Mars is a credit protocol for the future: non-custodial, open-source, transparent, algorithmic and community-governed. Like banks, Mars aims to attract deposits and lend out this money while managing illiquidity and insolvency risk. Unlike banks, Mars is fully automated, on-chain credit infrastructure governed by a decentralised community via a transparent governance process. All decisions are made by the Martian Council, composed of MARS stakers who put skin in the game to backstop certain kinds of protocol risk in exchange for a portion of the protocol borrowing fees.

Mars offers two distinct types of borrowing:

• User borrowing from the Red Bank (also know as "Contract-to-Borrower" or C2B borrowing)
• Smart Contract borrowing in the Fields of Mars (more accurately described as "Contract-to-Contract" or C2C borrowing).

Mars protocol consists of various participants, i.e., Lenders, Collateralized Borrowers, Contract-to-Contract Borrowers (Whitelisted), and the Martian Council.

• A user will be able to lend his CW20 asset and earn dynamic interest on it. He can also borrow some debt against the collateral he deposited in the protocol with the intention to earn more profits.
• A smart contract can also take loans from the Mars protocol. The protocol will be protected by the implemented liquidation strategy. Only whitelisted projects will be able to take Contract-to-Contract loans. C2C loans will be approved by (and subject to the limits set by) the protocol’s governance processes.

There are 4 stakeholders in the Mars Protocol ecosystem:

• Lenders: Deposit assets into Mars liquidity pools, earning an interest rate
• Borrowers (collateralised): Borrow assets from Mars liquidity pools using their deposited assets as collateral. These borrowers must therefore also be depositors (lenders)
• Borrowers (contract-based): Smart contracts that borrow assets from Mars liquidity pools without posting collateral. Each smart contract credit line must be approved by governance and will include a credit limit to mitigate the protocol’s risk exposure
• Council: Stake MARS in order to earn protocol fees, participate in governance and backstop certain kinds of protocol risk.