Nov 4, 2021
THORChain Launch Debrief: We hear you. Let’s make this right!
Significant airdrop to THORChain launch participants, sharing our commitment to the community and THORChain donating back to LP’s
We hear the community, and acknowledge our launch on THORChain did not go smoothly at all. To say we’re disappointed is a huge understatement for the dozens of contributors who’ve poured in thousands of hours of work leading up to this launch.
We WILL do better.
We hope everyone can recognize from our track record that we are long-term committed to the THORChain community.
It’s why we did an exclusive launch on Thorstarter, which resulted in 5,057 participants entering at private sale prices, which is a rare opportunity in the cryptosphere.
It’s why we’re doing a huge $10,000,000 airdrop, as a “thank you” to our loyal supporters.
It’s why we bootstrapped THORChads DAO for all the Chads out there.
It’s why 65% of $THOR’s total supply will be in community hands, your hands — via airdrop (5%), community incentives (50%) and public launches (10%).
Token launches are no easy feat. That is why we decided to do it in phases to provide multiple opportunities for everyone. Each phase comes with different challenges and its own set of pros and cons.
The Thorstarter launch being the first and most fair for the average Chad, the THORChain launch for the Apes, and the Sushi launch for the wider DeFi community. Unfortunately, the THORChain launch became overrun by whales, perhaps a result of the first Thorstarter launch being specifically designed to limit whale activity.
Many Lessons Learned
The $THOR token launch on THORChain was, frankly, a bad experience for everyone involved. We have built up trust over the years, and we understand it can easily be broken from one event like this. Many lessons were learned and we hope to regain your trust.
We’re taking the initiative to make this right for you, the community.
So what happened?
TLDR:
- The problem started with the persistence of whale bots and traffic congestion
- The front end for deploying liquidity went down, causing a delay
- Faucet contract was being spammed by bots, which delayed its deployment
- As a result, THORChain Treasury accidentally added liquidity too early
- Several whale bots were able to enter early as well, pushing up the token price
As an important player in the THORChain ecosystem, THORSwap worked closely with THORChain to deploy a liquidity pool on the THORChain protocol. THORSwap contributors agreed to send 100 $THOR tokens to the THORChain Treasury, so THORChain could provide liquidity in the case of a potential technical malfunction. In retrospect, this should not have taken place as it created an uneven playing field and does not align with our decentralisation ethos.
The launch on THORChain was intended to be open and public to all.
This is where the bots come in. The reality is that open and public launches are susceptible to bots. The traffic and bot spam was so heavy that the interface to deploy liquidity went down. We had to manually deploy liquidity in the backend which delayed the pool by a few minutes.
This in turn, also delayed deployment of the faucet contract, which at the time, was being heavily spammed by bots and whales in an attempt to front-run everyone.
It was during this moment of bot spam, delays and mistiming that THORChain Treasury added liquidity too early, accidentally front-running everyone else.
THORChain Treasury made 6 transactions over a 20 minute period. For transparency, all of the treasury transactions for $THOR can be seen here. The initial transaction (rightfully) sparked discontent for entering the liquidity pool before everyone else had an opportunity.
There was absolutely no intention to front-run:
The intention was for THORChain Treasury to support and backstop projects in its ecosystem:
The Big Picture
Fair Launch on Thorstarter
5,057 participants received $THOR at the private sale price⚡
The Thorstarter launch was specifically designed to disincentivize whales and give as many participants as possible the chance to enter at the lowest and fairest price. The launch went smoothly and was oversubscribed by 198%.
THORChain Launch
Metrics-wise, there were around 1,200 participants who deployed over $100 million in liquidity. Midgard and THORNodes performed admirably and once deployed, the majority of faucet contract interactions were successful. That said, we’ve noted many interface improvements and process improvements.
SushiSwap Launch
Originally planned for today (November 4th), the launch on SushiSwap has been delayed for obvious reasons. It will now coincide with the activation of the $THOR-$RUNE pool on THORChain (est. Nov 5th or 6th).
[UPDATE: Sushi pool will now launch November 5th 2PM UTC /10AM EST / 7AM PT]
NEXT STEPS: Making things right
The following is our plan with full transparency:
- THORChain has donated 100% of their $THOR to fellow liquidity providers in the $THOR-$RUNE pool. THORChain Treasury will re-add liquidity sometime in the future.
- THORSwap will give a significant airdrop to anyone (except the early whales of course) who provided liquidity into the $THOR-$RUNE pool. This will be taken as an on-chain snapshot. Addresses that interacted with the faucet contract, but were unable to complete their liquidity deposit will also receive the $THOR airdrop. More details to follow very soon.
- $THOR liquidity providers, stakers and farmers can expect very healthy block rewards. Guide will be published by this weekend.
- THORSwap will initiate a Community Feedback campaign to capture your valuable feedback directly from you. This will culminate with a public report of the findings and next steps plan. Our long track record of products show that we take community feedback very seriously, and will continue to do so moving forward.
We love the THORSwap and THORChain community and are absolutely committed to you. We appreciate your support thus far and the coming future.
About THORSwap
THORSwap is the leading multi-chain, decentralized exchange (DEX) platform powered by THORChain. Perform cross-chain swaps in a permissionless, trustless, and non-custodial manner.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thorswap
Discord: https://discord.gg/thorswap
Website: https://thorswap.finance
THORSwap App: https://app.thorswap.finance
Telegram Announcement: https://t.me/thorswap_ann
THORChads DAO
The home of the THORChad Metaverse, where the community can interact with creative projects like NFTs and games. THORChads.com will act as a creative launchpad, supporting new creative community projects with marketing, dev support, and more.
Discord: https://discord.gg/thorchads
Twitter: https://twitter.com/THORChadsDAO
Medium: https://thorchads.medium.com
Website: https://thorchads.com/
