Use the lending base that already works
Aave already solves a hard set of problems: pooled liquidity, borrow accounting, interest accrual, asset configuration, and liquidation safety at scale. Rebuilding that base is expensive and unnecessary for a mechanism focused on liquidation shape.
OpenLend treats Aave as the lender and builds a controller around it. Users open OpenLend positions, while the controller manages the aggregate interaction with Aave underneath.
The overlay adds position geometry
A normal Aave borrow has collateral, debt, health factor, and liquidation threshold. OpenLend keeps those concepts, then adds a tick range. That range defines how collateral should be converted into debt token as price declines.
The result is a position that has both lending risk and execution geometry. The lending base says how much debt is safe. The tick band says how the position should respond if price moves against it.
- Aave supplies the debt market and interest model.
- OpenLend supplies the soft-liquidation band and per-position state.
- Solvers supply execution when the band becomes active.
Why the cap sits below hard liquidation
The OpenLend LTV cap should sit below the underlying hard liquidation threshold. That buffer is what gives soft liquidation time to work before Aave's hard-liquidation path becomes relevant.
This is a design constraint, not a cosmetic parameter. If the cap is too aggressive, the band has less room to complete. If it is too conservative, capital efficiency drops. The system has to expose enough information for users and solvers to understand that trade-off.
NFT positions make state inspectable
Each OpenLend position is represented by an NFT. The NFT anchors ownership and lets the UI read position-specific state: tick range, liquidity, outstanding debt, collateral, realized loss, and accrued interest.
That matters because soft liquidation is path dependent. A position is not only defined by its current collateral and debt. It also has a realized-loss history and a cursor-relative execution state.
The interface is part of the risk system
A soft-liquidation product needs more than a borrow input. The interface has to show the band, the current oracle price, the internal cursor, the minimum safe supply, and the reason a range is invalid.
That is why OpenLend treats market configuration and on-chain metadata as safety-critical. The same UI that helps users choose a range must also prevent approvals to untrusted controllers.