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Introduction to Eco Protocol

Eco is a stablecoin liquidity layer for onchain apps and protocols. Eco’s Routes and Accounts products make it easy for developers to access stablecoin liquidity in one integration, and easy for stablecoin holders to cross chains and use apps in one click — regardless of what stables you might hold, or where. Finally, Eco Crowd Liquidity is a platform for builders, chain ecosystems and stablecoin holders to optimally share stablecoin liquidity, when and where it’s needed. Crowd Liquidity makes it so that your stablecoins in any connected wallet are always earning yield, simply by sitting there.

Together, these pieces make up the Eco Network: a user-owned and user-governed “Stablelayer” enabling apps, protocols and chain ecosystems to share and monetize stablecoin liquidity while making the one-click stablesend ubiquitous.

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The Need for Eco

The blockchain industry is rapidly evolving, with a growing number of users and applications relying on stablecoins for their daily operations. However, the current infrastructure for cross-chain stablecoin transactions is fragmented and inefficient, leading to high costs, slow speeds, and security risks. This creates a significant barrier to entry for new users and hinders the growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Eco addresses this challenge by providing a secure, efficient, and user-friendly platform for cross-chain stablecoin settlement. By abstracting away the complexities of blockchain interoperability, Eco enables users to seamlessly transfer stablecoins between different networks with just one click. This has the potential to significantly boost the total addressable market (TAM) for onchain applications by enabling developers and users to easily interact with apps across the Ethereum blockchain and beyond. For the first time, Eco makes crypto UX consistent and intuitive for everyone, to give people the confidence to bring their money onchain and keep it there.

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Key Features and Benefits

The Eco Network consists of three components designed to overcome the challenges associated with cross-chain stablecoin transactions:

  • Eco Routes: Provides secure and cheap stablecoin transfer pathways between Eco-connected chains (initially any L2 or L3 rollup settling on Ethereum), with a network of Solvers providing on-demand liquidity. Routes’ intent-based design ensures transfers are executed before settlement, eliminating capital loss risk for users

  • Eco Accounts: Offers a seamless way to manage cross-chain accounts with chain-abstracted balances, making it easy to support cross-chain interactions with “one click stablesend” UX.

  • Crowd Liquidity: Aggregates liquidity to enable hyper-cheap and lightning-quick stablecoin transactions wherever there is demand.

These features work together to provide several key benefits:

  • Reduced Transaction Costs: Eco’s efficient design minimizes transaction fees for users (cents, and often less).

  • Enhanced User Experience: Eco’s one-click stablesend simplifies onchain interactions for users.

  • Increased Accessibility: Eco unlocks stablecoin liquidity and makes it accessible to a wider audience.

  • Improved Security: Eco’s intent-centric architecture protects users from capital loss risk.

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The Vision: A Stable and User-Friendly Blockchain Future

Eco’s mission is simply stated: To bring money onchain and make it work better for people, while it moves and while it sits. We believe this starts with stablecoins — that stables will be the most held assets onchain, most every chain will support them, and everyone will have ready access to them. The upshot is that stablecoins will be the most interoperable assets onchain, and stablecoin-based user experience will solve much of the fragmentation that plagues the crypto ecosystem today. By providing a stable and user-friendly infrastructure, Eco aims to make this true.

Crowd Liquidity is a key enabler of this vision. By incentivizing users to provide liquidity to blockchain networks, Eco creates a self-reinforcing loop that ensures instant settlement on the destination network for purchases. This not only benefits users by providing them with faster and cheaper transactions but also strengthens the overall stability and resilience of the blockchain ecosystem.

Key Concepts