Gro DAO Token LBP proposed for Tuesday 28th September 2021
Edits (20/09/2021): We have changed the launch date to Tuesday 28th September 2021 in order to ensure our Gro DAO members have sufficient time to review the token deployment and token launch proposal.
The Gro DAO Token Tokenomics announcement caught the attention of community and friends who are interested in joining the Gro DAO. We have received lots of feedback on how to make this fair to our users and early supporters — and rather than having bots front-running, we want to prioritise the people who’ve had our back since Day 1.
This is why we propose that Gro DAO launches GRO through a liquidity bootstrapping pool (LBP) on Balancer. The proposal has been developed together with the Gro community and GRO holders, and will be formally voted on by the DAO to be executed on-chain.
Key details
- Start price: $10 USDC
- Starting weights: 95:5
- End weights: 50:50
- Proposed Start date: Tuesday 28th September
- End date: Friday 1st October (duration: 72 hours)
- Initial GRO: 5,000,000 GRO (5% of total supply)
- Initial USDC: $2,650,000 USDC
What is a Balancer LBP?
Many of our community are already familiar with the concept of a Liquidity Pool, which has two assets with 50:50 value. In a Balancer Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP) however, the two assets have different values to begin with and would then adjust continuously throughout the LBP period. Let’s see what this means for our GRO DAO token (GRO) launch.
Before the pool goes live, we’d put GRO and USDC in a LBP with a 95:5 weighting. Once the pool goes live, the weights change over time to create downward pressure.
However, once someone purchases GRO, the number of GRO tokens in the pool decreases and the amount of USDC increases. This means the remaining GRO now increases in price as there are more USDC per GRO. When transactions swapping USDC for GRO exceed the downward pressure from the weight changes, the price may stabilise or even go up. It would then settle at what the market believes GRO is worth. To visualise this better, see this chart that illustrates how the token price changed in Maple’s LBP.
Why use a Balancer LBP?
We are proposing an LBP because we want to make sure our users and early supporters have a good chance to get GRO at a fair price. Since the price would start high and decline steadily, there is no benefit to bots swooping up all available GRO in the very beginning — they’d lose money that way. This also stops whales making bulk purchases as they’re incentivised to split trades into a series of smaller tranches to avoid driving the price up, making it easier for everybody else to participate. As a result, the Balancer LBP would help distribute more GRO to our users and early supporters, and also help reduce price volatility rather than increasing it.
Some people have also asked why we don’t do a pre-sale or offer whitelist access to KYC investors. We firmly believe that having more voices in the DAO would benefit all of us in the long run. As such we want to distribute governance tokens more broadly with this LBP. This mechanism would also let the market determine what is a fair price of $GRO, rather than having the price set behind the scenes.
Ok, I get it. How do I participate?
We hope at this point you feel excited to participate in our token launch! We will put the proposal up for our DAO to approve — at this moment only those who have been allocated GRO from our airdrops and those who have been our early supporters would get to vote this week. Once it is approved, we will share more details on how you can get ready for our fair launch!
In the meantime, if you can’t wait to get ready, here are some Q&As that would help!
Q: How much GRO will you put into the LBP?
We will propose putting 5% of GRO into the LBP to the DAO. This translates into 5mn GRO tokens since our total supply is at 100mn tokens. You can find more details about our tokenomics in our documentation.
Q: Where can I participate in the LBP?
You could participate through accessing our LBP page directly on the Gro website, our launch partner Copper, or directly on Balancer. We will provide the exact links in our next article together with step-by-step instructions.
Q: Which wallets do I need for the LBP?
To participate in the LBP, you must connect a Web3 enabled cryptocurrency wallet to Balancer. Balancer currently supports MetaMask, WalletConnect, Portis, Coinbase Wallet, and Fortmatic.
Q: Which cryptocurrencies do I need for the LBP?
Once you have set up your wallet, you will need to prepare (1) ETH for gas costs and (2) USDC to exchange for GRO.
While tokens other than USDC will be accepted for the swap to GRO, we recommend using USDC directly. If you swap using other tokens, you are likely to face a higher price as Balancer’s “multihop” across pools will incur transaction costs while converting your token to USDC.
Q: At what price level should I start buying?
It is up to you to decide what is a fair price! We recommend doing your own research beforehand to make that call. You could learn more about Gro Protocol through our docs. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us on Discord or Telegram.
Q: What is the minimum amount I could buy?
There is no minimum — you choose how much you want to buy at the prevailing price. However, Ethereum transaction fees are fairly high right now, so expect to spend anywhere between $25 and $200 per transaction. Fees depend on how congested the network is and varies hour-to-hour. You can track it at Gasnow or Etherscan.
The fee is the same regardless of how much you want to buy. This fee does not go to Gro or Copper; it is used to pay the Ethereum network validators who verify all transactions and make the Ethereum network run smoothly.
Q: Will there be a lockup period for GRO purchased in the LBP?
No, there will be no lockup for GRO bought in the LBP and they will be freely tradable immediately.
Q: Are there any unlocked tokens that can dump on me?
Only tokens purchased in the LBP will be in circulation initially. All other GRO (including those from airdrops or liquidity programs) will be subjected to vesting conditions. Specifically the team and seed investor tokens have a 3-year vesting schedule with a 1-year lockup. The team is building this protocol and community for the long-term.
Q: Will there be a Uniswap pool?
No, there will not be a Uniswap pool created by Gro during the LBP. This Balancer LBP will be the only place you can secure GRO tokens directly at launch. Please be wary of potential scams and only access the official Gro LBP on Balancer.
Q: Who else launched their tokens through a Balancer LBP?
There are a good number of protocols that share our belief in a fair launch. Perpetual Protocol were first, but since then we’ve seen Hydra, Radicle, Illuvium, Klima and Maple choose to launch this way (among others). Check out the linked articles to see why they picked this route!
Q: I have more questions — where can I ask them?
Chat with us on Discord, Telegram, or Twitter! We will also publish another Medium article with detailed step-by-step instructions after the DAO vote and before the LBP. Stay tuned!
Next Steps
The Gro team will be available on Discord, Telegram, or Twitter to answer questions and provide support to ensure our community understands the process and potential risks.
We will be hosting several more AMAs and community calls in the coming weeks. The Gro team will give an update on the progress to launch as well as taking your questions. This will be advertised on all our social channels so please keep an eye out there.
Final reminder: don’t rush in!
The declining price mechanism of an LBP allows interested users to wait until they are comfortable with the price before acquiring tokens. No need to rush in, or you might get rekt.
Important Disclaimers:
Prohibited from participating in the distribution: Any citizen of, or a person domiciled in, the United States, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and the Crimea region of Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Guyana, Iraq, Sudan, or Yemen.
