About

Kaon, formerly known as Akropolis, is a DeFi aiming to build a Bitcoin UTXO sidechain with enhanced EVM compatibility, enabling cross-chain transactions and integrating Bitcoin’s liquidity with Ethereum's DeFi ecosystem. This shift from a dApp-focused platform to a native Layer 1/Layer 0 blockchain introduces new utility for the Kaon token, which will now serve as the native token securing the network.

Unlike Akropolis, which previously operated as a yield aggregator on Ethereum, Kaon focuses on providing a specialized blockchain infrastructure for secure and efficient cross-chain interactions, targeting use cases like BTC liquidity pools and decentralized finance products that bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum.

History

The initial idea for a distributed pension fund was born out of what one of the founders, Ana, has witnessed as a result of the Lehman Brothers fallout in 07-09. The problem is both simple and relatively unknown to the younger population: it's the current and ever-increasing pensions deficit crisis and no visible solutions to it.

Akropolis wanted to create a solution alternative to current pension schemes - a way to save money, protect wealth against inflation, ensure access to credit and basic insurance, and remittances through a p2p network that can communicate with but doesn't structurally depend on the banking system. It was started with more of an enterprise angle, with institutional parties support but it became clear that their enthusiasm for exploring alternatives in this sector closely tracks public sentiment, which in turn was negatively affected by the collapse in prices in 2018. And, of course, client acquisition in enterprise usually exceeds 12 months.

As the team continued customer research, it became clear that pensions, savings, remittances, insurance have to be enabled for the product to be economically viable. In that sense, they didn't exactly pivot away from pensions, as pensions are effectively long-term savings with a tax shield, but to a slightly different model.

AkropolisOS is a modular framework for creating for-profit DAOs with complex business logic and customizable user incentives & treasury management. The first two products, Sparta & Delphi, are built on it.