Introducing FRMx: A Sustainable Staking Governance Token

Ian M. Friend, Esq.

Published in

FerrumNetwork

7 min readOct 13, 2020

Dear Ferrum Community,

Last week, we announced our upcoming advanced staking system — Liquidity Staking: Flexible Multi-Token Staking.

Today, we are thrilled to reveal the details surrounding FRMx — our new derivative staking and governance token.

FRMx is a new kind of governance token — with valuable utilities, long term sustainability, a fair launch, and designed to add tremendous value to the entire Ferrum ecosystem.

The Problem with Yield Farming Tokens: No Inherent Value or Sustainability

The problem with the majority of yield farming tokens is that they have no meaningful utility. Because there is no compelling reason to use or hold these tokens, people farm the tokens, sell their holdings, and move onto the next farming project.

Furthermore, since the most of the projects behind these tokens are not revenue generating businesses, it’s nearly impossible for the average farming/staking system to sustain itself over the long term.

FRMx is Different

First, FRMx it is imbued with many valuable utilities, and it grants its holders governance over the FRMx and FRM staking regimes. This means that FRMx holders will inform, shape and vote on the structure of upcoming FRM and FRMx staking rounds.

Moreover, FRMx is sustainable. Remember the FRM we buy back off the secondary market from the revenue generated from our Staking-as-a-Service business? So far we have bought back over 1,000,000 FRM and counting…

This FRM will be used to create a sustainable ecosystem where it can be staked to earn FRMx, and that FRMx will be returned to the ecosystem as rewards for subsequent staking rounds. To add more sustainability to the system, we can simply buy back FRMx and use that as rewards for staking FRM. As we generate more revenue from our upcoming products like our P2P fiat/altcoin exchange platform, our cross-chain DEX, and the Foundry incubator, the system will create a positive feedback loop, ensuring that FRMx is readily available for farming and staking for years to come.

And because FRMx has at least half a dozen utilities, there are plenty of reasons to simply hold FRMx and enjoy its many benefits.

FRMx Utilities

There will be 7 core utilities for the FRMx token to start, with more in the pipeline that we will be revealing in the coming months. One can compare the FRMx token to the American Express Black Card: rare, valuable, and useful. Here is a rundown of the utilities:

Staking Governance

A core utility of the FRMx token is to govern the FRM/FRMx staking regimes. The FRMx governance committee will consist of individuals who hold a threshold amount of FRMx and FRM in their UniFyre Wallet. The committee will propose and vote on decision concerning staking, liquidity pools, Pool Drops, and more. Here are a few examples of items that governance committee will preside over:

The structure of staking rounds (APY, length of staking, size of pools, etc)
The timing of launching staking pools
The tokens involved in each staking round, such as staking FRM to earn FRMx; staking FRM to other project’s tokens like FRM -> Gather; FRM -> UniFi; FRM -> Meridian, etc; or staking FRM to earn FRM.

The details regarding how much FRMx one must hold and other benefits are explained in the governance section below.

Greater Value from Pre-Sales

Another unique aspect of the Ferrum Network ecosystem is our incubator — The Foundry — where we help bring promising early stage projects, like Bondly, to the market. As many know, anyone holding 100,000+ FRM in their UniFyre Wallet can qualify for pre-sales in incubated projects. However, holding FRMx provides even greater access and value.

50% Greater Allocations

By holding a threshold amount of FRMx (a reasonable amount to be determined post-launch after the price has settled), holders will be entitled to a 50% greater allocation.

Option to Auction Off Unwanted Allocations

For those that hold FRMx but don’t want to invest in the pre-sale, we are developing a system where FRMx holders can auction off their allocation. Therefore, FRMx holders can generate value for themselves even if they don’t want to invest in a particular project.

Staking FRM to Earn FRMx

Another valuable use case for FRMx — and the primary way to obtain it — is by staking FRM to earn FRMx. But rather than the Ferrum team determining the details around those staking rounds, we are empowering the FRMx/FRM holders to help shape the upcoming FRM staking rounds.

By requiring that the governance committee members hold both FRM and FRMx, these individuals will have the best interests of the project in mind in structuring these staking rounds.

Another benefit of the FRM -> FRMx staking regime is that it eliminates inflation on the FRM token because rewards are not given in FRM, they are given in FRMx. And because the value of the FRMx token is high relative to a FRM, the staking rewards will be higher than otherwise would have been possible. We will release more information on the FRM -> FRMx staking round in the near future.

Staking the FRMx/FRM LP Token to Earn FRM/FRMx

One amazing feature of our advanced Liquidity Staking technology is that users can stake their LP tokens to earn native tokens. Therefore, we will be running staking rounds (structured by our governance committee), where users can stake their LP tokens to earn native tokens, including FRM and FRMx. This system will increase liquidity on Uniswap and prevent participants from abruptly removing their liquidity.

Liquidity Provider Rewards

We will also implement a standard liquidity pool program whereby LP providers can earn FRMx for providing liquidity to the FRM liquidity pool. More details on the standard Liquidity Pool program will be released shortly.

FRMx Pool Drops to 100,000+ FRM Holders

Because the amount of FRMx in the initial circulating supply is extremely small, we will be conducting a FRMx Pool Drop to everyone holding 100,000+ FRM in their UniFyre Wallet. The timing, amount, and other details concerning the FRMx Pool Drops will be announced a few days after the FRMx launch.

FRMx NFTs

Finally, we will be minting a small number unique FRMx NFTs, initially reserved for the governance committee members. These NFTs will backed by FRM to ensure they have inherent value. Holding a FRMx NFT will entitle its holder to additional benefits, which we will be revealing in the coming weeks and months.

FRMx Token Economics

The FRMx token supply is designed to be scarce, with the vast majority of the supply is reserved for staking, LP and FRM holder rewards.

Total Supply: 33,000 FRMx
Reserves: 97.5% reserved for staking, LP rewards and FRM holder rewards
Listing: 2.5% for FRMx listing on Uniswap

FRMx Fair Launch

FRMx will be a “fair launch”. Meaning there has been no pre-sale. No one has bought a single FRMx token prior to its listing on Uniswap. This is critical because it means there will be no initial sell pressure.

Second, we will only be announcing the contract address and other details AFTER we list on Uniswap. Therefore, the ONLY legitimate information on FRMx will be communicated through the official Ferrum Network Announcement Channel and our Twitter channel. This will help protect against scammers that may attempt to create a fake FRMx token.

Here’s the critical information concerning the launch:

Price per 1 FRMx at launch: $20
Amount of FRMx listed at launch: 825 FRMx
Percentage of circulating launch: 2.5%
Initial market cap at launch: $16,500

FRMx Governance Details

For those interested in joining the FRM and FRMx governance committee, members must hold at least 20 FRMx tokens (note: FRMx holding requirement is subject to change if its value becomes exceedingly high) PLUS 100,000 FRM in their UniFyre Wallet. As more FRMx enters the market, the governance committee will decide whether they wish to increase the holding requirement.

We will take the first snapshot 2 days after FRMx is integrated into UniFyre Wallet, and will begin taking snapshots twice per month to regularly monitor the holding requirement. Those who qualify will be invited to a private group where committee proposals and decisions will be made and voted on.

Aside from the right to make decisions concerning our staking, committee members will have additional benefits such as:

50% greater referral fees for referring staking projects (from the standard $500 to $750)
Additional 2x FRM for each monthly FRM Pool Drop (e.g. if you are a governance member, you’ll get 4x monthly FRM as compared to a standard 100,000+ holder)
FRMx NFTs: we will mint a small number of unique FRMx NFTs for our governance committee members.
And more benefits to be announced!

What’s Next

Sometime at the end of this week we will launch FRMx on Uniswap! Please stay tuned to our official announcement channels!

Thank You

We want to thank our entire community, and certain individuals in particular for helping us design the FRMx token. We could not do this without your support!

Very truly yours,

-The Ferrum Network Team

About Ferrum Network

Ferrum Network is building a DeFi ecosystem that interoperates across chains and removes barriers to mass adoption with user-friendly products for swapping, staking, and transferring cryptocurrencies. Ferrum’s non-custodial UniFyre Wallet has already revolutionized the way people send crypto with its “Link Drop” technology, and is transforming the OTC market with risk-free OTC swaps embedded in a shareable link. Ferrum’s Staking-as-a-Service is now used by dozens of projects, and our multi-token Liquidity Staking along with the FRMx token will revolutionize the staking industry. Look for Ferrum to launch more transformative DeFi technology throughout 2020 and beyond.