RAMP: Reinventing 2022

A Plan To Revitalize RAMP

• As we march into 2022, we see a vastly different crypto environment as compared to 2021, where bond purchases and capital inflows brought the crypto markets to an all-time high.
• Today, the global macro uncertainty of inflation, rate hike expectations and war has injected fear, doubt and uncertainty in investors.
• Under a challenging macro outlook, the RAMP team has reviewed the current state of the project progress. In particular, much of the RAMP utility design, infrastructure and incentives are now legacy. Multiple assumptions around macro conditions, tokenomics and user behavior made in 2020/2021 are no longer valid in 2022.
• With this in mind, we believe a rebuild of the RAMP project from ground up will open up new opportunities and drive clearer value accrual for our community.
• We are proposing a new roadmap, new product and updated plans to the community to revitalize RAMP.
• This is a high-level summary roadmap. The topics below will be covered in greater detail over more articles, and subsequently uploaded for community voting across March.

(I) New Product — Leveraged Trading with Yield-Bearing Collateral

• In the process of building the RAMP platform, we have many learnings and discoveries.
• A major problem for DeFi in general is that TVL and utility are propped up through constant emissions, which is not sustainable over the long run.
• This also applies to RAMP, where the capital demands to develop rUSD liquidity pools and maintain the peg strains both the token value and financial resources.
• With this as the context, we have been hard at work designing a useful DeFi product that can deliver value for users WITHOUT constant emissions.

Introducing LeverFi — Up To 10X Leveraged Trading Using Yield-Bearing Collateral

• One of DeFi’s unsolved problems is the issue of TVL under-utilization. Actual trading yields (otherwise known as real yields) for liquidity pools are low once emissions are discounted. To compensate, DEXs have to continually give emissions to satisfy liquidity providers (LPs) to retain their liquidity.
• At the same time, lending platforms in the market are overcollateralized lending. This means that users are not able to borrow above the value of their collateral. Borrowers typically risk liquidation to borrow a fraction of highly volatile asset values, which is inefficient.
• LeverFi bridges this gap by matching traders seeking liquidity for leverage with lenders within our platform. Utilizing the team’s proven expertise in asset yield deployments, LeverFi allow users to maximize the value of their yield-bearing collateral to go either long or short at up to 10x leverage with just one-click.
• LeverFi delivers value for users under all market conditions. Whether markets are bullish, bearish, or simply sideways, users can act accordingly to capture opportunities on longs, shorts or even to hedge against exposures on a portfolio management level.
• Want to buy the BTC dip? Just deposit $10,000 worth of collateral in the form of USDC, USDT or Curve-LP tokens that continues to generate 5–10% APR for you, and access up to $100,000 in trading capital to buy the dip.
• Think that ETH is overpriced? Short it on LeverFi with one click at up to 10x leverage using yield-bearing collateral, but remember to put a stop loss in case the markets go parabolic!
• LeverFi will launch with long/short leverage markets for major assets such as BTC and ETH, with more assets to be added along with new chain deployments.
• With smart asset management, we expect that the LeverFi platform will require zero emissions to operate.
• Protocol fees are expected to be generated from (i) 0.1% trading fee on trading volumes, and (ii) a 1% spread on lending/borrowing rates.

Benefits for Token Holders and Users

• This is an opportunity to transit from an emissions-heavy product into a low-emissions product that delivers sustainable value for lenders, traders and token holders.
• Subject to community voting approval, RAMP token emissions for the collateralized stablecoin lending platform to be reduced to zero over a period of 8 weeks.

(II) LeverFi — Project Rebrand and Token Swap

• As the RAMP project and community evolve from a micro-cap project launch, we continue to innovate and reorganize to better serve the broad crypto and the RAMP community.

Rebranding RAMP DEFI to LeverFi

• Subject to the product transition, we propose that RAMP DEFI be rebranded into LeverFi, with LEVER as the new token ticker.
• LEVER is a better representation of the project’s positioning — a focus on high capital efficiency and maximizing yield opportunities to ship innovative leveraged solutions in the DeFi space.

Swap RAMP for LEVER at 1:35 Ratio

• With a new product and brand revamp, a token swap from RAMP to LEVER is also required to take place, and we propose that this be undertaken at a 1:35 redenomination.
• This means that for every 1 RAMP token, users can swap for 35 LEVER tokens.
• This is a straightforward token redenomination and swap — there are no additional token issuances or changes to token distribution / allocation.
• Once confirmed via community voting, we will reach out to exchange partners to discuss and work out the swap arrangements, and also prepare an on-chain swap contract for the token swap.

Umbrella Entity To Identify Opportunities and Launch New Products

• Along with the token rebranding, the RAMP team has also undergone an internal reorganization. The development and operations team is now rebranded to Galaxia Labs, forming an umbrella entity to develop, grow and sustain multiple utility products.
• The core vision of Galaxia Labs is to identify gaps where financial innovation can take place, and build meaningful utility solutions that address these gaps. This means not just within DeFi, but also across areas such as infrastructure, user tools, NFTs, GameFi and SocialFi.
• Equity financing for Galaxia Labs has been completed to provide a self-sustaining runway powering future product developments.

Value Accrual to Token Holders

• Going forward, Galaxia Labs will continue to design and build out financial products and solutions with practical utility. This may be done independently by the team, or in collaboration with partners.
• New products may be launched as token projects or simply as fee-generating utility products (non-token), with value to be accrued towards token holders in the form of airdrops, token buybacks, staking incentives and more.

(III) Holder-Centric Governance Model and Incentives

• Along with the new product development and project rebranding, we are proposing a new governance model built around developing a community of long-term committed holders.
• This new model prioritizes users who lock up their tokens for longer periods with more rewards, incentives and a larger voice within the community.

Governance Staking

• Users can stake LEVER tokens for varying lock-up periods to accumulate LVR tokens, which is a measure of Governance Power.
• Lock-up periods range from one month to three months, with a higher multiplier being applied for users who stake longer.
• Users who stake LEVER tokens for one month gets a 1x multipler; users who stake LEVER tokens for two months gets a 2x multiplier; and users who stake LEVER tokens for three months gets a 3x multiplier.
• As an example, a user who lock up LEVER tokens for three months can expect to accumulate LVR tokens at thrice the rate as compared to users who lock up the same number of LEVER tokens for one month.
• LVR can be staked, traded, used in governance, or to participate in airdrop incentive programs.

*Governance staking updated as of 9 September 2023. For more information, please reference https://medium.com/leverfi.

Prioritizing Committed Long-Term Holders

• The above model shift incentives, value accrual and governance rights towards committed long-term holders.
• The above model means that smaller positions may derive the same, if not more, utility and benefits from LeverFi versus bigger position holders just by being willing to lock up over a longer period.