Gro - Briefing Document
-- PRE-CALL CHECKLIST ---
General Discovery
Researcher: Jaris James
About the event
- Project: Gro
- Guests: Graadient
- Topic: Leveraged Yield and Deposit Protection for Stablecoins
- Event Scheduled: January 25, 2022 at 10 AM PST
- NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE
About our guest speaker
- Graadient, pronounced (Gradient) real name: Hannes Graah
- (Twitter: ) (Discord: graadient | gro#0001)
- Write a short bio about the guest(s) including their role at the project they are speaking about.
- From 2011 to 2019, Graadient worked at Spotify as a Business Operation Director, Managing Director, and Global Head of New Markets. In 2019, Graadient began working as the VP of Growth at Revolut, a fintech company based out of London for 1year, before quitting to go full time “degen.”
- Graadient started buying crypto in 2017, and started using DeFi protocols in 2019. He believed in DeFi protocols so much, that he quit his prestigious position as the VP of Growth at a traditional fintech company, named Revolut to be a “degen” full time.
- Graadient began using Nexus Mutual, a decentralized alternative to insurance. Nexus Mutual was expensive, but necessary to protect the gains he made in DeFi. However, Graadient believed that insurance should be built within the DeFi protocol, to eliminate the middleman. For example, when you deposit money into the bank, you don’t have to pay for insurance on your deposit, and he believed that DeFi should function the same way, in terms of built-in insurance. The experience Graadient had with Nexus Mutual inspired him to create Gro Protocol in 2020.
- Graadient’s greatest achievement in web3 was creating the first DeFi protocol with built-in insurance.
About the project
- What is the general positioning of the project? i.e. DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, governance.
- General Position: A yield optimization platform with two primary options: high yield, and high risk (Vault) or lower yield and low risk (PWRD). Gro utilizes DeFi, DAOs, and governance.
- What is the value proposition of the project? How does it clearly differentiate itself from others in the web3 space?
- GRO is different from other DeFi protocols because it has built in insurance, similar to a savings account in the “real world.” What makes Gro unique is their Risk Balancer, a novel risk tranching module that distributes smart contract and stablecoin risk in a targeted way.
- How does it benefit its community members and general web3 communities at large?
- Most of the options for yield in DeFi has no protection attached to it. You have to buy the insurance separately, and pay for it up front. With the Gro’s PWRD option, the protection is built into the protocol.
- Is it bridging blockchains, protocols, tools, communities, etc.?
- GRO is partnered with Argent Wallet, and is built on top of zkSync, which is a scaling solution on the Ethereum blockchain. Gro also utilizes a DAO for governance, and the DAO token is called $GRO. Gro Protocol also utilizes a protocol called Labs, which offers DeFi strategies that generate higher returns with low gas costs while removing operational complexity and is built on top of Avalanche. In a volatile market environment, Labs will manage the positions automatically to reduce losses that would have incurred if the positions were managed manually.
- Does it bring a unique vision or approach to solve challenges in web3?
- Gro Protocol provides yield with built in protection. Gro removes the need of going to a third party to insure your stablecoins.
- How does it improve the web3 ecosystem?
- The overall vision for Gro Protocol, is to empower people to easily create and share wealth. Gro gives the web3 community access to low risk yield aggregation built on top of zkSync for low fess, and faster transactions; a great way to onboard more people into DeFi.
- Generally, how does the product work?
- Provide basic information about the product
- Gro Protocol is a platform that allows users to easily deposit their stablecoins to earn various levels of APY. There are two main options for deposits; Vault and PWRD. Vault is the riskier option, with a current APY of 9.5%. Deposits that goes into Vault, are put into various DeFi strategies, and are monitored automatically, the protocol recognizes if the user is over or under exposed and decides to adjust the strategy or to exit the current DeFi protocol. PWRD is the safer option, with a current APY of 3.55%. PWRD is a stablecoin, and each $PWRD token, which is $1 is backed by $1.60 worth of Vault. PWRD uses a total of 7 strategies for earning interest on stablecoins, and each strategy is relatively conservative, resulting in less APY, but a higher sense of security, especially with each $PWRD being backed by $1.60 worth of $GVT (Vault).
- Details of product stemming off high level overview
- Gro Protocol allows users to easily begin earning yield on stablecoins with low fees, quick transactions, and built-in protection.
- Outline a few mid to high-level topics about the product
- Gro protocol offers various systems for earning yield. The two primary systems are PWRD deposits, and Vault deposits. Once you deposit your stablecoins in either protocol, the stablecoins are split amongst several DeFi strategies and are monitored and executed automatically. The deposits made in Vault are leveraged, therefore, the Vault protocol offers a higher APY, but is riskier than PWRD, which is not leveraged. $PWRD is a stablecoin, and for every $1 of $PWRD, it is backed by $1.60 worth of Vault, which acts as the protocols method for insurance. Gro Protocol is also a DAO, and is governed by the $GRO token. Gro also utilizes liquidity pools, and has another yield aggregator outside of PWRD and Vault, called Labs. Labs is only offered to $GRO holders that holds 500 or more $GRO tokens. Here is a link breaking down APY for Gro Labs: https://app.gro.xyz/labs
- Results of the product so far
- Gro Protocol launched on zkSync, and the Gro Labs is deployed on Avalanche. Gro Labs was deployed on Avalanche, due to a vote from the Gro DAO. As of now every $1 of PWRD is protected by $1.6 of Vault. The APY for Vault is currently 9.5%, and PWRD is 3.55%. Gro Labs is exclusive for holders of 500 $GRO DAO Governance Tokens. Liquidity pools for Gro Protocol are currently on Balancer, Uniswap, and Curve. You can also stake $GRO and $GVT directly on the Gro dApp. Here is a link pertaining to the Gro Protocol pools: https://app.gro.xyz/pools
- Practical applications of product.
- Detail current functionality of project, where it is deployed, TVL.
- Gro Protocol is deployed on zkSync, and the Labs feature within the protocol is deployed on Avalanche. The TVL is approximately $46M, the TVL consists of the entire Gro Ecosystem.
- Current and potential use cases.
- Gro Protocol is used to earn yield on stablecoin assets by tranching risks through various DeFi strategies, with built in insurance. Gro eliminates the need of paying a third party to insure your stablecoins.
- Outline steps for a beginner to get started.
- There are a two different ways to access Gro Protocol and products. You can use their web dApp, or you can use Argent for mobile.
- To use the web dApp, you'll need to connect a wallet first (e.g. Metamask). You can then interact with the dApp directly to buy PWRD and to invest in Vault.
- Choose the product you want to deposit into, PWRD or VAULT, and click invest/buy
- Deposit your stablecoins. You will need stablecoins to interact with Gro Protocol.
- On the Main Dashboard you can see your total net returns across all your Gro investments.
- Click through to the PWRD Dashboard to see your PWRD-specific returns.
- Click through to the Vault Dashboard to see your Vault-specific returns.
- To withdraw, click sell on the product you want to withdraw from.
- Choose the stablecoins you would like to receive (DAI, USDC, or USDT) and the amounts you would like to withdraw. The website will automatically give you a balanced conversion across stablecoins, giving you optimal returns. But you can also choose to withdraw to one stablecoin as well, instead of receiving a balance of all 3 options.
- Confirm the transaction with your wallet.
- Liquidity pools opened after their governance token launch, offering users opportunities to earn Gro DAO tokens by providing liquidity.
- To stake and unstake in pools, navigate to ‘pools’ from the main page and choose which pool you'd like to provide liquidity. There are asset "pair" pools, and single sided pools. The asset "pair" pools are, GRO/ETH (Balancer), GRO/Vault (Uniswap v2), GRO/USDC (Uniswap v2), and PWRD/3CRV (Curve Metapool). The single-sided pools are for the GRO DAO Governance token and Vault.
- For unstaking, you simply need to click "Unstake" and follow through the instructions from your wallet. There is no lockup period for staking, so you are free to unstake at any point.
- For the two-asset pair pools, once you have unstaked, you can either keep the LP tokens in your wallet, or remove liquidity from the Liquidity Pool to retrieve your principal amount.
- The pools may not be listed on the default dashboard (such as in the case of Uniswap); if you do not see the pools displayed on the dashboard, please click "Import Pool" and add in the assets.
- Current APY for Gro Protocol Pools ↓
- How to Use Gro Labs ↓
- You will need 500 GRO tokens on ETH mainnet in your wallet, because Labs was created to reward Gro’s most committed DAO members.
- Bridge or on-ramp your assets to Avalanche in your Metamask wallet.
- USDC or USDT or DAI on Avalanche for deposit
- AVAX on Avalanche for gas fees
- Claim your allowance & deposit
- Token economy.
- The Gro Protocol token economy consists of the $GRO DAO Governance Token, Vault ($GVT), and the stablecoin ($PWRD).
- Any recent, meaningful updates to the project.
- Argent has integrated Gro as one of its zkSync launch partners, alongside Lido and Yearn.
- Roadmap/future applications
- Technical updates
- 2nd Half of 2021.
- Governance Token Launch
- Decentralize Governance
- Airdrops
- Higher APY Strategies
- Impermanent Loss Protected LP Strategy
- Liquidity incentives
- New Partnerships
- Community updates or changes
- Roadmap will be updated mid-February 2022. Joyce, who works in Operations for Gro Protocol gave me some alpha... There will be an update to Gro Labs, which will produce more yield while minimizing slippage. The news will be presented to the public in the updated roadmap in a few weeks 🤫
About the ecosystem
- Find one or two things the speaker has shared in the past about the future growth, impact of web3?
- Believes in a multi-chain future for web3.
- How will their project(s) contribute to the evolution and adoption of web3?
- The Gro Protocol provides built in protection on stablecoins, along with providing a decent APY, with an interface that is very simple to use, this will be the ideal platform to bring a lot of beginners into DeFi.
- What are some web3 projects/tools that the project integrates to create a more robust ecosystem?
- Gro Protocol’s ecosystem consists of three tokens. Gro Vault Token ($GVT) Gro’s stablecoin ($PWRD) and the DAO governance token $GRO. The protocol is also integrated with Argent wallet, and is built on top of zkSync, with an additional protocol called LABS, that is integrated with the Avalanche blockchain.
Anything else?
Resources
References
- Medium: https://groprotocol.medium.com/
- Website: https://www.gro.xyz/
- dApp: https://app.gro.xyz/
- Snapshot Votes: https://vote.gro.xyz/#/
- Graadient (Twitter): https://twitter.com/graadient
- Graadient (Discord): Discord: graadient | gro#0001
- Graadient (Linkedin): https://www.linkedin.com/in/graah/
Sources