Cream Fraîche — A Low Fat Protocol
C.R.E.A.M.’s path to decentralization and beyond.
As 2020 comes to close, we see the total value locked in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) contracts reach an all time high, with intersecting DeFi protocols offering a plethora of services to users without the constraints, concerns and bureaucracy of entering into the CEX ecosystem.
C.R.E.A.M. has established itself as a key value provider to underserved assets within the DeFi-sphere, an undertaking that has required careful control to mitigate the significant risk. We’ve looked to expand our services into fair launch facilitation and stablecoin liquidity provision, while adding and growing new assets to the core borrowing and lending platform.
Of course, our ambition, drive and the ubiquitous blockchain world requirement to act quickly mean that we’ve often pushed ahead, with good intentions, to find out subsequently that there had been disquiet within our community. So it’s important to say this: we are listening. Come, discuss, have your say, bring your ideas, and together we can continue to build and develop something integral to a flourishing space.
The Narrow Path To Community Control
Decentralization is not easy. We’ve seen flashloan exploits of governance protocols, voter apathy and quorum issues and the ever-increasing problem of power asymmetry in what are primarily plutocratic governance systems. For C.R.E.A.M., we need to chart a path whereby the team can react quickly in implementing new features and adding new assets, while also ensuring that the community gets to have its say, properly debate new additions and propose new and exciting developments. Trust-minimization is key; it’s impossible to get to a truly trustless state and be a dynamic, quick reacting organization, so we are slowly building to a model that will provide the best of all worlds.
For now, we have implemented snapshot signalling, as well as an engaged discussion forum, which has resulted in a number of key protocol changes and additions, such as the listing of new assets. More to come below on the structures we’ve put in place to ensure this is a safe and transparent process.
We’re discussing how we can go about developing this path to a robust governance system, with some great ideas already involving quadratic voting application, potential for an ‘assembly’ and much more. We’re open to and want to hear your ideas, so, again, please come and join the discussion and help us keep building.
A High Quality Dairy Product
A vote was recently passed, unanimously, installing an agreed proposal structure, ensuring the quality of, and removing ambiguity from, future proposals.
The steps to submit a proposal are below, for discussion in our governance forum.
How to Submit a Proposal?
1. Start a new topic in Proposal in Forum. It can be a solid plan or just an idea.
2. Discuss with the community in Forum for at least 24 hours before voting
3. Write a proposal to conclude the whole idea
> Proposal MUST have a proper title to reveal the core idea
> Proposal MUST begin with Summary section (in short, please)
> Proposal MUST have Action Item section for explaining each voting option explicitly
> Proposal SHOULD use “For” / “Against” as options in binary decision
> Proposal SHOULD provide “No Change Required” as option in multiple choice
> Proposal CAN have Background, Motivation, Specification or any other aspect to support the idea, or use EIP template
4. Submit the proposal along with topic link in Snapshot by holding 1,500 CREAM at least, which is also the minimum requirement for a proposal to list in Snapshot, and the voting period must be longer than 24 hours
5. Comment in the topic with the voting link
Warning!
If a proposal does not follow these steps, it is invalid
If a proposal does not get more than 15,000 CREAM votes in total, it is invalid
All rules can be modified by a valid proposal, but “fully discussed with the community” should be the principle
All rules apply to the community and the team
Having a clear template for governance proposals helps ensure that voters don’t feel disenfranchised by a large number of low quality one line proposals, and have all the information required to make an informed decision. We’re looking forward to more original, high quality, community led proposals similar to the ones seen in recent weeks.
Risk Reassessment
It’s worth discussing a key vote from above, regarding new asset risk-mitigation collateral levels. As a result of the vote on Snapshot all new assets are added with 0% collateral, with increased collateral levels available through governance. We’ve seen this in recent weeks with the addition of BBTC and HBTC, both with a 0% collateral level; once the asset has been established, we’d expect to see a proposal for this to increase. We’re also actively looking into new safeguards to allow listing of potentially riskier assets, with prototypes ready to test.
Previous unilateral team decisions of asset collateral levels are being refined as part of a ‘risk reassessment’, designed to further solidify confidence and build the resilience of C.R.E.A.M.. Through governance, we’ve seen the reduction of FTT collateral level to 25% as well a forum discussion in place that will lead to a vote to reduce SWAG collateral.
Community & Comms
This article is the first of many detailing our intention, ambition, direction and drive. We know communication, particularly thinking behind strategic platform decisions, has not been clear in the past, and we want to be able to engage as many of the talents within our community as possible to robustly discuss our plans for the future. Expect more discussion about high level thinking, future roadmaps and community engagement as we continue to develop, build and refine; we will soon be commencing a twice-monthly call with key community members to ensure we are fully aligned on future plans and strategy.
A Low-Fat Future
The same great tasting CREAM, with a lot less of the calories. We’re going to be solidifying our offering in order to increase confidence in the platform and thus, hopefully, increase users. There will be official announcements to come, and a full article dedicated to the product roadmap, but the message is, again: we’re listening. Expect news on matters important to the community, such as audits and insurance, in the coming days and weeks.
Engage With Us
We need your ideas, viewpoints, opinions and discussion.
Join us on Discord, follow us on Twitter, or visit us at cream.finance.
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