# About Notional ### What is Notional? Notional is a protocol on Ethereum that facilitates fixed-rate, fixed-term crypto asset lending and borrowing through a novel financial instrument called fCash. ### Why does Notional matter? Fixed-rate financing is how financial markets operate. Fixed interest rates provide certainty and minimize risk for market participants, and this is why the majority of U.S. debt is issued using fixed rates. Notional brings fixed interest rates to the decentralized financial system on Ethereum and gives crypto users the same access to stable financing. ### Why is fCash important? fCash offers a simple and reliable mechanism for Notional users to commit to transfers of value at specific points in the future. Trading fCash allows users to efficiently move value back and forth through time. This flexibility opens a new dimension in the financial design space on Ethereum. ### Who created Notional? Notional was developed and launched in early 2020 by a team of stakeholders with expertise in technology, trading, security, and design. ### How is Notional governed? Notional is designed to optimize capital efficiency and balance the needs of liquidity providers and the system's end users. Creating this balance requires a set of system parameters that deals with the platform's risk and trading dynamics. Currently Notional is governed by its founding team. ### Roadmap to Community Ownership Notional is committed to decentralization. We will pursue a strategy of progressive decentralization in which we will relinquish control of the protocol, and give it to the community. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.notional.finance/traders/master.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.