Thread by @MapleLeafCap

(0) I oft wonder if the way private-round token issuance mechanism we have today is the most elegant – yes there’s a simple vesting smart contract one can write, or one can stream via @sablier, but can we have a protocol that generalizes and tokenizes ERC20 vesting?

(1) The answer is most likely yes – and such tokenized “vesting schedule of ERC20” will also be tradeable on the likes of AMM platforms (if ERC20) or NFT platforms like OpenSea (if ERC721 + ERC1155). I would imagine this approach is superior to off-chain verbal / legal promises.

(2) To an extent, OTC trading of vesting tokens is already kind of happening but that involves a lot of trust (especially when it comes to swapping ETH private keys); perhaps another solution is have a platform for if [receive token] then [steam it to another address].

(3) Assuming this setup exists today, an investor would, upon TGE, receive various types of tokenized vesting-ERC20s instead – and can then (a) immediate swap these certificates in open markets, (b) borrow against them, and (c) even have clean mark-to-market for funds.

(4) Of course, whether projects and investors would like such a setup is debatable – after all, with the smoll circulating / swoll FDV game that’s being played today, it’s almost certainly true that these certificates would trade at steep discounts to spot tokens…

(5) …whereby discount is a function of massive opportunity cost, cycle risk, & execution risk. Such discount for a 36-month vesting certificate could be 80-90% haircut vs. spot – and this kind of sticker shock could very well scare spot buyers & cause downward pressure.

(6) There’s also argument to be made where whole point of vesting is to have illiquidity & lack of circulation, whereby tokenizing vesting schedule removes the friction and defeats the purpose. My view is while possible, such mechanism should still exist in case people want it.

(7) … after all, having a two-sided “futures” market (a) provides incredibly helpful feedback on how on-going circulating market-cap of a project should look (and helps guide pool2 strategies), and (b) allows smart, long-term investors to take sizable positions in open market.

(8) Other cool features may include (a) time-locks on when one can sell, (b) having yielding assets in the certificate that pays out, (c) conditional vesting based on certain on-chain / oraclized KPIs, (d) expand beyond just private sales but also salaries, etc.

(9) Broadly speaking, similar to how the Uniswap v3 LP position is no longer ERC-20, but ERC-721 to better represent ranges, the DeFi x NFT arena (aka non-standard assets with more variables & dimensions) seem grossly under-explored…

(10) … and for good reasons due to untenable gas prices on ETH L1 (which incidentally had been where the innovation was). But as the faster side-chains / L2 descend upon us, such exploration of more state-update-intensive token structures and mechanisms seems inevitable.

(11) To that end, @solvfinance should have their mainnet up pretty soon exploring exactly what I had talked about. I believe @genshards is working on something very similar. It’s also not impossible to imagine @SushiSwap's Miso implement something also.

(12) The issue, as always, would also be on the project on-boarding front. Such initiative is inherently very biz-dev oriented. Nonetheless, I could see investors of solid projects pushing for it if a lending market develops that improves capital efficiency meaningfully.

(13) To a broader point, I am incredibly bullish on innovation that could happen in L2 world – exponentially lower gas fee + sizable infusion of talent + capital creates a hot bed for evolution, and the new species on #DeFi, #NFT, and #Web3 into 2022 could be a sight to behold.

I meant @SablierHQ , sorry!