How to start saving on Xend Finance

Adaobi Osakwe
6 min readDec 19, 2020

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Over the past few weeks, the Xend finance team has put out so much information on the whys and hows -

  1. How is Xend Finance different from the other saving platforms?
  2. How is it better?
  3. Why DeFi?
  4. Why Build on the Binance Smart Chain?
  5. How do I get started?

On Dec 15th 2020, they announced the launch of the testnet and with it, a total of 200,000 $XEND tokens offering just for participating.

You can find out how you can win by participating, here. The XendFinance team has a very inclusive Telegram and Twitter community and you can get answers to any questions you might have within minutes.

On the Xend Finance Platform, you can save either as an Individual, as a co-operative or invest in an Esusu cycle.

If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, how much is a video worth? I have attached videos detailing step by step process on how to get started using parts of the Xend Finance app if you would rather. Otherwise, carry on!

Installing and Funding MetaMask

To get started on Xend Finance, you have to connect your wallet. Metamask is the recommended wallet on Xend Finance.
It is available as a browser extension and as a mobile app. If you don’t have MetaMask installed already, You can install it here.

Connecting MetaMask to the Binance Smart Chain
After installation, we want to connect MetaMask to the Binance Smart Chain Network. The Binance Smart Chain Network is where the current version of Xend Finance is running.

On the MetaMask app, you click on Settings > Network > Add Network. You fill out the network information with this -

Network Name: Binance Smart Chain

New RPC URL: https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.binance.org:8545/

Chain ID: 97

Symbol: BNB

Block Explorer URL: https://testnet.bscscan.com

You have connected the Binance Smart Chain!

Get BNB

Binance coin or BNB used on the XendFinance platform for paying the gas fee. The gas fee is the fee or pricing value that is required to successfully conduct a transaction or execute a contract on the blockchain.

To get BNB, click on the ‘Get BNB’ at the top-right of the app. This opens up the Binance Smart Chain Faucet on a different tab on your browser. Copy your connected wallet address from the MetaMask extension modal and paste this address into the Faucet and click on the Get BNB button.

Select the amount of BNB you would like to fund.

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Get BUSD

BUSD is the currency you need to be able to make use of the features of Xend Finance. You can only get BUSD if you have funded your wallet with BNB.

On the top-right corner of the app, click on the Get BUSD button and that’s it!

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If you don’t see your BUSD in your MetaMask wallet, you may have to add BUSD as a token on MetaMask using this code x3b1F033dD955f3BE8649Cc9825A2e3E194765a3F as your Token contract address.

Personal Savings

On Xend Finance, you can deposit BUSD from your wallet balance into your personal savings balance and gain interests up to 15% of your original amount. What’s more? You can withdraw at any time!

Save
Saving on the Personal savings platform on XendFinance is as easy as selecting a percentage of your wallets total balance you would like to save or inputting a custom amount, and clicking on save. You confirm on MetaMask and you are done!

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Withdraw
To withdraw, you select the percentage of your savings balance or input a custom amount, click on Withdraw, confirm on MetaMask and that’s it!

Esusu

If you are from Nigeria, you might have heard or come across Esusu in one form or the other, and if you haven’t, that’s fine too.
With the Traditional form of Esusu, members of an Esusu group came together to contribute a fixed amount of money. One of the contributors gets to go home with the bulk sum at each turn of the cycle until the cycle is complete.

Xend Finance incorporated this idea into their system but with a twist. Each member in an Esusu group on Xend Finance deposits a fixed amount to be a part of the cycle. During each payout interval, a participant can withdraw the return on investments (ROI) on the total amount deposited by all members of the group. After everyone has had their turn, members of the cycle can now take back their initial deposit.

Creating An Esusu Group

To create an Esusu cycle, you need to set the deposit amount, the duration (which is the payment intervals for each member), the start time, and the maximum number of individuals that can contribute or join.

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Joining An Esusu Cycle
On the Esusu page, you get a full view of all the Esusu groups with their corresponding status. You can click on the View button to see more details about each group and join the group.

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Withdrawing from an Esusu Cycle
During a payment interval, you can withdraw your ROI by clicking the Withdraw ROI button visible on the details page. You can also withdraw your capital if everyone in the group has withdrawn their ROI.

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Cooperative Savings

The cooperative savings on Xend Finance is a lot like the Esusu groups. Unlike the Esusu groups, there is no fixed amount to deposit. An amount is set for each stake. Members of the cooperative can contribute by depositing the amount for one or more stakes.

The ROI for the cooperative is different from Esusu, but the process of withdrawing capital or interest remains the same.

Creating a Cooperative
To create a Cooperative, you need to set the stake amount (This is how much each slot on a cooperative cost), the cycle duration (which is the payment intervals for each member), the start time, and the maximum slot.

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Joining a Cooperative
Just like with the Esusu group, you can view and join cooperatives listed on Xend Finance. Joining these groups is as easy as a button click.

After clicking on the Join button, you are directed to a page with complete details of the cooperative and if you are still interested, you can select the number of stakes you are interested in and confirm your intentions by clicking on the Join Cooperative Cycle button.

The benefits of saving either as an individual, a credit union or a cooperative in a stable currency with as much as 15% interest cannot be overemphasized.

The Xend Finance team has done an impressive amount of work putting this together. What I have tried to do with this article and videos is to make participating in any of the platforms seamless. The ball is in your court.

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