The Agora Dispatch — Olympus Community Weekly Newsletter — Wednesday 18 August 2021
Welcome to the Agora Dispatch — an Olympus community-run newsletter — made by Ohmies, for Ohmies!
Summary
- Guest Editorial — Weathering the Storm
- Pre-discussion OIP-18 — Refresh on bonding, staking, & the 5-day ROI
- Liquidations abound — While the protocol continues to earn LP fees
- OIP-18 — Reward rate reduction — Could it be boolish? Vote now!
- OIP-19 — Approve DAO to pursue strategic swaps — forum post
- Odyssey DAO updates — Asfi University @Brian & @Asfi— Reggae with @D-Shot — Meme Masterclass with @Jman
- First hint of FOHMO 3 — Warzone Trio’s Tournament
- Twitter thread — OIP-18 & how it affects your incoohme
- Ohmie of the Week — @Z0RB (3,3)
- Numbers at a glance — A tough week but more than 340 Ohmies join our ranks
- Ohmie profile — @domPablo
- Meme of the Week — Passive Incoohmer (credit @Smoove(3,3))
- Opportunities to contribute — join us
- Agora’s Learning ancient-Greek mythology series — An Overview of the 12 Olympians
Guest Editorial — Weathering the Storm
“Head down! Feet planted! Shields braced! One step forward, HAROOH! Spear thrust and repeat! That’s how it’s done!”
-Ohmlite Phylarch to the ohmie phalanx in the 2021 cryptoclash
(3, 3) Ohmies keep it steady. Like the hoplites in the Greek phalanx, remember what you learned and advance steadily through the chaos. The allure of a chance moonshot trade is in the unlikeliness that it happens. Like a javelin thrown at a great distance, when it finds its mark it is captivating, but it rarely finds its mark and the soldier has expended equipment and energy for nothing. Breaking the shield wall for glory or safety may seem appealing but many lonely corpses litter the battlefield.
Study the basics and rely on sound strategy. That is how you thrive in chaos. When Tyche is upon you with good fortune embrace her, but remember her capricious nature. Don’t plan on luck.
Remember (3,3) cooperation isn’t a reliance on price. It is a sound strategy, capable of capitalizing on good market performance by building our RFV and treasury through bond sales. A sturdy ship in the turbulent crypto markets.
DYOR, look at the fundamentals, trust your research, and cooperate — Zues willing — WAGMI Ohmies.
#(3,3)
Pre-discussion OIP-18 — Refresh on bonding, Staking & the 5-Day ROI
We’ll get to OIP-18 in a minute but first we want to discuss some fundamental concepts of bonding, staking and the reward rate (or the parameter that helps define APY).
For the ohmies that review their staking page frequently, the following metrics should look familiar:
Additionally, on the left hand menu, you’ve likely spotted the following percentages (bond discounts):
Whenever the ROI (5-Day rate) of staking is below the bond discount, an arbitrage opportunity is created. Put simply, purchasing a bond returns a better rate on your capital than staking for 5 days. The key to remember is that several factors go into this decision, including (but not limited to) current gas prices, size of the trade and if you plan to harvest the bond as it vests linearly over time — @Brian built a great calculator to help you determine the best strategy.
Remember, any time Olympus lowers the reward rate (effectively lowering the reward APY) — the protocol can allow for greater bond inflows. Why? Because it’s now easier for the bond discount to beat the 5-day staking ROI, which makes bonding more attractive than outright staking. Selling bonds is key because it is Olympus’ revenue stream — extending the runway and increasing the treasury’s RFV over time. Shout out to @Zap for creating this advanced dashboard (pictured below if you have great eyesight) of the most critical features of Olympus.
Liquidations abound — While the protocol continues to earn LP fees
We saw quite a number of liquidations in Olympus Pool Party and Tetranode’s Pool 6 on 11 August 2021 — not a nice experience for those involved:
On the other side of the ledger Olympus posted the fourth highest revenue from LP fees:
Despite the string of liquidations (and forced selling by Ohmies who wished to avoid the same fate), the protocol didn’t care and kept generating income from LP fees.
The Olympus protocol owns almost all of the OHM liquidity, meaning every transaction, buy or sell, contributes to the Olympus treasury.
OIP-18 — Reward rate reduction — could it be boolish — vote now!
The Policy team posted OIP-18 recently which seeks to introduce a new reward rate framework and a reduction to the current reward rate.
Many Ohmies voiced their initial dismay at the potential reduction to their OHM acooomulation plans.
One entrepreneurial Ohmie created 42 forum accounts to vote no in the forum temp-check:
Agora tried to inform the discussion with a helpful tweet (our original tweet had a miscalculation pointed out by @sephancill):
Agora’s view is that a reward rate reduction is boolish! It means Olympus can sell bonds for a good rate — fattening our treasury and extending our runway. All the while providing us enough time to integrate with projects giving OHM use cases and permanent pair liquidity.
On 16 August, the Policy team arranged a call to clear the confusion surrounding the proposal and explain the policy-making process. More than 300 Ohmies hopped in the call:
Some key takeaways from what the Policy team said:
- The original making of the proposal was previously planned and unrelated to the price volatility. The proposal has been in the works since OIP-11.
- The proposal does not give the Policy team absolute power to adjust the reward rate. Any future rate reduction outside the proposed framework will still go through a community vote.
- Reducing the reward rate is important if Olympus wishes to pursue partnership with other protocols — the high APY presents a cost opportunity which deters users from utilizing their OHM elsewhere.
Voting on the OIP-18 commenced on 18 August 2021 and will run until 21 August 2021 — currently it is passing with 98% in favor — you can vote here.
OIP-19 — Approve DAO to pursue strategic swaps — forum proposal
Not long after OIP-18 sparked a debate on the forum, @Zeus himself came down from Olympus to propose OIP-19. This proposal authorizes Olympus to pursue strategic swaps of DAO-owned OHM with partner protocols as a way to boost utility. In other words, Olympus can exchange the OHM from the DAO for said partners’ tokens.
While an obvious worry is that this move benefits the partners at the expense of Ohmies (e.g. partners holding large amounts of OHM may present a market risk), @Zeus attempted to address in the post stating that moves like this would be subject to agreements and governance votes of both protocols.
Seems like the direction we should be heading! What do you think? Have your say on the forum.
Odyssey DAO updates — Asfi University with @Asfi & @Brian — Reggae with @D-Shot — Meme masterclass by @Jman
It was a busy week around the art and culture DAO of Olympus with a number of great events.
Asfi University with @Asfi & @Brian
We jumped on to watch @Asfi and @Brian give a great rundown on understanding Olympus — as well as a special lesson on using bonds to maximise your OHM. The 2-hour seminar included Q&A with these two big Brian's and is the first in what’s hoped to be a series of educational sessions for Ohmies over at Odyssey discord. Each time you attend you will receive a rare POAP NFT like this one:
Catch the recording here — and keep an eye out for the next session.
Reggae with @D-Shot
New Ohmie and Reggae DJ @D-Shot followed up the Asfi University with a 2-hour set taking us through some of his favorite Reggae tracks and their significance in the history of the Reggae Genre. We think it was a hit!
Meme Masterclass with @Jman
@Jman brought us up close and personal to his method for creating some of the slickest memes around Olympus. Following the process was eye-opening from ideation, to discovery to the final product:
Let’s do this again @Jman!
First hint of FOHMO 3 — Warzone Trio’s Tournament
It looks like FOHMO 3 will be scheduled in the next month, and it will feature a video game tournament for the first time!
Gather a squad of three — and be the last team standing for great prizes and Ohmie fame. Fill up this form when you are ready to enlist — see you in FOHMO 3 Warzone!
Twitter thread — OIP-18 and how it affects your incooom
We noticed that the posting of OIP-18 has caused some concern and confusion among the Ohmies, especially those who have just joined the Olympus family.
While a reduction in reward rate (read “lower APY”) may seem unattractive, @Asfi argues it actually benefits both the protocol and the Ohmies in the long term. For instance, it allows Olympus to bring in more revenue for every OHM sold.
He breaks down the dynamic at play in this succinct thread. Don’t miss the forest for the trees.
Ohmie of the Week — @Z0RB (3,3)
Thanks to @xYoung for being such a great Ohmie of the week!
This week’s Ohmie of the Week is @Z0RB (3,3) — who provided everyone the uplift they needed in the Community Call — a welcome respite from this very tough week. For being there when Olympus needed him most @Z0RB (3,3) is the Ohmie of the Week!
Numbers at a glance — A tough week but more than 340 Ohmies join our ranks
As we do each week, we returned to Delphi to gather up the latest breakdown of the treasury numbers and protocol statistics (you can access it yourself here if you crave). Please read on for this week’s numbers at a glance:
1. Number of Ohmies: 10921 (+341)
- August 3: 9630
- August 10: 10580
- August 17: 10921
Despite a tumultuous week, Olympus added 341 new Ohmies!!
2. RFV per OHM: $28.02
- 7-day change: -$1.20 (-4.10%)
- 30-day change: +$3.28 (+13.26%)
While off the recent highs, RFV per OHM remains above $28. When the supply of OHM outpaces the revenue inflow, RFV per OHM will drop — this is part of the motivation behind OIP-18 as covered earlier in the newsletter.
3. Current Runway: 298 days
APY Runway has continued a steady upward trend as the protocol revenue growth remains strong. In a bit less than two months, the runway for 20k APY staking rewards has increased from 199 days to 237 days! If you need a recap on what runway is, check out this thread by @xh3b4sd.
4. Protocol Owned Liquidity: >99% (OHM-DAI & OHM-FRAX)
Protocol Owned Liquidity shows the amount of LP tokens owned by the Treasury. For Olympus, this figure is currently greater than 99% for both OHM-DAI LP Tokens and OHM-FRAX LP tokens.
5. Liquidity Providing Fee Generation
- Total LP Fees Generated: $1,931,736
- $204,060 in fees generated in one week!
Via: Dune Dashboard
Shadow has updated the Dune Dashboard to better reflect all the LP fees captured by Olympus! Previously, LP tokens in the Sushi Onsen program were not captured by Croco Finance. We’re excited to share that Olympus has taken in over $1.97M in fees to date. It is worth noting that these LP fees are collected in both OHM and the stable asset (either DAI or FRAX) at 0.25% per trade on Sushiswap and 0.30% on Uniswap.
6. Bond sales (reserve bonds) statistics:
- DAI bonds: 1,615,831 DAI has been bonded in the past week
- Week-over-week growth of -44.61%%
- FRAX bonds: 431,298 FRAX has been bonded in the past week
- Week-over-week growth of -66.86%%*
- *Important Note: The Policy team recently voted to decrease the FRAX and OHM-FRAX bond capacities to keep aligned with the treasury target of 5% of total FRAX supply which is protocol-owned.
7. Bond sales (liquidity bonds) statistics:
- OHM-DAI LP bonds: 215,173 of RFV in a week
- Week-over-week growth of -36.06%
- OHM-FRAX LP bonds: 20,797 of RFV in a week
- Week-over-week growth of -55.08%
For liquidity bonds, only their RFV (risk-free value) rather than the market value is counted. RFV represents the real value of the assets that counts towards the backing of each OHM.
8. Macro numbers from around the cryptoverse:
Ohmie profile — @Dompablo
After arranging to meet, we found @domPablo moderating a debate in the Agora between two aging philosophers. They were having a fairly substantial disagreement about the value of coin money. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity — although we were enjoying a loaf and some olive oil — @domPablo declared the debate a tie — he came and joined us on the steps:
Can you give us a little background of your life before crypto?
I was just your regular 17/18 year old guy studying electrical engineering. I was working almost full time during school as a cook, and I remember it not being sustainable as I need to focus on academics. So I yolod a bunch of student loans into crypto about the time when bitcoin was gaining huge traction towards the 10k mark for the 1st time.
How did you get into crypto?
I ended up investing a lot of money in ethLEND which ended up being AAVE. I bag held the entire 2018–2020 bear market and then noticed it pumped pretty significantly near the end of defi summer (unfortunately i was late to the party). So I started looking into AAVE and what it was capable of and then went looking for similar protocols.
When and how did you join Olympus?
I ended up finding Rari Capital at like sub $10 million market-cap and was absolutely in love with their vision. I spent a lot of time lurking in their discord reading — @Zeus at the time (like January February 2021) was pretty active in there — so I decided to follow him on twitter. I realized he was creating his own project, and he tweeted that if you don’t join his discord you are ngmi or some shit — so i rushed in and found myself at the olympus presale.
I had zero clue what this project was and I was very confused reading the white papers (granted there were like 0 resources, unlike today). I just spammed questions like a middle IQ person till — I thought I understood and then accepted my fate as a (3, 3) degenerate for life. I wanted to make sure I understood what was actually happening and learn so I could explain to friends to ape in as well. This took a couple months till I figured out most of the basics, then the discord became really big and I was pretty close with @Jawz. We DMd each other almost daily at one point and the team was familiar with me since I had nothing better to do as my country was still in lockdown at the time. So I was just apeing in shitcoins and reading discord all day long. I knew they were looking for a Mod so I msgd @Wartull about it and he was pretty happy with the idea and gave me the go ahead.
What are you excited about for Olympus?
The pure innovation we are witnessing in real time unfold in front of us… I mean, I can probably write an essay on this topic, but the vision is just literally so big it can be frightening to say it outloud at times. I am confident though, we have a community of 1000s of ohmies driving to make this protocol succeed which in my opinion could end up being a new world order. The crazy shit that is going on in discord happening right under everyone’s nose is quite hilarious to me
I’m just excited for this long ride, honestly I’ve never been so bullish on a protocol to succeed in my whole life, this IS just something untapped and never done before. This ISN’T some DEX fork or the 18th options protocol I’ve seen, this is actually something new — no idea if it can work or not, and I’m excited to see how this experiment all plays out..
Because if Olympus in 2/3years time ends up controlling over 1billion+ in liquidity I think the possibilities become endless.
I always thought Olympus could become one of the 1st undercollateralized lending protocols as well — with that amount of money and almost having a credit system for customers / other protocols trying to build liquidity.
But yeah besides that, everything else kind of bores me in crypto. Feel like most things have been done already and I love innovation. That’s why I’m huge on rari capitals permissionless pools and Olympus take on a reserve currency.
Meme of the Week — The passive incooohmer (credit @smoove(3,3))
If there is one thing we know it’s that Ohmies love passive incoohm. So when we saw that @Smoove(3,3) created this masterpiece — it just had to be the Meme of the Week!
Opportunities to contribute — join us
To get involved with what is happening atop Mount Olympus, join the DAO Discord.
Once you are in, head to the #dao-start-here channel and read the instruction carefully so that you can get assigned a role.
Have any questions? Just ask in the #general-dao channel and a helpful Ohmie will appear to guide you along your path.
Keep it (3,3), till next week Ohmies — with love from the Agora Dispatch team.
Agora’s Learning ancient-Greek mythology series -
An Overview of the Olympians
Preface: Following their victory in the war against the Titan’s, the God’s chose Mount Olympus, the tallest mountain in Greece, as their domain. Although there are technically twelve Olympic God’s, it is important to note that Hades (Zeus’ brother) rules the Underworld and therefore does not reside on Mount Olympus.
Zeus — Chief God of Olympus, God of the Earth & Sky
o Roman Name: Jupiter
o Symbols: Thunderbolt, Eagle, Bull
o Son of the Titans Cronus & Rhea, Zeus was constantly pursuing affairs with mortals and goddesses alike (to Hera’s chagrin). Of the 12 Olympians, 4 are Zeus’ siblings and 8 are his children.
Hera — Queen of the Gods, Goddess of Women & Marriage
o Roman Name: Juno
o Symbol: Peacock
o Wife to Zeus, Hera’s status as goddess of marriage led her to constantly seek revenge on Zeus’ many mistresses.
Poseidon — God of the Seas, Storms & Horses
o Roman Name: Neptune
o Symbols: Trident, White Horse, Dolphin
o Brother of Zeus, Poseidon was worshipped by much of Ancient Greece as he was the protector of the coastal cities.
Demeter — Goddess of the Harvest, Fertility & Agriculture
o Roman Name: Ceres
o Symbols: Cornucopia, Torch
o Sister of Zeus and mother of Persephone, Demeter maintained the circle of life on Earth and was responsible for altering the seasons.
Ares — God of War, Violence & Courage
o Roman Name: Mars
o Symbols: Sword, Shield, Chariot
o Son of Zeus & Hera, Ares was not well liked by God’s or mortals due to his cranky disposition and short temper. His prowess in battle came from an insatiable desire to destroy his opponents.
Athena — Goddess of Wisdom & Handicraft
o Roman Name: Minerva
o Symbols: Owl, Spear, Olive Branch
o Daughter of Zeus and Metis (mortal), Athena was a cunning warrior who relied on intelligence in battle rather than brute force, like Ares.
Artemis — Goddess of the Hunt, Wilderness & the Moon
o Roman Name: Diana
o Symbols: Bow & Arrow, the Moon
o Twin sister of Apollo and daughter of Zeus & Leto (Titan), Artemis was known for her love of the wilderness and hunting, along with her skills with a bow & arrow.
Apollo — God of Light, Philosophy, Music & the Arts
o Roman Name: Apollo
o Symbols: Lyre, Wreath, Swan
o Twin brother of Artemis, Apollo is undoubtedly one of the most important gods in all Greek mythology, with countless myths with him at the center of the story. All of the oracles in ancient Greece were also dedicated to Apollo.
Hephaestus — God of the Forge, Invention & Fire
o Roman Name: Vulcan
o Symbols: Hammer, Anvil
o Son of Zeus & Hera, Hephaestus was the blacksmith of the God’s who crafted many famous pieces of mythological equipment such as Hermes’ winged sandals and Achilles’ armor
Aphrodite — Goddess of Love, Beauty & Pleasure
o Roman Name: Venus
o Symbols: Dove, Pearl, Rose
o Wife to Hephaestus & mother to Eros (Cupid), Aphrodite was a beautiful but shallow goddess who constantly had affairs. Hephaestus modeled Pandora, the first woman, after Aphrodite.
Hermes — God of Travel, Commerce & Diplomacy
o Roman Name: Mercury
o Symbols: Rooster, Satchel, Winged Hat & Shoes
o Son of Zeus & Maia (nymph), Hermes was the messenger god who was tricky and silver-tongued. He knew all the secrets in ancient Greece.
Dionysus — God of Wine, Festivals & Madness
o Roman Name: Bacchus
o Symbols: Grapevine, Chalice
o Son of Zeus & Semele (mortal), Dionysus was portrayed as a free spirit who loved theatre, partying and drinking wine.
Hades (Honorable Mention: Underworld) — God of the Underworld
o Roman Name: Pluto
o Symbols: Serpent
o Brother of Zeus, Hades resided in the Underworld (the world of the dead) along with his 3-headed Dog, Cerberus.
