Dharma
Summary
Dharma is a protocol for issuing debt. The goal of this protocol is to create a pool of debtors and creditors. Similar to 0x, Dharma utilizes the concept of relayers and the goal of relayers is to provide the interface to submit and gather orders. These orders are stored off-chain and only settled orders go to the blockchain. It’s up to relayers to decide which orders they accept.
It is possible to take a loan without using cryptocurrency as collateral, or without collateral at all, as debtors can request a debt from one of the underwriters. An underwriter is an entity who evaluates debtor’s credibility and manages the debt parameters. Once the debtor and underwriter settle, the latter must submit the signed offer to one of the Dharma relayers. Creditors can then evaluate the offer’s terms and underwriter’s reputation to decide whether to trust it.
Recently the team introduced Dharma Lever — a margin trading platform built on the protocol.