Neemo Finance: UCG application grant

Astar Initiatives dApp staking applications
22

Hi @Suisei_go
Thanks for your comment.

First of all, I want to clarify that I didn’t leave Starlay. As mentioned in the Background section and my other replies, Neemo’s current actions were determined through discussions and votes in the Starlay forum. For reference, here is the link again: New protocol Initiative for Starlay Finance - Discussion - Starlay Finance. Regarding the tokens, as stated, there will be an airdrop of Neemo tokens for LAY/veLAY/muLAY holders. Since this proposal was approved, I have been building the team, conducting research, and reworking the GTM strategy from scratch. Everything has been moving according to the forum discussions, consistently and without deviation, so there is no question of leaving. I will continue to strive for success with the same dedication and persistence.

To avoid shifting the focus of this thread to Starlay, I would like to halt this conversation. I would really appreciate it if you could check and ask in the Starlay forum Discord for the current status, as it’s a lengthy and different topic for this forum thread.

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23

Hey there! I’m Priyansh Saxena, CMO at Neemo Finance. Really glad to see your comment.

We our devoted to build a highly capable DeFi protocol for Astar Network.

For anything related to marketing, community, or content, you can ask me.

Really glad to be a part of this community and building alongside some real chads!

:slight_smile:

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24

Thank you very much for the proposal. If I may, I’d like to ask a few additional questions:

  1. We understand that LST has been trending for a while. If this trend becomes less popular than it is currently, how does the team plan to manage this situation?

  2. What are the details of the team’s targets in terms of numbers?

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25

Hi @BoomBLB, thanks for your comment!

  1. We understand that LST has been trending for a while. If this trend becomes less popular than it is currently, how does the team plan to manage this situation?

LSTs are a fundamental primitive in DeFi and are not trending now, it was first introduced by lido in 2020, and being relevant till this date and it is because LSTs are solving a very basic problem of locking underlying asset thus restricting user yield and defi participation. Currently, the popularity moved on LRTs and their associated DeFi legos. For instance, ETH and ETH LST can be staked on Eigenlayer to issue LRT, which has limitless use cases. One new use case is utilizing LRT/LST in yield splitting protocols like Pendle. Our goal is to optimize nsASTR for Astar dApp staking, making it a DeFi primitive, and develop DeFi legos on top of it to integrate with various protocols.
We also plan to actively pursue mass adoption and use case expansion from not only web3 but also web2. For example, initiatives like Ether.fi’s Visa card are something we want to explore. Additionally, having institutional investors deposit their ASTR is another way to create utility for nsASTR

What are the details of the team’s targets in terms of numbers?

We aim to become the number one LST for ASTR by the end of the year. Our provisional goal is to capture 8% of ASTR’s market cap. This target is based on the benchmark set by Lido on Ethereum, which holds $28.5B in TVL out of Ethereum’s $369B market cap, representing 8%. We are fully committed to achieving this numerical target through the above strategies, making nsASTR the leading LST for ASTR by the end of the year.

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26

After reading the comments and responses from the whole community and the Astar team, in addition to the good answers that @SeiyaChida gave me, I see that there is potential in the current proposal and as @you425 mentioned, more LSTs is beneficial for the protocol itself.

However I am in the same position as @GuiGou, it is difficult to support a project that has a team behind it that had problems in the past, so I try to support the project without focusing too much on Starlay’s problems.

I could say that up to this point I am in abstain looking to see where the community wants this conversation to go.

5 Likes
27

It’s almost like people aren’t even reading the responses about Starlay and still repeating the same concerns which have been addressed. (side note, many senior Astar Core team members were directly and indirectly involved with Starlay as CEO and other positions, why is this never mentioned in any other concerns towards them?)

Anyway, this project proposal is an easy Aye for me. Liquid Restaking is one of the next big narratives and functionalities of crypto (see Eigenlayer on Ethereum).

We need and should encourage innovative projects such as this to build on Astar and support them where possible. Projects like this are what leads to adoption

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28

@Juminstock
Thank you for your comments. Our team is dedicated to earning your trust and delivering results. We will do everything in our power to ensure our actions are worthy of your trust.

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29

@FFR23
Thank you for your warm comments! We are committed to further expanding the Astar ecosystem. As highlighted, our plan is to optimize nsASTR for Astar dApp staking, transforming it into a DeFi primitive. This foundation will allow us to build sophisticated DeFi legos, seamlessly integrating and partnering with robust projects and attracting a larger user base. Furthermore, we are committed to realizing Astar’s ambitious vision of “Web3 for billions.” We appreciate your continued support!

30

Sorry, I will vote against this proposal because of the following points:

  • liquid staking on Astar is not a new product (Algem and Bifrost are already live for months/year),
  • the number of slots for new UCG is limited, we must select them carefully.
  • Starlay team suffers from a bad reputation.
  • I don’t think Astar EVM should be the priority, we should focus on Astar zkEVM.

I might be in favor of registering Neemo Finance in dAppStaking but I am against their application for the Unstoppable Community Grant.

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31

@GuiGou
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate all comments, whether in favor or against.

As mentioned we have already clearly explained our different approach compared to Algem and Bifrost. Moving forward, we will further adapt to the dApp staking mechanism and develop our DeFi lego. Keeping Astar’s goal of mass adoption in mind, we will act accordingly. All these steps represent a unique approach compared to existing LSTs. Also the launch on AstarEVM will be our initial step since the majority of ASTR is present on AstarEVM. After implementing native staking, we plan to expand to L2s.

Thank you again for your comments. We are committed to delivering results quickly to build trust.

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32

Dear Astar community, we are Introducing Neemo’s new feature! We will keep rolling out updates.

Rapid withdraw function

Neemo Finance offers Rapid Withdraw, allowing users to get instant liquidity on their unstaked ASTR. This cuts down the unbonding period on getting your staked ASTR back, which can usually take upto 9 days. Thus, in exchange for a fee, users can instantly withdraw their holdings.

Rapid Withdraw is made possible only by reserving a portion of staked funds within the contract to act as a liquidity pools. In a Rapid Withdraw transaction, no unstaking from the nodes occurs. Instead, the withdrawn funds are sourced from the user-deposited liquidity pool’s balance. This is particularly useful in cases where immediate liquidity is needed.

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33

Thank you very much for your polite response. I am not very familiar with DeFi protocols, so it might take me some time to understand the details, but I felt that the approach to the differentiation points from other protocols and the current issues (such as the bonuses for dAppStaking v3) seems reasonable.

As a user, what I would be concerned about when a new protocol is introduced is its clarity, ease of use, and how the ‘experience’ will change from what it is now. Users fundamentally do not want to lose out or lose their assets, so if it becomes unclear where their assets actually are, I think it would cause anxiety. Therefore, I thought it would be good to have a UI/UX and a system that takes these concerns into consideration.

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34

Hi @SeiyaChida ,

I appreciate Neemo Finance’s innovative contribution, such as the dual staking modes.
I have some questions and observations based on your previous experiences and developments.

  1. It appears that this proposal might be more appropriate for the dApp staking V3 rather than the UCG program. From my understanding, the UCG program is to attract new builders on Astar Network. You and your team (based on the Discord role from the three projects) already have demonstrated substantial expertise, contribution, and experiences with the three dApps – Starlay, Kagla, and Muuu Finances – on Astar EVM since 2022, indicating strong familiarity with the Astar Network ecosystem, though you are now with new concepts and new members in the team. FYI, C14 recently got listed on dApp staking, where the team has developed AstridDAO and BlueZ (see C14 - dApp Staking Application), which is very similar to what your team is planning to do in terms of listing.

  2. Could you elaborate on your marketing strategies to attract users both within and outside the Astar Network ecosystem? What is your target DAU for Neemo Finance?

  1. Thanks for sharing some detailed target numbers here. It would be great if you can elaborate more on the strategy how you achieve these numbers and make nsASTR leading LST for ASTR by the end of this year. The ASTR’s market cap is at the time of writing is approx. $450m; therefore, the target, which is 8% of it, is then $36m. You mentioned exploring new initiatives, but if you haven’t already started, then it is rather unclear how significant progress can be achieved by the end of the year.

  1. How do you plan to manage liquidity in general? Historical data might provide some insights.

  2. At this moment, you have three dApps and social media platforms, (Starlay) forum, and governance (snapshot). On top of it, you are building the community for Neemo Finance. Already you probably know, it for sure takes time and resources to maintain all the social media platforms tidy, organized and engaged. What is the strategy for the social media platform? Do you prioritize Neemo Finance for its growth or anything else in your mind? Or they are all separated?

Look forward to your insights on the points above. I believe they will help assess the alignment of this proposal with the UCG program. Please feel free to let me know if anything should be further clarified.

Bests,
pithecus

3 Likes
35

Thank you for your comment! Like you said, liquid staking presents a highly novel opportunity because it offers one of the most fundamental forms of yield in DeFi. Moreover, the way liquid staking works in Astar is markedly different to how it does on Ethereum. I have extensive experience in Ethereum liquid staking and have observed its limitations.

Moreover, on a different note, I have also seen how grant mechanisms work and how they can be cumbersome for projects to raise capital/liquidity.

I believe that Astar offers a highly innovative solution that is still largely untapped and undiscovered. Our objective is to come in and help take dApp staking to the next level and use our expertise and network from Ethereum to bring over more people and capital.

7 Likes
36

Hey that’s a really crucial point and thanks for taking the time to highlight that.

Our objective is to be completely transparent to users in terms of where their assets are going and how they are being staked. In fact, our long term vision is to ensure the user is the king where they decide everything and we just act as fulfillers of their requests.

When it comes to the UX, we are taking significant care to ensure that people have a super fluid and intuitive experience. We’d actually be very happy to have you come in and critique some of our designs as well when we have them live!

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37

Hello @SeiyaChida @psneemo

As the 7-day minimum discussion period comes to an end, you can now open your UCG application proposal directly on https://astargov.com/.

If you need help creating your governance proposal for the vote, you can consult the official documentation or use this UCG proposal as an example.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

5 Likes
38

Hi @pithecus
Thank you for the well-thought-out comments. I’ll write down my reply to each your questions below

  1. It appears that this proposal might be more appropriate for the dApp staking V3 rather than the UCG program. From my understanding, the UCG program is to attract new builders on Astar Network. You and your team (based on the Discord role from the three projects) already have demonstrated substantial expertise, contribution, and experiences with the three dApps – Starlay, Kagla, and Muuu Finances – on Astar EVM since 2022, indicating strong familiarity with the Astar Network ecosystem, though you are now with new concepts and new members in the team. FYI, C14 recently got listed on dApp staking, where the team has developed AstridDAO and BlueZ (see C14 - dApp Staking Application ), which is very similar to what your team is planning to do in terms of listing.

I believe we are an appropriate candidate to apply for the UCG since the motivation of UCG is the following according to the attached UCG slide on the 3rd page. We are a mixed team including new developers to Astar and the existing member that are building the cutting-edge technology of tomorrow.

“The Astar community - which includes its users, dedicated Ambassadors, and core team, seeks to make Astar Network the premier innovation hub for blockchain technology, while simultaneously onboarding and supporting new and existing developers that are building the cutting-edge technology of tomorrow.”

  1. Could you elaborate on your marketing strategies to attract users both within and outside the Astar Network ecosystem? What is your target DAU for Neemo Finance?

As mentioned above, this will be a major milestone. Through these milestone, we plan to approach both within and outside the Astar Network.

  • dApp Staking v3 adaption and Improvements:
    • While the structure has been described above, we plan to adapt and further develop it to optimize for dApp staking. For instance, one potential improvement is in our dual staking model. As mentioned earlier, if the amount of Voting period is below the amount of Build & Earn period, we miss out on bonus rewards, resulting in lower returns. To address this, we are considering adjusting the balance by allocating ASTR from our treasury to ensure the amount of Voting period does exceed the amount of Build & Earn period. This allows users to achieve optimal yields without locking their tokens. We will continue to develop and optimize our structure to best suit dApp staking.
  • Defi Legos and Mass Adoption:
    • Developing DeFi legos like leveraged staking, and also considering to develop stableswap vaults, and integrate with yield splitting protocols to optimize user yields and even develop ETH LST/LRT (only if GTM strategy is consolidated) to attract more users.
    • For mass adoption, we are considering nsASTR for institutional investors and potentially issuing debit cards, similar to Ether.fi . Other undisclosed initiatives are also in progress.

In addition to the above-mentioned, we are also progressing on short-term marketing initiatives such as NFT campaigns, listings on StakingRewards, value add from investor/Launchpad/KOL rounds, point marketing, KOL marketing, and strengthening social activities. There are also larger initiatives that will be disclosed gradually in the future. We will strive in both development and marketing to ensure broad usage within and outside the Astar ecosystem.

  1. Thanks for sharing some detailed target numbers here. It would be great if you can elaborate more on the strategy how you achieve these numbers and make nsASTR leading LST for ASTR by the end of this year. The ASTR’s market cap is at the time of writing is approx. $450m; therefore, the target, which is 8% of it, is then $36m. You mentioned exploring new initiatives, but if you haven’t already started, then it is rather unclear how significant progress can be achieved by the end of the year.

I understand what you are saying. The numbers mentioned above are just targets. The idea is to write down our estimates (targets) and take the best measures to achieve those goals. If we don’t meet our targets, we will repeatedly revise and improve.

  1. How do you plan to manage liquidity in general? Historical data might provide some insights.

Sorry, I didn’t quite understand this part. Could you please rephrase or elaborate?

  1. At this moment, you have three dApps and social media platforms, (Starlay) forum, and governance (snapshot). On top of it, you are building the community for Neemo Finance. Already you probably know, it for sure takes time and resources to maintain all the social media platforms tidy, organized and engaged. What is the strategy for the social media platform? Do you prioritize Neemo Finance for its growth or anything else in your mind? Or they are all separated?

As decided in Starlay’s governance, we are currently focusing on Neemo Finance. I understand your point about keeping all social media platforms tidy. In the future, there might be a possibility that Neemo will unify the management of all entities. However, this is still under discussion and not yet decided.

Thank you for your comments again. Our team is committed to earning and maintaining your trust. We will work diligently to ensure our actions meet your expectations and confidence in us.

1 Like
39

@Gaius_sama
Thank you very much. We have submitted the proposal for the UCG vote. If any revisions are needed, please feel free to let us know. We appreciate your continued support!

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40

Great! Look forward to the community’s support on this one! :muscle:

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41

Thank you very much for the proposal. Overall, DeFi and LST are crucial for the Astar ecosystem, and I am glad to see more teams joining the Astar family! I do have a few concerns:

  1. How will the team ensure the security of the LST protocol? Who will control the Astar tokens that users stake on the protocol?
  2. Bifrost has implemented loop staking to enhance staking rewards and collaborates with Hydration for additional cross-chain rewards. Do you have any plans to work with other projects on Astar for similar initiatives?
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