Aave KNC (AKNC)

What is it?

Aave KNC v1 (AKNC) is a type of aToken minted and burnt within the Aave ecosystem. aTokens, including AKNC, denote the amount of cryptocurrency assets supplied to an Aave market, along with the yield earned on those assets. The value of aTokens is pegged to the value of the corresponding supplied asset at a 1:1 ratio. aTokens can be safely stored, transferred, or traded, and the yield collected by the aTokens' reserves is distributed to aToken holders directly by continuously increasing their wallet balance.

AKNC, like other aTokens, implements all standard EIP20 methods, such as balanceOf, transfer, transferFrom, approve, and totalSupply. The balanceOf method always returns the most up-to-date balance of the user, which includes their principal balance plus the yield generated by the principal balance.

What is it used for?

AKNC, like other aTokens, is used within the Aave ecosystem to denote the amount of a particular cryptocurrency asset (in this case, KNC) that has been supplied to the market, along with the yield earned on that asset. Users can supply assets to the Aave LendingPool, and in return, they receive aTokens (e.g., if you supply 1,000 DAI, you receive 1,000 aDAI). As time passes, the balance of aTokens increases as the yield is added to the initial deposit, and this increased balance can be withdrawn at any time​.

Aave's aTokens, including AKNC, can be transferred, which effectively means transferring the underlying asset. However, only the account holding the aTokens can withdraw the deposited asset. It's also worth noting that aToken transfers will fail if the resulting Health Factor of the user will end up being below 1​.

Who created it?

AKNC, as a type of aToken, is part of the Aave ecosystem, which was created by a team of coders led by Stani Kulechov. The platform initially launched as ETHLend in November 2017 and rebranded to its current name, Aave, in September 2018.