AIP-223: A Community-First ApeCoin DAO DEX - Ecosystem Fund Allocation

Proposal Name: A Community-First ApeCoin DAO DEX - Ecosystem Fund Allocation

Proposal Category: AIP Ideas

Abstract |

The ApeCoin DAO is built on the fundamental goal of enabling Yugaverse and ApeCoin holders with value. To date, the focus has been enabling marketplaces, communications, IRL events/education, and physical assets. We believe a DEX can be the next big thing.

ApeCoin itself is trading on most major CEXs and DEXs (centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges). There are a wide range of fees charged by these exchanges associated with opening and closing positions, and conducting swaps.

Our vision is to create an ApeCoin DAO decentralized exchange (DEX) to benefit ApeCoin holders. The ApeCoin DAO DEX will enable the decentralized exchange of ERC-20 tokens supported by multi-asset pools that earn liquidity providers fees from market making and swap fees. We expect to help create the lowest possible trading fees available in all of DeFI for $APE holders, stakers, and buyers.

Our core contract functionality will include rewarding LP providers in $APE, thus creating an important use-case around utility for $APE and activating significant deflationary pressure on the token. The impact should be greater utility, engagement, and value for our DAO.


Draft UI mockup
Motivation

The implementation of an ApeCoin community-first DEX would be a key step in creating sustainable, on-chain infrastructure for the DAO. As a cash-flow generative, deflationary, and fundamentally ApeCoin-backed asset, the DEX would provide a host of benefits to all $APE holders sustainably into the future.

With the ApeCoin community containing many Web3 users and investors, the utility of an ApeCoin DEX will generate significant value for existing holders, incentivize new ApeCoin holders to join, bring liquidity providers into the $APE ecosystem, and will create more demand for $APE.

The core of this proposal is centered around our motivation to build for the community, and embrace Web3 values through the implementation of technically sound, user friendly, DeFi infrastructure.

About Us |

Solidity.io is a full-stack Web 3.0 solutions firm, and venture studio focused on supporting some of the biggest brands, protocols, and startups in developing software solutions in Web3.0. Solidity.io is run by BAYC and ApeCoin DAO member Alex McCurry.

Solidity.io has already successfully delivered value to the ApeCoin DAO through their successful audit of the ApeCoin NFT Marketplace approved in AIP-98. Link to the audit here.

With full-stack Web3 development resources and experience, Solidity.io will be able to deliver a top-of-the-line DEX, quickly, securely, and cost-effectively in order to generate maximum value return for ApeCoin holders efficiently. Solidity.io was also the core development team for the www.apecoinstaking.io interface, investing resources and capital in creating infrastructure for the DAO.

Additionally, Alex was a co-author on AIP-196: BORED AIP, one of the most important AIP proposals for bringing stability and transparency to ApeCoin DAO. He’s spent hundreds of hours of personal time contributing to the DAO, helping community members, and supporting the expansion of the ApeCoin community.

Integrations

To enable maximum adoption of the ApeCoin DAO DEX, the Solidity.io team has already developed several partnerships with DAO infrastructure that will contribute to the growth and use of the DEX.

  • ApeCoin Marketplace - Led by @zheerwagen & the Snag Solutions Team
  • Thank Ape - whose commitment is to reward real value-creation throughout the DAO.
  • NiftyKit - Another piece of valuable $APE DAO-funded Web3 infrastructure

    Rationale/Value Add |

The goal of the ApeCoin DEX is to create a self-sustaining, cash-flow generative addition of digital infrastructure to the ApeCoin ecosystem. Major Dex’s like Uniswap, Sushi, and GMX offer trading fees as high as .33%.

The ApeCoin DEX will have lower fees than all of these major competitors, with specific incentives driving DEX users to accumulate ApeCoin, while also causing the purchase of ApeCoin by paying out LP provision fees in $APE.

ApeCoin DEX will provide: key trading pairs to allow our community to trade with a single DEX UI, dramatically reduced trading fees, LP provision incentives for $APE holders, cheapest fees available anywhere to buy/sell $APE, referral incentives paid in $APE, charting and analytics tools, integration with other DAO infrastructure, trading alerts, top-of-the-line UX/UI design, and more.

Uniswap has generated an estimated total of $4+ Billion in fees for LP’s on their DEX. If even a fraction of this volume could be captured and paid in $APE, massive amounts of deflationary pressure could occur, increasing $APE holder count and price dramatically. If the ApeCoin DEX generates 1% of the fees that Uniswap has, that would result in over $40,000,000 in $APE being purchased and taken off market.

$APE holders are valuable community members and the target market for DeFi products. ApeCoin DEX offers $APE holders a commercial incentive to support $APE-backed infrastructure that provides direct benefit to them and the DAO. DEX growth creates a flywheel of incentive for $APE holders which will drive further adoption.

Key value to highlight:

  • DEX will attract $APE liquidity, thus pulling $APE off of the market
  • Lowest possible trading fees on ANY DEX for buying/selling $APE with lower fees for $APE holders/stakers
  • Lowest possible trading fees for other assets for $APE holders, thus creating demand for $APE
  • LP rewards in $APE cause more $APE to be taken off of the market as LP fees are generated
  • Fee switch for $APE DAO to vote to monetize the DEX and direct funds as they choose

Specifications |

Solidity.io will design, develop, and deploy a decentralized exchange for the ApeCoin DEX. The DEX will utilize modified uniswap v2 core contracts to enable the decentralized exchange of ERC-20 tokens. All data points from the DEX will be aggregated to a decentralized datastore to enable real-time charting on the platform.

Utilizing the customized Uniswap v2 contracts, an exchange SDK will be created to allow for reducing trading fees for ApeCoin holders and stakers.

Users can swap in and out of tokens utilizing the platform’s liquidity to perform transactions. The swap will display relevant information, including price impact, slippage, and deadline. In addition to swap, users will be able to add liquidity to pairs, this process will be a separate flow allowing users to customize their transaction.


Overall Cost

39,000 $APE

Timeline & Steps To Implement |

  1. Vote approved, development begins
  2. DEX UX/UI Design
  3. Tokenomics Design and Technical Architecture
  4. DEX Smart Contract development and testing
  5. Front-end Development and Integration begins
  6. Charting and Analytics Back-End Development
  7. Trading Alerts Features
  8. ~2 months to complete development and test the tokenomics system(s)
  9. Front-end Development and Integration Completion
  10. Smart Contract/Platform Internal Audit
  11. Smart Contract 3rd Party Audit
  12. Go-Live!

Proposals submitted to the AIP Ideas category can be vague, incomplete ideas. Topics submitted here are not required to be submitted as a formal AIP Draft Template, however, you may still use the template if you wish.

4 Likes

Heyo @alexmccurry

Congrats on submitting a well-drafted proposal. Seems like a no-brainer, notwithstanding legal issues, etc.

Can you clarify the $ ask? Is it $39,000 USD or 39,000 APE?

Cheers
SSP🖖🏽

7 Likes

39,000 APE, will remove the “$” for clarity. Appreciate the feedback!

8 Likes

Sounds like a great idea, apparently no big issues… would there be room for a bigger ambition and create loans with NFT Wrap from BAYC, MAYC… with 0% APR like BTC loans at Sovryn? I’m a newbie, sorry if I’m talking nonsense :slight_smile:

2 Likes

We can integrate with a lending partner or potentially enable lending in the future for sure. I think keeping the core proposal simple is best when looking to deliver a large infrastructure lift. Curious to see what sort of other integrations people would like to see!

7 Likes

Hello Alex, and thank you putting up this idea!! I have some feedback and comments but overall I think this is an incredibly valuable proposition to our DAO. I would like to see some incentive for the DAO to start building protocol controlled value, protocol owned liquidity, whatever you want to call it. Essentially, how do we turn the DAO into the largest LP in these pools?

Thank you again, I’m excited to talk with you more about the implementation of this idea. :smile:

  • When you say “multi-asset” pools, do you mean “WETH/APE” as multi-asset, or are you going more of a Balancer route with with separate weighting and multiple assets in a pool like: APE / ETH / USDC?

LP’s will earn $APE emissions as well as swap fees? Or swap fees will be converted into $APE which will then be used to pay LP’s? Do you anticipate LP’s want to earn $APE, vs. more of the same tokens they are LPing with?

What do you mean when you say the DEX is deflationary?

I think I misunderstand this point, and the deflationary aspect in general. We’re not removing $APE from circulation or sending it to the burn address? We’re merely using earned fees from LP positions to market buy $APE and distribute it to the LP’s. They could certainly turn around and re-sell the $APE back into the DEX pool and walk out with USDC/WETH, etc. Unless I misunderstood somewhere, I don’t believe this is modifying or adjusting the total circulating supply of the token in any way.

Liquidity is, by definition… The market. I disagree with this statement. We would merely be moving $APE from one pool to another. It would still be accessible by the entirety of the retail market.

I see now this is a implementation of Univ2. Are we sure there is a desire and market for this product? Sushiswap has only ever been losing TVL and users since Univ3 came out. Are we convinced we can get our pools added to popular Dex aggregators like 1inch, DeFiLlama, Matcha, CowSwap, etc?

Overall, I love the general idea but I would like to maybe involve myself a bit and add some feedback to the implementation of the idea. I think there’s a better way to incentivize $APE liquidity, while also creating a fundamentally better LP experience than what we’re used to with UniV2 and Sushiswap. :smile:

13 Likes

Hey Amp, appreciate the detailed response and questions. Will answer 1-by-1 best as possible:

  • As for the multi-asset pools we are going to go with standard WETH pairings.

  • The current thought process for the architecture is that swap fees will be converted into $APE and then paid out to LPs.

  • When we say deflationary, we are simply implying that the DEX will encourage deflationary pressure on $APE as several core functions will encourage the holding and staking of $APE, as well as reward participants in $APE. People can obviously decide to go and sell $APE at any point that they are rewarded in or that they decide to acquire to benefit from swap fees.

  • Liquidity is definitely the market as you say, and that could perhaps be worded better. I think the core point is that this product will generally increase the amount of $APE taken out of LPs and put into the hands of users who would presumably be incentivized to hold some or all of this amount. Would love to have your support and feedback on how you think we can create the best offering for ApeCoin holders and participants in this product!

7 Likes

This looks great. And backed by a team we trust. Looking forward to seeing this come up for vote.

AC

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.

Hello @alexmccurry

Your topic will be closed soon. Are you content with the feedback received, or do you wish to extend community discussion for a further 7 days?

If we do not hear from you within 24 hours, your topic will be moved straight to the AIP Draft process.

Best,
-mallard

1 Like

@mallard We are content with the feedback, thank you!

2 Likes

Alex,

Can’t say I think of the deflationary strategies as sustainable longterm, but overall - I think this is a GREAT idea + proposal. Uniswap style liquidity pools and added layers of DeFi can bring a lot of value. I wonder if there isn’t an incentive structure beyond staking that could be innovated here to incentivize people holding $Ape vs another Eth Token. Possibly a cross-chain solution (since that seems to be a budding new Meta that’s coming in full force)… liquidity on AVAX/ SOL/Poly/BTC/ etc can be incentivized to bridge and hold $Ape in some meaningful way in turn bringing more users to the $Apecoin ecosystem. Food For thought… not a DeFi guy.

I like the ambitious idea though - you’ll have my support!

8 Likes

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the idea and discussion. A moderator will get in touch with the author to draft the AIP in the appropriate template. Once the AIP is drafted and meets all the DAO-approved guidelines, the proposal will be posted on Snapshot for live official voting at: Snapshot

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments. @alexmccurry please see your messages for the next steps.

Best,
-mallard

2 Likes

Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

@alexmccurry has completed editing their AIP Idea to be their AIP Draft.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Thank you,

@Lost.Admin

1 Like

Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

@alexmccurry has completed editing their AIP Idea to be their AIP Draft. It has been assigned an AIP ID of AIP-223.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

@Lost.Admin

1 Like

Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

We have sent a list of follow up questions to the author, to which the author has given a response. They are in our review once again.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

@Lost.Admin

1 Like

Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

In responding to our questions, @alexmccurry has provided consent to share the content in this forum for the community.

A DAR package is being completed, upon which this AIP will move into Administrative Review. Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

@Lost.Admin


Questions (Click to expand)
  1. Are there any potential legal risks associated with the activities of this AIP?

Answer:

Not that I am aware of. There are smart contract risks that will be mitigated through auditing that are pretty standard. If we opensource the code, which we intend to do as this is meant to be a public good for the ApeCoin DAO, then there is operational risk with allowing outside engineers or teams to manage the GitHub of the DEX once deployed and being operated.

  1. Will you please provide background information on yourself and your team that highlights their ability to complete the tasks set out in this proposal? Please provide substantial support to your response, and examples if possible.

Answer:

The Solidity.io team will be the one carrying this out. Our team is comprised of blockchain experts that have been studying and working in blockchain since as early as 2012, as well as product design, engineering, and strategy leaders who have led at some of the top companies in the world. (Accenture, Experian, Transunion, Meta, Shopify, WebMD, Lockheed Martin, and many more.) We have supported some of the largest protocols and venture-backed startups in the industry. We have built numerous DEX’s and swaps and currently support some of the largest players in that sector. The team carrying out this build will be comprised of our most senior back-end/solidity engineers, our most senior frontend engineers, our head of product design, as well as our CSO.

  1. Please elaborate on the teams’ expectations for the future.

Answer:

We expect to bring this product to market quickly, efficiently, securely, and with a focus on an extremely high-quality user experience. The goal should be that the community votes to activate the fee switch we plan to incorporate in the DEX. This will help either return revenue in the DAO if that becomes allowed or fund improvements and maintenance on the DEX.

  1. Is the Ape Foundation expected to engage in any of the steps of the AIP implementation? If so, please specify the step and elaborate how it is expected to work.

Answer:

We hope the foundation will support linking the DEX website on the ApeCoin website under the “buy/sell” section of the website, as well as support the DEX through some tweets telling the community about it when it is live.

  1. Have you or your team identified any additional financial, operational, or brand risks associated with this AIP?

Answer:

No

  1. Do you have any estimated costs for users to use the platform’s features, or any premium features ?

Answer:

We have not identified a plan to add any additional features or premium features that would require users to pay fees to access. Just standard DEX swap fees.

  1. Since your app would require token holders to connect wallets, can you detail the plans for security audits of the app cited in your Timeline?

Answer:

We plan to operate a rigorous internal audit of the product, which would be additional to our standard security procedures and testing. Beyond this, we have identified some options for 3rd party auditors that have agreed to take on a 3rd party audit for the product. CertiK, the largest smart contract auditing firm, which Solidity.io has a partnership with, has agreed to take on the audit. We have backup options as well.

  1. Your proposal mentioned collaboration with several projects which have proposals already approved by the ApeCoin DAO. Can you detail further the expectations of your relationships with each of the platforms you mention in the proposal? (ApeCoin MarketPlace by Snag Solutions, Thank Ape by Thrivecoin, and NiftyKit).

Answer:

We intend to have links to the ApeCoin Marketplace and NiftyKit platforms and vice versa to encourage the use of ApeCoin-backed projects as integrations partners. With ThankApe, we plan to reward use and involvement with the DEX product as one of the metrics used to gauge community engagement for the rewards payouts that are budgeted in ThankApe’s AIP-124.

  1. Do you provide consent to share these questions with the community in this forum?

Answer:

Go for it. Transparency is key.