Basic Features
Chi's Fundamental Concepts
Decentralised, capital-efficient and sustainable stablecoin protocol
Decentralisation, capital efficiency and sustainability are at the core of Chi Protocol. Users mint USC in a permissionless fashion and, by staking USC, earn rewards on their notional at par with the same value of collateral deposited in the protocol's reserves. The rewards generated by the LST and LRT reserves are distributed among all stakeholders, including LPs and veCHI holders.
Below are the basic features and concepts:
1. Collateralisation
To mint USC, users must deposit ETH, LSTs and LRTs in the protocol’s reserves and mint USC at 1:1.
2. Reserve Backed Stablecoin (Not CDP)
By minting USC, users are not borrowing against their collateral. Instead, they deposit assets in the protocol's reserves and receive USC in exchange. Minting USC is also interpreted as a zero slippage swap with Chi Protocol's AMM.
More on Reserves Analytics More on Minting and Redeeming USC
3. Dual Stability Mechanism (DSM)
A dual stability mechanism is implemented to maintain the peg of USC at $1 and preserve the system's solvency.
The mechanism considers the price of USC ( > $1, = $1, < $1) and the state of the protocol's reserves with respect to the USC market cap ( CR > 100% = in excess, CR = 100% = in equilibrium, CR < 100% = in deficit) to define an arbitrage opportunity.
Once the arbitrage is identified, the stability mechanism is triggered, bringing the system back to an equilibrium level (USC = $1, CR = 100%). More on DSM More on Collateral Risk Management
4. Rewards Generation
Each time the protocol stabilises the price of USC at the peg and restores the system’s collateral ratio, arbitrage revenue is generated and preserved within the protocol. The revenue in USC derives from four scenarios:
Below is a detailed visual description of each arbitrage scenario generating revenue in USC.
The protocol uses the system’s reserves to repurchase USC from the Uniswap pool, brings the price back to $1 and retains the repurchased USC within the arbitrage contract.
While a fraction of the USC in the arbitrage is distributed to stUSC, the rest is kept within the contract and used as excess liquidity to defend the protocol’s solvency in cases where the collateral ratio falls below 100%.
More on Sustainable Rewards Sources More on Rewards Generation & Distribution
5. Yield-bearing Stablecoins
A user staking USC receives stUSC - the yield-bearing version of USC- a rebasable ERC-20 token. In addition, stUSC can also be wrapped for wstUSC - value accruing ERC-20 token. A few characteristics of stUSC and wstUSC:
For both yield-bearing tokens, all staking rewards are received by users and Chi Protocol takes zero fees on rewards.
More on Staking USC More on stUSC More on wstUSC
6. Reserves Rewards Distribution
The LST /LRT rewards generated by the reserves are distributed to various protocol stakeholders:
80% of the total rewards to CHI/ETH LP stakers
15% to veCHI holders
5% USC/ETH LP stakers
More on Sustainable Rewards Sources
7. veCHI
Users have the ability to lock CHI, the governance token of Chi Protocol, in exchange for veCHI (voted escrowed CHI), which entitles its holders to the following benefits:
Voting power - The veCHI amount received by users is subject to the lock duration - the longer the lock period (between 4 weeks and 4 years), the greater the amount of veCHI, the higher the voting power
stETH and weETH rewards - veCHI entitles its holders to a fraction of the stETH and weETH yield generated by the protocol's reserves
Locked CHI incentives - In addition to stETH rewards, veCHI holders receive additional locked CHI incentives
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