Purpose

We want to reduce the operational costs of distributing $PRTN and other assets (ETH/USDC). As we continue to pay core team / contributors and issue grants, we want to minimize operational costs while maximising the potential of our assets. So we propose to bridge 5% of $PRTN and 20% of the Treasury to Layer2, leaving the majority for security reasons on ETH mainnet.

• Primary purpose is to reduce gas transaction costs. Gas is prohibitive for maximising the $PRTN value for the community and contributors.
• We’re seeing more and more communities create layer2 solutions to their smaller operational transactions, and more products being built with this in mind.
• Creating liquidity on just mainnet is important to work against price volatility and for security reasons

Some context / definitions first:

Blockchain Bridge

A blockchain bridge is a connection that allows the transfer of tokens and/or arbitrary data from one chain to another. Both chains can have different protocols, rules and governance models, but the bridge provides a compatible way to interoperate securely on both sides.

Ethereum Mainnet

Mainnet is the term used to describe when a blockchain protocol is fully developed and deployed, meaning that cryptocurrency transactions are being broadcasted, verified, and recorded on a distributed ledger technology (blockchain).

Gas Costs

Gas refers to the fee, or pricing value, required to successfully conduct a transaction or execute a contract on the Ethereum protocol.

Specifics

We will bridge 5,000,000 $PRTN (5% of total supply) and $50,000 USDC (20% of $250,000 current treasury) to a polygon gnosis safe as a child of the Protein safe.

We will use Coinvise to import the $PRTN tokens, and then bridge the % across to polygon.

We then use this, integrated with apps ‘superfluid’ and ‘CSV airdrops’ for our transactions to send PRTN (on polygon), ETH and USDC (PoS) to members.

We’ll be able to do this more regularly and aligned with our earn to access models. Receivers get their assets on the MATIC network, which they can bridge back to mainnet if they need to.

We propose that liquidity pools will be set up on ETH mainnet, Snapshot and guild can be used with both polygon and ETH integrations.

Benefits

• Members can get instantly airdropped their compensation for contributors without incurring gas fees.
• Core team can use superfluid (operating on polygon to stream assets)
• Transferring assets is cheaper

Concerns

• Splitting the $PRTN token between ETH mainnet and Polygon could cause confusion as the $PRTN token grows Answer: We’ve been advised through other community case studies that this isn’t an issue

• Members having to ‘bridge’ the $PRTN back could cause confusion Answer: We’ll create comprehensive education around this process

• Creating liquidity on just mainnet means members have to pay gas to bridge back the tokens to mainnet and also pay gas to list them. This could cause a lack of incentive for contributions and frustration. Answer: In reality this will encourage members to be more thoughtful about holding their $PRTN/continuing to build the ecosystem

Q: Is this also a proposal for liquidity pools on mainchain? Or just for bridging a portion of $PRTN and USDC? A: It will cover both eventually, but we need to start with a more effective way of distributing PRTN as part of our “earn to access” initiative

Q: Why not move it all to polygon / give everyone their current tokens on poly and ditch the old? Is it because the liquidity pools need to be on mainnnet? A: At this stage it’s essentially a test to make sure the transition will work for the community before we bridge the full amount. We’ve thought about it for sure, and also about minting an entirely new token on polygon. For now, it makes the most sense to bridge a smaller amount which will allow us to create even more collaboration and ownership, on a chain which is still compatible with ETH mainnet in the long term.

Good Growth

• Bridging tokens is key to good growth because it allows the Protein Community to distribute tokens faster and more efficiently, creating a more diverse token economy and base
• Moving from ETH will make our infrastructure more energy efficient and sustainable

Proposal Timeline

Community Snapshot starts Feb 7th 9am UTC Community Snapshot ends Feb 10th 4pm UTC Migration begins Feb 11th