Question 1

What is it?

Accepted Answer

Aave LINK v1 (ALINK) is a type of aToken, which is a part of the Aave platform. aTokens are tokens that are minted and burnt upon the supply and withdrawal of assets to an Aave market. The purpose of these tokens is to denote the amount of crypto assets supplied and the yield earned on these assets. The value of ALINK, like all aTokens, is pegged to the value of the corresponding supplied asset at a 1:1 ratio, and these tokens can be safely stored, transferred, or traded. All yield collected by the aTokens' reserves is distributed to aToken holders by continuously increasing their wallet balance​.

Aave itself is a decentralized non-custodial money market protocol where users can participate as depositors or borrowers. Depositors provide liquidity to the market to earn a passive income, while borrowers are able to borrow in an overcollateralized (perpetually) or undercollateralized (one-block liquidity) fashion.

Question 2

What is it used for?

Accepted Answer

ALINK is used to represent the amount of LINK tokens supplied to the Aave market and the interest generated on those supplied assets. It can be used to keep track of the balance of the underlying asset in a user's account, which includes both the principal and the yield generated by the principal balance. ALINK can be transferred, which means that the balance of the underlying asset is transferred. The holder of ALINK can withdraw the deposited asset. Furthermore, liquidity rewards earned prior to the transfer of ALINK are accrued by the original holder of the ALINK, but all future liquidity rewards will be earned by the new recipient​.

Question 3

Who created it?

Accepted Answer

Aave, the platform that created ALINK, was developed by a team of coders led by Stani Kulechov. The platform was initially launched in November 2017 under the name ETHLend and was rebranded in September 2018 to its current name, Aave.