TL;DR

Aleno built Sentry, a real-time alerting system for DeFi asset managers, to address the lack of fast, reliable risk monitoring tools. Unlike traditional dashboards, Sentry provides sub-second alerts on on-chain events using custom metrics and a high-performance backend. This enables automated decision-making and bridges a key infrastructure gap for institutional DeFi adoption.

Sentry: A Missing Piece for DeFi Adoption — A Manifesto

"we currently have no way of being warned live when there are liquidity events that could threaten our assets."

This is what some DeFi Asset Managers told us a year ago after the Euler hack occurred.The result? They lost millions because they didn’t react within the 20-minute window following the hack.After speaking with several DeFi Asset Managers and hedge funds, we realized that this was a widespread issue they were all grappling with.

The Pain Points

We identified three primary pain points:

Low Data Refresh-rates

Data on protocols like Curve and Balancer refreshes at intervals of one minute or longer — sometimes over 15 minutes. This is far too slow for active asset management.

Bare-bones Metrics

Data displayed on platforms like DeFiLlama or Uniswap is helpful for general observation but lacks precision. Additionally, professionally managing client funds requires more than just monitoring prices and volumes on CoinGecko.

Time-consuming configuration

The most advanced DeFi Asset Managers try to build custom tools, but spend hours each week on maintenance and reconfiguration every time they shift positions.

Why is it hard to solve?

DeFi Asset Managers excel at generating yield but are not data experts.

Their requirements include to monitor entire blockchains and process updates in under a second. The challenge lies in efficiently handling blockchain data while integrating multiple protocols that have varying standards and market types.

Current data indexing solutions, like The Graph or custom-built alternatives, encounter limitations due to two primary challenges:

RPC Overload:
Not all data can be retrieved through log events. Therefore, querying state changes (TVL, Supplies, Balances…) requires using indirect methods that necessitate hundreds of RPC calls per block. This results in significant delays.

Infrastructure Costs:
Reliable indexing across multiple chains and markets is prohibitively expensive. The graph requires maintaining a subgraph for each protocol, which can quickly drive up costs depending on the comprehensiveness of the desired pools, tokens, and protocols. RPC solutions suffer from the same problem, as their costs are linearly related to the desired coverage.

Ultimately, seeking comprehensive coverage using traditional infrastructure results in slower processing times and higher costs.

Sentry: A Real-time DeFi Alerting System

After developing a POC in June 2023 and an MVP in September 2023, Sentry’s API is now live!

https://docs.aleno.ai

Here’s how we address the pain points of DeFi Asset Managers:

Real-time considerations

Sentry is built on cutting-edge technology to maximize speed. By designing an architecture optimized for real-time processing and collaborating with Streaming Fast, we ensure rapid, scalable and cost-efficient blockchain data processing.

DeFi Asset Management-specific metrics

In collaboration with top-tier DeFi Asset Managers, we’ve developed metrics they need to best understand market activity and make the best decisions possible. Visit docs.aleno.ai/capabilities for a complete list of metrics.

Hands-free setup

Configure alerts in a minute without worrying about technical complexities, and receive them where it suits you best via our webhook-enabled output.

Starting Point for a More Professional DeFi

Having a scalable real-time alerting system opens up a broad range of opportunities.

Risk Policy Enablement

Creating a robust alerting system lays the groundwork for tools with immense added value. Once the quality of our data is proven and recognized, building an automation layer on top will be straightforward.

For example, soon it will be possible to automatically secure your funds when your market risk criteria are met. In the not-so-distant future, you’ll also be able to automatically manage fund allocation based on market events. Once the alerting framework is validated, the automation capabilities become limitless.

A Broad Market

Anyone seeking to structure their investment approach will find this type of tool beneficial. With a B2B strategy, we believe that any individual or entity using DeFi with more than a million in AUM will have a substantial interest in using professional alerting tools. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of key players for whom our solutions will be indispensable in the future:

• Whales

• DeFi Asset Managers

• Treasury Managers

• CEX

• Institutions

• Regulators

  
  

Regulatory Momentum

PSAN agreement, FCA license, SEC, MiCa 2… In recent months, regulatory momentum in the DeFi market has increased. Regulation is now seen as a positive sign — it’s no longer a question of if DeFi should be authorized but how to regulate it most effectively. Regulation is the only way for DeFi to attract new liquidity and increase its TVL.

In this context, just as TradFi companies have been required to establish risk policies since 2008, Aleno is creating tools to help new players access DeFi with the same level of security as traditional finance. With increasing numbers of new entrants, the demand for professional tools to monitor and manage risk will only grow. This is where Sentry and our future products come into play.

An opportunity you can seize

If you currently have real-time alerting needs, feel free to consult our documentation here or contact us at avales@aleno.ai. We would be delighted to help you navigate DeFi more securely.