also establish decentralized governance for the OUSD protocol and increase the number of its use cases, i.e. integrate OGN into NFT marketplace products and create special NFT sales for OGN holders. Additionally, they plan to build an OUSD payment app and issue OUSD debit cards.

Links

https://www.originprotocol.com/en/litepaper

https://vote.originprotocol.com/#/

Author:

Frank Stewskid

Last updated: Aug 16, 2023