Quick Summary

Acala is a liquid staking protocol within the Polkadot ecosystem.

• ACA is Acala's native token. It serves the reserve asset for stablecoins and the network's governance token.
• You can stake, bridge, and swap tokens via Acala.
• Liquid Staking lets you stake DOT to earn rewards while your assets remain liquid.

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‍‍Acala is a decentralized blockchain within the Polkadot ecosystem. Acala is known as the longest running liquid staking token (LST) protocol for its liquid staking token, LDOT. It's powered by a multi-collateral-backing mechanism, ensuring stability and trustless integration for various assets. With its recent Exodus upgrade, Acala aims to grow its ecosystem, build the “liquidity layer of Web3 finance”, and elevate ACA utility.

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Assets in Acala

• Acala Dollar (aUSD): The stablecoin pegged to the U.S. Dollar, minted trustlessly using collateral. This will soon be converted into aSEED.

• aUSD SEED (aSEED): All existing aUSD holdings will undergo conversion into aSEED, offering holders the choice to either exit their current aUSD positions or engage in Acala's future expansion through the newly introduced token. 

• Reserve Assets: These include DOT, LDOT, and ACA, forming the foundation for the stablecoin. Additional cross-chain assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) can also join the reserve.

• Acala Token (ACA): The native token of the Acala network, serving as both the reserve asset for stablecoin creation and the governance token.

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Features

There are many different things you can do with Acala. View the different functions here. Hover over the left side of your screen and choose whichever appeals to you! 

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Home

‍The “Home” tab gives you an overview of the different features you can access with Acala. These features include bridging assets, Polkadot staking, and staking liquidity pool (LP) tokens. Explore each to see which one you’re interested in! 

‍Portfolio

‍You can view your current assets in the “Portfolio” section. You can see your total balance, view specific asset balances, check your current staking positions, and view your NFTs. You can also send, receive, and bridge each specific asset from here. 

‍Staking

‍The “Staking” feature allows you to lock up your ACA to secure the network, and then get tokens as a reward. Stake, unstake, and claim your rewards here. You can view the APY, loyalty bonus, rewards emission rate, and your current balance here. You can also provide liquidity to a liquidity pool through LP staking and get rewards as well. 

‍Bridge

‍Use the “Bridge” tab to transfer your assets to different blockchains. Select the source chain and destination chain, choose the asset and amount of it to send, review your transaction details, and then transfer. You can also bind your Ethereum address to your Polkadot address here to use Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) features easily. 

‍Swap

‍The “Swap” feature allows you to swap your existing tokens for other tokens. Select the token you wish to swap and the token you wish to swap for, review the transaction details, and finalize your transaction to receive your tokens. You can also provide liquidity to a liquidity pool and get LP tokens as rewards. Clicking “Bootstrap” shows the pools that are under the Bootstrap program, which lets users deposit in it before actual trading begins to stabilize prices.

‍Liquid Staking

“Liquid Staking” lets you convert your DOT tokens into LDOT to earn staking rewards while maintaining liquidity. You will get staking rewards from the locked DOT while you can use the equivalent LDOT on other applications. Here, you can view the APY, total staked DOT, view your current staking positions, and read up on the different validators.  ‍

‍aUSD SEED (aSEED)

‍This section allows you to learn more about the aUSD conversion with Acala 2.0. You can also view aggregated oracle price data of assets in this page. 

‍Governance

‍Acala lets you participate in the “Governance” of the network by voting. You can view ongoing and past governance proposals affecting Acala's development. If you hold ACA, you can also vote on proposals. You can also view the different councils governing specific categories in the network as well as their vote weight. 

‍Euphrates

‍“Euphrates” is a liquidity dApp designed to amplify staking rewards. It currently operates on the Karura testnet, but eventually plans to be a core component of Acala. You can deposit your DOT there to provide liquidity and earn LST tokens of your choice which you can use in other dApps.