An Interpretation of the Stablecoin AMPL

BTC0.0₂₀

ETH0.0₂₀

HTX0.0₂₀

SOL0.0₂₀

BNB0.0₂₀

BTC0.0₂₀

ETH0.0₂₀

HTX0.0₂₀

SOL0.0₂₀

BNB0.0₂₀

An Interpretation of the Stablecoin AMPL

标准共识

2020-08-10 11:26

本文约4969字，阅读全文需要约20分钟

The market target chosen by Ampleforth is the entire cryptocurrency market.

Overview Overview

Viewpoint 2: Its governance has gradually changed from a company to a community, as well as the founder's "experimental" attitude towards the project, as well as the high volatility of the currency price, all implying that this is not the same as other failed decentralized unsecured algorithmic stablecoins. any difference.

Report report

market expectation

The market target chosen by Ampleforth is the entire cryptocurrency market. So far, the cryptocurrency market is still dominated by Bitcoin. As of August 7, the total market value of Bitcoin is $218,375,259,683. In the best case, the market prospect of Ampleforth can reach the same as the total market value of Bitcoin.

The industry managed $8.8 trillion in assets at the end of 2017, according to Preqin. Investor demand for yield, a strong track record in alternative assets and a decline in the number of listed companies will drive growth in the sector, the firm said. So far, about 10% of the funds in the traditional investment portfolio are used for Alternative Investment. If Ampleforth can occupy 10% of the funds, it will occupy a market of 880 billion US dollars.

market share

As of August 7, the total market capitalization of AMPL is $39,058,360, accounting for 0.066394% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization

Market positioning

Short-term market positioning: AMPL attempts to become an asset that is not highly correlated with other cryptocurrencies, thereby diversifying the risk of cryptocurrency portfolios

Mid-term market positioning: AMPL tries to become one of the basic components of DeFi, such as MakerDao, a decentralized encrypted collateral, or a decentralized bank’s reserve collateral

Business conditions

product description

The core of Ampleforth's product is to propose a solution to the dilemma of supply and demand in the currency market. Because its logic is relatively simple and transparent, its circulation and price fluctuations are clearly visible, which makes it possible for it to pass the game of the market. mechanism to achieve a certain balance. Because it can adjust its supply to meet demand while maintaining value.

This can be explained with the example given in the Ampleforth white paper, it goes like this: Mr. A has an AMPL in his wallet, worth $1. But one day the demand for AMPL suddenly increased, causing its market price to jump to $2 each. At this time, the Ampleforth protocol will start to adjust the supply. After the adjustment, Mr. A's wallet has two AMPLs, each worth $1. Since AMPL is non-dilutive, it means that when the total supply of Ampleforth changes, Mr. A still has the same proportion of AMPL in his wallet.

Ampleforth is one of the few DeFi projects that is easier to understand on a technical level than a conceptual level. In short, Ampleforth's supply is adjusted using smart contracts (rebase) at 10 am Beijing time every day.

The smart contract uses oracle and Ampleforth oracle link prices, fetching price data from KuCoin and Bitfinex to check if the market price per AMPL is in the range of 0.96-1.06 yuan. This is the so-called equilibrium range, within 5% of $1.

The supply update value is calculated based on the 24-hour volume-weighted average price. Additionally, prices are publicly recorded prior to rebalancing, so all participants have an overview of whether and in what ways the supply will change.

The Ampleforth agreement refers to an adjustment to the 2019 USD price. This means that unlike other currencies pegged to the US dollar, the price of each AMPL token will rise in the future as the US dollar depreciates due to the US dollar's annual inflation rate of approximately 2-3%.

If Ampleforth were to peg its token price to the "current" US dollar, it would lose 2-3% of its purchasing power per year, the same as the US dollar.

If the price of AMPL is greater than $1.06, the supply will increase, and if it is lower than $0.96, the supply will decrease. These two states are called expansion and contraction, respectively. The expansion or contraction will continue until the market price per AMPL token stabilizes within the equilibrium range.

The concept of Ampleforth is not new, but the category belongs to artificial commodity currency. Man-made commodity money is a bit like fiat money, without the cost disadvantage of setting a commodity currency standard, yet it is absolutely scarce, immune to supply surges caused by the discovery of raw materials or technological innovation, and like real commodity money, the supply of man-made commodity money Quantities are not affected by political motives.

But in fact, the attractiveness of this currency exists only in "conceptual", or in other words, it has taken the old path of the US dollar during the Bretton Woods period. This artificial commodity currency is an attempt to break away from the fiscal system. However, in actual operation, the monetary system and the fiscal system are inseparable and complement each other. In addition, the most important thing about "currency" in reality is not its attributes of general equivalents, but its attributes as a means of circulation and as a financial medium. The circulation of AMPL is inconvenient, and the payment method is single, not to mention the fact that it is not linked to the identity and rights and interests in reality. When it comes to financial means, how should the credit evaluation, asset evaluation, and collateral evaluation in credit loans be in the absence of countries? Under the guarantee of credit, do you rely on the data on the chain to win the trust of the lender (such as a bank)?

Formulating the monetary policy of an economy is no less than flying an airplane with a mechanical structure composed of countless precision parts and human wisdom. What we need is long-term driving training, rich theoretical knowledge, and a control tower Collaborate with logistical maintenance. Just deploying a stable currency algorithm built on a single paper through smart contracts on Ethereum is tantamount to a wild suicide.

financing

AMPL has raised nearly $10 million through two ICOs and an IEO. The two ICOs, held in early and late 2018, raised $3 million and $1.75 million, respectively. The IEO was held on the Bitfinex exchange in June 2019, and all AMPL tokens were sold out in 11 seconds for a whopping $4.9 million.

In the three public fundraisings, the total amount of AMPL sales was around 16 million. The first ICO sold 9.25 million AMPL at a price of $0.32, the second ICO sold 1.65 million AMPL at a price of $1.06, and the IEO sold at a price of $0.98. The price sold 5 million AMPL.

Funding Date Mar 19, 2018 Financing Amount 3,000,000 USD Investor Brian Armstrong Investor DHVC Investor FBG Capital Investor Founder Collective Investor Pantera Capital Investor Taz Patel Investor True Ventures Financing Date Dec 10, 2018 Financing Amount 1,800,000 USD Investor Brian Armstrong Investors Arrington XRP Capital Investors FBG Capital Investors Nima Capital Investors Pantera Capital Investors Slow Ventures Investors True Ventures Investors The Spartan Group

Token situation

Token Name AMPL Contract Address 0xd46ba6d942050d489dbd938a2c909a5d5039a161 Token Type ERC20 Token Network Ethereum

The total supply of AMPL at the time of creation was 50 million. These tokens are distributed as follows: Ecosystem Fund (23.2%), Seed Investors (18.5%), Series A Investors (3.3%), IEOs (10%), Team and Advisors (25%), and Funding Pools (20%) %).

Ecosystem (23.2%): The Ecosystem Fund will be used to invest in other projects, encourage the developer community, create incentive programs, drive marketing and develop business partnerships

Seed investors (18.5%): Seed investors include True, Pantera, Founders Collective, FBG, Brian Armstrong, and Slow Ventures.

Series A Investors (3.3%): Series A investors include companies such as Huobi Capital, Nima Capital, Skunk, Slow, and Spartan.

IEO (10.0%): IEO distribution is divided into two rounds - institutional round and retail round

Fund Pool (20.0%): AMPL's funds will be used to maintain the foundation, with the ultimate goal of distributing funds to as many users as possible in a reasonable manner within the ecosystem.

competitor analysis

Terra, BASIS, and CARBON, which belong to the category of decentralized unsecured algorithmic stablecoins, are very similar in concept to AMPL. They are all detected by algorithms and the supply of tokens is adjusted every 24 hours.

In terms of currency price performance, Terra’s token LUNA is undoubtedly the best performer, but AMPL’s token price has just experienced a wave of diving. The remaining competitors are still half-dead, and BASIS has been forced to close due to legal risks. However, the average value of currencies such as decentralized unsecured algorithm stablecoins is not high, indicating that their market recognition is average.

related risks

team risk

Ampleforth is very stingy about announcing its management team. It does not see its management team (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.) on the official website, but only the information of various engineers and department heads. So far, the two engineers, Brandon Iles and Evan Kuo, have appeared in the public eye.

But there is a risk that has to be said: Both Brandon Iles and Evan Kuo emphasize that Ampleforth is actually an economic experiment at present-they just want to see what happens. This casual attitude definitely cast a cloud over the whole project.

business risk

In terms of operation, Ampleforth mainly has the following two risks:
Team exit: First of all, the Ampleforth project as a whole has been transformed into community governance and the attitudes of the two engineers, Brandon Iles and Evan Kuo, indicate that they are gradually letting go of the project. There is a possibility that the team may withdraw from Ampleforth.

Volatility risk: Although the Ampleforth mechanism is to anchor 1 USD, in fact, the rise and fall of AMPL far exceeds the range of the model, especially the liquidity mining of Uniswap has exacerbated the volatility of AMPL, causing it to appear It fell 60% in one day and rose 60% in one day. Such fluctuations. This kind of volatility, contrary to its original intention, increases the possibility of project collapse.

Legal Risk

This is essentially an unapproved illegal public financing behavior, and is suspected of illegal and criminal activities such as illegal sale of token coupons, illegal issuance of securities, illegal fundraising, financial fraud, and pyramid schemes. "and requires that "any organization or individual shall not illegally engage in token issuance financing activities." In addition, the 94 Announcement characterizes domestic ICOs as suspected illegal activities, which is tantamount to denying the financing behavior of issuing Token tokens. Regardless of the concept of AMPL, its The legal risks associated with the use of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and IEO for financing are also one of the factors that must be considered.

community governance

Popularity on social platforms

As the popularity of DeFi continues to rise, the popularity of ampleforth continues to rise, but the downward trend has begun to appear, and the possibility of its "flash in the pan" is rising.