Hedged for Success — Apollo + Retrograde Proposal

WhiteWhale will split $3.5m worth of Astro between Apollo and Retrograde.

Proposal:

White Whale will split $3.5million worth of Astro 50/50 between Apollo and Retrograde. For WhiteWhale’s Astro commitment to Retrograde, White Whale will receive Phase 2 lockdrop tokens and a private sale allocation of Retro tokens. Additionally, White Whale will do a treasury swap and participate in Apollo’s lockdrop to obtain Apollo governance tokens The split allocation will best position WW for the Astro Wars because WW will be hedging both token risk and governance power.

Retrograde

High token risk, high governance reward

Pros:

1. Maximizing vxAstro — Retrograde converts all Astro to max-lock vxAstro. Retrograde is singularly focused on Astro. So a single RETRO token will represent max ASTRO vote vs some ASTRO and some ANC.
2. Private Allocation (1million Retro tokens for 100k UST) + Share of Phase 2 Lockdrop (10% Retro Supply) — Best deal for governance tokens from Astro Wars participants
3. Strong Backers — TFL, Delphi, Jump, Hashed, Arrington, Frax, Redacted Cartel, Lido, and more who are most likely committing Astro to Retro
4. Audited — Certik, BT Block

Cons:

1. Singularly focused — If Retro does not win, its governance token will have little value.
2. Riskier Peg Mechanism — Retrograde is relying on Retro token liquidity pool rewards to incentivize liquidity. A peg break would mean users do not receive one Astro for every one retroAstro they own.

Apollo

Low token risk, low governance reward

Pros:

1. Safer Peg Mechanism — Not converting all xAstro to zvxAstro. apAstro represents a share of the zvxAstro-xAstro pool meaning it earns both the enhanced governance yield and the liquidity pool fees and ensures a 1:1 peg because half of the deposited Astro is never converted to zvxAstro.
2. Safer Governance Token — Apollo has multiple other products and a strong treasury making holding their token less risky.
3. Audited — Halborn
4. Treasury Swap (1million Whale for 100k Apollo) + Share of Lockdrop (5% Apollo Supply) — Exposure to Apollo Warchest, Governance Power, Aligned incentives for both protocols

Cons:

1. Not maximizing voting power — Taking the safer route to protect peg requires not max locking every Astro which means Apollo is passing on a significant amount of voting power.

Summary

500k Astro staked with Retrograde, 500k staked with Apollo

Retro Phase 2 Lockdrop — a share of 10% Retro Supply

Private Allocation — 1 million Retro tokens for 100k @ 100 million valuation

Apollo Lockdrop — a share of 5% Apollo Supply

Treasury swap — 1 million Whale tokens for 100k Apollo

Rationale

The most important metric is the amount of locked Astro/amount of governance token. If a protocol has 20 million vxAstro tokens and 10 million governance tokens that means for every one governance token you own you control 2 vxAstro. Basically, the more Astro locked per governance token means the more voting power you receive per token.

We believe Retrograde and Apollo will have the two best Astro to governance token ratios. Retrograde is professionally executing a proven model with strong backers. Apollo’s peg mechanism, strong warchest, and diversified governance token utility will draw a lot of deposits from people worried about not being able to get 1:1 Astro back and prefer holding a token with other sources of yield.

Why not the others?

Reactor

Incentives are not as compelling

Spectrum

Selling Astro for UST is not smart because you want to optimize for retaining Astro.

High TVL with a low amount of Astro means it is harder to get a max boost

Orion

Orion’s NFT model is not the best strategic fit for White Whale