Stakefair was launched in October 2021, as BetDemand; a no-loss staking platform for Africans. Users could place bets on different sports and even if their bets were bad, they still got their initial capital back.
Imagine betting $100 on Real Madrid to beat Arsenal, and they lose. If it was a regular bet, your money would have been gone, but with Stakefair, you get your $100 back.
It probably sounds like magic, but the fast-growing blockchain company (Stakefair) has found a way to utilise decentralised finance (DeFi) staking to make money for regular individuals, even those with no prior knowledge of crypto.
According to the company’s CEO, Akinyemi Akindele, Stakefair is the vehicle to onboard the next one billion users in decentralised finance (DeFi). Akindele believes that in order to achieve this, blockchain organisations will have to focus on creating more use cases — practical reasons for the adoption of the blockchain that people can resonate with, and they can apply in their everyday lives.
One of these popular use cases is gaming and that’s where Akindele started; a “no loss” staking platform, where users can predict and win sporting events with crypto. After seeing a varied amount of success, the dream for Stakefair was born.
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) Staking
DeFi staking basically involves locking up your crypto coins in the blockchain for the promise of rewards after an agreed period of time. It is one of the many ways through which crypto investors earn passive income from the blockchain.
Staking has gotten really popular among investors because it is a way to earn crypto without taking on too much risk and unlike futures and spot trading, it is easy to understand and use. You lock your coins for an agreed period of time to earn a percentage on it. The profit can either be fixed or fluctuate. Profits from staking can be less than 10% and as high as 120% depending on the blockchain and the platform on which the staking takes place.
Stakefair and No-loss Staking
Stakefair allows users to predict (sporting) events and earn rewards if they’re correct or their exact capital if they’re wrong. The company puts your bet into a DeFi pool and earns rewards for you on it. They also have an open API for developers and companies who want to build DeFi products.
How does it work?
No-loss betting is basically DeFi staking. The company takes users’ bets and lends the funds to a DeFi pool for an agreed period of time called a lock-up period, which could be anywhere from seven days to a couple of months.
When the results are in, they take the interest earned and share it with the bet winners. Users who predict wrongly still get to keep their capital. No losses.
All of this is possible due to decentralised finance and the programmability of the blockchain. The flexibility of the blockchain makes it easy to lend any amount of money for such short periods.
Building For Others: From “BetDemand” to “Stakefair?”
Stakefair has moved from figuring out consumer products for their customer-focused business, to building infrastructure that enables anyone to easily build such kinds of products from anywhere in the world with ease, a Business to Business (B2B) model.
In the CEO’s words, “If we plan to onboard a billion people into DeFi, we can’t do it alone. Why not make it easy for others to do so too?”
Stakefair is building the infrastructure for its own DeFi lending pool and an Open Banking API. Their first gaming product, “BetDemand” will now be available on this infrastructure. The company has now become a foundation for other builders to build DeFi products. StakeFair is able to support multiple blockchains, including Bsc, Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrium and Avalanche, with plans to add Cardano soon.
When asked about what could be built with their new infrastructure, Akindele said, “You can build a no-loss lottery app, you can build a crypto bank, different lending and treasury management solutions, anything really, the sky is your limit.”
Gaming and Inspiration
On his reason for starting with the gaming industry, Akindele had this to say, “Gaming has always been something that people participated in and cared about. In most African cities, people play sports bets on platforms rigged against them. I knew I could build a better solution with decentralised finance tools so I thought to myself, ‘why not offer a better solution than this?’I eventually did and users love it.
Coincidentally, the Netflix series, Squid Game, came at a time when I was considering what to build so it just put gaming at the forefront. It has proven to be a good choice for us.”
Funding and Investor Confidence
Despite the crypto winter, Stakefair has recently raised $670,000 in pre-seed funding. The company prides itself on being experienced, skilled and focused. Their hyperfocus on practical solutions for the DeFi space seems favourable to investors. Also, their community-led approach has also endeared users to them.
The startup’s CEO also opined that they have the trust of both investors and users, and for good reason.
“Our investors love the team. They know we’re experienced and great at what we do. Our focus on practical solutions and use cases also set us apart. We are also building in the DeFi space, one with incredible potential that is yet to be tapped.
Our users love us because we built a good product that makes their lives easier. We are also very community-led. We involve our users in every process and they’re aware of how the product works in its entirety.”
Next Steps and Future
Stakefair revealed that they are focused on three key concepts; gaming, finance, and convenience. This is understandable as gaming is and will continue to remain a huge driver of their growth.
For finance, a lot of Africans do not have access to basic financial instruments like lending and insurance, and even when they do, they’re left with no option than what is available in regular financial markets.
Stakefair can bring some much-needed competition to that sector as DeFi and Blockchain are already global, provide a better alternative, are permissionless and versatile, and give Africa and Africans a lot of options.
