24 Aug: Akropolis General Update 2 of N

Akropolis
Akropolis
Published in
5 min readAug 24, 2020

Background

What’s been done so far?

  • $50,000-cap Closed Beta Launch maxed out in 48 hours, a little longer due to uncompensated all-time-high gas costs (ca.500gwei) with an average limit of $500/user.
  • 100x+ oversubscribed whitelist using provably randomised lottery.
  • 100+ unique depositors.

1-Minute Summary

  • Delphi Open Beta is now live with a $5,000,000 cap. Right now our dev team is working on all things security: enhancing the code, running tests, working on upcoming product integrations & communication with audit teams.
  • All LM rewards and terms are subject to change and will be reviewed off-chain on a weekly basis until we move to an automated reward and distribution algo.
  • LM rewards consist of AKRO and no-sale ADEL.
  • ADEL mining started on Aug 10, with ADEL generation and distribution slated for Aug 31.
  • Team ADEL mining is capped at 10%TTS
  • External DEX pools to be incentivised include Uniswap, Balancer and Mooniswap.
  • Guarded launch rollout means gradually increased total TVL cap will be removed after the 2 audits are completed.

Guarded Launch Approach

As DeFi continues to grow in terms of assets and composability, so does the potential attack surface. Whilst it may be tempting to go YOLO in and maximise the TVL quickly in the current bull market, DeFi liquidity is fickle in the absence of tangible moats (yet!). A trusted, secure product and an engaged well-supported community are key to establishing a liquidity moat. Hence our decision to go with Ken Deeter of Electric Capital “Guarded Launch” philosophy and roll out the product in controlled stages with reference to limits on deposits, asset types, and emergency procedures:

Our Liquidity Mining Thesis

  • Yield farming returns at the current levels are unsustainable and will compress over time.
  • In the current market, getting a spike in short-term TVL is not a massive challenge, however retaining those assets and creating a sustainable economic model is. We are disciplined enough to trade off immediate TVL acquisition in favour of more methodical TVL growth, focus on security measures, UX/UI, and community support.
  • Hence over 90% of DeFi liquidity is dominated by a small number of players and DeFi liquidity is fickle, our preference is for gradually growing the TVL whilst establishing a liquidity moat through UX/UI and proprietary products and keeping the user base as granular as possible.

Liquidity Mining: Key Considerations

We will be reviewing the LM incentives on a weekly basis with the view to establishing what methods work, what gets abused, and how best to achieve a healthy balance between short-term traders and medium/long term users and contributors. Below is our approach for the initial epoch prior to uncapped launch.

Rewards accrual:

  • weekly reward amounts to be distributed among incentivised pools are assigned weights as % of the total distributable amount.
  • weights are reviewed on a weekly basis and announced at the start of a new epoch.

Reward vesting:

  • the first 2-week rewards of mined AKRO will be unlocked and distributed at the same as ADEL.
  • mined ADEL rewards will be unlocked; we will be introducing time-lock rewards later.
  • after week 2, the reward claim and distribution process will be automated, with introduced timelocks.

Risk management measures:

  • during guarded launch rollout, each pool will have an TVL cap, revised weekly.
  • every new pool introduced, will spend 2–3 days in testing with a $50k equiv cap.
  • each pool will have a cap on total value locked.

Governance measures:

  • In the spirit of dogfooding, the team will be mining ADEL, however, we voluntarily are enforcing a cap in smart contracts of 10% TTS.
  • team wallets are barred from participating in AKRO farming.
  • we will be introducing time-locked rewards to incentivise participation (ref. yEarn, Polkadot)

Product Rollout and Liquidity Mining Rewards Schedule

IMPORTANT: please save or pin this “AKRO+ADEL LM Rewards” gsheet for your convenience and refer to it often for weekly updates.

More info in the spreadsheet (with links)— this is just a screenshot.

Commentary to the table is below:

[done] [10/08–23/08] Off-Delphi early liquidity providers on Uniswap and Balancer.

  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards accrual period: 10/08–23/08.
  • Motivation: increase AKRO liquidity on DEXes.
  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards amount for the period: 1,000,000 AKRO + 300,000 ADEL.
  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards distribution period: 31/08 (7 days after the end of the reward period).

[done] 14/08–23/08: Delphi Closed Beta Launch [Unaudited]

  • Total TVL cap $50,000, 100x+ oversubscribed.
  • Whitelist only: randomised entry through Discord lottery bot to prevent early information advantage and whale/insider dominance.
  • 300+ lottery participants, 100+ early active users.
  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards amount for the period: 1,000,000 AKRO + 180,000 ADEL.
  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards accrual period: 14/08–23/08.
  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards distribution period: 31/08 (7 days after the end of the reward period).

[now] 24/08 — ca.15/09: Delphi Open Beta Launch & Liquidity providers on Balancer, Mooniswap, Uniswap.

  • Total capped TVL: $5,000,000 for the first week, to be reviewed weekly.
  • Whitelist removed.
  • External dependency: audits, currently ongoing.
  • Rewards accrual period: weekly starting from 24/08 (random daily snapshots).
  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards amount per week: 5,000,000 AKRO + 2,230,000 ADEL.
  • AKRO+ADEL Rewards distribution period: weekly starting from 31/08 (7 days after the beginning of each reward week accrual numbers are published for the community to verify and rewards are sent 2 days after the rewards spreadsheet is posted).

[coming up] [ca.20/09]: Delphi Full Launch: uncapped TVL.

  • Two audits completed.
  • Uncapped TVL.

Delphi

Please see “Delphi” tab “AKRO+ADEL LM Rewards” gsheet.

Sparta

Please see “Sparta” tab “AKRO+ADEL LM Rewards” gsheet.

LM incentives accrual start: June 30, along with mainnet launch.

Accrual method: all liquidity providers in Sparta will get AKRO pro-rata to liquidity supplied.

Timeframe: June 30 — September 15 (2.5 months)

Token distribution per epoch:

  • AKRO allocated — 200,000 AKRO, with TVL of ~$100k, reviewed weekly.
  • AKRO Rewards distribution period: weekly starting from 31/08 (7 days after the beginning of each reward week accrual numbers are published for the community to verify and rewards are sent 2 days after the rewards spreadsheet is posted).

What’s Next?

We will be introducing coefficients & additional incentives for lenders & borrowers using Akropolis. All suggestions are welcome in our Discord/TG/team@akropolis.io.

Our next updates will cover:

  • Revised LM rewards and incentives.
  • Governance mechanics for both products.
  • ADEL token generation and distribution.
  • Delphi product FAQs and video explainers by DeFiDad.
  • Further product and roadmap updates: connecting Sparta and Delphi.
  • Prop strategies.
  • Prop synthetic and hybrid yield-generating products.
  • Gas-optimising strategies and L2 solutions research.

Most importantly, have fun with Delphi, stay safe and don’t risk more than what you’re prepared to lose!

Warmly,

The Akropolis Team

--

--

Akropolis
Akropolis

Akropolis is a provider of decentralised finance products that give users access to efficient and sustainable passive yield generation on multiple chains.