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Fei Protocol

8 min readMar 7, 2021

*Update as of March 20, 2021: Fei Protocol Genesis will now take place on March 31, 2021 at 12pm PT and run until April 3, 2021, at 12:01 pm PT

Fei Protocol Genesis Group

Launch details for the decentralized stablecoin platform

Key Points 🔑

wen launch? March 31, 2021, at 12:01 pm PT. Add to calendar here.
Anyone can secure Fei Protocol by committing ETH for FEI at https://app.fei.money
FEI and TRIBE will be released at the end of Genesis on April 3, 2021, at 12:01 pm PT

Fei Protocol Genesis 🚀

The moment we have all been waiting for is here.

Fei Protocol Genesis begins on March 31, 2021, at 12:01 pm PT. It will last three days, ending on April 3, 2021, at 12:01 pm PT. The Genesis Group will be the earliest Fei Protocol adopters —anyone who shares the vision of a new type of decentralized stablecoin. Participation in Genesis requires an ETH commitment to bootstrap Fei’s Protocol Controlled Value (PCV). Committed ETH will support the early stability of FEI by being sent to the incentivized ETH-FEI Uniswap pair as liquidity.

All of DeFi has inherent risks. Users should make appropriate considerations if participating in Genesis and utilizing the platform. We have executed high-quality security and functional audits of the platform code and continually perform thorough testing. However, many of the economic mechanisms implemented are entirely new. Participants in Fei Protocol Genesis should understand and believe in the long-term vision. We are a Tribe, collectively owning a decentralized reserve with incredible scaling and integration potential.

This post will discuss the Genesis Group, their role in the launch, and what it means relative to the decentralization of the Fei Protocol.

ETH Commitment

Users that participate at Fei Protocol Genesis can commit ETH as part of the Genesis Group to bootstrap the protocol. By doing so, this entitles participants to a pro-rata percentage of FEI generated from the bonding curve. The aggregate quantity of ETH at this stage will determine the quantity of FEI generated at Genesis, and in turn, will affect the quantity of FEI users receive. The quantity of FEI minted and received for those participating in Genesis will only be known at the end of Genesis. Commitments of ETH for FEI are not directly reversible at any point. To recover ETH for FEI, a user will have to sell that FEI on Uniswap or a secondary market, with potential burn penalties and volatility.

As previously discussed in the white paper, the bonding curve for FEI is a mathematical curve that defines a relationship between price and token supply. Specifically, the amount of FEI created by Fei Protocol at Genesis and supplied to the Genesis Group will depend on how far along the bonding curve the Genesis Group moves collectively. The distance along the bonding curve is programmatically determined by the amount of ETH committed and the USD oracle price of ETH at the end of Genesis. The FEI reward parameters have been modified from the initial concept in the white paper in order to retain a higher percentage of PCV for the reserve. The bonding curve has a 100,000,000 FEI Scale target and starts at $0.50. The maximum price that Genesis Group members could pay is $1.01 per FEI due to the 1% buffer.

Unlike FEI, the quantity of TRIBE the Genesis Group receives is static and set to 10% of the TRIBE total initial supply. With a total fixed supply of 1 billion TRIBE, 100 million TRIBE will be created and reserved for Genesis Group participants. This distribution is necessary to establish the most dedicated community members (those that supply ETH to the PCV) as the Fei DAO’s initial voting members as TRIBE holders. TRIBE governance is essential at launch to enable effective decentralized stewardship of the PCV.

Fei Protocol will be decentralized from its launch date, with the Genesis Group becoming stewards of the governance of the protocol. The Fei DAO uses the same code as the Compound DAO, which is well established and understood within the DeFi ecosystem. Minor parameter adjustments were also added to further support and enhance decentralized access to the entire on-chain governance process. For example, the Fei DAO has a lowered quorum threshold of 2% and a proposal threshold of 0.25%. This should allow for greater participation in governance and inclusive decentralization, as holders with lower voting power can initiate proposals than in other systems. For more information on Fei Protocol’s decentralized governance, please refer to our documentation on the Fei DAO.

Pre-Swap for TRIBE

Protective measures have been put in place to prevent front-running in the initial FEI-TRIBE liquidity pool. Fei Protocol allows users to elect to exchange their Genesis allocation of FEI for TRIBE directly from the pool. Users can pre-swap any percentage of their Genesis allocation. A pre-swap takes the FEI the participant will receive at Genesis and swaps it for TRIBE when the liquidity pool is initialized at launch. This will be the very first transaction on the pool. Because it is first, and atomic with the launching of the protocol, no bots can front-run the group without being a part of it. Fei Protocol users can adopt a number of strategies utilizing this feature. One strategy is to optimize for TRIBE ownership and governance participation by pre-swapping all purchased FEI for TRIBE. Another is optimizing for yield farming with a 50/50 split. Note that the FEI-TRIBE exchange rate could be volatile at launch, so users should follow their risk preferences when pre-swapping.

Pre-swapping is one-way. Users can only increase their pre-swap percentage. Note that any of the Genesis allocation used to pre-swap will still be entitled to the pro-rata portion of the Genesis Group TRIBE. Users will not sacrifice the initial TRIBE allocation by swapping their FEI.

A neat benefit of the pre-swap is that it only costs 70k gas, which is less than two-thirds the average Uniswap cost that a user would otherwise pay to swap!

Redeeming After Genesis

Genesis Group participants can claim their FEI and TRIBE rewards in the next block post-launch. When claiming, the user will receive a mix of FEI and TRIBE, depending on how much they elected to pre-swap. Participants can redeem rewards on https://app.fei.money once Genesis is over.

The FEI-TRIBE liquidity mining incentives will commence in the coming days after Genesis, and rewards will update weekly following the linearly decreasing release schedule. Due to the simultaneous launch of FEI-TRIBE, the initial liquidity mining incentives will be designed to promote widespread use and adoption of FEI as well as to further support the decentralization of Fei Protocol. This will promote decentralized governance as well as the stability and safety of the platform. We expect to provide more details on these liquidity mining programs in the near future.

Summary 🌲

Fei Protocol Genesis will decentralize FEI through the stewardship of Genesis Group participants. The Genesis process was also designed to ensure fair access and opportunity. When ETH is committed, Fei Protocol ensures that all participants receive FEI and TRIBE pro-rata according to their ETH deposited. Participants can also optionally pre-swap a percentage of FEI for TRIBE on the initial liquidity pool.

We are excited for the Fei Protocol Genesis and the community leadership that results from it. We hope you participate! Please review this post and the documentation to ensure you understand what happens during and after Genesis in the protocol.

Stay updated in the Community via Discord, Telegram, and Twitter.

Click here to add the launch to your calendar.

Legal Disclaimers

This announcement has been written and published by Fei Labs, Inc., a for-profit Delaware corporation (“Fei Labs”). The directors and officers of Fei Labs owe fiduciary and contractual duties solely to Fei Labs’ investors. FEI and TRIBE confer no information, voting, economic, fiduciary, contract or other rights against or with respect to the assets or personnel of Fei Labs. The interests of Fei Labs and its directors, officers and investors may differ materially from the interests of TRIBE holders, FEI users and other Fei protocol participants. Fei Labs provides no guarantee, commitment, or undertaking to utilize any of its assets, funds, properties or personnel, FEI users or other Fei protocol participants. Fei Labs does not owe, and does not intend to assume, any duties or obligations to TRIBE holders, FEI users or other Fei protocol participants, other than duties or obligations arising under laws of general application, such as non-waivable torts. Moreover, Fei Labs has various legal, fiduciary and contractual obligations that could conflict with the interests of TRIBE holders, FEI users and other Fei protocol participants.

[Each component of the Fei protocol is licensed for use to the public under the license set forth in the corresponding repository at https://github.com/fei-protocol/fei-protocol-core. Such licenses are subject to important warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability.] To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, all software relating to the Fei protocol is being provided on an as-is, where-is basis, with no representations or warranties being made to TRIBE holders, FEI users or other Fei protocol participants and with no liability to Fei Labs or any other person involved in the development of the Fei protocol. The statements set forth in this announcement also are not intended to be representations, warranties, guarantees or assumptions of duty or liability of any kind, and Fei Labs hereby disclaims the foregoing and will not be liable for any damages arising from use of the Fei protocol, TRIBE or FEI. In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between this announcement or any other communication and the terms of any software license involved in the Fei protocol, the terms of the software license shall govern to the exclusion of this announcement and such other communications.

The forward-looking statements in this announcement are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties which are subject to change over time. Such assumptions, risks and uncertainties could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from the results and developments anticipated by us. Even if our anticipated results and developments are realized, such results and developments may nevertheless fail to achieve any or all of the expected benefits anticipated by this announcement. We reserve the right to change the plans, expectations and intentions stated and implied herein at any time and for any reason or no reason, in our sole and absolute discretion, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

This announcement is not intended to provide legal, financial or investment or other advice and we recommend that you do not rely on, and do not make any financial or other decision based, on this announcement.