Understanding the differences between Flare and Flare Finance

There is a lot of misunderstanding in the community regarding Flare and Flare Finance. I will try to outline the key differences between the 2.

Ecosystem:

Flare is a smart contract platform and it’s its own ecosystem. Flare does not run on the XRP Ledger. Flare Finance is a DeFi (decentralized finance) platform that is deployed on the Flare Network. A good analogy would be the Binance Smart Chain (Flare) and PancakeSwap (Flare Finance).

Asset denomination:

Flare:
Assets on the Flare Network are called “F-Assets.” They are non-custodial and fully trustless and are created by the main network.

Flare Finance:
Assets on Flare Finance are called “Y-Assets.” These assets are “wrapped” to bring them from other networks onto Flare Finance.

Supported Assets:

Flare:
XRP, XLM, DOGE and LTC

Flare Finance:
FLR, XRP, LTC, XLM, ALGO, SHIB, ADA, DOGE, TEL, CEL, BNB, CAKE, XDC, PAC, GALA, CUSD, SANSHU and recently CSC

Airdrop:

Flare:
The snapshot occured on December 12 2020 and you needed XRP to be eligible for the airdrop (1:1 ratio). The distribution of FLR is set for the end of June +/- 2 weeks with 15% initially distributed.

Flare Finance:
The snapshot of FLR holdings will occur 30 days after the Flare Network launches. The distribution of DFLR will occur 7–10 days later, with a 1:1 ratio.

Flare Finance is really promising, here are the features of the platform:

1. FlareX: swap currencies and earn passive income by providing to a decentralized on-demand liquidity (DODL) pool
2. FlareFarm: mine from a distributed pool of assets via smart contracts by staking
3. FlareWrap: provides users with a decentralized USD stablecoin in xUSD
4. FlareLoans: asset-backed loans solution utilizing the power of DODL
5. FlareMutual: decentralized mutual fund that allows users to pool risks of DeFi applications together
6. FlareMine: allows users of Bitcoin and Ethereum mining rigs to mine Spark (FLR)