Meet BlackPool V2: veBPT has landed!

The time has finally come to announce the launch of the long awaited BlackPool V2!

As you might already know, our good old xBPT went into retirement around Christmastime, with rewards (a whopping ≈550 ETH, around 70% of BP’s revenue in seven months!) being distributed for 2021 to our stakers. For a quick catch up on what happened around that time, check out this link.

You are now able to unstake your xBPT (if you haven’t already), as they no longer generate yield. To cover the costs of the staking fee, we added 15 BPT to every staker to compensate for the cost of unstaking.

On to new adventures!

So, what’s next? As you know, BPT is BlackPool’s governance token, ensuring decentralisation and empowering token holders to participate in steering the DAO. After much deliberation, the xBPT model was retired and an approach similar to Curve Finance (CRV) was adopted in order to reward our long term supporters.

What does this mean in practice?

One of the largest noted problems in DeFi was the so-called ‘one token-one vote’ mechanism which was proven to be problematic, since malicious whales could buy large amounts of tokens of a rival project and by doing so effectively take control over the decisions of the DAO. In order to alleviate this, the ‘ve’ (or vote escrowed) model was implemented, which in practice means:

Users lock up tokens for longer periods of time, thus bolstering the project and sharing in its’ fate. The longer the lock, the more voting power in the DAO.

This model helps with resolving the malicious whale problem, as well as carrying with it some intriguing internal mechanics - the most important one being the ‘boost’ mechanic. This translates simply into:

The more you lock up your tokens for, the more boost you receive, thus more rewards drip into your account. This means a bigger chunk of the yield distribution for you and a bigger influence over the DAO’s decisions.

This in practice means that BPT holders are now incentivised to lock their BPT from a 3 month period to a 4 year period, in return receiving veBPT tokens, representing the yield from BlackPool’s Troops.

The initial contract is, following the Curve model, deployed on Ethereum mainnet, to be distributed across multiple chains after Curve has paved the way for it.

But wait, how do I know what rewards I will receive from locking up my BPT?

The main argument behind a ‘ve’ model is, as we established, that it rewards long-term holders, strengthens the long-term stability of the protocol, as well as streamlines reward distribution. By taking into account what we learned from the veCRV model, the basic calculation on what you receive with veBPT can be seen in the image below.

By locking your tokens for 4 years, each BPT you lock translates to 1 veBPT.

The veBPT model, now employed on our platform, will enable claimable rewards to participants on a weekly basis, where the rewards will be directly extracted from the yield generated by the Troops. As BlackPool grows, so will the rewards distributed to all participants. Each single BPT locked for a longer time will receive more rewards and with upcoming implementations - grant more voting power proportionally to the size of the locked amount and the length of the timelock period. Simply put:

The longer the lock + the locked amount translates to a larger weekly reward.

This model ensures the smooth functioning of the DAO, as well as allowing us to build more interesting strategies in the times to come, both in the play-to-earn industry and beyond!

Hold on, fren, I still haven’t unstaked my xBPT! What do I do with it now?

Note: if you have already unstaked your xBPT, or simply don't hold any - feel free to jump to the next section!

No worries, we have you covered. Once you’ve navigated to the BPT token page, head to the ‘XBPT STAKING’ tab, as seen below.

From there, the process is simple - select the max amount of xBPT you can unstake, click on unstake and after a similar approval process as seen above for veBPT, you’ll be able to retrieve all of your BPT to your wallet, to be then used as you see fit.

Alright then, how do I veBPT?

First off, you need to navigate to the BlackPool token page via this link and head to the LOCKER tab. You’ll be welcomed by this screen(*note:this session was done on Kovan testnet before the launch, the process works the same on mainnet):

The first step is to connect your wallet, which you can do on the top right of the page.

Step two: kick off the process of locking your BPT balance and receiving veBPT. To do so, select the amount of time you’d like to lock your BPT for, choose the amount you’d like to lock and click on the “Lock x BPT” on the bottom of your screen.

After approving your desired amount of BPT, the next screen you’ll see will tell you the following, making sure that your selection is correct:

If you’re content with your choice, proceed with “Yes, lock x BPT for y time” and you’ll be taken again to your wallet to create the lock transaction.

After the pending transaction has been confirmed, you’ll be able to see the details of your lock and total amounts at the bottom of the screen:

Once you locked BPT for veBPT, as we’ve already learned, you’ll be able to either increase your lock time or increase the amount of BPT you’d like to lock up.

If you’d like to track your rewards as they accrue, you can navigate to the REWARDS section at the top of your screen and stay comfy watching the distribution unfold.

And with that - you’re all set!

Note that new rewards will be available on a weekly basis. And that you will start receiving rewards one week after you locked your BPT.