Yearn DeFi | What is Keep3r? After Chainlink joins the fray, what future collaborations can we expect?

In recent times, Yearn YFI founder Andre Cronje has been continuously publishing developments and collaborations, with a total of 31 blog posts from October to December 3. Today, Andre Cronje announced a collaboration between his project Keep3r and the oracle project Chainlink, aiming to combine Keep3r's flexibility and resiliency.

What is Keep3r doing?

In simple terms, Keep3r is a decentralized job outsourcing network where startups can post jobs for external organizations to execute actions through smart contracts. These can be simple transaction calls or more complex off-chain logic, all referred to as Jobs. Companies looking to post Jobs must add liquidity on Uniswap in the KP3R/WETH pool to obtain Credit. The available Jobs and the amount of Job Credit, indicating the reward for the Keeper administrators accepting the job, can be seen currently.

Keep3r Collaboration with Chainlink

Andre Cronje stated that Keep3r's role in the DeFi ecosystem is simple - it helps match Keepers with Jobs to enhance the overall system. He further explained that Keep3r's niche market is in assisting projects that may not have enough funds or wish to develop experimental products to complete smaller tasks.

He mentioned that smaller tasks have fewer security concerns, but as projects grow into larger enterprises, they require higher security and fault tolerance systems, which is where Chainlink comes in. He believes Keep3r is designed for research-oriented startup services, while Chainlink is designed for larger enterprises, and their collaboration allows startups to receive services throughout their growth process.

He noted that Chainlink operates a reputable system, as evidenced by its resilience during the recent Infura incident, which is why he chose to collaborate with them.

How will the collaboration work?

Andre Cronje explained that Chainlink node operators will accept many upcoming administrator tasks to support Chainlink as a trusted and secure administrator. Current administrators also have the opportunity to become Chainlink node operators. He further mentioned that when Chainlink node operators become Keepers, it will drive the application of LINK, promoting the token economy of Chainlink's oracles.

Comment: Who is paying the Keepers? Coin Speculators

Keep3r provides an opportunity for startups to reduce costs. Recently, Lobster Research's ivangbi published an article "APE TAX System Design", explaining how Keep3r can levy taxes on speculators. Assuming a company invests outsourcing funds in the KP3R/WETH liquidity pool, they can withdraw funds from the pool after the job is completed before the reward is sold. Essentially, the company may not have actual expenses if the coin price crashes, and it may ultimately be the speculators investing in Keep3r who pay the administrators' salaries.

Of course, startups with outsourcing needs will provide liquidity for KP3R/WETH, creating an economic cycle. However, the actual situation still needs time to validate, and investments should be evaluated for risks.