Questions
Grouped by theme. Every answer can be traced to a section of the white paper.
The basics6
01What is Assetrix DAO, in one sentence?
A protocol for issuing a collateralised token whose creation price is set by the contract, rises along a published curve, and never falls.
02What is a ratchet?
The name the founders give to this class of asset: a coin with a rising issuance price. The name refers to the price of creating new tokens, which the contract sets and does not lower. It says nothing about the market price.
03Is this a stablecoin?
No. A stablecoin holds its face value and loses purchasing power with it. Here the entry price is tied to a figure that rises, while the collateral remains real and reclaimable at any time. The class is meant as a complement to the stablecoin, not a replacement.
04Where is the collateral?
In the smart contract, on Arbitrum One. Not with a company, not with a person. Its owner can reclaim it at any time, and no role can stop that.
05Who runs the protocol?
The holders, by vote. The contract is immutable; the parameters it exposes to a vote are listed on the governance page. Everything else is fixed at deployment.
06Is there a token sale?
No. Nobody sells tokens to anyone. The contract mints, at a price it computes for itself, for whoever deposits collateral. There is no allocation and no pre-sale. The founders are remunerated by a protocol fee charged on creating a position — a share of the deposit with ceilings fixed in the code, from 1 per cent at the start of Phase 1 to 2.8 at its end and 0.56 in Phase 2 — and the tokens it yields are backed at the mint price, so no unbacked tokens arise.
The two prices5
07What is the mint price?
The price at which the contract creates a new token for someone who deposits collateral. In Phase 1 it depends only on how many tokens have ever been issued; in Phase 2 it grows with time at a rate from a fixed ladder. It never falls.
08What is the market price?
Whatever people pay for ASTRX on the market. The protocol does not set it and cannot. It sits in a corridor between backing per token and the mint price, and it can fall.
09So does the price of ASTRX go up?
The mint price goes up. That is the cost of entry, and it is a ceiling on what a token can reasonably trade for, not a promise of what it will trade for. The market price is up to the market and may fall towards backing.
10What is the corridor?
The space between two figures the contract sets: backing per token below, held up by redemption, which is always open, and the mint price above, held down because anyone can mint at that price. Both boundaries are maintained by arbitrage.
11Why would anyone pay the mint price if the market is cheaper?
Because a position carries no nominal loss: the deposit comes back in full. Minting is a way to hold collateral in the wrapper at today’s entry price, in anticipation of a later state of the system. The cost is the use of the capital, not the risk of losing it.
Positions and tokens6
12What is a position?
A non-fungible token that holds its own collateral at its own entry price. It can be redeemed at face value at any time, or closed into circulating ASTRX tokens.
13What is the difference between redeeming and closing?
Redeeming returns the deposit in full and destroys the position. Closing converts the position into ASTRX tokens backed by a share of the shared pool; the collateral joins the pool. A close that raises backing is never charged a fee; one that dilutes it pays the dilution fee.
14Can I lose money on a position?
Not nominally. The deposited collateral is returned in full, in the currency brought. The cost of holding a position is the opportunity cost of that capital while it sits.
15Can I lose money on a token?
16Can a position be sold or split?
Yes. A position is a token and can change hands on the secondary market as a whole. It can also be split into smaller positions. Splitting does not change backing and cannot be used to get around the protection level.
17Is there a minimum?
Yes, for each operation, set so that rounding cannot be exploited against the reserve. The values are in the white paper, section 2.6.
What holds the backing up6
18What is backing per token?
The share of the reserve that falls to one circulating token. It is computed on circulation, not on the issuance count that drives the mint price.
19What happens to backing when people leave?
Nothing, per token. Redemption is neutral: a holder who redeems takes exactly their proportional share. The pool gets smaller; the backing of those who remain does not. A collapse of backing through exit is impossible by construction.
20What is the protection level?
A limit on drawdown: backing per token may not fall by more than a set share of its historical maximum. The share is 61.8 per cent by default — the most lenient rung — and can be tightened by vote through 50 and 38.2 down to 23.6 per cent. A closing that would dilute the pool may use at most 38.2 per cent of the headroom above the threshold, so the threshold is approached but never breached.
21Where do fees go?
The fees in favour of holders go into the pool: the dilution fee is withheld in tokens that never circulate, the transfer fee and every token burned to vote leave the supply while their collateral stays, and the redemption fee stays in the reserve. Separately, a protocol fee on creating a position goes to the founders; its ceilings are fixed in the code and the prevailing rate is readable on-chain at any time.
22What is the redemption multiplier?
23Is there anything the protection does not cover?
Yes: a fall in the price of the collateral itself. With stablecoins the protection level holds exactly as specified. With volatile collateral the floor is measured in what sits in the reserve, so it falls with the asset. The spread, the concentration surcharge and live valuation soften this; they do not remove it.
Governance5
24How is a vote cast?
By burning tokens. Their collateral stays in the pool for everyone who remains. Voting credits earned by closing positions are also used; the white paper sets out how they accumulate and deplete.
25What can be voted on?
Fees, the depth of backing protection, the method of returning funds, the set of collateral currencies, the Phase 2 growth rate and its mode of regulation, and the moment Phase 1 ends. The list is closed.
26What can nobody vote on?
That closing a position is free. That redemption is open. That the mint price does not fall. These are properties of the contract, outside the reach of any vote and any role.
27Is there an admin?
Two roles, each with narrow, listed powers, managed through a multi-signature wallet with time-locked execution. A guardian appoints and removes the operator. The operator sets the protocol fee within its ceiling, announces currencies for a vote, and can raise the reserve-loss flag subject to holder verification. Neither can alter the mint price, the growth ladder or the rules of backing, introduce a fee on position redemption, admit a currency against a vote, or halt the return of funds.
28Can the contract be upgraded?
No. It is immutable once deployed. There is no upgrade path and no wind-up procedure.
Risk and what can go wrong6
29What is the main risk for a token holder?
That the market price falls towards backing. The corridor bounds how far it can fall relative to the reserve; it does not stop it falling.
30What is the main risk for a position holder?
The opportunity cost of the capital while it sits, and — if the collateral is a volatile currency — the fall of that currency itself. A position in a stablecoin returns exactly what was deposited.
31What if a reserve currency loses its peg or fails?
The white paper sets out the response: suspension by vote, migration of the reserve, and valuation at prevailing quotes so that the protection answers a fall at once rather than after the fact. Loss of reserve is treated in section 4.5.
32What if the price feed stops?
Each currency has a staleness limit and the contract checks the L2 sequencer. A stale or unavailable feed has a defined response in the code; it does not silently mis-value the reserve.
33Has the code been audited?
The project’s own verification is disclosed on the documents page and in the white paper: a reference implementation independent of the contract, a test suite reproducing its results, and tests of the anticipated failure modes. These are the project’s tests; they precede rather than replace review by others.
34Will anyone from the project ever ask for my seed phrase?
No. Never. Not on this site, not in a chat, not in a direct message, not by email, not from anyone claiming to be a member of the team. Any such request is theft in progress.
Technical5
35Which network?
Arbitrum One. The contract is immutable there.
36Is the mint curve public?
Yes, in full and deliberately so. The mint price is computed by the contract and reproducible from the bytecode in any event. The formula is in the white paper, section 3.1, and the curve on this site is drawn from it.
37How is Phase 2 pricing computed?
Continuously, per second, from the rate in force. There is no step: a step would create a moment before which it pays to hurry in.
38What is the regulator?
A rule in the contract, not a body. It watches one indicator — inflow of collateral into new positions per cycle — and moves the growth rate through the ladder one probe per cycle when inflow falls outside its usual variation. The holders can switch it off and set the rate by vote.
39Where is the source code?
The source of the test-network deployment is already public and verified: its addresses are on the testnet page, and anyone can compile it and compare. For the main network the source is published after deployment and verification, at the addresses listed on the official resources page.
The project itself5
40Who is behind it?
A pseudonymous team. The contract is immutable, the code will be public, and the documents carry checksums and timestamps that need no trust in anyone. That is the accountability on offer.
41Where are the official accounts?
On the official resources page, and nowhere else. The name is assetrixdao on every platform, without variation. Any other name is not this project.
42Does the project provide liquidity?
What the project does on the market is announced on the liquidity page before it happens and logged after. At present nothing is deployed on the main network, and no pool exists there.
43Will there be a listing on an exchange?
Nothing is announced before it has happened. Anyone offering a guaranteed listing for a fee, or a listing by direct message, is not this project.
44How do I contact the project?
Through the form on the Write to us page — a question, a partnership, a correction, a word from a fund — or by email at info@assetrix.org. Official accounts are listed on the official resources page and nowhere else.
Closing a position10
45Can I hold a position for a very long time?
Yes, indefinitely. Holding costs nothing, the position cannot shrink, and there is no expiry. The longer you hold, the wider the gap between backing and what you paid, so closing gives you more. But the threshold rises too, and one day it passes over your entry price: from then on a close of the whole position may be refused, and you take it out in parts as room appears. None of this touches your collateral — redemption of the position is open at any moment and returns it in full.
46When is the best moment to close?
There is no best moment the protocol can tell you, because it depends on what you will do with the tokens. Two things move against each other: backing keeps rising under your fixed entry price, which makes closing worth more, and the threshold keeps rising as well, which makes closing harder. If your entry price is below backing, sooner is safer — the headroom is shared and spent by whoever moves first. If it is above backing, there is no queue to beat and no hurry.
47What happens if my close is refused?
Nothing is lost and nothing is spent: a refusal does not issue tokens and does not touch the position. It means only that the whole position is larger than what the headroom allows right now. Split it and close the parts: each part takes what the limit permits. The rest waits for the headroom to refill, which happens when somebody else mints and backing reaches a new record.
48Why does splitting help if it does not raise the limit?
Because a refusal is not partial. A position larger than the allowance is refused whole and yields nothing at all; the same position split takes everything the limit already permits. Splitting does not widen the gate and does not create headroom — a hundred addresses draw on the same reservoir as one. It is simply the only way to collect what is already allowed.
49What do I risk if I came in early, and what if I came in late?
They are opposite risks. An early position has an entry price below backing: it fears the protocol, not the market — the gate may hold it up, but its collateral is never at risk. A late position has an entry price above backing: the gate does not touch it at all, but turning it into tokens means needing a market above what was paid. Choose which of the two you would rather be holding.
50Do I need a market at all?
Not if your entry price is below backing. You close the position and redeem the tokens, and the whole thing happens inside the protocol: you receive the difference between backing and what you paid, less the dilution fee and the redemption fee. A market is needed only for the other strategy — selling tokens above what you paid.
51What if everybody runs for the exit at once?
Redemption is not rationed: it returns each holder the same proportional share of the reserve and leaves the composition of the basket unchanged, so it costs the pool nothing and cannot be exhausted by a rush. Closing cheap positions is the thing that is limited, and the limit does not depend on how many people try: the total that can enter circulation from one record is fixed. A crowd decides who gets through, not how far backing falls.
52Can I change my mind after closing?
No. Closing runs one way: a token never becomes a position again. Everything else is reversible — a position can wait indefinitely and its collateral comes back in full — which is why this is the one step worth thinking about before you take it.
53I closed above the floor. Have I lost?
No. At the moment of closing you do hand the pool the difference between what you paid and backing, and the floor rises for everyone — including you: part of what you gave comes back to you, and the larger your position against circulation, the larger that part. The rest you can make up on the market, which is the whole condition of that strategy and something the protocol promises nothing about. Or you can simply hold the token: fees push backing up underneath it, and the protection level limits how far it can fall. You pay no dilution fee and you receive voting credits.
54Why wait holding a token rather than holding the position?
Because the two waits carry different risks, and you are choosing between them, not choosing better or worse. Waiting in the position keeps your right to take back exactly what you put in, but risks sitting too long: the threshold may pass over your entry price and a whole close stops going through. Waiting in the token has already passed the gate, so that risk is gone — but the token returns a share of the reserve, not your deposit. If your entry price is below backing the exchange favours you; if it is above, moving into the token locks in the shortfall, and only the market can make it up.
The router, the reader and Uniswap8
55Do I have to use the router?
Only if you trade ASTRX on Uniswap while the transfer fee stands above zero. Minting, redeeming, closing a position, transferring tokens and voting go through the core alone and need nothing else. At the zero rung, where the fee starts, even a trade on Uniswap needs no router.
56Why did my sale on Uniswap fail?
Above the zero rung, every transfer of ASTRX burns a share on the way. A pool names a figure and requires its own balance to have risen by at least that much; hand it exactly that figure and part burns before it arrives, so the pool comes up short and refuses. The router sends enough for the named figure to arrive after the burn. Around the protocol explains it in full.
57Is the router part of the protocol?
No. It holds nothing between calls, has no owner, no settings and no upgrade path, cannot mint, cannot close a position and cannot touch the collateral. The core does not know it exists and never calls it. Anyone may write a better one and use that instead.
58Can the router take more than I meant to spend?
No. A trade opens with the amount you named and not one unit more, and that budget is spent as it is paid rather than merely checked. A pool that asks for more is refused; a pool that asks twice finds nothing left. A trade that would deliver less than the least you named is refused, and so is one that reported success and delivered nothing.
59Where is the address of the router?
Published apart from the address of the core, on the official resources page, once it exists. It may change, because a better router may replace it. The address of the core cannot change.
60What does the reader do?
It answers, before you send anything, how many tokens a position may close right now and which of eight reasons explains the answer. It reads the core through public views, holds no funds and changes nothing. If the reader and the gate ever disagree, the gate is right.
61How do I provide liquidity on Uniswap v3?
Through the router, and it works today. The pool asks whom the position should be credited to and collects payment afterwards; the router names you the owner from the first moment and pays the burnt share itself. A range placed entirely above or below the current price is owed on one side only, and the router pays only that side. Taking liquidity back needs no router at all: the pool hands it to whoever owns the position.
62Can I provide liquidity on Uniswap v4?
While the transfer fee stands at zero, through the ordinary Uniswap interface. Above zero, v4 needs a position manager of Assetrix’s own that covers what is burnt. It is planned and not yet written; when it exists, its address will be published alongside the router’s.
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