[AIP-64] Hyperlock - an Aura Franchise

Summary

This proposal seeks to ratify Hyperlock as the first Aura DAO franchise, serving as a meta-governance and yield-boosting layer for Thruster - the future flagship DEX on Blast, backed by large Blast depositors, investors, and builders.

The success of this AIP will drive utility back to Aura DAO in the form of a large share of any potential future HYPER tokens, governance power and extending Aura’s influence to new ecosystems. This ensures a symbiotic and mutually beneficial partnership between Hyperlock and Aura.

What is Hyperlock?

Hyperlock is a meta-governance protocol, yield-booster and liquidity marketplace built on top of Thruster. In order for Thruster to scale quickly and ensure the sustained expansion of liquidity, they are implementing a VE token system (veTHRUST). Hyperlock will aggregate veTHRUST, vote-escrowed Thruster Token (THRUST) and pass back it’s value to Hyperlock users:

  • For LPs: Earn boosted yields without having to lock THRUST
  • For Hyper Stakers (vlHYPER): Control of THRUST + HYPER emissions
  • For Thrust Lockers (hyperTHRUST): Earn thruster protocol fees without being locked in
  • For DAOs: Capital efficient liquidity mining and concentrated liquidity range boosting
  • For Blast: A solid liquidity stack for the rest of defi to leverage and exciting new native yield mechanics to capitalize on.

Hyperlock will initially be comprised of Aura contributors, with a tentative medium-term plan of becoming independent. Pending ratification, a separate foundation will be established to ensure a strong and self-sufficient future for Hyperlock.

Points Program as Go To Market

In the initial stage of the Blast mainnet deployment, both Blast and Thruster will operate without a token. Throughout this phase Thruster will implement a points program focused on maximizing liquidity.

The Aura DAO will enable Hyperlock to establish a points program to supplement Thruster points, to best onboard LPs directly to Hyperlock and bootstrap an initial share of veTHRUST.

LPs on Thruster will accrue Thruster points; they can further deposit their Thruster LPs into the Hyperlock points system to accrue hyperTHRUST points and HYPER points. In short, early Hyperlock users will get access to a triple threat of incentives: BLAST points, THRUST points, and HYPER points.

Thruster

Thrusters core product centers around its concentrated liquidity (CL) AMM with native yield integrations and a supporting fair launch product suite. Thruster is positioned to lead as Blast’s primary DEX and liquidity layer, with over a dozen Blast-native protocols onboarded for upcoming integrations and token launches.

Supporters of Thruster include Aura contributor 0xMaha, Redacted co-founder 0xSami, contributors from JonesDAO, Chris, Badger DAO founder, and others aligned with metagovernance concepts and Thruster/Hyperlock specifically.

Potential Thruster features to drive value to Hyperlock are:

  • Direct frontend integrations
  • Incorporating Hyperlock yield into Thruster Spaceport partners
  • Encouraging early Thruster supporters to lock THRUST and provide liquidity.

We see building on Thruster via Hyperlock as a great opportunity for Aura DAO to:

  • Gain exposure to one of the most anticipated L2s of 2024
  • Build on top of Thrusters CFMM and CL AMM, fair launch features, and veToken
  • Capitalize on being the first mover to a new chain with an existing large pool of capital

Together, Thruster and Hyperlock are poised to boost liquidity, increase trading volume, and provide a premier venue for DAOs and traders.

Blast

Blast has accrued over $1.25 billion worth of deposits across over 100,000 addresses. Should it launch today, Blast would be the 6th largest chain by TVL and the second-largest L2. Conversations we have had with Blast lead us to believe it is set to host a vibrant DeFi landscape. There is a large pool of capital, outsized developer incentives and infrastructure and an ecosystem of native builders poised for rapid growth.

Proposal

Aura DAO’s deep understanding of liquidity markets and strong synergies with strategic partners such as Redacted, Gnosis, and JonesDAO position it as an extremely valuable springboard for Hyperlock’s success.

Aura’s commitment

It is requested that, Aura DAO’s early support of Hyperlock would provide the latter with access to Aura’s well-established smart contract base, front-end elements, and brand association, creating a solid foundation for Hyperlock’s growth and recognition within the ecosystem.

Aura’s impact on Balancer’s continued success has been evident. With the initial backing of the Aura DAO we anticipate that Hyperlock will bring comparable value to Thruster and the Blast ecosystem.

In a subsequent AIP, Hyperlock will seek approval for a ~$200k loan from Aura DAO to cover critical operations, including security audits, legal, and contracting costs. This amount will be returned to Aura DAO once Hyperlock launches. Additionally, Aura DAO is committed to supporting and enabling the Hyperlock points system as well as support with the initial marketing and partnerships.

Hyperlocks’s commitment

In return for Aura’s support, Hyperlock is committed to delivering value back to Aura in the form of:

  • A share of any potential $HYPER Token for vlAURA holders
  • A share of any potential $HYPER supply streamed over 3 years to the Aura DAO
  • Liquidity incentives for HYPER/AURA v3 farms on Thruster
  • Sharing of protocol fees collected on Hyper
  • Access to a pool of resources for development on shared resources and protocol development

Voting

This proposal acts as a temperature check for the official ratification of Hyperlock as an Aura franchise. A “Yes” vote gives the approval for the Franchise partnership to develop, looking forward to the subsequent AIP mentioned above. A “No” vote signals that the terms need to be re-addressed.

Subject 2

7 Likes

Very interesting imo, and like all new endeavours pretty risky :slight_smile:

The $200k loan is a big sum compared to the ~$226k Aura budget for 2024. Any ways to mitigate risk here, perhaps some kind of milestone based funding? And also how will this loan be managed, will it be a legally backed agreement between the Aura foundation and its subsidiary and Hyperlock or some kind of DOA to DAO gentleman/woman type of deal?

Super exciting. This is a great proposal and well needed promise for something happening in the land of the Purple Coin. I have one minor concern:

The Aura commitments are stated as follows:

  • Access to and I assume some support deploying Aura’s smart contracts (I think opensource?)
  • Aura’s support/blessing/backing to make this not just some random project.
  • A $200k USD loan to start up

These are all reasonably tangible and qualified or measurable benefits/resources being provided, if all the code is opensource then the first bullet point is more about how much Aura Contributor time goes into supporting Hyperlock’s deployment an launch.

Hyperlocks commitments are stated as follows:

  • A share of any potential $HYPER Token for vlAURA holders
  • A share of any potential $HYPER supply streamed over 3 years to the Aura DAO
  • Liquidity incentives for HYPER/AURA v3 farms on Thruster
  • Sharing of protocol fees collected on Hyper
  • Access to a pool of resources for development on shared resources and protocol development

This seems like a good and sensible set of things to offer in kind for Aura’s support, but none of them are specific (a portion of tokens, some incentives, some fee share) and many of them are somewhat uncertain and intangible (access to the dev team, potential tokens)

In my mind this this proposal would be stronger and Aura voters would be able to make a better decision if some specifics in terms of amounts, ranges, proportions, could be included in the Hyperlock commitment.

I imagine this proposal will pass either way, I hope it does, but without these details there will be an ongoing conversation about how this is decided and if it is fair. I fear that will create unneeded headwinds for both protocols.

3 Likes

Fantastic proposal and a good summary.

From the outset I am all for this! However have to agree with Tritium and others, by providing more concrete definitions around the terms and expectations we’ll increase our chances of building a positive working relationship.

Please keep the community abreast of how to better engage as roadmaps mature :slight_smile:

1 Like

Exactly this. They know the exact amount of money and labor they need but we don’t get any specific numbers for our “potential” benefits

You guys can do better. Let’s get it

1 Like

Congratulations on the new franchise, Fry! Aura Contributors fully support this excellent proposal, and wish you and the Hyperlock/Thruster contributors the very best of success.

2 Likes

Great proposal, in favour but I’d also like some more clarity in the % of potential token allocations as @Tritium suggested. The more transparency the better, especially when the ask is 200k.

Overall I think it’s a great idea, and Blast is definitely one of the hottest L2 right now, making it a chain we wanna build on. Fresh Franchise baby, let’s go!

1 Like

It is really great to see that Aura contributors found a new exciting way to bring value to the protocol. Compared to the pervious iteration that unfortunately didn’t work out I am very excited about this proposal. It makes total sense to rather start out fresh with a very specific product and new chain as a focus - this represents a perfect opportunity to use the momentum of BLAST.

To me personally, the loan of $200k is acceptable - the upside for Aura token holders is much higher than any potential downside, also considering there will be a token airdrop on the horizon.

In full support!

3 Likes

Very exciting developments for Aura stakeholders. I’m definitely in support of this proposal, and I look forward to leveraging existing relationships with the Aura team to help onboard Inverse Finance products to Blast via Hyperlock/Thurster when ready to do so!

I do share the agreement with @Tritium’s comment; it’d be great to have more specific details as to the agreement with Hyperlock for Aura.

Great proposal!

Aura getting involved in the Blast ecosystem, along with a promising protocol within L2 and with the ability to have token allocation, a % of revenue and attract more attention to the DAO can greatly help the protocol grow further.

Bullish.

3 Likes

This is a well-thought proposal! Full support for the initial development (this post). I see no issues with not having the exact details on the future token share from Hyperlock to vlAURA or the Aura DAO, as the loan will be repaid once Hyperlock launches. These are items that can be detailed down in the road.

5 Likes

I support this proposal. I am excited to see this approach taken vs. how Butter was handled and positioned. The $200k loan will be paid back upon Hyperlock launch so the risk is low. While it would be ideal to publish the exact numbers for how Hyperlock value will flow to vlAura holders, I think incentives are well aligned between Thruster team, Aura contributors and Aura lockers so as to ensure the tokenomics will be positive for Aura lockers without endangering Hyperlock’s future.

3 Likes

Excellent feedback! Thank you!

To give some more clarity around the allocations above, In the event of a token there would be roughly 12% of the supply split between the first three bullet points. This was essentially the maximal amount that could be considered without compromising Hyperlocks health, due to the crucial role that the supply plays in the context of a vlLayer.

The primary goal of this temperature check is not to finalize exact details or make a hard commitment to the loan but to enable Aura DAO to express its interest in the development of the Franchise partnership. Following a successful temperature check, a future AIP will provide more precise details for consideration.

5 Likes

I think 12% sounds about right. Thanks for confirming.

2 Likes

Appreciate the response @philjfry . The community sentiment is definitely positive :handshake:

1 Like

fair enough
sounds reasonable

in favor for now

2 Likes

https://vote.aura.finance/#/proposal/0x10bc4c0356429eb378d7a3260270bd4df0683344964945a50f22e79c8d8023e5

1 Like