Crypto won’t be the future of finance unless it’s cross-chain. It’s easy to borrow on a single blockchain. But cross-chain loans are few and confusing AF. Why? Devs had no one to copy. Now they have Balanced. Learn how we designed cross-chain loans: blog.parrot9.com/cross-chain-lo…

Actually being serious, does anyone know of a loan platform that’s easier to use than Balanced? At this stage, it would be a valuable learning experience for us to find anything that could top it in terms of usability. #WhoBetterThanBALN

Steve Jobs was obsessed with hiring "the best people." But how do you actually spot exceptional talent? Here are 10 non-obvious signals to find high-performers:

$BALN and $sICX are now cross-chain. Swap, transfer, and hold them in your favourite wallet on: Arbitrum Avalanche Base BNB Chain ICON Stellar Optimism coming soon.

Design has become the laziest working sector in technology. This is why only a handful stand out. You’re just mad someone is calling you out for it.

Balanced has been ICON Foundation 🌐🔀 for its entire existence. ICON’s pivot to SODAX will change that. No longer a blockchain, ICON will become a cross-chain DeFi protocol. No longer a protocol, Balanced will be one of many apps to interact with it. Details below.👇

The Balanced app will continue to exist as a frontend for SODAX — and many other DeFi protocols. PARROT9 will take full ownership of the app and its future direction. Find out what they have in the pipeline: gov.balanced.network/t/our-vision-f…

Balanced ICON Foundation 🌐🔀 Balanced and parrot9 is the best thing that happened to crypto

ICON is coming to the end of an era. It’s been a helluva ride. When we participated in the ICO, we had no idea where our investment would take us. As we prepare to move Balanced in a new direction, it only felt right to reflect on how we got to this point.

After the transition, SODAX will become the cross-chain DeFi protocol. Balanced will continue to exist, but only as an interface. PARROT9 will steer its direction. The destination: a cross-chain DeFi app that supports multiple protocols. Our north star: be useful AF.

Doing a lot of design work behind the scenes for Balanced. During the transition to SODAX’s infrastructure, the stablecoin loan will be replaced with a cross-chain money market. A feature that requires a new colour to bring more understanding to each action. 👀

When we start a new design, I appraise the competition. Not to copy, but to gain context. How does the feature work? What should we keep? Where can we improve? Then we set out to make the best version of it. Here’s what the Balanced money markets will do differently. 🧵

In a few months, Balanced will replace loans with a money market. But it won’t focus on a single blockchain. Our cross-chain market will be so flexible, you can earn and borrow across chains from a single page. Here’s how we organised the details for each chain. 🧵

In the signed-out state, the money market design is simple: A list of assets, the amount supplied / borrowed, and the interest rates. It’s familiar and easy to scan, so we saw no reason to reinvent it. But how do you design a cross-chain market that’s flexible when signed in?

Good design is as direct as possible. Yet most money markets sprawl across as many pages as they have assets. Each page lacks context of your position, is too info-dense to focus, and requires you to do the math. The Balanced markets will spare you the effort.

Most software treats colour like decoration. Something to make an app look nice — or the same as everything else. But our designs make colour fundamental to every interaction. We use them to guide people through an interface and provide clarity as you scan.

The Balanced money market demo has been months in the making. Easily the most complex Balanced feature we’ve designed. It’s far from finished, but you can now visit balanced.network/preview/markets to get a sense of our direction.

the ultimate creative control is having control over your own creative process

Took a break from money markets to tackle the exchange upgrade & widgets. Now we’re back with the signed-out state, which includes a calculator to remove the guesswork before you take action. Still lots to do, but finally happy with the core experience. balanced.network/preview/markets

Balanced has used line icons since the beginning. They worked with our utilitarian aesthetic, but they were super bland. Balanced v2 adds depth through layers and gradients, so we created new icons with the weight and presence to match. Embarrassed it took us this long. 😅