CIP-3: Re-brand & Re-launch JADE with A New Token and Terminal Floor Price

Authors: Casper007, Jon Ray and Avicenna Created: 4/13/2023

Summary

This proposal aims to re-brand Jade Protocol, issue a new token, establish a terminal floor price and give absolute clarity on the new token’s circulating supply. This also allows Smartans on long term vesting schedules to receive all their vesting tokens upfront after the migration occurs.

Disclaimer

Jade Protocol is a decentralized autonomous organization, which means that all community improvement proposals are discussed with the community and voted on as a collective. No single member of the DAO shall be held responsible for the positive or negative outcomes of the CIP should it pass. This proposal put forth by the author(s) was synthesized in good faith as a result of due diligence and community discussion on Jade Protocol’s governance platform.

Should the community vote to pass this proposal, then the DAO and its contributors are authorized to carry out the suggestions set forth in this proposal. If new information comes to light prior to the execution of this proposal (i.e. a change in regulatory policy) then the DAO reserves the right to not enact the proposed changes, even with the successful passing of this proposal, as it may pose an outsized risk to the DAO and its collective community.

There are risks associated with modifying DAO operations, engaging new contractors and the deployment of new smart contracts, including but not limited to: loss of funds, smart contract exploits, and/or delays in deployment timelines. Due diligence is meant to mitigate these risks, however the DAO must still acknowledge and accept that these risks exist.

Abstract

This proposal seeks permission from the DAO to completely rebrand Jade Protocol, issue a new token on the Arbitrum Network, and establish a terminal floor price for said token. The new brand will address previously identified PR issues in securing high-quality investments due to misconceptions about our DAO in the marketplace.

The branding will better reflect our values and vision as a DAO, while shedding any past references to being an OHM fork. By launching a new token, we are also able to address some of the current technical limitations of our multi-chain set up and also re-establish the floor price narrative. This improves the DAOs ability to maintain a floor without reducing it monthly.

These changes open up the opportunity to attract knowledgeable DAO members and maintain those who genuinely want to be part of the project. This proposal also outlines a plan for payout acceleration to Smartans receiving vested JADE, facilitating those who no longer wish to be in the project to leave amicably.

Motivation

The motivation behind this proposal is to address the current barriers to entry for various partnerships caused by Jade Protocol's branding, as well as technical limitations to the current token. By completely rebranding Jade Protocol and issuing a new token with improved infrastructure and economics, we can:

Secure better seed investment opportunities

• Establishing and marketing a new social media presence will allow the DAO to improve public relations and drive more value for seed investments.

Attract new and knowledgeable DAO members

• The floor price narrative is a strong one, and with a dropping floor each month, this inhibits our ability to market JADE to new and valuable DAO members.

Accelerate payout to Smartans, allowing those who wish to leave the project to do so.

• Issuing a new token allows us to issue all pending tokens to users regardless of their bonding time frames.
• This allows for instant redemptions if users want to leave the project, and opens up the opportunity for users to stake their tokens and be active DAO members.

Establish circulating supply transparency and a fully diluted floor value.

• Early advisors have signed legal documents entitling them to vested JADE payments through the month of August 2023. These contracts are binding, therefore payments cannot be changed. The total monthly payment in USD is $315,000 and all future monthly payments will be based on the trailing 30-day average price of JADE, meaning that advisors will receive May payments on June 1st, and the payment will be based on the average price of JADE from May 1st to May 31st. The last payment will be made in September 2023 for the month of August 2023. The allocation set aside for payments in the “vesting payments” excel sheet linked below is the maximum amount of JADE needed to pay these allocations. Any leftover JADE will be burned by the end of Sept 2023 after payments have concluded. There will be a corresponding raise in the floor price after the burn occurs.
• The active contributors will no longer earn ~50-30% of their salary in JADE vested over 6 months.The DAO will transition to paying all active contributor salaries via stablecoins. The excess JADE in the DAO wallet can then be burned.
• This spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nMco7bBItzsdq_jXWmZ4VdOCwcnM7y_wZSoOGEELODc/edit?usp=sharing) shows estimated advisor payments through the end of August and the terminal floor price based on the excess JADE in the DAO wallet being burned.
• If only advisor payments are paid in JADE, the terminal floor is ~$8.40 and advisors own ~28.6% of circulating supply when considering all the JADE allocated to them from the start of vesting in July 2022.
• This terminal floor price is fluid and may go down if redemptions accelerate between now and April 30th, 2023.
• Founders/advisors have agreed to NOT redeem any JADE before the terminal floor price adjustment. About 30K JADE is claimable in the bonding contracts, which means there could be some redemptions from retail bonds before the floor price is adjusted to the terminal floor price on May 1st.
• All excess DAO owned JADE will be burned September 2023 and the floor price will be raised according to the reduction in circulating supply.
• From 2024 onward, all active contributor salaries can be re-negotiated. All salaries must be approved via snapshot voting by December 2023 prior to payments commencing in January 2024. Clear roles should be defined along with responsibilities and KPIs (if applicable). Incentive structures should be aligned with the success of the DAO.
• Discussions should begin in Q3 2023 to ensure consensus can be reached to avoid a scenario whereby operations must be halted due to disagreements re: salary for each role.
• Competitive salary research should be performed, in addition to accounting for risk of the role given the current regulatory environment.
• Farming strategies should be optimized to ensure a sustainable source of revenue for covering all DAO opex.

Enhance the technical capabilities of our token (ie, restricted minting, on-chain auto-burns via redemption contract, veTokenomics, decentralized governance, etc).

• The current ERC-20 contracts on BNB Chain are modeled after the olympus rebasing contracts, which are no longer a relevant model for the DAO.
• The ERC-20 contracts on Avalanche are a pegged bridge token which cannot be burned by users (only the bridge can burn) meaning the on-chain supply cannot be reduced, leading to confusion about the circulating supply.
• A new ERC-20 token allows the DAO to deploy on a chain with a strong narrative (Arbitrum) while also keeping transaction fees low.
• A new ERC-20 token and supporting contracts (staking, redeem, etc.) allows the DAO to customize them to serve the current and future needs of the DAO, without any of the current limitations around staking or burning.
• Moving towards true on-chain governance is the ultimate goal, and for the interim, time locked upgradable contracts with multi-sig admin controls can be created until on-chain DAO governance infrastructure can be integrated. This is the most important long term goal of the DAO in order to be compliant with true decentralization standards.

Next Steps

A total budget of $39,500 will be set aside for the purposes of executing all costs related to this proposal. The estimated timeline for this project (from start to finish) is 45 days.

Re-Branding ($19,500 total)

The community will authorize $4,500 to create mood boards, mock-ups, and pitch decks for three [3] separate branding options ($1,500/per pitch).

• Each pitch should include a new name, logo concept, and mood board that references how the venture brand would be incorporated into website design, social media, and marketing materials). The JADE DAO will review each of these options and select one [1] new brand concept through a community-driven process and off-chain vote.
• As per governance discussion, 2 pitches will be reserved for professional agencies, and 1 pitch will be reserved for a contest submission spot, so that anyone from the community can refer someone to apply, or apply themselves. The community will then vote on the best submission.
• The new brand will then be fully developed by the winning agency and adopted across all public-facing platforms [Budget: $10,000]. The JADE DAO will review all branding materials in phases and have an opportunity to ask for revisions, changes, or additions to the branding materials during the development process.
• Budget for ensuring the new token is listed in all relevant venues (i.e., DeBank, Nansen, CoinMarketCap, etc.) [Budget: $5,000].
• Unwind all social media and token channels related to Jade Protocol and create all social media and token channels for the new token.
• Launch a new website design and campaign to promote the new brand/token.
• Remove any previous messaging that conflicts with the new brand/token.

Re-Deployment Development Costs ($20,000 total)

Contract admins under multisig control until moving to true on-chain governance.

• All contracts will be tested on testnet to ensure functionality as intended.
• Quote includes: ERC-20 contract, redeem contract, and staking contract.
• Deploy ERC-20 contract with proper time locked upgrade security, including strict role management for minting and other functions, including burn mechanisms.
• Minting is restricted to a single mint to establish maximum supply.
• No bonding or other minting mechanisms will be introduced.
• Build a new lightweight and secure upgradable staking contract
• Includes time tracking mechanism for linear voting power release (ie, more voting power the longer you are staked) with reduction of governance voting power upon unstaking your tokens

Airdrop of new token to all users

• This is the most time consuming part of the process, since there are multiple sources to be queried for balances (JADE on both chains, sJADE on both chains, bonding contracts, vesting on Sablier/Furo streams).
• In order to minimize gas costs, a custom Merkle tree mechanism will need to be developed (costs <$1 in gas vs. >$10-20K in gas for CSV upload with over 40K users holding JADE).
• Terminal amount will be calculated for each user, all data will be aggregated and shared publicly to ensure verifiable accuracy.
• Connection of Merkle Proof mechanism to the front end UI

Sunset Old Contracts

• Remove liquidity for JADE tokens on BNB Chain and Avalanche network.
• Remove stablecoins from old redeem contracts and migrate them to the new redeem contract once it has been deployed.
• Add the new token to Liquidity Book on TraderJoe (Arbitrum).
• Accelerate vesting JADE payouts to all Smartans who bonded on Avalanche network.
• Honor remaining advisor payments through Aug 2023 and begin paying active team members in stablecoins instead of vested JADE.
• Burn any excess DAO owned JADE based on terminal floor price calculations by the end of September 2023.

Voting

This is a DAO Proposal that was drafted by community members Casper007, Jon Ray and Avi. It was subsequently posted in Discord on 4/14/2023 at 12:11pm PST. After 5-days of community discussion, the proposed edits were incorporated and consensus was reached. The vote is now going to an on-chain vote. This vote will be subject to a 24-hour warmup period, followed by a 5-day voting window.

If you agree with this proposal, a [YES] vote would confirm the following:

• The complete rebranding of Jade Protocol DAO.
• The issuance of a new token with improved infrastructure and clear circulating supply.
• Accelerating the payout to Smartans who bonded on the Avalanche network via an airdrop of the new token.
• Establishing a terminal floor price for the new token.
• Termination of all founder/advisor payments by the end of August 2023.
• Halt vested JADE Payments to the active contributors and re-start payments in stables as of May 1st, 2023.
• Burn all excess DAO owned JADE that is not needed to honor advisor payouts by the end of September 2023; and raise the floor price accordingly.
• The adoption of the new brand and token across all public-facing platforms.
• The launch of a new website design and campaign to promote the new brand and token.

If you disagree with this proposal, a [NO] vote would confirm the following:

• The continuation of operations as is.

Eligibility

All users with an sJADE balance on Avalanche and Binance Smart Chain will be eligible to vote.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.