Roadmap update | September 2022

Multiple collateral types, community token list, and preparations for Boosted BALN.

Roadmap update | September 2022

Multi-collateral support was the primary focus during August, and it's now ready for the community. The smart contract upgrade was completed earlier today, and a 'New collateral type' proposal has been added to the Vote page.

The upgrade has not activated a new collateral type: this requires a governance vote, so the community can begin discussions on the Balanced forum and submit a proposal at any time. After a successful vote, the app will be updated to support new collateral deposits.

Here's what the Balanced contributors accomplished in August:

Smart contracts

  • Deployed multi-collateral upgrades to all relevant contracts
  • Ran tests and fixed bugs in the multi-collateral branch
  • Began documenting APIs for better open-source contribution
  • Implemented arbitrary governance calls
  • Scoped out Curve-style pool bribes

Front end / back end

  • Reached the final stages of testing for the multi-collateral interface
  • Added a 'New collateral type' proposal template to the Vote page
  • Added a community token list to support all non-default tokens in the app

Quality of life and code improvements

  • Fixed some small bugs on the Vote page
  • Fixed bugs associated with the supply liquidity process
  • Fixed decimal rounding issues
  • Changed the default liquidity pool to sICX / bnUSD
  • Fixed the base/quote currencies displayed in the Liquidity Details section
  • Refactored the Rewards section
  • Tidied up the smart contract code
  • Fixed a contract bug associated with the liquidation process
  • Fixed APIs associated with tracking fees generated by Balanced

Multiple collateral types

September is the month for Balanced Dollars to become a stablecoin backed by multiple collateral types. The smart contracts have been upgraded, and the app has been updated to support a 'New collateral type' proposal.

The 'New collateral type' proposal template.

At this stage, the community can begin discussions on the forum to decide which collateral type to add first. Several parameters will need to be considered:

  • Oracle type: where Balanced will get the price information for a collateral type (either from a bnUSD pool on Balanced, or via Band's price oracle)
  • Debt ceiling: the maximum amount of bnUSD that can be minted with a collateral type
  • Borrow LTV: the maximum percentage of bnUSD that people can borrow against a collateral type
  • Liquidation LTV: the percentage of debt required to trigger liquidation for a collateral type

After a new collateral type has been approved, the interface for multiple collateral types will be tested to ensure everything works correctly, and will be pushed to production soon afterwards.


Community token list

To support the diverse range of tokens popping up in the ICON ecosystem, the Balanced contributors have added a community token list to make it easier for people to trade assets that aren't officially supported in the UI.

The confirmation modal for the community token list, which can be turned on from asset selectors on the Trade page.

If you previously imported any tokens to your version of the Balanced app, make sure to remove them before you turn on the community list.

To add another token to the community list, check the Balanced interface readme for instructions.

If you think a community token should be added to the default token list, start a discussion on the forum to get community support, then propose a vote. The listing itself would happen off-chain, but this process will give the DAO some level of oversight surrounding new listings as a way to protect users and limit the scrutiny placed on the exchange.


Monthly performance

In the month from 9 August - 8 September, Balanced earned 896 bnUSD from loan fees and $7,103 from swap fees, for a total of $7,997.

Balanced's income and expenses over the last 2 months.

The DAO Fund increased by $16,707 – a 1.06% gain – to leave a total balance of $1,584,483 based on current market prices.

The amount held in the Balanced DAO Fund compared to the previous month.

Balanced wallpapers and NFTs

This month's roadmap design, Flow, has been added to the collection of Balanced wallpapers.

The Flow wallpaper.

The animated version has been added to the Balanced NFT collection on Craft.

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Flow: the animated edition.

If you'd like a chance to win the Flow NFT, share the roadmap update on Twitter. Make sure to include why you think multiple collateral types is an important step forward for Balanced, and the collateral type you'd most like the DAO to add support for.

Last month's NFT, Synergy, will be given away in this week's Balanced-themed quiz in the ICON Discord channel. Utilities for the NFTs are being discussed in #balanced-nfts in the Balanced Discord channel.


Goals for September

With the multi-collateral upgrade almost complete, the focus for the smart contract and front-end developers will shift to Boosted BALN (bBALN). Much of the code has already been written, but the deployment procedures will require careful planning to ensure a smooth transition to the new token economics design.

Smart contracts

  • Deploy bBALN to testnet
  • Deploy arbitrary governance calls to mainnet
  • Continue planning cross-chain architecture

Front end / back end

  • Update the Home page to support multiple collateral types
  • Update the Stats page to support multiple collateral types
  • Continue working on the bBALN interface upgrade
  • Update the Liquidity Details section to display the APYs for all pools
  • Begin working on an event streamer for Balanced-related event logs
  • Continue fixing bugs and improving the user experience

Looking forward, significant progress has also been made on the cross-chain architecture. The Balanced contributors are working closely with the BTP developers to provide utility for BTP around the time of launch. More details on the architecture will be shared after the Boosted BALN upgrade has been deployed, but know that the strategy is coming together and being discussed regularly.

If you have any questions or want to discuss these updates, start a discussion on the Balanced forum or in the Balanced Discord channel.