Understand DeFi's 'artifact' Cobo Argus V2 in one article and learn about the empowerment it brings to institutions.

When it comes to on-chain operations at the institutional level, in terms of the scale of interactive funds, the frequency of on-chain transactions, and the freshness of participation in projects, it seems that no one has more say than DeFi OG and Cobo co-founder and CEO, Fish. There is an interesting consensus circulating among the corresponding communities that "if Fish is mining, then there is no problem with this mine." However, it is said that Fish also often needs to wake up in the middle of the night to perform on-chain operations when mining in DeFi, perhaps this is the original intention of Cobo's earliest development of Cobo Argus.

In Greek mythology, Argus was a giant with many eyes, and half of his eyes were always awake, making him the best guardian. His name is often used in fables or metaphors to represent vigilance or the ability of comprehensive observation. In August 2022, Cobo's innovative DeFi investment management platform, Cobo Argus V1, was quietly launched. Its goal is to be a solid guardian of DeFi funds to ensure the safety of user assets, while also significantly improving the efficiency of DeFi funds, saving time and manpower for DeFi users.

Last week, ShenYu announced the official release of Cobo Argus V2, which was carefully crafted by the Cobo team for ten months, with the goal of empowering institutions in the DeFi field. Regarding Cobo Argus, which has already been tested in practice, we further analyzed its related DeFi operations developed for different users in different scenarios, and meticulously divided the various functions of Cobo Argus V2 to find the most suitable functions for different institutions aspiring to enter the DeFi world.

DeFi "Artifact" Argus Origin

To understand the security of Cobo Argus, we first need to know what a multi-signature wallet is. The wallet commonly used by cryptocurrency users is the external account (EOA) wallet represented by Metamask. However, in terms of fund management security, the characteristic of this type of account is that it uses a single private key for encryption. Once the private key of the account is controlled by others, the ownership of the account is also controlled. This simple and crude method is not suitable for the security requirements of institutional-level cryptocurrency investors.

The smart contract multi-signature wallet Safe has become a popular choice for many users as a solution. Its basic principle is that a predetermined minimum number of address signatures must be obtained and approved before a transaction can be executed. For example, if it is set to require any 3 of 5 addresses to approve a transaction, then all 5 addresses must be present and 3 of them must approve in order for the transaction to be sent to the chain. The smart contract multi-signature wallet is currently the safest way to manage funds, solving single point of failure issues at the design level and meeting the security requirements of institutional-level fund management. According to Safe's official website, it has protected a total of 39 billion yuan in funds.

The development of Cobo Argus V2 is based on the module function of Safe. The module function enables additional access control logic for Safe users' multi-signature wallets, which means that each multi-signature wallet is controlled in two ways. The first is through Safe's traditional multi-signature control, and the second is through the custom access control logic of the wallet based on optional modules.

The strength of Cobo Argus V2 lies not only in preserving the security of Safe, but also in providing more interactive operational functions that better meet the practical needs of DeFi users. It offers more refined on-chain operational functions and risk management capabilities for institutional users such as DeFi hedge funds, DAO community treasuries, market makers, project parties, and high-net-worth users.

The functions of Cobo Argus include but are not limited to: multi-signature wallet fund management, pre-authorization, investment strategies, DeFi robots (Bots), risk monitoring and alerts. The Argus V2 version not only upgrades the underlying protocol, but also comprehensively strengthens the batch import of Safe, convenient creation of Cobo Safe Module, optimization of contract authorization and permission settings, and support for custom DeFi interaction permissions.

DeFi Efficiency Significantly Improved

Based on the security features of multi-signature wallets and flexible and refined division of labor, Cobo has designed advanced products for Argus users according to DeFi's actual operations, further unleashing the vitality of multi-signature wallets and improving the efficiency of institutional operations.

7*24 Hour Robot

Cobo Argus V2 users can not only design daily fixed "harvesting" (mining and selling) robots, but also monitor their DeFi loan-to-value ratio and set up automatic margin replenishment to protect their account security.

The "Bots" feature of Cobo Argus V2, commonly referred to as robots, unlocks more possibilities for DeFi users. By setting the time, gas fee, and contract value trigger conditions for the robot, institutions can not only monitor the balance of the target address or the security coefficient of the account and receive email notifications, but also design subsequent DeFi operations based on the trigger value.

For example, when institutional users participate in on-chain mining of new protocols using a large amount of stablecoins, Cobo Argus can monitor the balance of stablecoins in the DEX in real-time. When the balance of stablecoins continues to decrease and the final balance of the stablecoin pool approaches the amount invested by the institution, the robot will automatically push an alert to remind users of the risk or trigger a custom DeFi operation, such as directly withdrawing stablecoins from the protocol.

Of course, the robot function of Cobo Argus V2 is not limited to this. Considering that many individual high-net-worth users are not familiar with code, the robot also has a trading analysis function, which can provide detailed analysis of the user's previous DeFi behavior. Individual high-net-worth users only need to make slight modifications to obtain a robot with the same function, allowing the robot to perform long-term repetitive work.

Settings interface, activate the set Bot by switching to Gas after completing the settings

One-stop Strategy Platform

Combining Safe's powerful module functionality with Cobo team's practical operational experience, Cobo Argus V2 splits the various functional users of mainstream DeFi protocols and unlocks the entire protocol process through a one-stop single multi-signature pre-authorization.

Taking the Stargate-USDT strategy on the Arbitrum chain as an example, Cobo Argus categorizes this strategy into five steps: authorization, wallet connection, deposit, reward acquisition, and transfer and withdrawal. The authorization status of the five steps is broken down into three authorization permissions: deposit, withdrawal, and claim. By creating a strategy, these three different permissions can be assigned to members with different identities at once. For example, deposit permission can be assigned to financial colleagues, claim and sell permission can be assigned to trading members, and withdrawal permission can be assigned to multi-signature. The strategy function realizes one-step multi-role authorization, thereby achieving efficient and rapid execution of the strategy and the purpose of fund risk stratification.

Authorize members in the on-demand strategy

It is worth noting that the strategies in the current strategy library have been audited by the Cobo team and have a high level of security assurance. Moreover, Argus is expected to further open up Strategy and Bots, introducing more capable organizations to develop more efficient strategies and robots, and stimulate market vitality among institutions in the DeFi industry.

Enable Team DeFi Collaboration

Through the permission setting function of Cobo Argus, the rigid and heavy multi-signature wallet will become an organized on-chain company, where different members have different levels of authority, and everyone can operate the wallet according to their job scope and intelligent permissions.

If an institution creates a Safe-based high-value multi-signature wallet and pledges the DeFi tokens in its portfolio, with a need for multiple on-chain transactions daily, it is impossible for the smart contract wallet to interact with the chain without signatures. Therefore, it can be imagined that interns or traders in the fund will need to frequently seek approval from senior partners for multi-signatures for transactions worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, which can be awkward. If they are not in the same time zone, it may also affect the timeliness of operations. If Cobo Argus is chosen as the main multi-signature wallet operational platform, all of these troubles can be avoided.

The operation is not complicated. First, register with Argus and connect your wallet to the platform. You can directly import multiple related Safes.

Import Safe into Cobo Argus

Through the Safe Roles feature of Argus-Cobo Safe, specific transaction permissions down to the contract method level can be directly delegated to individuals within the Argus organization with just a multi-signature authorization at the initial stage. For example, authorization can be granted to an address to trade on the Arbitrum chain's DEX Camelot, but not to functions such as withdraw and removelp that call for multi-signature wallet funds, thus simplifying the multi-signature wallet operation process and protecting the account assets of the multi-signature wallet while avoiding repeated signatures.

Adding permissions through protocols in Cobo Argus

Address for granting permissions to members

Parameter-level risk control

On Cobo Argus, not only can contracts be authorized, but the Cobo team familiar with "DeFi Summer" has gone further to design risk isolation for projects such as "Head Mine" and "Tu Gou". Crypto-savvy users know that sometimes the innovation and market heat in the industry come from these new projects that are similar to "three nothings". However, giving these contracts too much authority is undoubtedly very dangerous for high net worth users.

Cobo Argus Safe Role's Parameter-Level Access Control (PLAC) can achieve risk stratification. Experienced institutional clients can create their own authorized smart contracts to achieve parameter-level and highly customized access control, achieving risk isolation between assets of different risk levels.

For example, the vast majority of funds are authorized to DeFi blue-chip projects, with a small portion allocated to new projects as "degen mining" to authorize different tokens and limit the amount. With such precise parameter control, the team can participate in new projects while ensuring that administrators have a firm grip on maximum loss risk.

Let Fund LPs Trust DeFi

Cobo Argus not only "from DeFi, for DeFi", but also provides solutions for trust and risk control issues between investment fund GPs and LPs who are interested in entering DeFi. As the Safe Owner, LP is the actual owner of the funds. Through Cobo Argus, the fund LP can grant management authority of the funds to the GP team, allowing them to safely use Safe funds to interact with DeFi within the authorized scope and risk control rules. This not only helps GPs improve investment efficiency, but also helps LPs manage investment risks.

Not only between GP and LP, Cobo Argus can also act as an intermediate trust bridge in scenarios with similar structural trust issues. Solv Protocol, a platform for the issuance and trading of on-chain funds, is one of the users of Cobo Argus. Currently, Solv has helped dozens of fund managers raise tens of millions of dollars. To ensure the safety of investors' assets, Solv uses a multi-signature wallet to custody funds and grants fund managers the permissions for high-frequency operations through Cobo Argus. Cobo Argus V2 has just been launched, and iZUMi Finance, a multi-chain liquidity service platform, has completed a fundraising of $12 million on the Solv platform and adopted Argus V2 as a solution for fund security and permission allocation.

Considering that multi-signature users may come from different non-technical backgrounds such as LPs of funds and finance professionals of hedge funds, Cobo Argus V2 has also optimized the signature content to ensure high readability for each multi-signature. In addition, the Argus team will also leverage AI capabilities to analyze the risk points of multi-signature transactions and help non-technical clients such as LPs better understand the transaction content, further reducing the risks caused by "blind signing" transactions.

Considering the different user profiles of multi-signature, Cobo Argus has optimized the readability of signatures.

In addition, considering the fact that users who use Cobo Argus have frequent interactions on the chain, Cobo Argu V2 has also optimized the contract to reduce the gas fees for both pre-authorization and single signature.

Why Cobo Argus?

To understand why Cobo can provide such rich DeFi functionality above Argus, we must mention Cobo's background. Since its establishment in 2017, Cobo has always focused on custody, continuously upgrading custody technology, solidly promoting the infrastructure construction of cryptocurrencies, and silently working hard to achieve greater adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Therefore, Cobo not only has a Hardware Security Module (HSM) for full custody, but also has a joint custody based on Multi-Party Computation (MPC), as well as the decentralized custody based on smart contract multi-signature wallets mentioned in this article, making it the world's first platform with comprehensive custody capabilities.

As a trusted digital asset custodian by institutions, Cobo has gained the trust of over 500 institutional clients, including trading platforms, mining pools, asset management firms, hedge funds, as well as traditional institutions and publicly listed companies with a need for cryptocurrency custody. Cobo also places great emphasis on compliance, having obtained SOC 2 compliance certification and corresponding licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, Lithuania, and Dubai.

In DeFi, there is often a meme called "test in prod", which means that DeFi protocols launch products with many bugs and test them in real transactions. The strength of Cobo Argus comes not only from Cobo's technical background, but also from the founder's, Fish God's, real-life experience in the DeFi market. While he was navigating the DeFi market with his own funds, Argus was born. In fact, since the launch of Cobo Safe's core decentralized contract in November 2021 and Cobo Argus V1 in August 2022, Argus has gone through the ups and downs of DeFi and has become the only DeFi operational gateway that has likely experienced institutional-level practical combat. Institutions and project parties, including Solv, iZUMi, Alfa1, CyberX, and others, have become loyal users of Argus.

Amid the "institutional entry" frenzy triggered by Wall Street giants such as BlackRock frequently applying for Bitcoin spot ETFs, and new DeFi narratives such as RWA, LSD, and Oracle-Free, it seems that we will usher in a new DeFi Summer in the not-too-distant future. Regardless of when the future arrives, Cobo Argus has already made full preparations for institutional-level DeFi adoption from the infrastructure tool level.

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