Orbs, an Israeli blockchain company building a public blockchain infrastructure project, and Binance announced the launch of a new accelerator for the DeFi ecosystem on Monday.
The accelerator, named DeFi.org, focuses on supporting research and development of open source software and community development in the DeFi area. The accelerator evaluates projects based on their innovative strength and composability within the space as well as the principles of fair distribution, community ownership, a sustainable economy and a solid approach to risk management.
The participants receive services such as mentoring, financing options and contact with the market and the DeFi community. Initially, the accelerator’s mentors include veterans of the Orbs team. Binance team members are expected to join soon. Other mentors from different backgrounds will also be hired.
In line with the sponsorship, startups will receive additional consideration when they are ready to apply to participate in the Binance Bridging DeFi and CeFi program or the Orbs Grant program. However, the more comprehensive accelerator program is blockchain-independent and also allows anonymous developers to participate.
The sponsorship also marks an impending transition to DeFi for the Orbs project. One of the accelerator’s mentors is Tal Kol, Orbs technical co-founder. According to the team, he led efforts to research and develop the DeFi protocols in-house. Orbs has previously focused on enterprise rollout, but its consensus proof of stake algorithm uses an Ethereum-based token to represent value, making DeFi integration easier than most other Layer-One blockchains.
Nevertheless, the DeFi.org accelerator still misses well-known players and founders in DeFi among its participants. Competition to target DeFi projects on non-Ethereum blockchains is fierce, as a multitude of competitors promise faster blockchains and support. However, some believe that DeFi activity in the Ethereum ecosystem will remain limited.
