Borrowers (currently off-chain lending businesses) propose deal terms for credit lines (Borrower Pools) to the protocol. Goldfinch's community of Investors can then supply capital to these credit lines (Pools), either directly to individual Pools (as Backers) or indirectly by automatically allocating capital across the protocol (Liquidity Providers via the Senior Pool).

These Borrower businesses use their credit lines to draw down stablecoins, specifically USDC, from their Pool. Borrowers then exchange the USDC for fiat currency and deploy it on the ground to end-borrowers in their local markets.

In this way, the protocol provides the utility of crypto—specifically, its global access to capital—while leaving the actual end-borrower loan origination and servicing to the businesses best equipped to handle that in their own communities.

Trust through consensus

In order to determine how to allocate capital from the Senior Pool, the protocol uses a principle of "trust through consensus." This means that while the protocol doesn't trust any individual Backer or Auditor, it does trust the collective actions of many of them.

At a high level: when more Backers supply to a given Borrower Pool, the Senior Pool increases the ratio with which it adds leverage. Because this approach relies on counting individual Backers, the protocol must ensure they are in fact represented by different people. Therefore, all Backers, Borrowers, and Auditors require a "unique entity check" to participate (see below).

Junior and senior tranches

Borrower Pool smart contracts have both a junior and senior tranche, which together account for 100% of a Borrower Pool’s capital. Backers supply capital to the Pools’ junior tranches, and the Senior Pool supplies capital to the Pools’ senior tranches.

When a Borrower makes repayments to one of their Borrower Pools, the Borrower Pool applies the payment first toward any interest and principal owed to the senior tranche at that time, and then toward any interest and principal owed to the junior tranche at that time.

This is to ensure an alignment of incentives. Backers, who actively assess the viability of individual Borrower Pools, take on the protocol’s highest risk by providing first-loss capital via junior tranches. This incentivizes Backers to do an adequate job of assessing the viability of the Pools, as they will be the first to miss repayment in the case of a default.

Liquidity Providers, who provide capital to the Senior Pool that is automatically allocated across Borrower Pools according to the actions of Backers, take on less risk by providing second-loss capital via senior tranches. This provides Liquidity Providers with the added security of knowing that they will be the first repaid if a Pool that was evaluated positively by Backers does go into default.

To track the different amounts that investors supply, Backers receive an NFT representing their deposit when they supply capital. The NFT tracks the amount that was supplied and how much of it has been redeemed. This allows the protocol to ensure that no one redeems for more than their proportional share of the total repayments as they come in.

Senior Pool LPs receive FIDU, an ERC-20 token representing their position that grows in USDC exchange value as interest and repayments are made to the Senior Pool.

At any time, a Backer can use their NFT to redeem their specific portion of the available repayments in the Pool. Senior Pool Liquidity Providers can withdraw their position in the Senior Pool at any time by depositing their FIDU to a Withdrawal Request.

Tokens

There are two native tokens on Goldfinch: GFI and FIDU. Both follow the ERC20 standard. In addition, the protocol utilizes stablecoins, currently only USDC, for investment and loans.

GFI is Goldfinch’s core native token. GFI is used for governance voting, Auditor staking, Auditor vote rewards, community grants, staking on Backers, protocol incentives, and can be deposited into a Member Vault to earn Member Rewards in exchange for helping to secure the protocol’s growth.

FIDU is a token that represents a Liquidity Provider’s deposit to the Senior Pool. When a Liquidity Provider supplies to the Senior Pool, they receive an equivalent amount of FIDU. FIDU can be redeemed for USDC in the Goldfinch dapp at an exchange rate based on the net asset value of the Senior Pool, minus a 0.5% withdrawal fee. The exchange rate for FIDU increases over time as interest payments are made back to the Senior Pool.