Smart Contracts

Helix is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol that is forked directly from Aave V3, inheriting its advanced architecture, security model, and extensive feature set. Built on the proven foundation of one of the most trusted DeFi protocols, Helix adopts Aave V3’s modular smart contract system and enhances it with its own governance and ecosystem design. As a fork, Helix integrates Aave V3’s powerful mechanisms for improving capital efficiency, such as Efficiency Mode (E-Mode), which enables users to borrow against assets with highly correlated prices (like stablecoins or staking derivatives) at significantly higher loan-to-value (LTV) ratios. It also utilizes Isolation Mode, allowing newly listed assets to be used as collateral in a controlled manner with predefined debt ceilings, reducing systemic risk while supporting permissionless market growth.

By incorporating Aave V3’s Portal system, Helix enables seamless cross-chain asset movement using hToken minting and burning, laying the groundwork for a multi-chain liquidity network. Risk management in Helix mirrors Aave V3’s fine-grained approach, featuring supply and borrow caps, variable liquidation parameters, and granular borrowing power controls that allow dynamic adjustment of asset exposure without triggering unnecessary liquidations. Smart contract optimizations from Aave V3, such as reduced gas usage, support for EIP-712 signatures, and improved interest rate strategies are also fully retained within Helix, ensuring efficiency and scalability.

Furthermore, Helix maintains a role-based permission system similar to Aave’s decentralized governance model, enabling flexibility in protocol management while preserving security and transparency. By forking Aave V3, Helix positions itself not only as a continuation of a battle-tested DeFi framework but also as a platform ready to support the next generation of permissionless, multi-chain lending markets.

Helix is structured around a modular suite of smart contracts, each responsible for a specific set of operations within the system. This structure promotes security, upgradability, and efficiency across both Layer 1 and Layer 2 deployments. The contracts are categorized by function to ensure maintainability and clarity for developers and integrators

At the center of Helix’s contract system is the Pool contract, which acts as the main interface for users. All essential operations, including supplying and withdrawing assets, borrowing and repaying loans, and initiating flash loans are routed through this contract. Administrative interactions with the Pool are handled via the PoolConfigurator, which allows approved roles to configure reserve parameters such as interest rate strategies, collateralization settings, and asset listings.

Helix implements robust access control through the ACLManager contract, which assigns permissioned roles such as PoolAdmin, RiskAdmin, and AssetListingAdmin. These roles control protocol configuration and are managed via the PoolAddressesProvider, a registry contract that also holds references to all key system components. This architecture ensures that governance decisions can be implemented securely and flexibly, with the ability to update or upgrade components via proxy patterns.

When users supply assets to Helix, they receive hTokens in return, interest-bearing ERC20 tokens that represent their deposit and accrue yield over time. When borrowing assets, users receive VariableDebtTokens, which represent their debt and are updated in real-time to reflect accrued interest. These tokens are non-transferable and are used to track borrowing balances within the system.

Helix relies on a dedicated HelixOracle contract to provide up-to-date asset prices, which are used for loan-to-value calculations, liquidation triggers, and overall system solvency. To mitigate oracle-related risks, the PriceOracleSentinel contract introduces a grace period mechanism in case of oracle downtime, pausing new borrowing and protecting users from liquidations until price feeds are restored.

Interest rate calculations are handled by the DefaultReserveInterestRateStrategy, which dynamically adjusts rates based on market utilization. This strategy is designed to maintain healthy liquidity levels by incentivizing borrowing and supplying behavior in line with reserve performance.

For improved developer experience and frontend integration, Helix includes peripheral helper contracts such as the HelixProtocolDataProvider (for retrieving protocol state and user positions) and L2Encoder (for generating optimized calldata for L2Pool interactions). These tools enable seamless integration with wallets, dashboards, and other DeFi applications.