Affiliate Fees on THORChain

THORChain

2021-03-25 — 4 min read

Introduction

THORChain is a cross-chain liquidity protocol. There are three layers to it:

The Interface (ASGARDEX)

The Public API (Midgard)

The State Machine (THORChain)

Importantly, users do not talk directly to THORNodes, they query Midgard to display data, then broadcast transactions via third-party nodes to external chains. THORNodes then respond to these transactions.

This means, anyone can simply interact with THORChain simply by broadcasting a transaction on a connected chain. Interfaces are simply mechanisms for building transactions and displaying data. Indeed, exchanges, wallets, custodial services and more, can all facilitate access to THORChain by simply wrapping the experience in a user-friendly UI.

Thus, it is important that there are incentives to do so — that every wallet, exchange and custodial service provider has clear incentives to integrate THORChain, in addition to the utility of cross-chain swaps.

Affiliate Fees

Affiliate Fees are the solution to this, and THORChain’s solution is non-custodial, decentralised and transparent. A wallet developer simply adds their affiliate address, as well as fee rate, to the transaction before the user signs it. The user can review it, as well as see the fee rate to be taken. When THORChain sees the transaction it will skim off the fee and pay it directly to the affiliate immediately.

Swaps

To add a fee to a swap, simply add your affiliate address and fee (in Basis Points; 0–1000 0%-10%) on the end of the memo. The fee will be swapped into RUNE and sent to your address. Over time, your affiliate address will build up with RUNE.

Importantly you can only use a THOR.RUNE address to ensure fast and cheap delivery.SWAP:CHAIN.ASSET:DESTINATION:LIMIT:AFFILIATE:FEE

EG:SWAP:THOR.RUNE:tthor1zpa4c6zpa4cyz9s93xuje2pwkswsqzn2zpa4c:3141441780:tthor1ql2tcqyrqsgnql2tcqyj2n8kfdmt9lh0yzql2tcqy:10

ADD

To claim a fee on an ADD LIQUIDITY event, simply add your affiliate address and fee (in Basis Points; 0–1000 0%-10%) on the end of the memo. The liquidity will be assigned to you in the fee rate, and you will be added as a liquidity provider into the pool alongside your user. You can withdraw your liquidity at any time, or simply leave it there to earn.

Importantly you can only add a THOR.RUNE address, and you can only claim assymetrically when you withdrawADD:CHAIN.ASSET:ADDRESS:AFFILIATE:FEE

EG:ADD:THOR.RUNE:tbc1zpa4c6zpa4cyz9s93xuje2pwkswsqzn2zpa4c:tthor1ql2tcqyrqsgnql2tcqyj2n8kfdmt9lh0yzql2tcqy:10

Dynamic Fees

Wallet devs can elect to set between 0 and 1000 basis points (10%) of the transaction, which means they can use dynamic fees, such as 1–10 BP for large amounts ($10k+), and up to 1000 (10%) for really small amounts ($100). It’s up to them to set their own thresholds.

Warning: As a user, be on the lookout for an interface that charges excessively high fees. The fees are to fund wallet development, but if you don’t like paying fees in a wallet, be sure to look elsewhere.

Upcoming Interfaces

THORChain is like nothing gone before it, and you can be sure the team and community will work hard to integrate it EVERYWHERE. With affiliate fees, wallet developers, exchanges and even custodial service providers can now access incentives, new business models and revenue streams by supporting a single cross-chain liquidity protocol.

The team will be working to get THORChain on:

XDefi
Trust Wallet
Keplr Extension
Math Wallet
Ledger
and more

Asgard.Exchange

THORSwap.Finance

Vanaheimx

ASGARDEX Desktop App

Developer Tooling

Be sure to browse the tooling to fast track your development if you wish to build an interface, as well as showcase it to the team and community to get public endorsement (must be open source).

XChainJs — https://xchainjs.org/

THORChain IOS Framework — https://github.com/thorchain/thorchain-ios

ASGARDEX Utils — https://gitlab.com/thorchain/asgardex-common/asgardex-util