Yam 2020 Recap & 2021 Roadmap

It’s no stretch to say that 2020 will be a year that we will all remember, no matter where in the world you’re reading this. But if there’s one thing about 2020 that we’re proud of, it’s this:

2020 saw the launch of Yam Finance!

Like any launch, ours has been a wild rollercoaster taking the community to breathtaking new heights and challenging lows. Through it all, we have learned, grown, and pivoted whenever necessary. But most importantly — we’re still here and kicking into high gear for 2021!

Yam has come a long way from its initial launch on August 11th. Our community has seen key developments, including Yam sponsored product launches, treasury mobilization, increased governance functionality, disabling of the rebase function, and more. We’re particularly excited about our developments in the Umbrella Protocol, the Yam DAO Set, and the Degenerative Finance launch.

This is a thrilling time for Yam, the period in which we transform from a well-funded DAO to a full-fledged ecosystem with a wide variety of innovative and interoperable products ranging from DeFi protection to investment products and synthetics.

Here is a quick refresher of the key developments in Yam Finance from 2020:

Rebasing:

At launch, Yam Finance’s native token was freely and fairly distributed through a farming contract to users who staked liquidity.

YAM began its rebasing phase to help fund the community governed Treasury. While rebasing accomplished this goal, over time the community determined that the rebasing mechanic contributed an unanticipated level of friction that was unnecessary for a governance token. With the understanding that other methods would be used to fund Treasury in the future, the community officially voted to disable the rebase function.

YAM is no longer a rebasing asset.

Products:

2020 saw the launch of Yam Finance’s first product, Degenerative Finance, executed through a collaboration with UMA and the Yam community. Degenerative seeks to become a suite of innovative synthetic assets built on UMA’s contract protocol. The first of these synthetics is uGAS, which allows users to hedge and speculate on the price of gas.

For more information on Degenerative.Finance and uGAS, see here: Medium Article

This past year also featured the ideation and protocol development of Yam’s second product, Umbrella, which will provide hack and bug protection for DeFi users. The year culminated with the launch of Umbrella’s alpha for community testing before an official audit in January 2021.

Protocol:

Yam initiated a change from a yUSD/YAM Treasury Purchase on Uniswap to an ETH/YAM Treasury Purchase on Sushiswap and moved the primary incentivized liquidity pool to Sushiswap. Liquidity providers can stake their Sushiswap Liquidity Pool Tokens in Yam Finance’s incentivizer to earn 12500 YAM per week as liquidity incentives.

The community also voted to allow the incentivizer to farm SUSHI with the staked SLP tokens as a form of Treasury revenue.

Additionally, the community voted and approved the proposal known as the Great YAM Wall to use a portion of Treasury funds to establish a protective price floor mechanic for YAM.

Treasury:

2020 was a huge year for the Yam Finance treasury. Through the rebasing mechanic, asset purchases, farming, and other investments, the Treasury has grown to the fiat equivalent of $4.3MM (as of 2021–01–10)!

For a more in-depth look at the Treasury, read here: Medium Article.

Governance:

Yam Finance achieved two major governance accomplishments over the course of 2020.

The first was the development of a new Governor contract allowing for the decentralized compensation of core and part-time contributors by the Yam Community using the Treasury. This gave the community greater ability to align the core team with the long-term prospects of the project and begin more aggressively recruiting additional developers and team members.

The second was the development of code allowing liquidity providers to participate in Yam Finance governance through the Incentivizer, making sure that no Yammer was disenfranchised by choosing to provide liquidity for the community.

Organization:

In the last quarter of 2020, the Yam Community approved and ratified the core Mission Statement and Brand Pillars for Yam Finance so that the whole community could rally together behind a common purpose in the DeFi ecosystem.

Additionally, the community implemented on-chain infrastructure and clarity for contributor compensation, allowing the contributor team to better focus on the needs of the project.

The Yam community has accomplished a great deal in just the first 6 months of its life, and there’s even more in store for Spring 2021! If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a look into what’s coming down the pipe for Yam Finance and its ecosystem of products.

Organization

As the Yam ecosystem grows, the development needs of the community will grow as well. We are pleased to share that there are 5 additional developers currently undergoing testing and necessary due diligence checks before beginning work on Yam’s existing and future products. Yam is always on the lookout for skilled and innovative developers to build with us. Any interested parties should join the community in the Yam Discord!

Products

Yam DAO Set anticipates launching January 2021 and is Yam’s first investment product in collaboration with TokenSets.

Also known as YDS, the Yam DAO Set will feature built-in functionality to charge a management fee for “Assets Under Management”. YDS is a marketable product that will be used to attract retail users alongside treasury-owning DAOs as asset management clients in order to generate additional revenue for the Yam Ecosystem.

There are three next steps for YDS. The first is to operate YDS using Yam treasury funds as a proof-of-functionality case study. The second is to onboard DAO clients who would like to utilize YDS as their preferred treasury management vendor. Finally, the third step is to onboard individual retail users.

Umbrella is Yam Finance’s DeFi protection protocol allowing users to obtain protection against bugs, hacks, and other malicious events in exchange for premiums. The protocol also allows users to earn a return for providing protection through the protocol. It features permissionless metapool creation and protection on any DeFi protocol.

The alpha version of Umbrella has launched for testing with the initial test pool limited to $1000 deposited value. The next step for Umbrella is an audit by Peckshield scheduled for mid-January with continued internal, capped deposit testing. Additionally, the Yam team will begin designing and building the product interface for the beta product launch following the audit.

Discussions are ongoing about two important Umbrella subjects:

1) What arbitration criteria will Umbrella use to validate claims?

2) Does Umbrella require its own subDAO token for governance and does having one bring more value to the Yam Ecosystem?

Those interested in participating in these discussions are highly encouraged to visit the Umbrella channel on the Yam Finance discord or visit the Yam’s governance forum.

As mentioned above, Degenerative Finance is Yam’s suite of DeFi synthetics built in collaboration with the UMA Project, beginning with uGAS futures. This is an exciting product class with speculative and hedging use cases currently unserved by any existing DeFi platform. Additionally, the UMA Project supplies developer mining rewards for those building on their infrastructure, allowing Yam to immediately begin monetizing this product line.

In 2021, Yam plans to expand on the number and diversity of synthetics available through the Degenerative Finance platform. Synthetics currently in discussion range from tracking the volume of BTC to straddles against impermanent loss. The next steps for Degenerative Finance will be to improve the user interface for uGAS, begin concepting and developing additional synthetics, and build out the Degenerative product line.

Yam is actively looking for developers interested in collaborating to build amazing degenerative synthetics with us.

Protocol

On a macro level, Yam Finance will finally kick off its decentralized product accelerator Yam Factory this coming year.

Yam Factory is a protocol studio or incubator allowing teams that want to build products within the Yam Ecosystem to apply for funding, technical support, and marketing/design support from the Yam DAO. These partnerships will be designed to generate value for all parties involved and expand the variety of interconnected DeFi legos available to users within Yam’s product ecosystem.

The next steps for Yam Factory are to create a framework for the incubator’s operation and begin marketing the Yam Factory as a VC alternative for the DeFi space.

In addition to the Yam Factory, 2021 will see the on-chain proposal for governance approval to implement The Great Yam Wall.

Treasury

This coming year will continue to see the growth of the Treasury through product revenue, yield farming strategies, strategic asset investments, and more.

Additionally, 2021 will be the year when YDS begins actively managing Yam’s Treasury. Using on-chain governance, Yam has assigned a Set Portfolio Manager with specific guardrails to manage the Set, allowing the community to retain trustless decentralization, but within a more flexible and reactive framework.

The next steps for YDS management of the Treasury include completing the Trader UI, testing the contracts, and executing an on-chain governance proposal to fund the Set.

Governance

The job of governing the DAO is never complete! We anticipate that 2021 will require even greater community involvement and governance participation as Yam’s product offerings continue to dramatically expand and build on past accomplishments.

The community is currently discussing the DAO’s governance process and invite all to participate. Join us on Discord!

2020 Accomplishments:

• Rebase Function has been disabled. Yam no longer is a rebasing asset
• Degenerative.Finance launched with uGas synthetic tokens. Medium Article
• Umbrella alpha launched
• Treasury growth to $3.5M

Protocol:

• ETH/YAM Treasury Purchase on Sushiswap
• 12500 YAM/week Liquidity Incentives
• Incentivizer farms SUSHI for Treasury
• Great YAM Wall Concept for ragequit functionality has been approved

Treasury:

• Direct 1% of all Treasury Inflow to Gitcoin Grants
• Purchase ETH + DPI to farm INDEX
• Allocate YAM/ETH LP Tokens to farm SUSHI

Governance:

• LPs can participate in governance through incentivizer
• Created new Governor contracts for compensation

Organization:

• Ratified Mission Statement and Brand Pillars
• Implemented on-chain infrastructure for contributor compensation

Projects:

Yam DAO Set — Investment Product

• Status: In Development — Launch planned Jan 2021
• Priority: Medium
• Summary: YDS will have a built in function to charge a management fee for Assets Under Management. YDS will be a marketable product that we can use to target other DAOs with treasuries and retail users to generate additional revenue for the Yam ecosystem.

Next Steps:

• Operate YDS with treasury funds to prove out functionality
• Onboard other DAOs with treasuries
• Onboard retail users

Umbrella

• Status: Alpha Launched
• Priority: High
• Summary: Umbrella is a DeFi protection protocol allowing users to earn a return for providing protection or obtain protection in exchange for premiums. It features permissionless metapool creation and protection on any DeFi protocols.

Next Steps:

• Audit scheduled with Peckshield
• Continue internal, capped deposit testing
• Beta testing after audit

Degenerative Finance

• Status: Launched
• Priority: High
• Summary: Utilizing UMA’s financial contracts and DVM, Yam will create a product suite of onchain metric derivatives starting with uGas futures. uGas futures are available now on Degenerative.Finance. This is an exciting product class with speculative and hedging use cases, and currently is not served by any existing DeFi platform. Additionally, UMA is offering developer mining rewards for those building on their infrastructure, allowing Yam to immediately begin monetizing this product line. This is a direct collaboration with the UMA team in which we will be taking over the gas futures contracts initially developed.

Next Steps:

• Improve UI for uGas
• Begin concepting and developing additional contracts
• Build out broader product line

Yam Factory

• Status: Concepting
• Priority: Low
• Summary: The Yam Factory is a protocol studio or incubator. Teams that would like to build products can apply to receive funding and technical/marketing/design support from the Yam ecosystem. This partnership will be designed to generate value for all parties involved.

Next Steps:

• Create framework for how the Factory will operate
• Begin marketing to the DeFi ecosystem as a VC alternative

Protocol:

Great Yam Wall

• Status: In-development
• Priority: Low
• Summary: The Great Yam Wall is a mechanism to create a Yam price floor by keeping the Market Cap above the value of the Yam Treasury. This is a similar result of “Ragequit”. This will directly defend the price of Yam as it is falling and will bring up the price as the Yam Treasury grows.The Great Yam wall utilizes treasury funds to purchase YAM on the open market, raising market cap to reach equilibrium.

Next Steps:

• Onchain proposal

Treasury:

Yam DAO Set — Treasury Management

• Status: In Development
• Priority: High
• Summary: The Yam DAO Set is a collaboration with Set Protocol to allow DAO governance a way to actively manage their treasury. Using onchain governance we are able to assign a Set Portfolio Manager with specific guardrails to manage the Set.This allows us to retain trustless decentralization, but within a more flexible and reactive framework.

Next Steps:

• Complete Trader UI
• Testing
• Execute Onchain Proposal to fund Set

Governance:

On-going governance process update and discussion.

Conclusion:

This is an exciting time for Yam, and we are thrilled to share this updated roadmap with our community!

We encourage you to keep an eye out for these updates and more as we push towards the full launch of Yam’s first wave of products. Be sure to follow us on Medium, Twitter, or Reddit for news. If you have questions, please feel free to reach us on Discord!

This roadmap has also been cross-posted to the YAM forum, please join the discussion here.