FLOAT Launch — TLDR + adjustment of dates

Published in

Float Protocol

4 min readMay 3, 2021

As published last week, we are fast approaching our Genesis and Launch. In general, there was a lot of positive feedback but also a little confusion. Therefore, we are issuing this article to clarify the details and allow for a bit more breathing room between the end of Phase 3 and the launch.

Change of timeline:

First, we are changing the timeline so that Phase 3 (scheduled to end Sunday 9th May at 10pm UTC), where we incentive the BANK-ETH SLP, does not overlap with the Launch plan.

Phase 4 (including the Genesis, FLOAT minting incentives/rewards) will last from Sunday 9th May 10pm UTC to Sunday 13th June 10pm UTC.

The Genesis Period, where you can buy FLOAT, will start on Sunday 9th May at 10pm UTC and end on Saturday 15th May 10pm UTC (previously it was scheduled to start on Thursday 6th May). This will also allow a longer period for people to stake into the BANK-only pool to be able to participate in buying FLOAT.

Overview of Launch

What is the aim of the Genesis?

Distribute the FLOAT token and seed enough liquidity for the auctions (which stabilise the price daily) to work, whilst also trying to avoid problems of FEI where people get FLOAT only to dump it immediately for a small profit.

Who can buy FLOAT?

You can only buy FLOAT if you are staked in the new BANK-only pool (details below) during the Genesis period, i.e between Sunday 9th May at 10pm UTC and Saturday 15th May 10pm UTC.

The reason for this is that, at the beginning, we want FLOAT holders to be BANK holders so that they properly understand and experience how our system works.

This applies only to the Genesis Period, after that you will be able to buy FLOAT normally on the market or during an expansion auction.

How do I buy FLOAT?

You deposit USDC, USDT, DAI, FEI or ETH for FLOAT. These deposits will be exchanged into FLOAT at the end of the Genesis Period (i.e. Saturday 15th May at 10pm UTC).

How much FLOAT can I buy?

For every BANK you are staking during the Genesis Period, you may purchase 100 FLOAT.

How much will FLOAT cost?

The price of FLOAT at launch will be $1.618, which is the golden ratio in mathematics and a homage to the fact a monetary system needs to be in harmony to work.

Note, as this is a floating currency, we expect the price to change a bit daily 😉.

What pools/incentives will there be for the launch?

There will be 4 incentivised pools at launch.

First two pools (rewards starting Sunday 9th May 10pm UTC and ending Sunday 13th June 10pm UTC):

BANK-only: 400 BANK per week, but you can only stake into this pool during the Genesis Period (you can unstake anytime* but no restaking).

BANK-ETH SLP: 400 BANK per week. Note this is a different pool to the current BANK-ETH pool from Phase 3 — you will need to restake into this pool to participate.

Second two pools (rewards starting Sunday 16th May 10pm UTC and ending Sunday 13th June 10pm UTC)

FLOAT-ETH SLP: 1200 BANK per week.

FLOAT-only: 100 BANK per week.

*Importantly, in order to discourage short-termism, if you request to unstake from any of the pools, your stake is locked for 8 days and ⚠️ you will no longer receive rewards during this period. ⚠️

Overall timeline:

Wednesday 5th May: Litepaper released.
Sunday 9th May 10pm UTC: Phase 3 ends and Phase 4 begins. New BANK-only pool and BANK-ETH SLP rewards start.
Sunday 9th May 10pm UTC to Saturday 15th May 10pm UTC: Genesis period to stake into the BANK-only pool to be able to buy FLOAT (100 FLOAT per 1 BANK).
Saturday 15th May 10pm UTC: FLOAT minting — deposits are converted into FLOAT.
Sunday 16th May 10pm UTC: Rewards start for FLOAT-ETH SLP and FLOAT-only FLP.
Sunday 16th May 10pm UTC: First auction takes place.

Upgrading BANK

To flag to the community, we will be upgrading the BANK token over the coming days.

The BANK token, as deployed originally, doesn’t natively support burning tokens, which is a key feature of Float Protocol. Currently, the only way to burn BANK tokens is to send them to the void zero address where the tokens can’t be accessed — this obscures the change in total supply as the tokens can still appear to be circulating. We want the burn feature to be part of the token itself.

To implement the burn feature into the token, this requires a token upgrade. This has been covered by the existing audit, and the token functionality originates from the standard OpenZeppelin Contracts. Furthermore the upgrade includes the permit function as part of the ERC20 token, saving users gas fees as there would be no need to constantly approve before sending the tokens. You can check out a full upgraded testnet version.

Yours excitedly,
Abbey Road Hackers 🤘