Why "Carbon"?

Names are everything

The Core of All Things DeFi

The carbon element is the universal building block of life and the most abundant element in the world. Similar to how it binds and connects with other elements to form the compounds that make up all of life on earth, the Carbon protocol aims to sit at the core of various ecosystems in the multi-chain world, connecting and breathing life into them.

Carbon mirrors three integral properties of the carbon element that make it vital to life - it is highly connective, versatile and stable.

Connective

Carbon-12’s molecular structure allows it to bond with many other elements to form a myriad of compounds. Likewise, the Carbon protocol powers interoperability between siloed blockchain networks, connecting and binding them through cross-chain transactions and more.

To see the full list of chains that is currently connected to Carbon, go here!

Interoperability between blockchain networks is essential for greater exchange of value within the DeFi ecosystem. Carbon’s ability to power cross-chain capabilities across any sovereign chain allows for boundless collaboration and innovation to occur in a truly open and decentralized manner.

Versatile

Just as the carbon element exists in numerous forms such as diamond (the hardest naturally occurring material) and graphite (one of the softest mineral), Carbon embodies versatility by being able to adapt and form the foundations of any type of financial construct.

Envisioned to be the building block of DeFi ecosystems, Carbon’s architecture utilizes the Cosmos-SDK as an underlying technology and is highly composable, thereby allowing anyone to integrate with or build upon the protocol.

Compounds of the carbon element such as carbon steel and carbon fibre have many important and purposeful use-cases. Similarly, the permutations & possibilities of useful innovations that can be built with Carbon are endless. Some novel use-cases that Carbon can power include AMM-backed orderbooks, decentralized central limit orderbooks (CLOBs), derivatives markets and unequal pool weights. These capabilities can already be seen in action on the reference trading UI and derivatives DEX, Demex.

Stable

The carbon element is known to be extremely stable once bonded, another attribute that Carbon mirrors. Carbon affords security to users by being a specialized chain that is secured by a large network of validators, ensuring all transactions are legitimate and safe.