An ERC-20 token, dai is part of the ethereum blockchain. As the largest DeFi token with over $337 million locked away in contracts according to DeFi Pulse, Loom believes moving dai onto other chains will help grow the token.
Speaking with CoinDesk, Loom Network CEO and co-founder Matthew Campbell said interoperability with other chains has been a key vision for the Network.
"With interchain asset transfers, we open up some completely new possibilities for things like multichain DeFi," Campbell said. "As Maker is the clear leader in the space, it made perfect sense to team up and make multichain dai a reality. This will be a massive step forward in bringing dai to even more users and developers, and proving out what’s possible with cross-chain assets," he continued.
Dai will first join the tron blockchain following a testing period. The token will join stablecoin tether on the tron network, which is also hosted on the bitcoin and ethereum blockchains. Loom believes the addition of dai to tron could spur the development of other DeFi protocols on that protocol.
Binance Chain will also have dai ported over through Loom, although the timing was not disclosed. Other blockchains Loom plans to build dai into have not been disclosed either.
Describing the tech, Loom says their network will operate as a Layer 1 ‘transit hub,’ shuffling funds between different protocols such as etherum, tron, or binance. Transfers between chains will be secured through multi-signature validations on the Loom Network which require three-quarters plus one of all Loom validators before transactions can be signed off.
“The idea is that one day soon, a user can pay for a product using dai regardless of what app, wallet, or chain they are using,” the company finished.
After publication, a spokesperson from the Maker Foundation told CoinDesk dai and the Loom Network are a natural pairing for expanding the DeFi ecosystem. "[Through interoperability] more people and projects can now leverage the stable, secure and trustless nature of dai for their DeFi projects and crypto portfolios," Maker said.
Dai image via CoinDesk archives