TLDR:

• Since the events of June 2022 the Bancor DAO has been working to reduce the deficit
• V2.1 uses all of its revenue (network fees) to power the vortex
• V3 uses 90% of revenue to collect BNT here: https://etherscan.io/address/0xeEF417e1D5CC832e619ae18D2F140De2999dD4fB#readProxyContract
• DeFi involves many different ecosystem players that each perform some function and collect some payment
• This proposes that if ANYONE in the community:
  • Can identify value leaving the protocol
  • Can identify a way for the protocol to recapture that value
  • Can do so in a way where all benefits are directly returned to the protocol/LPs
  • That community member should propose to the DAO their mechanism and anything required to allow it to run.
    • For example, this proposal will suggest a proof of concept (POC) for Bancor Fast Lane.
    • Bancor Fast Lane is a contract whose goal is to take the profit typically earned by external arbs and use those gains to reduce the deficit
    • To work, Bancor Fast Lane requires a new smart contract or upgrade to V3 contracts. Details below.

Introduction:

Before the events of June 2022, the Bancor DAO was working to make the protocol more efficient by fine tuning the trading liquidity and pool fees.

After the events of June 2022, there have been an abundance of innovative ideas from the community on how to improve protocol efficiency. For example:

• Using Almanak for parameter suggestions
• Dynamic fees
• Protocol level arbs
• Changes to the behavior of the vortex (who can trigger, what to burn, reward levels)
• Integrations
• Programmatic ways to define V3 settings
• Dynamic pool weights
• And more…

However, while many of these ideas show potential, there are some cases where small upgrades to the smart contracts can magnify the impact of the suggestion.

In such cases, it is proposed that the proposer outlines precisely how they can make the protocol more efficient and what is needed in order to do so.

Proof of Concept - Bancor Fast Lane

Any member of the community can make a proposal with the following recommended elements for consideration, as demonstrated here by the Bancor Fast Lane POC:

Identify Value Leaving the Protocol

• Arbs in AMMs keep prices balanced with external markets
• Arbs perform this function to profit when prices diverge across protocols
• This proposal suggests that instead of allowing arbs to extract value from Bancor protocol with no competition, the protocol essentially also arbs itself and uses gains to reduce the deficit

Identify a way for the protocol to recapture that value

• The Bancor Fast Lane (outlined in more detail below) will arb the protocol
• All profits generated by the Fast Lane will be converted to BNT and then burnt (excluding a fee to whoever identifies the arb and sends it to the contract).
• In addition to making the protocol more efficient, this is likely to reduce the deficit

Do so in a way where all benefits are directly returned to the protocol/LPs

• The Bancor Fast Lane will not take any profits for itself. All gains are converted to BNT and burned (excluding a fee to whoever identifies the arb and sends it to the contract)
• The finders fee will be 10% of the profit capped at 100 BNT (These are DAO controlled parameters)
• This will be verifiable on-chain

Propose to the DAO a mechanism and anything required to allow it to run.

• This proposal requires a new contract (or upgrade to V3) to allow for the flow below:

• User finds an arb
• User puts relevant inputs in the contract
• Contract does a BNT flashloan
• Contract does the trades exempt from pool fees (Note: an experiment will be done to test first without an exemption from pool fees to see if this is required. If it is found that it performs well without the exemption, an update will be shared on this post.)
• Contract gives the wallet who called the function a finders fee (10% of the profit capped at 100 BNT - These are DAO controlled parameters)
• Sends the rest of the BNT to the token contract where it is burned: https://etherscan.io/address/0x1F573D6Fb3F13d689FF844B4cE37794d79a7FF1C

• This proposal suggests making all V3 pool fees at least .5% (not including ETH, DAI, LINK, WBTC) as their pool fee changes are coming from Almanak (link)
• Raising the pool fees allows the Fast Lane a significant advantage against generalized arb bots
• It is expected to result in a decline in trading fees as LPs will not directly benefit from trades performed with 0 fees.
• However, the arb-ing of the pools and burning of any BNT gained, is likely to result in better economic outcomes for LPs by reducing the deficit in the pools.

Fast Lane Functionality

• Continuously search all pools on Bancor
• Find potential arbitrage opportunities on:
  • Uniswap V2
  • Sushi
  • Uniswap V3
  • Curve
  • Dodo
  • Balancer
    • Note: Not all of these will be live on day 1 and this list is expected to expand with time.
• Calculate optimal trades
  • This will start as a simple calculation that improves over time.
  • This must account for expected gas cost and trade fees to ensure the trade is profitable.
• Inform the contract of the trade

Note: Arb performance should be expected to improve over time.

Implementation Components include:

• New contract or upgrade to V3
• Fee Changes
  • Please see the table in the appendix

For

Create a contract allowing trades exempt from pool fees as part of the Fast Lane and move all pool fees below .5% to .5% on V3 (excluding ETH, WBTC, LINK, DAI).

Against

Do nothing.