6️⃣2024/06/21 AMA 6: $ATH Stacking notes
These are notes taken by community members. You can find the official summaries directly on the Aethir's Discord server.
📅 Date: 2024/06/21 at 2:00 PM UTC 🕒 Duration: 60 minutes 👤Participants : 300 ⭐Guest: Jaden.yan
Jaden is a key member of the Aethir core team, often referred to as the "Web3 Chief Architect." His responsibilities include expanding Aethir into various domains, developing the staking system, managing rewards for nodes, and enhancing Aethir's computing power to foster new partnerships. Additionally, Jaden is tasked with identifying new use cases to ensure Aethir remains relevant and essential in the Web3 ecosystem. Today, he addressed all the questions.
Prepared Questions
What is the difference between the two staking pools, AI and Gaming?
As a DePIN infrastructure, we have several partners integrating with our Gaming and AI projects. Staking operates as a launchpool system where users can stake their ATH tokens in either the AI or Gaming pool, similar to Binance’s system. The two pools are distributed equally.
However, each pool offers additional rewards from partners based on their specific focus. For example, if you stake in the ATH Gaming pool, you will receive extra tokens from our gaming partners like CARV.
The more ATH you stake, the more rewards you earn. Additionally, the longer you stake, the greater your rewards will be. The same applies to the AI pool. Although we haven't disclosed the names of our AI partners, you can easily guess them by following our social media channels.
After the first week of staking, participants received significant rewards. How are these rewards calculated?
The Aethir Token Generation Event (TGE) took place on a Wednesday, and staking rewards were calculated starting the next day, Thursday. This allows users who quickly claimed and staked their tokens to earn rewards by the following week. Some users were very pleased with the rewards they received.
We aim to maintain a high APR to stay competitive with other staking products. Rewards are calculated weekly and distributed every Thursday, based on your stake from the previous Thursday. Your earnings depend on your percentage of the total pool and the staking period. Those who stake large amounts for the maximum duration of four years have received substantial rewards. We will continue to adjust the pool sizes.
Currently, over 100 million ATH tokens are staked. As long as this number remains relatively low, the rewards will be high. We are collaborating with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) to attract more users. Those who are already staked will continue to receive attractive rewards.
What is the difference in rewards for Node holders, ATH holders, and Aethir Edge holders?
For Edge and Node checkers, you have already received drops according to Aethir’s tokenomics. Since we are still in the early stages and not all devices are sold, there are fewer active Edge devices, resulting in higher rewards.
Each component—Edge, Node checkers, or Containers—is essential to the ecosystem, and each has its own reward system. Rewards for Aethir Edge are based on the emissions they generate. For Node holders, there will be additional airdrops in seasons 2 and 3.
Our goal is to reward users who support us over the long term. Part of the season 1 drop went to external communities. In seasons 2 and 3, we will focus on rewarding node holders and ATH holders who have staked their tokens to demonstrate long-term support. This is how we envision the ecosystem.
The Aethir Foundation also aims to develop support from users who will help the ecosystem grow.
Will Aethir use Arbitrum for staking?
No, we chose Ethereum for two reasons:
We want liquidity, which ETH provides. Aethir aims to be more than an Arbitrum protocol as we seek to partner with multiple L2 and L3 projects.
We want to ensure that our users can access partner ecosystems and receive more rewards from them.
Therefore, staking is on ETH: it’s easier for the various parts of our ecosystem. Even though fees are low, if we launched everything on Arbitrum and they decided to stop developing the network, we would be stuck and at their mercy.
What are the different staking periods? Why can't I customize my staking period?
Currently, you can stake for 6 months, 18 months, 24 months, etc., but the website interface is not yet fully optimized. We are working on this with our team. We have other plans for staking in the future with stATH and veATH. You will be able to stake for any period between 1 week and 208 weeks (4 years). Managing stATH and veATH will become easier in the future by following the proposed periods.
Note: When you stake your ATH, you wrap them to get veATH if you stake them with Aethir. Otherwise, you get stATH, which you stake with other projects.
We have exciting news coming soon, but we cannot disclose it yet.
If I stake more ATH, will I get more rewards?
Yes! Your rewards are calculated weekly based on:
Your percentage of veATH relative to the total pool.
The staking period.
Example: If the pool has 1000 ATH and the maximum period is 208 weeks, staking 100 ATH for the full 208 weeks will give you 10% of the pool. Staking 100 ATH for only one week will give you 10% x (1 week / 208 weeks).
Rewards are proportional to the staking duration. If everyone else takes their weekly rewards and reinvests them in other projects, you will benefit by restaking your weekly rewards, adding them to the pool each week.
Questions from Participants
About Sophon Nodes:
The "node swap" with Sophon benefits the Aethir community.
The partnership with Sophon brings significant advantages.
Sophon has its own staking product and, being the first project on zkSync, has received substantial support from the zkSync team. More announcements will be made in July.
What is the Node Swap?
Sophon conducted a node sale similar to Aethir’s. Both Sophon and Aethir agreed to exchange their unsold nodes. This swap ensures presence across different networks, maintains a sufficient number of active nodes, and promotes ecosystem health.
How will governance work in Aethir?
Aethir DAO is coming soon! Token and node holders will be part of this DAO. Although the project is community-owned, the process takes time due to legal considerations and the need to build a sustainable structure.
Will the Sophon community receive rewards, and from which pool?
There is a specific pool for Node Checkers in addition to staking pools. Rewards for checkers will come from this pool.
Sophon will verify the activity of Aethir Nodes on their network, operate the nodes, and delegate them, just as they would on the Aethir network. The same will apply to nodes that Sophon entrusts to us. Rewards will be distributed equitably.
The roadmap is still being finalized, but the goal is to reward long-term users and participants who operate nodes and engage with the protocol.
Will non-node holders also receive airdrops from partners?
Yes, many partners have committed tokens to our community in exchange for our computing power. We are discussing with them the best ways to integrate their rewards into the Aethir ecosystem.
Options include:
Direct airdrops to Node holders.
Adding tokens to staking pools.
For example, CARV will do both. Node holders will receive CARV tokens, and another portion will go into the Gaming pool (since CARV is a gaming project).
If CARV adds X tokens to the pool over 9-12 months, those staking ATH in the Gaming pool will earn both Aethir and CARV tokens each week.
What happens if I don't claim my rewards after one week of staking?
If you stake for a week, rewards are issued and will be there for you to claim. If you don’t claim them for 2 or 3 weeks and return later, you’ll receive all accumulated rewards at once. The system is designed to be passive and flexible, so you don’t need to set a reminder every Thursday. However, if you claim and restake weekly, you will earn more.
Is 31.62 ATH the maximum daily reward for verification nodes?
During the grace period (test phase), all delegated verification nodes are rewarded as if they were active.
In the mainnet phase, nodes will only be rewarded when they perform verification tasks. Currently, 31.52 ATH is an estimated average for testing and will vary on the mainnet.
Nodes provide consensus on Containers, work capacity, and idle status. Rewards vary based on the total number of online nodes, as consensus percentages differ across protocols.
Note: Fewer active nodes do not mean more rewards for everyone. The reward scale depends on the number of delegated and active nodes at any given time.
If there are fewer active Checkers, are the rewards greater?
No, the Checker protocol is designed to ensure all delegated nodes are rewarded equitably. The number of nodes doesn’t significantly impact daily rewards. What matters is the set period for airdrops (e.g., 7 or 15 months). Using verification nodes during this time will earn rewards, but the number of active Checkers doesn’t affect individual emissions.
The team promised to reward the community with remaining nodes from sales. Why were these nodes used for the swap with Sophon?
The node swap with Sophon was planned before the sales.
The team will honor our community. As promised, we will distribute the remaining nodes to the community.
We are developing a framework for the Aethir DAO, which includes decision-making rights on grants, the ecosystem, remaining Checkers, and specific rewards. This process takes time due to the various components (Containers, Node holders, token holders). Ensuring fair voting rights for balanced governance is essential for decentralization.
20% of the nodes went to Sophon. How will this affect decentralization, especially regarding governance and votes?
The Aethir Foundation is bullish on the Sophon project. Despite the node exchange, Aethir holds a significant stake in Sophon. Both foundations will collaborate closely in the future. Although Sophon may seem to have substantial decision-making power, Aethir retains greater influence within Sophon.
Sophon will have significant power. Isn't this too much for one entity in terms of governance and nodes?
Sophon is not a single entity; it has its governance process. Aethir’s community has considerable control over consensus and governance aspects.
Node holders are unhappy with the node swap, believing it dilutes their rewards. What can you say to reassure them?
Our tokenomics are designed to benefit long-term contributors who add value to the protocol. Over 1-2 years, users will see that the swap's impact is minimal, thanks to our token emissions plan for Checkers. Additionally, not all 20,000 nodes were given to Sophon.
Many nodes were purchased by Merit Circle during sales at the same or higher prices depending on the sale phase.
I calculated there were about 16,853 new nodes minted at a price of 1.8 ETH. Is that correct?
Not all were sent to Sophon. The number of nodes sold at this price was low compared to the average sale price.
In the first airdrop season, we distributed ATH to node holders based on their node prices to ensure fairness. We plan to do something similar for seasons 2 and 3.
Where do the staking pool rewards come from?
The rewards come directly from the Aethir Foundation. If the Foundation succeeds, both Aethir DAO and the Aethir community will be rewarded.
How is the quarterly bonus for nodes calculated?
More information will be provided by the team handling the Checking part.
Thanks to our Aethirians @Segroegg and @hicham8846 for providing all the necessary information and summarizing this AMA
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