Lendora

Problem Statement

We are building a decentralized NFT-based Real-World Asset (RWA) Lending Protocol that bridges traditional assets with on-chain finance in a simple, transparent, and globally accessible way. At its core, the protocol enables individuals to tokenize real-world assets such as gold, silver, and diamonds as NFTs, which then act as collateral for borrowing or lending cryptocurrency. By focusing on universally recognized assets with standardized valuations, we eliminate geographic limitations and create a lending marketplace that anyone, anywhere in the world, can trust and participate in. Borrowers are empowered to unlock liquidity from their real assets without selling them, while lenders gain exposure to secure, collateral-backed lending opportunities.What makes this protocol unique is its trust and verification layer, powered by the Rootstock Attestation Service (RAS). Every critical step in the lifecycle of an asset or loan is reinforced by a verifiable attestation: KYC attestations verify user onboarding and compliance, NFT ownership attestations prove that collateral genuinely belongs to the wallet listing it, loan agreement attestations publicly record the terms agreed upon, and liquidation attestations provide a transparent record of outcomes in case of default. These attestations ensure that every transaction is not only on-chain but also cryptographically verified, creating a system where trust is automated and disputes are minimized.The frontend has been designed with clarity and minimalism in mind, built using React, Vite, Tailwind CSS, shadcn, wagmi, and viem. Borrowers can easily mint and list NFTs, review their profile and attestations, and request loans. Lenders can seamlessly browse NFT collateral cards, open detailed views with all technical asset attributes, and fund loans backed by verifiable claims. When a loan health factor falls below threshold, liquidation can be triggered in a straightforward, transparent flow that automatically updates both the lending pool and the attestation registry. Unlike traditional DeFi dashboards filled with clutter and graphs, this interface focuses only on what matters: assets, agreements, and attestations.By combining tokenized RWAs with attestations, we are not just building another lending protocol — we are reimagining how collateralized finance can work across borders. This is a protocol where the value of real-world assets flows freely in decentralized markets, where credibility is built into the very fabric of transactions, and where lending becomes truly borderless, transparent, and secure.

Solution

We built this project by stitching together a stack that combines modern web3 frontends, smart contracts, and blockchain partner integrations into one cohesive RWA lending experience. On the frontend, we used React with Vite for fast builds and hot-reloading, TailwindCSS and shadcn for a clean component system, and wagmi + viem to handle wallet connections and blockchain transactions in a simple, reliable way. The goal was to keep the interface minimal and focused only on the most important flows: connecting a wallet, minting an RWA-backed NFT, browsing available collateral, and initiating a loan. Every NFT card dynamically displays its details—such as asset type (gold, silver, diamond), technical properties, and verification attestations—allowing lenders to quickly evaluate whether they want to provide liquidity. This dynamic flow was achieved by combining frontend hooks with custom middleware that listens to blockchain events and updates metadata in real time, which was one of the more “hacky but effective” pieces of our build.On the contract layer, we deployed Solidity smart contracts on Rootstock, chosen for its Bitcoin-level security while retaining Ethereum-compatibility. Rootstock’s Attestation Service (RAS) became the backbone of our trust layer. We used it to generate attestations for KYC verification, proof of ownership when an NFT is minted, loan agreement confirmations when deals are executed, and liquidation attestations if the borrower defaults. This allowed us to make the lending process auditable and tamper-proof, with every critical action leaving behind a verifiable claim. Since Rootstock isn’t always supported out-of-the-box by tools like wagmi, we had to manually configure custom JSON-RPC providers and chain IDs, essentially “teaching” wagmi to handle Rootstock connections smoothly. That was a small but important hack to ensure UX parity with Ethereum-like chains.We also integrated Integra as a partner technology to bring credibility to the off-chain data that powers RWA valuations. For example, if a diamond NFT is listed, its properties such as cut, carat, and clarity can be linked to a trusted data feed verified through Integra, ensuring that lenders know they are not just seeing arbitrary user input but validated data. This strengthened the authenticity of the NFTs and gave real economic weight to the lending process. At the same time, we explored Kadena’s braided multi-chain architecture to demonstrate future scalability: while Rootstock provides security and attestations, Kadena can handle parallelized transaction execution, enabling lending pools and settlement to scale without bottlenecks. Though we only integrated a proof-of-concept, it opened the door to cross-chain settlement where Rootstock secures the collateral, Integra verifies data, and Kadena powers high-throughput loan execution.One particularly notable engineering decision was building a lightweight middleware that ties all these layers together. This service listens for RAS attestations and then writes them back into NFT metadata, which means the NFT a lender sees in the frontend always reflects the latest verification status in near real-time. For instance, once a KYC attestation is approved, the NFT automatically updates to show “KYC Verified,” without requiring a manual refresh. This hack, while simple, added huge value in terms of usability and trust. Combined with the modularity of our frontend stack and the reliability of wagmi hooks, it allowed us to present a smooth UX despite the complexity under the hood.In summary, Rootstock gave us the security and attestation backbone, Integra provided trusted data verification, and Kadena offered a pathway to scalable multi-chain execution. By connecting these partner technologies with a lightweight, event-driven middleware and a minimal but powerful frontend, we created more than just a lending protocol: we created a verifiable, borderless marketplace for real-world assets, where every action is secure, every claim is backed by attestations, and every NFT is more than a picture—it’s a proof of trust.