At the most fundamental level, we view Avalaunch as a way, through a codified system, to interact with the team who built it. When a person uses the platform, they are directly experiencing our amalgamated thoughts, ideals, effort, values and priorities. In this way, the Avalaunch platform is us, and ultimately, the things we find most important.
As we designed and modeled the systems that the launchpad is composed of, we were always guided by certain principles. In some ways you have to be. At every turn there are trade-offs and compromises, and without that guiding force to inform your decisions, you’ll be left with zero conviction about the end result.
In this article, we’d like to present a complete, top-to-bottom overview of the Avalaunch platform and the philosophy that informed its features. This encompasses broad, subjective topics with no final interpretation. When dealing with matters of fairness, inclusion and wealth, there is no Rosetta Stone. What you really have is the collective consciousness of a group of people who are invested in creating something worthwhile. From here, a firm, yet not inflexible, set of beliefs about the broadest application of these concepts, and a decision to build toward its manifestation, is born.
This is how we approached building Avalaunch and in the end are incredibly proud of the final result. It represents the best thinking of an immensely talented group of team members, contributors, advisors, and community members. It would be impossible to thank everyone that helped us along the way, but the ethos of the platform is embodied in all of them, and shines as a result.
Avalaunch Ethos
We built Avalaunch to embrace a few core tenets. From here, everything else follows.
- All eligible XAVA holders will receive allocation.
- All XAVA holders, regardless of IDO eligibility, will grow with the platform’s success.
- Long-term participants are rewarded.
As a result, there are:
- No tiered systems requiring arbitrary minimum stakes.
- No opaque whitelists or lottery system.
- Maximum allocations per user to promote broader distribution.
The XAVA Token
There are two ways to participate in the Avalaunch ecosystem with your XAVA:
- IDO Allocation Staking (Single-Sided Staking)
- Farming Application (Liquidity Provision)
This article will cover our IDO Allocation Staking. For an overview of our farm, please see here.
Avalaunch IDO Allocation Staking
IDO Allocation Staking on Avalaunch is similar to traditional farming, with the added benefit of earning both IDO allocation and platform fees, on top of ecosystem rewards.
When staking XAVA, your tokens will be rewarded in four ways:
- Allocation in IDOs (optional)
- Ecosystem rewards
- Deposit Fees
- Allocation Fees
You can think of this like single-sided staking (no impermanent loss), launchpad allocations and network fees, all rolled into one. Even if you can’t participate in sales, there is still plenty of reason to hold and stake XAVA.
Platform Fees
There are two fees to be aware of when using the platform. These fees are not taken by Avalaunch, but redistributed to XAVA stakers.
- Deposit Fee (2%) — This fee is designed to ensure existing XAVA stakers are protected from dilution by new stakers. A staking fee is collected whenever new XAVA is staked. Staking fees are sent to the Staking Rewards contract, which distributes the collected tokens to stakers, relative to their stake.
- Allocation Fee (2%) — When you claim your allocation, an allocation fee is collected and also distributed to XAVA stakers. This fee not only promotes more thoughtful participation, but supports smaller stakers and individuals who can’t, or don’t want to, participate in sales.
These fees ensure a properly incentivized network and allows for some unique characteristics:
- Even with a maximum per person allocation in place, there is still a reason to accumulate XAVA.
- You don’t need to KYC or participate in sales to earn.
- As Avalaunch grows larger, so do XAVA stakers’ holdings.
Over time, even small stakers will earn enough in the network to become more meaningful participants. Power from the whales is redistributed into the hands of everyone else, leveling the playing for the entire system.
The potency of the fees also plays into how we grow allocation power within the system.
Staking Weight
At a high-level, the platform is designed to reward long-term stakers over time. Therefore, the longer you stake, the more allocation power you should have. Originally, we conceived of a system where the duration of your stake determined the “weight” those tokens held.
For example, 10 XAVA that were staked for 10 days would be weighted “heavier” than 10 XAVA that had been staked for 1 day and possess more allocation earning “power.”
While conceptually sound, it occurred to us that we could do better. Why reward loyal stakers with imaginary “stake points” when we could grow the monetary value of their position, in addition to allocation power? From this realization, a new design was born.
Instead of weighting static tokens differently over time, we reward stakers with more XAVA derived from platform fees and ecosystem rewards. As Avalaunch grows, the APY on your stake, and its allocation power, grows over time. This design has three distinct benefits over the former:
- The longer you stake, the more XAVA you earn, in addition to allocation power.
- You not only have more allocation power in the system, but it now has a monetary value that can be compounded through staking and farming.
- Rewards are aligned with platform growth and our community shares in its success.
Sale Rounds
Each sale will consist of three rounds. A user may only participate in one round, even if you qualify for multiple. At the time of registration, you will need to choose one. Once your selection is made, this cannot be changed at any point.
- Validator Round (10%*) — Open to all eligible** Avalanche validators
- Community Round (85%) — Open to all eligible XAVA Stakers
- Public Round (5%) — Open to any eligible community member.
*These percentages are upgradable, and may be altered over time.
**Eligibility is determined by a valid KYC registration and operating from a non-excluded jurisdiction.
Each round will stay open for a predetermined amount of time, and any unsold tokens will flow over into the next round.
Allocation Maximum
While there are no minimums required to participate on Avalaunch, there are maximum allocations, regardless of how large your stake is. This is to ensure the broadest possible participation and prevent the sales from being dominated by large holders.
How Are Maximum Allocations Determined?
On Avalaunch, your percentage staked relative to the rest of the network does not correlate directly with your maximum available allocation. If it did, the entire premise of “whale-resistance” would fall apart. Big players would receive the largest allocations and the token distribution would spiral toward centralization.
Instead, this value needs to be dynamic and change sale-to-sale based on registered interest.
In short, maximum available allocations for each account are set on a per sale basis, after registration has closed. At that point, the qualified stakes are analyzed, and based on the data, a global maximum allocation is determined for all users.
This “allocation setting” is used to ensure that smaller holders receive the largest allocation possible relative to several factors like tokens available, number of registered users and the qualified stakers in the system.
Consider the following:
If the largest qualified stake in the system was 100,000 XAVA, the threshold at which the maximum allocation begins would be much higher than if it was, say, 5,000 XAVA. This is because the range from 1 to 100,000 is much larger and you will likely need to satisfy more midsize to large holders.
If you assume the numbers beforehand, you may very well miss the opportunity to give smaller holders more. Additionally, if you were to use some kind of average, you would run the risk of drawing the threshold higher based on a few large outliers. This approach is as much art as it is science and born out of our desire to optimize data as it comes in, rather than applying a formula in advance.
However, this does not mean there is no reason to hold XAVA beyond a certain amount. The ecosystem rewards and fee redistribution is relative to your stake and large holders are in fact also rewarded. They just won’t be able to monopolize sale distribution.
Closing Thoughts
The Avalaunch platform is not a static entity. It comprises innumerable individuals dedicated to exploring its evolution. Our platform today, and how it works, likely does not represent its final form. Keeping pace with an industry like crypto, which moves at breakneck speeds, requires an equal dedication to keeping up. While we feel this is the best representation of our platform today, we know enough to acknowledge that an ability to adapt and execute is one of our industry’s most valuable skill sets.
There are numbers in this overview, like fee amounts, for example, that will be monitored over time. They are not set in stone and can be adjusted if needed. We will continue to build Avalaunch, informed by experience and feedback, for years to come.
About Avalaunch
Avalaunch is a launchpad powered by the Avalanche platform, allowing new and innovative projects to seamlessly prepare for launch with an emphasis on fair and broad distribution. With its values deeply rooted in the early Avalanche community, we are able to offer projects confident, informed users who are aligned with the long-term goals of the rapidly expanding application ecosystem.
Leveraging Avalanche’s scalable, high-throughput, and low-latency platform, Avalaunch is built by users, for teams, to help grow strong communities.
