How can we make Orca the AMM of choice for the Solana ecosystem?
How do we grow killer whales (Orca) to become top predators in AMM? good question! From the early days of Orca, our three-step plan for building an AMM is...
1. Ease of use (for building user base)
2. High capital efficiency (to dominate the market)
3. Incentive optimization (to achieve sustainable development)
Step One: An Easy-to-Use AMM
The first step is to build a user base by developing a product that people love to use. Most of you reading this are familiar with our focus on human-centered design, and based on feedback from our community and ecosystem partners, we're very pleased with this step. (We love you too, fellow whalers!)
Step Two: A Capital Efficient AMM
The second step is about growth: enhancing Orca's market dominance, as measured by Orca's transaction volume. When more users choose to trade on Orca, trading volume increases due to a combination of better user experience (step 1) and better transaction ratios...which is where step 2 comes in. Soon (weeks, not months!), we'll be able to share the next generation of Orca:
Whirlpools: A new, more capital-efficient AMM that will offer higher rates for liquidity providers and better trade ratios for traders. We believe this is the natural next step for AMMs, which will eventually allow Orca to power the majority of Solana's transaction volume. So, what happens next? The answer is a shift in focus—from aggressive growth to sustainable growth.
Step Three: An Incentive-Optimized AMM
Surviving a rapidly changing environment requires adapting — whether you’re an animal or a DeFi protocol. Even if we achieve market dominance, maintaining it will require contributors to be fairly rewarded for their contributions to the protocol — even after decentralization. We believe that as Orca governance evolves, token holders will have greater flexibility in how they use the Orca treasury in order to align the incentives of everyone participating in the Orca ecosystem.
What would those incentives look like? A popular request is Vault Staking, which will see token holders stake their ORCA tokens to earn fees in Orca Vaults, similar to SushiSwap's xSUSHI. (0.04% of each transaction goes to the vault, and 0.01% of each transaction goes to the impact fund, which can be viewed here: 2YM8LrJGRtsDcWeqsjX2EQwJfhArxyDdtDzgt7vrwwbV)
Ultimately, it's up to the community to decide!
We have a clear plan on how to make Orca the first choice for the Solana ecosystem. At this point, we take the long view. Good things take time! Here are some interesting things about our growth and development over the past 6 months:
Token holders tripled: On August 9, 2021, $ORCA tokens were airdropped to approximately 10,000 wallet addresses. Two days later, our aquarium farm project started. Since then, the community of token holders has grown to over 35,000 people (see here$ORCAAddress)。
2.7x increase in ORCA tokens in circulation: We initially airdropped 5 million ORCA to existing users of the protocol. There are now 13.5 million ORCA (about 13.5% of the total supply) circulating in our community, which brings us one step closer to decentralization.
7X Volume in 6 Months: On August 15th, we shared an exciting milestone: $15 million in daily volume. Since then, our average daily trading volume over the past 90 days has grown to $115 million. We have also welcomed tens of thousands of new traders and liquidity providers to the platform.
Want to get deeper into the Orca community? Join our discord and say hello: https://discord.com/invite/orca-so
