August 2, 2022
The following post contains a recap of news, projects, and important updates from the Spartan Council and Core Contributors, as well as the Grants Council and Ambassador Council from last week.
Spartan Council and SIP updates
Present at the July 28, 2022 Spartan Council Weekly Project Sync:
Spartan Council: Afif, Ale, Burt Rock, Danijel, Kain, ksett, SynthaMan, TerraBellus
Core Contributors: Cavalier, Darius, KALEB, Matt, noah, Steve, Sunny
We had some pretty exciting updates this past week! Synth bridges were incorporated into the staking site UI, powered by socket in the backend. They can be used to send sUSD/SNX and other coins to and from Optimism and Ethereum. And even more good news — the enabling of sUSD as collateral on Aave V3 was completed! This is now one more use case for sUSD on Optimism.
In V2X-related news, SIP-258 is currently on testnet and should be out of audit shortly. As a reminder, this SIP will update the atomic price methodology by incorporating directionality of the trade into the Uniswap price aggregation method. This SIP is still top priority at the moment.
The universal circuit breaker, which will update the current contract to support oracles outside the regular price system, is also currently in audit. And lastly for V2X updates, SIP-257 to create a futures market for Synthetix debt share price, is just finishing up its internal review.
Last week Noah also gave a high-level overview of V3. Here’s a brief update:
- A lot of the SIP-301 implementation is in a good spot to start getting things in audit after its approval
- Db is working on a draft implementation for SIP-305
- After that, there’s just SIPs 304 and 306 left — the team is hoping to have draft implementations and presentations ready for these over the next month
And speaking of SIP-301, it was also presented last week by Noah. As a reminder, this SIP proposes the creation of staking accounts in V3 where users can mint an NFT that represents their account, and delegate specific permissions for that account to other addresses. Noah explained that stakers will be represented by an NFT rather than an address, making this a much better UX since stakers can just transfer the NFT to different wallets to move staking positions. It could also create a secondary market for staking accounts, which is potentially interesting.
During the presentation, Ale asked how the implementation would behave in terms of moving an account to another chain, and Noah explained that it is currently still contained within a single chain. Terra also asked if the personal security would be worse in this new model, and Noah said nope, it may even make it safer. This is because the proposed composability upgrades would allow users to claim from a different wallet than the one their funds are in, which could actually add a layer of security.
Towards the end of the Spartan Council meeting, Terra brought up partnerships that the protocol made without going through governance — Jump and Gauntlet — and questioned how transparency could be improved on deals such as these. Kain replied saying this is a Treasury Council function, who the community elects to do these types of deals in the best interest of the protocol. They also have the discretion to act in a time of crisis if they see fit. Ksett agreed that it’s not really feasible to make the terms of these deals public in any way prior to their execution, and Terra suggested possibly be able to retroactively review them. The general agreement was that there should be some more transparency, but not necessarily because anyone didn’t agree with the decisions that the Treasury Council made.
Lastly, there were a couple other SIP presentations this past week. Let’s briefly review them:
SIP-261: Add Futures Volume Program
- Burt presented this SIP, explaining that it will implement a volume program for Synthetic Futures that rewards partner protocols based on the proportion of overall Synthetic Futures volume that each partner generates on a weekly basis
- He said this will directly benefit stakers since all of the volume generated by the programs would accumulate fees that are distributed
- Proposed rewards: 4,000 SNX weekly
- Terra asked what the approval process look likes, and Burt explained that the only mandate at the moment is a simple application process (but this is open to feedback from Council)
- This is being proposed as an intermediate fix until Futures V2 brings the volume source
SIP-263: Clarify the Definition of Unanimity in Meta-Governance Votes
- If you recall, this was first proposed as an SCCP by Terra, but has now been rewritten into this SIP, per the feedback received last week
- This rewritten SIP proposes a clarification of the circumstances in which meta-governance votes conducted by the Spartan Council may be considered valid. If approved, it would mean that iYES votes from dismissed Council members would not be necessary for a unanimous vote result to pass
- This is being put to a vote
Grants Council
Present at the July 28, 2022 Grants Council meeting:
Grants Team: ALEXANDER, CT, cyberduck, JVK, Mike
In Grants Council updates, the dev work for the SIP submission site UI is mostly done, Jade is now helping with the graphics and appearance of the page. The team is also still working out the details of the site, such as where it will be hosted.
The Wrappr UI hosting details are also currently being worked out, and CT and duck have given feedback to the devs. The last remaining step is Core Contributor input for final decision and code review. JVK will also be putting together some questions for wrapper FAQs.
The Stats page is still in progress, the Council is just waiting for feedback from the dev on all of the data sources he is using. They will also be getting input from Kaleb to see if there is a better data solution.
Last week the team had a meeting with Universe.XYZ to discuss payment terms, for which they were able to come to an agreement. Universe will also be helping to build the mint contract.
The Council is also currently exploring ways to create more video content, such as offering retroactive grants. For example, there were recently a couple of Thai explainer videos shared in the public grants-council channel in Discord. The team will especially be looking for videos such as these that share content in other languages!
Ambassador Council
Present at the July 28, 2022 Ambassador Council meeting:
Ambassadors: mastermojo, Matt, MiLLiE
In Ambassador updates, the team met with the designer who will be building out the new Ambassador Council landing page. Jade and another designer will be collecting all of the content that should be on the page and styling it from there. Jade recommended keeping the style closest to the main Synthetix design to not confuse users.
The Council has also been discussing some possible integrations, and upcoming Spartan Spaces. One of which will be happening tomorrow with PoolTogether! So don’t forget to tune in to the Twitter Space tomorrow at 6pm UTC.
And speaking of Spartan Spaces, the team also hosted one last week! This time they had Kwenta on again, where we got to hear from Andrew and Jeremy. Andrew has been in crypto for a few years, working on a variety of different projects. He started at Synthetix 2 years ago, and helped spin Kwenta off into its own project. Jeremy also started at Synthetix, as a frontend engineer, and is now the lead dev at Kwenta.
They discussed some of Kwenta’s goals and objectives, including aiming to be the de facto derivative platform of DeFi and competing with the CEX trading experience.😎 Andrew added that building on Synthetix has provided Kwenta access to very deep liquidity and zero slippage trading, so they are very grateful. They currently have about $3 billion in total volume, with about $50 million per day during volatile periods. And this is all organic! It’s not a result of any trading incentives.
Kwenta also had some cool recent updates to share, including bringing on a team of experts, a UI that has really improved with the addition of a mobile app, and leverage being extended to 25x for some markets.
When asked about synth swaps, the guests explained that they enable users to trade synths for ERC-20 tokens on L2. This was done in partnership with 1-inch, and they would eventually like to expand functionality to L1, but it’s not a priority right now.
As for some recent Kwenta Improvement Proposals, they have their token launch set for November 1st!! ❗ Kwenta is also starting to add cross-margin and advanced orders, and is hoping to simplify the process for using futures. They are looking to do 1-click 1-transaction flows, and estimate having an internal beta by the end of August.
The Ambassadors also asked Andrew and Jeremy about their tokenomics and what their copy trading plans are, to which they said they’ll be launching copy trading as close to 1-click as possible — it’s still early in feasibility, but they hope to have it out this year. And as for their tokenomics, here’s the breakdown they gave for Kwenta:
- 30% — Synthetix Stakers
- 5% — synthetix.exchange and early Kwenta Traders
- 5% — Investment
- 25% — Community Growth Fund
- 15% — Core Contributors
- 20% — Kwenta Treasury
And they said the Kwenta supply is expected to triple over the next 4 years!
Mojo also asked the team some fun questions like who the best trader is and who gets liquidated the most. And their answer to both was…Marko. 😂
Lastly, the guests discussed topics such as how they are surviving and will continue to survive in the bear market, and how the protocol helps Synthetix. Their answers? They are very well-funded, and Kwenta is a big driver of volume! And they are always looking for ways to drive volume even further.
All in all, it was a great call with our friends at Kwenta. Don’t forget to catch the recording if you missed it!
Podcast now also on YOUTUBE
SNXweave Anchor Podcast: https://anchor.fm/snxweave
Follow us on Twitter! @snx_weave
SIP/SCCP status tracker:
SIP-258: Trade Directionality In Pricing of Atomic Swaps,
SIP-230: Universal Circuit Breaker,
SIP-257: Debt-ratio futures market,
SIP-301: Accounts (V3),
SIP-305: Staking Incentives (V3),
SIP-304: Liquidations (V3),
SIP-306: Collateral Migration (V3),
SIP-261: Add Futures Volume Program,
SIP-263: Clarify the Definition of Unanimity in Meta-Governance Votes,
