Include Liquid Staked Tokens in the Namada RPGF Drop

PGF Ops Genesis RPGF Drop
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Summary

On December 7th, the Anoma Foundation announced its RPGF Drop. ATOM and OSMO stakers are eligible to receive the drop, among several other groups.

But holders of liquid staked ATOM and OSMO were not mentioned in the announcement.

To make the NAM RPGF Drop more inclusive, this forum post petitions the Anoma Foundation to amend it to include holders of Stride’s stATOM and stOSMO and pStake’s stkATOM.

This proposal is being put forward by the Stride Foundation.

Justification

Holders of liquid staked ATOM and OSMO are the power users of the Cosmos ecosystem. By liquid staking their ATOM and OSMO, they demonstrate a willingness and competency to use decentralized applications. They have the initiative, skill, and bravery to venture into the Cosmos, discover new DeFi applications, and experiment with new technologies.

These are exactly the users that would help Namada grow. Including these Cosmos power users in the NAM drop would grab their attention and interest, making them more likely to join the Namada community.

Implementation

Context

The Namada launch involves dropping a max total of 65M NAM tokens. Of that maximum, 19M are allocated to stakers of ATOM and OSMO.

That 19M NAM is allocated to ATOM and OSMO based on 1) staked amount and 2) activity score.The snapshot was taken on November 1st, 2023.

On the snapshot date of November 1, there was 4M ATOM and 10M OSMO liquid staked with Stride. This corresponds to 1.5% of the total supply of staked ATOM and 3% of the total supply of staked OSMO. (See DeFi Llama for data.)

Proposed amendment

We propose that the Anoma Foundation amend its RPGF Drop plan such that 2% of the 19M NAM allocated to staked ATOM and OSMO be given to holders of stATOM, stOSMO, and stkATOM on the snapshot date.

We propose that this 2% of the 19M NAM be taken from the unclaimed amount at the end of the initial twenty-day claim period. It would be 380,000 NAM.

Snapshot calculation

In order to determine a list of stATOM, stOSMO, and stkATOM holders at the snapshot date of November 1st, the Stride Association would index Stride, Osmosis, Neutron, Persistence, Umee, and Kujira. Users who minted or purchased one of the three LSTs would be tracked.

LST inflows to their addresses would be combined with outflows from their addresses to arrive at the amount of LSTs each user controlled as of the snapshot date, including LSTs that were provided as liquidity or deposited as collateral.

While there are minor edge cases, this method is fairly accurate in determining LST balances. (According to tests, roughly 95% accurate.)

This is the method being used by Dymension to airdrop its upcoming DYM token to stATOM holders.

Full details on the snapshot methodology are visible here.

Distribution

Regarding the 380,000 NAM figure given above, we propose that it be distributed across the set of addresses with stATOM, stOSMO, and stkATOM at the snapshot date, weighted by amount and activity score.

We propose that the existing Namada claim interface be used to make the NAM claimable.

Final Thoughts

Holders of stATOM and stOSMO are among the most active users of Cosmos. They venture across the Cosmos, interacting with all manner of DeFi applications.

These Cosmos power users would be excellent candidates for the nascent Namada community; grabbing their attention and interest would help Namada thrive.

We hope this petition is received well, and look forward to a response.

We would be very happy to hear from everyone who has a perspective to share. Do you think liquid staked tokens should be included in the RPGF Drop? Would you make any changes to the plan proposed here?

All feedback is welcome (:

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Stride has enabled users to get staking rewards, and participate in defi for more yield. Normal stakers are important, airdrops should only go to them. Stride shouldn’t get any fees from airdrops either. Those percentages aren’t accurate because most of the tokens are POL. This is the incentive to regularly stake over liquid staking.

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Liquid stakers benefit the general ecosystem by providing liquidity to the DeFi space. They are the ones who risk their funds in the event of a smart contract breach, and they have significantly increased the total value locked (TVL) in the Cosmos ecosystem this year, especially with Stride on its own.

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as the custodian of the native assets, why wouldnt stride distribute the airdrop to its users? given that the majority of LSDs are sitting in LPs as POL, 2% ask laughable.

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I already mentioned in the Discord that I’m happy to see Namada/Penumbra launch (too little focus on privacy, cool web 3 tech in crypto currently) and I like the overall distribution to researchers, privacy pioneers, Cosmos users…

As an LST holder, I‘m biased in this particular question and I have also reached out to Stride if they‘d forward the airdrop or were excluded as a whale account or if liquid stakers are not yet „desired“ in the cosmos vs normal stakers & if it’s economically smarter to go back to native staking again.

I strongly believe home-stakers & native stakers are important for security and a certain percentage of liquid stakers ia also good for security & essential to grow the ecosystem.

In Cosmos (vs Eth & native staking), liquid staking is still early stage & small so far but it’s becoming more sophisticated & integrated.

Active LST holders & users so far are likely among the most active, sophisticated IBC powerusers & contributors - hence, interesting to onboard.

Ultimately, the original airdrop design was smart & and this proposed amendment and inclusion of LST holders for the airdrop - from unclaimed tokens - would likely add significant value to the Namada ecosystem!

Ps: don’t get this wrong: there is 0 entitlement for atom/osmo LST holders to receive an airdrop but the proposal & initiative is a positive surprise for me + many others and potentially a start for more collabs among the projects & contributors :slight_smile:

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All the risks are taken by the stakers, who are not liquid asset holders, are subject to price fluctuation and cannot increase rewards in defi. I disagree with the proposal absolutely!

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Be Inclusive, not Exclusive. I agree with the proposal. Liquid Stakers are the most active users in the Ecosystem, while Stakers are likely airdrop farmers. Being active should be encouraged.

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Said the one who comes to comment to take airdrop

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If we are going to include stATOM, I’ve also like to get the stATOM in the Inter Protocol vaults included.

I’m working on the queries to get a list of those addresses.

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pSTAKE Finance is supportive of the proposal put forward by Stride Foundation to include Liquid Staked Tokens(LSTs) Namada RPGF Drop and recognizes the benefits to the Namada Ecosystem. The inclusion of stkATOM besides stATOM and stOSMO in this proposal is well acknowledged.

We believe in a future where LSTs will become the predominant medium of exchange and utility in DeFi (over native tokens). To achieve the true premise of liquid staking in Cosmos, stTokens by Stride and stkTokens by pSTAKE will have to mirror all utility of their native tokens like liquidity, DeFi usage, airdrop allocation, etc.

Currently, ~6M ATOM tokens are liquid staked in total with Stride dominating the market share at ~87% and pSTAKE growing to ~10% since its launch. pSTAKE Finance recognizes and echoes the various benefits (as mentioned by Stride) a move to airdrop NAM to LST holders would have for the Namada Ecosysem:

  • Attract the most active and power DeFi users in Cosmos
  • Align liquid staking with the broader Namada Ecosystem
  • Set a precedent of airdropping genesis tokens to multiple liquid staking providers in Cosmos
  • Help grow the liquid staking pie in Cosmos

The Proposed amendment is a reasonable consideration for the RPGF drop.

The Snapshot Methodology is a fairly crafted one. Around ~312k ATOM was liquid staked with pSTAKE as of the snapshot date of 1 November 2023. However, we suggest adding ‘bought stkATOM on Dexter and Osmosis’ to the acquisition criteria for a more inclusive stkATOM user base eligible for the airdrop. stkATOM had a combined total of ~$1.4M liquidity (75% of total liquidity) provided by its users on these DEXs around the snapshot date. Dexter and Osmosis are responsible for 90%+ of the total stkATOM volume. Including such highly active users as part of the airdrop would go in line with the ethos of attracting Cosmos power users that would help Namada grow as mentioned in this proposal.

We are supportive of Stride’s initiative to expand NAM’s airdrop to one of the most proactive user class in Cosmos, ATOM liquid stakers and urge the Namada community to contribute to this discussion with their thoughts and feedback and consider including LSTs in the RPGF Drop.

One can learn more about stkATOM, current stats and DeFi usage, unique features, steps taken to decentralize Cosmos Hub, and security considerations here.

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Thanks for your support!

Would be happy to add ‘bought stkATOM on Dexter and Osmosis’ to the acquisition criteria :saluting_face:

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Great! You might not need to grab that data — using the methodology described here, stATOM in Inter Protocol vaults is already included by default.

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First of all, thank you for posting this detailed proposal. It’s awesome to see more communities in the interchain showing interest in privacy tools and being part of the shielded ecosystem.

I think that this is an amazing proposal that the Anoma Foundation should definitely consider for future RPGF drops/community programs. My reasoning is basically that the current RPGF drop is almost coming to an end and that there is still some uncertainty around the exact queries to run to also include things, such as the stATOM in the Inter Protocol vaults.

From my side, the best next steps would be to use this thread to decide on a calculation/query method that can be proposed for the next airdrop. Once there is a clear way to assemble data, future airdrops become a lot easier to propose.

Besides that I think there are a couple of other interesting areas for the Stride & Namada communities to collaborate on, such as shielded liquid staking.

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I don’t quite support it, because as the custodian of native assets, why doesn’t Stride distribute airdrops to users?

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Liquid Staking Providers (LSPs) like pSTAKE and Stride use an Inter Chain Account (ICA) based liquid staking where an account on the host chain (Cosmos Hub in this case) contains all ATOM that has been deposited with the LSP.

Due to the large size (ATOM amount) of these accounts, they are likely qualified as whale accounts and not considered a part of these airdrops

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even thought that’s an interesting proposal, i’m not sure if it would be the best path. i still need to think about it