What is Maya Protocol?
The answer to this question is pretty simple. Maya Protocol is a Cosmos SDK-based decentralized liquidity protocol that enables native swaps across blockchains. It's a fork of Thorchain that supports different chains, and operates differently in terms of tokenmoics and liquidity. About 6 months ago, I wrote an article outlining a lot of the details and why this sort of protocol is super important, so I highly recommend checking that out.
I strongly believe that the next bull run will be pushed forward by decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocols like this. No need for a bank, central exchange, permission, or any of that nonsense. Wanna swap native BTC for DASH? Cool - you can do that in seconds. Wanna swap native ETH for KUJI on Kujira? Easy as pie. Want to simply earn from providing liquidity? You can. Stupid low fees, super fast, and permissionless.
Now that you know what it is, and why you should consider checking it out... Let's dive into how to get started. I want to preface this by saying - if you are not familiar with Thorchain, it can be a little intimidating. It's very simple, but without a general understanding of what you are doing, it can seem more complicated than it is.
How do I get started with Maya Protocol?
There's obviously more than one way to get started. I want to share with you my personal favorite way, which I find to be the absolute easiest. I use El Dorado as my primary interface for Maya Protocol, with Thorwallet DEX as a backup. I highly recommend you visit their website and understand what you are going to be using. Now that you're comfortable, let's set up a wallet.
Step 1
Head into El Dorado by clicking Enter El Dorado, or directly by clicking this link. Look familiar?
Step 2
Click Connect Wallet, and select Create New Wallet (Keystore). This will allow you to create a Keystore file that can be moved onto a flash drive or wherever for safe keeping. XDEFI wallet can be connected later. For now, let's get your wallet created.
Step 3
Create a password. This password will be used every time you need to decrypto the Keystore file (basically when you sign into El Dorado or Thorwallet). Write it down!
Step 4
Save your seed phrase (WRITE IT DOWN). When the seed phrase appears, your wallet file will be automatically downloaded to your device. Don't get excited, this wallet is empty and only for this tutorial. Use it if you want.
Step 5
Your wallet is ready to use! Click View wallet and you will see all of the addresses for your new wallet. As you can see, you will automatically have a Maya Address, BTC, RUNE, ETH, & more!
See how easy that was?
Now you have all the wallet ready to go. If you want to go ahead and get some CACAO, which is the native token on Maya... You can transfer in any asset listed, then do a swap. Just copy the address for that respective asset, and paste it into whatever system you are using to do the transfer. In terms of how to swap, it's stupid simple. Select the 2 assets to swap, and click submit. I highly recommend transferring in some RUNE as it has the lowest fees.
If you want to use Ethereum or Bitcoin, just keep in mind the fees will be much higher. El Dorado has the lowest fees for using Maya Protocol, as well at only 0.75%. The only other fees are slippage and outbound which are determined by each respective chain. Make sure you have some CACAO for fees if you are going to be using this regularly.
Welcome to the tribe, Mayan.
Let me know if you have any questions. I will likely be writing a couple more tutorials in the coming weeks so stay tuned.