Background

MantleLSP's public launch was on November 27th, 2023. The project has achieved over 500k staked ETH, mETH top-4 ranking for LSTs (see DefiLlama Analytics), and mETH wide adoption as the primary liquid-staked-ETH asset on Mantle L2.

For the next phase of development, we have received feedback from community members and stakeholders, and reviewed the successful launches of new ETH liquid staking and restaking protocols. The recommendation is for MantleLSP to expand via: 1) a separate governance token and points program; and 2) a user-opt-in product extension which captures the risk-reward of restaking strategies.

The proposal below seeks high-level authorizations for the above, while affording the relevant execution teams flexibility for product development, partnerships, and incentive programs.

Proposal

By voting "yes" you endorse the following:

1. A spinout of MantleLSP (codename: 'NewProject'), including: a new governance token (codename: 'ProjectGovToken'), a product extension for restaking strategies and a corresponding liquid restaked token (codename: 'cMETH'), and a go-to-market plan involving a pre-token points program and token incentive program.

2. The establishment of NewProject Tokenomics within the following parameters:

A) A minimum of 30% of the ProjectGovToken total supply shall be allocated to the Mantle Treasury. Usage of such tokens for various purposes shall be authorized by Mantle Governance and subject to existing authorizations such as inflight Mantle Economics Committee proposals, and Mantle Budget proposals.

B) A maximum of 10% of the ProjectGovToken total supply shall be allocated to the NewProject Core Contributor Team, with a minimum of 1 year cliff and 3 year linear vesting as calculated from the TGE date. Note that there is likely a transition period or cross over between the current and incoming core contributors, and this token allocation shall cover all such core contributors including retroactive efforts.

C) A maximum of 10% of the ProjectGovToken total supply shall be allocated to Private Sales.

D) The remaining ~50% of the ProjectGovToken supply shall be allocated to the NewProject Treasury (Ecosystem) for the purposes of product adoption. Indicative usage of such tokens includes: mETH early adopters, MNT holders, development partners, distribution partners, and application partners. Such distributions may be executed through various campaigns including pre-token points programs, and are likely to prioritize mETH and cMETH holders on Mantle L2.

3. A phased NewProject Governance and Administrative transition:

Initially, the existing Mantle Core Contributor team and Committees shall be authorized to govern and administer the NewProject development and product operations. For clarity, these bodies shall be free to execute on the above items 2A-D within the stated limitations.

Next, there shall be a sharing of governance roles and responsibilities with the NewProject Core Contributor team.

Finally, the NewProject shall be governed via ProjectGovToken and a selected framework (DAO). Note that by virtue of the Mantle Treasury holdings of ProjectGovToken, Mantle Governance shall retain significant influence over decisions either directly or via delegates to the Project Governance.

4. A phased NewProject Finance and Budgetary transition:

Initially, the NewProject development shall be financed by the Mantle Treasury via the existing Mantle Core budget authorization (BIP-19).

Next, the NewProject shall maintain its own Treasury(s), with revenue from various mETH and cMETH protocol fees, and expenses for R&D, operations, and growth. Note, depending on the option and scale of private sales, the Mantle Treasury may additionally provide seed financing to the Project Treasury up to a limit of $5M.

Details

Disclaimer: the following is not part of the official proposal. It aims to provide initial perspectives on various topics. Changes are to be expected.

Product Extension

A product extension shall enable the restaking of mETH into whitelisted strategies such as EigenLayer restaking. This will be a liquid restaking protocol, with a receipt token cMETH which can be further used on L2 Applications.

Existing mETH holders will be unaffected. mETH holders who wish to participate in the risk-reward of restaking strategies will be required to opt-in by subscribing or swapping their mETH into cMETH.

mETH will remain non-custodial, with Ethereum-PoS-validation services provided by the existing Tier 1 Node Operators (P2P, Blockdaemon, A41, StakeFish), and security infrastructure provided by Mantle Guardian nodes and the Mantle Security Council.

cMETH is likely to be architected as a smart contract Strategy Manager. A high criticality role (likely Security Council, DAO controller, or specialized Committee) will manage the whitelisting of Strategies (e.g. mETH restaking on Eigenlayer) and limits. An optimization node (the Allocator) will allocate the mETH between whitelisted strategies, optimizing between risk, return, and redemption UX. Guardian nodes will be in place to provide real time protection via pauser permissions.

A simplified diagram of the core mechanics is as follows:

Note: the above diagram shows the primary channels for the subscription and redemption of meth:cmeth. We anticipate most participants will use secondary channels (e.g. swap facilities) to convert their ETH / mETH to cMETH on L2.

Go-to-Market, User Programs

The following programs will likely be implemented:

• Points campaign(s) for mETH and cMETH holders, prioritizing L2 holdings and application deployments, with retroactive indexing.

• Points campaign(s) for MNT lockers via the Mantle Rewards Station.

• Future convertibility of points to ProjectGovTokens.

Partnerships

We are open to exploring partnerships for the following:

Development

• Smart Contracts (strategy manager or vault type) which have been battletested for LST restaking strategies.

• Omnichain bridging protocols for cMETH and ProjectGovTokens.

Operations

• Risk management services for strategy whitelisting and limits parametization.

• Quantitative services for optimizing the Allocator node algorithms.

• Guardian Node(s) for real time risk detection and pausing services.

Distribution

• mETH restaking strategies.

• L2 applications that can attract high mETH/cMETH TVL.

• Protocols, or chains, which adopt mETH / cMETH as a prioritized yield-bearing-ETH asset.

• Future convertibility of points to ProjectGovTokens.

Partnerships

We are open to exploring partnerships for the following:

Development

• Smart Contracts (strategy manager or vault type) which have been battletested for LST restaking strategies.

• Omnichain bridging protocols for cMETH and ProjectGovTokens.

Operations

• Risk management services for strategy whitelisting and limits parametization.

• Quantitative services for optimizing the Allocator node algorithms.

• Guardian Node(s) for real time risk detection and pausing services.

Distribution

• mETH restaking strategies.

• L2 applications that can attract high mETH/cMETH TVL.

• Protocols, or chains, which adopt mETH / cMETH as a prioritized yield-bearing-ETH asset.