Playbook for adding new collateral type to Inter Protocol for Vaults or the PSM
Here is a Playbook for adding new collateral type to Inter Protocol for Vaults or the PSM.
This is an initial version and open for community input. Please review for clarity and accuracy and reply with any input or questions you have.
As the process changes and gets refined, this document will get updated.
Dec 12, 2023
Version 1.0
Step 1: Introduce community to new collateral type 2
Overview of possible Community forum posts: 5
Minimum Prerequisites for all new collateral types: 6
Sample Proposal Champion Checklist 8
This playbook outlines a suggested process for the community to use in order to onboard new collateral types to Inter Protocol’s PSM or Vaults. It is a recommended course intended to facilitate the addition of new collateral, however there are no mandatory steps or requirements.
Step 1: Introduce community to new collateral type
A community member is needed to champion proposals for new collateral types. This role is responsible for collecting the initial information about the collateral and posting a discussion thread to the forum for discussion.
- Suggested title of the discussion thread is: “Discussion for adding [COLLATERAL] to Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- The discussion period should be no less than 10 days.
- The information that should be included in the post is in the template that is used when creating a new post via Vaults Collateral Discussion - Agoric Community Forum
- An overview of that information is available in the post: Suggested collateral onboarding template for BLD community consideration
- The discussion post should also include any novel engineering requirements, and any known information on resources needed.
After the post has been made to the community forum, and the community has had the opportunity to discuss the new collateral type, you can move on to Step 2, creation of a signaling proposal for community vote.
Step 2: Signaling Proposal
Resources need to be allocated to evaluate any new collateral type by stakeholders that may include the EC, Agoric OpCo / Engineering, and the DCF, among others. If there is a question as to whether those resources should be allocated and if the Proposal Champion feels the new collateral type discussion is ready, a suggested next step is to post an on-chain text proposal titled: “Signaling proposal for new collateral: [collateral] for Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”.
If a signaling proposal is used:
- If this signaling proposal is passed, then it indicates that the community wants to proceed with allocating resources to pursue the addition of the new asset.
- If the signaling proposal doesn’t pass, then the proposal champion would need to continue the discussion in the forum or submit a new version of the proposal.
- Note that if the signaling proposal fails with No-with-veto then the deposit amount is burned.
Once the signaling proposal is passed, the proposal goes Step 3, the evaluation stage.
Step 3: Evaluation
It’s worth noting that every new collateral type that is proposed to be added comes at a non-trivial cost to the community, Inter Protocol, the DCF and Agoric OpCo. While much time and effort has already been invested in building the software and infrastructure that supports the Protocol - there are subsequent additional costs and burdens levied against stakeholders with each new proposal. These include but are not limited to new price feeds from oracle providers, new relayer provisioning, 3rd party risk assessments, 3rd party integration support, Product and Engineering efforts to ensure general back-end (contracts, platform) and front-end (app UIs) support.
Given the costs, each new collateral type proposal should be assessed against its merits from both a business and risk perspective i.e. if the community feels the benefits don’t outweigh the costs and there isn’t a strong case for the collateral to be a significant driver of IST mint demand to the protocol - they are encouraged to voice their concerns/dissenting views in open community discussion.
During the evaluation phase resources are allocated to explore the new collateral type. The proposal champion is responsible for doing the business analysis, coordinating with the Oracle Network provider (Simply Staking), articulating relayers required (which Agoric OpCo will stand-up), understanding any bundle upload cost and any other costs associated with this specific collateral type. It is at this stage that the EC will begin their exploration of the risks for this collateral type and may commision 3rd parties, such as Gauntlet, to evaluate the new collateral type. OpCo engineering should not be required, but may assist with determining if any new bundles are needed, etc. The DCF may allocate resources to marketing the new collateral type.
The evaluation is done in multiple places by multiple actors, and the results should be surfaced in the discussion thread so that they may be used by the proposal champion and community to coordinate and discuss.
The EC should post their risk findings to the thread. Note that the EC will not be endorsing or blocking any collateral type, but will present their risk findings and recommendations to the community.
Step 4: Preparation
Once the proposal champion feels that all the information has been gathered and that there is a good likelihood that the proposal will be passed, they can move on to the next phase and prepare the new collateral type to be added.
Coordinated via the discussion thread and Agoric’s discord. This phase is where the oracles and relayers are set up and integrated (preferably with both testnet and mainnet versions) and the governance proposal drafts are created for devnet, emerynet, and mainnet.
For Relayers:
- Request to Agoric OpCo via developer channels in Agoric’s discord, at the appropriate time
- Agoric OpCo will request it of Strangelove (if there isn’t already a relayer set up). There is a 10 day turnaround for new relayers.
For Oracles:
- When a sufficient threshold/momentum is reached for said collateral proposal (i.e. when it is likely to proceed) - the champion should coordinate an oracle feed discussion with the lead oracle provider via developer channels in Agoric’s discord.
- Once pricing feed alignment, the proposal champion to formally request lead Oracle provider to set up price feed in lieu of new collateral onboarding timelines and as described in contract
Step 5: Testnet validation
In this phase, the proposal champion coordinates creating and testing the services, code and parameters that are needed to perform the upgrade.
This is done primarily via the testnet process outlined in the forum, as well as proposals on github, conversations on discord, and updates being posted to the discussion thread.
Once validation has been completed and the governance proposal has been drafted for mainnet, it is time for Mainnet voting.
Step 6: Mainnet voting
The BLD staker community must vote in the new collateral type. Supported information should be provided to assist with voter awareness.
- In order to understand the proposal’s current status the proposal champion should start a new discussion in the forums. The Suggested title is: “Proposal for adding [COLLATERAL] to Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- The discussion should include the details of the oracles, relayers and other parameters, such as denom and decimals, as well as the results of the devnet and eminent tests and a github link to the mainnet proposal that would be used for on-chain voting.
- The post is not intended to be for discussion, rather, it is provided for communicating and coordinating during voting and deployment.
The proposal champion, or another community member, then posts the governance proposal to the mainnet chain for voting. Note that deposit will be required and can be paid when the vote is submitted or the community can pay it over the next few days. Once the deposit amount has been met, voting begins and will remain open for 3 days.
There is an example of the proposal process in the DCF Discussion for a Agoric Community Fund Policy.
The proposal champion should market and promote the proposal during this time. If the proposal doesn’t pass, the proposal champion is welcome to revise and go through the process again, but should start with a new discussion thread and 10 day discussion period.
If the proposal passes then the github proposal code will be implemented, and after a smoke-test, the EC will evaluate raising limits from the default values.
Once the limits have been raised, the new collateral type is live and can be marketed!
Overview:
Overview of possible Community forum posts:
- “Discussion for adding [COLLATERAL] to Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- Initial community discussion for a minimum of 10 days
- Evaluation posts, replying to Discussion thread
- Proposal champion: Oracles, relayers, bundles, other
- EC - Risk evaluation report
- Marketing - partner coordination
- Agoric OpCo - only as needed for novel collateral types
- Preparation posts, replying to Discussion thread
- Oracle integration to testnets and mainnet
- Relayers for testnets and mainnet
- Governance proposal drafts
- Testnet validation posts, replying to Discussion thread
- Update on devnet proposals, voting and validation
- Update on emerynet proposals, voting and validation
- Update with mainnet proposal
- “Signaling proposal for new collateral: [COLLATERAL] for Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- On-chain text proposal to indicate that resources should be spent on this collateral type
- “Proposal for adding [COLLATERAL] to Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- Details from all of the above and a reference post for the on-chain governance proposal
- Mainnet voting has begun post
- Outcome post, going live or going back to the champion
Roles:
- Proposal Champion: responsible for collecting all the information on the new collateral type and coordinating the process
- Agoric OpCo Lead: Evaluates if the proposal is novel enough to require a new bundle or other OpCo engineering work
- Inter Protocol Marketing: The DCF is currently providing marketing support to Inter Protocol and will keep abreast of these proposals.
- DCF Lead: Help coordinate this process
- EC: The economic committee will evaluate the new collateral type after the community, via a signaling vote, has approved spending resources on it. They will prepare a risk assessment recommendation to be posted to the forum.
Minimum Prerequisites for all new collateral types:
- Viable oracle price feed for asset (testnet and mainnet)
- Relayers (testnet and mainnet)
- New collateral type parameter values:
- Denom
- Decimals
- Keyword
- Name
Timeframe estimates:
- 10+ day Discussion period
- 3 day Signaling vote
- 10-30 day Evaluation period
- 1-10 day Preparation phase to get Oracles and Relayers integrated
- 1-10 day Test phase to install and validate on devnet and emerynet
- 3 day Governance Proposal Voting on mainnet
- 1-2 days for the EC to raise the limits from the default values
Sample Proposal Champion Checklist
- Step 1: Intro
- Post “Discussion for adding [COLLATERAL] to Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- 10 day discussion period
- Respond to all concerns
- Ready to post a signaling proposal
- Step 2: Signaling Proposal
- Post “Signaling proposal for new collateral: [collateral] for Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- 3 days voting
- Proposal is passed
- Step 3: Evaluation
- Confirm with EC that they have begun the risk assessment
- Identify oracles to be used; post to discussion thread
- Coordinate with Agoric OpCo what oracles may be available
- Establish relationship with any new oracles needed
- Identify relayers to be used; post to discussion thread
- Coordinate with OpCo for relayers that may already be available
- Obtain Channel IDs for devnet, emerynet and mainnet
- Notify Keplr/Skip so they can add FE IBC send support to Keplr
- Transfer assets to establish denom, (using IBC send in Keplr or IBC tool)
- Post denom to forum when complete
- Identify any bundles that need to be added; post to discussion thread
- Identify any other costs needed; post to discussion thread
- Confirm that DCF has assigned a marketing person
- Confirm that DCF has assigned a coordinator
- Verify that the EC has posted their risk assessment to the discussion thread
- Step 4: Preparation
- Setup oracle integration with provider(s); post to discussion thread
- Setup relayer integration with provider(s); post to discussion thread
- Setup any other resources required; post to discussion thread
- Prepare github proposal for devnet; post to discussion thread
- Prepare github proposal for emerynet; post to discussion thread
- Step 5: Testing
- Devnet testing
- Validate the correct software is being used (with help from Agoric OpCo?)
- Post on Discord regarding the upgrade and proposal
- Devnet proposal posted for voting
- Coordinate voting with developers and validators
- Validate the proposal worked
- Validate the new collateral is working correctly
- Validate the oracles are working correctly
- Validate the relayers are working correctly
- Validate any other dependencies are working correctly
- Emerynet testing
- Validate the correct software is being used (with help from Agoric OpCo?)
- Post on Discord regarding the upgrade and proposal
- Devnet proposal posted for voting
- Coordinate voting with developers and validators
- Validate the proposal worked
- Validate the new collateral is working correctly
- Validate the oracles are working correctly
- Validate the relayers are working correctly
- Validate any other dependencies are working correctly
- Mainnet preparation
- Prepare github proposal for mainnet; post to discussion thread
- Step 6: Mainnet Voting
- Coordinate with marketing the beginning of voting
- Create forum post: “Proposal for adding [COLLATERAL] to Inter Protocol [PSM/Vaults]”
- Submit governance proposal for voting
- Encourage the community to deposit
- Promote the proposal
- Coordinate with marketing the end of voting
- Coordinate with Agoric OpCo functional testing of the new collateral type
- Coordinate with marketing the EC raising the limits from the default values
Google Docs Version for community input, V1.0