Geist Finance

Geist Finance is a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity market operating on the Fantom Opera blockchain. The core protocol is based on AAVE, the largest DeFi lending protocol by TVL. The staking and fee distribution system is based on Ellipsis Finance, one of the leading DeFi protocols on Binance Smart Chain.

The core Geist protocol is a lending market that functions near-identically to Aave. Users may borrow and lend different assets with variable interest rates. These interest rates are determined algorithmically according to the utilization of the lending pool. Asset pricing is determined using Chainlink and Band oracles. When a lender falls below the required collateral ratio, a financial incentive is provided for the liquidator who repays the under collateralized loan. As with Aave, anyone is free to perform liquidations. Unlike Aave, Geist does not support stable rate lending.

GEIST is the native token within the Geist protocol. GEIST is a revenue sharing token, not a governance token. The protocol has no concept of governance or ownership, and also no treasury. Instead, 50% of all revenue generated through lending is distributed directly to users who stake GEIST.

Lenders and borrowers are incentivized with GEIST. A total of 400 million GEIST (40% of the total supply) is allocated for distribution in this way. Incentives are weighted 2:1 in favor of borrowers, as borrowing is the mechanism that generates revenue within the protocol. Incentives start at 1.1 million GEIST per day and reduce every 30 days, ending after 5 years. The distribution favors early users — over 65% of the GEIST incentives will be given out in the first year.

GEIST incentives are also given for users who provide GEIST/FTM liquidity on a decentralized exchange. A total of 200 million GEIST (20% of the total supply) is allocated for distribution in this way. At launch we will only be incentivizing Spookyswap LP tokens. In the future it is possible that additional LP tokens may be added for incentives.

For the technically minded, the exact monthly emission rate is calculated as:

50,000,000 / 1.0904 ** n

where n is the number of months since launch. Emissions are split 66/33 between lending/borrowing and “pool 2”.

GEIST liquidity mining employs a mechanism first introduced by Ellipsis Finance. All rewards are vested for 3 months. During this vesting period, users are already earning a share of the revenue generated by the protocol. If a user wishes to withdraw their GEIST at any time during the 3 month vesting period, they may do so by paying a 50% penalty. The GEIST taken as a penalty is then distributed to users who choose to lock GEIST for 3 months. This mechanism ensures steady rewards for those who actively commit to the protocol by locking their tokens.

A total of 200 million GEIST (20% of the total supply) is allocated to airdrops aiming to incentivize those who use and support the protocol. These tokens are released linearly over 1 year and will be used to target various communities and token holders. The AAVE, Lobser DAO and Ellipsis communities will receive an initial airdrop. Subsequent token release will be used to accumulate votes on the Curve Fantom gPool via vlCVX and veCRV bribes.

The continuous release means the protocol can continuously re-evaluate where resources can be best allocated to support the protocol. It is by no means aimed to become a recurring weekly airdrops to the communities mentioned above.

This forced gradual release mechanism is done to prevent sudden supply shocks or excessive sell pressure on the token. It also gives us freedom as a community to choose who we should target with our incentives.

Airdrop recipients receive their GEIST vested, in the same way as GEIST earned via protocol use. Receivers may choose to pay the 50% penalty in order to receive their GEIST immediately, or wait for three months to receive the entire balance — while also earning a portion of the protocol revenue.

Airdrops have a limited claim period. When a new airdrop is created, the total claimable GEIST is temporarily locked for distribution to that specific airdrop. Potential recipients then have one week to claim their GEIST. Any tokens left unclaimed after this time are released and may be distributed via another future airdrop.

Geist was developed by a team of industry veterans with significant previous experience working on DeFi projects. We choose to remain anonymous, but rest assured we are qualified for the task at hand. The codebase has been well tested and peer-reviewed, and is currently undergoing a formal audit which we expect to conclude within the next week. The audit results will be published as soon as it is completed.

As Geist is based on Aave, many of the core contracts are upgradeable by the owner. We understand that anonymous devs with the power to upgrade contracts may rightfully make some users feel uncomfortable. To mitigate these concerns, ownership of all Geist smart contracts will be placed behind a Timelock contract with a two day delay for any action. We will publish the address to this contract prominently, and inform the community prior to any admin-related actions involving the timelock. We encourage community members to monitor inbound transactions to the timelock.

While we have taken every precaution to ensure the safety of user funds and instill confidence in our work, we still must remind users that this is all new technology and not without risk. Do not deposit more than you can afford to lose. If you are nervous about security you may wish to wait until the protocol has been operational for some time without incident before interacting with it.