Product updates
We’re currently prioritizing core technical improvements such as ensuring our backend infrastructure can handle the explosion of DLMM (Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker) pools being created and that our overall UI, fees, and rewards can load and update much faster. Other key product improvements being worked on include:
Increasing the 69 bins limit
The team is researching on increasing the current max limit of 69 bins for a DLMM position and we are aware that this is a highly requested technical improvement. Since each bin is also a price point, this limits the maximum price range an LP can set for a position, which means volatile pairs have to be rebalanced more frequently. For now, the only way for your liquidity to cover a wider price range would be to choose a pool with a bigger bin step (the difference in price points between 2 consecutive bins) or open multiple positions.
UI design improvements
Automatic opening of multiple positions: As an interim solution for the ability to set a higher price range, we’re working on an additional user flow that would allow LPs to automatically open multiple positions when you set your preferred price range with the “Spot” volatility strategy. For example, instead of having to manually segment your token amounts and open a new position one after another, you can simply set your preferred range and deposit the full amount of tokens. The Meteora UI would then automatically distribute your tokens uniformly across multiple positions (if necessary) that cover your range, all in one deposit.
Making rent requirements clear on the UI: Rent needs to be paid for the program account when a new position is opened and this rent gets refunded when you close your position. However, if new binArrays and price points are created for the first time in the price range (if no other LP used those bins/price points before), that rent is non-refundable. Meteora cannot close those program accounts since there may be liquidity added by LPs in those bins. There were requests for Meteora to subsidize such non-refundable rent, but community members like Richard_ISC felt that it makes sense for binArrays to be paid by the first user to create it. This is usually the pool creator, who is highly incentivized to create the pool. Meteora just needs to be transparent and clear on the UI about any rent required.
Grouping pools with the same token pair: Another UI improvement that the team is working on is grouping together all the pools with the same token pair but with different pool parameters. This allows LPs to simply find a token pair and click a drop-down button to find pools easily if they want to move from a higher fee pool to a lower fee pool and vice versa.
Permissionless DLMM pool creation: Although it is heartening to see more and more requests to create new DLMM pools, it is not scalable as long as the team is gatekeeping the pool creation process on the UI. We’re working on making this process permissionless so that any user or project can create their own DLMM pools on the UI without our assistance.
MET Points Dashboard: With the MET points system already live and certain DLMM pools integrated into Kamino vaults (allowing LPs to earn Kamino + MET points), it is understandable that many LPs want to track their hard-earned points on the Meteora UI. This is also a high priority for us and we’re actively working on launching the MET points dashboard and points API. We would likely use Kamino’s points API to merge the 2 data sets for points, so that LPs on DLMM-powered Kamino vaults can also see their MET points on Meteora. If Kamino uses our MET points API, they can choose to show it on their UI too.
Product requests from the community
Display user transaction history: Carrium.sol suggested that we add on our UI a record of historical transactions for users. For example, details regarding deposits and withdrawals.
Allow LPs to share their customized DLMM strategies: Given the flexibility of DLMM and the ability for LPs to stack different positions beyond the standard “Spot, Curve, Bid Ask” shapes, Bskt suggested that we add a way for LPs to share their different interesting strategies and for users to “copy” them easily when depositing liquidity.
Enable new token projects to lock their liquidity and show it on the UI: Bskt also shared that some market makers and whale traders would like to see stats on the UI regarding the amount of liquidity that is “locked”, especially for new tokens that are launched. He proposed that Meteora give pool creators the option to lock liquidity and provide the associated analytics. This would give potential token holders and LPs more confidence that the token project is in for the long haul and isn’t going to “rug” by removing all of the team’s liquidity and hindering the ability for users to sell the token. Apart from Bskt’s approach, another possible option is using a 3rd-party platform like Streamflow https://streamflow.finance/, where locked liquidity for the token is automatically tracked by Rugcheck https://rugcheck.xyz/ as well. Note: These methods pertain to dynamic pools, which provide an LP token as a representation of the LP’s share in the pool. DLMM pools do not provide an LP token.
To track and facilitate the growing number of product-related discussions, we have just created a Product Requests section on our governance forum. Submit new product ideas and feature requests there!
Community Growth Initiatives
Yousef suggested that we ramp up our community growth initiatives to welcome and educate new community members. This could be incentivizing the creation of educational articles, Youtube videos, tweets, and other content on popular social media channels. As a DLMM user himself, Yousef created this short and sweet explainer covering the basic actions LPs can take on the UI!
Based on our past experience and what other projects have shared, we found that paid promotional activities, such as paid advertisements or engaging “KOLs”, may not deliver the kind of valuable long-lasting impact needed to grow Meteora. Some of these agencies or individuals can be mercenary and when the campaign has ended, they move on to other activities entirely.
Like community member graceb suggested, a better approach could be to encourage the community to share their tutorials/videos organically, discover the best talent over time, then decide if we want to reward these contributors retroactively.
That said, it’s always nice to work with proven builders in the ecosystem to educate more people about Solana and Meteora. This is why Meteora is participating in the Solana Scribes content hackathon! Content creators can submit educational content using a medium of their choice (e.g. articles, Tweets, Youtube videos, infographics) to teach users how to LP on DLMM and potentially win bounty prizes (total of 5,000 USDC) from the hackathon.
We’d also like to try crowdsourcing educational ideas from the community. If you have ideas on what kind of educational content should be created and how we can scale education for Meteora, you can share them in our discord channel 🔥| lets-grow-met or on our governance forum under the Let’s Grow Met category.
In addition, we may consider hosting a weekly LP strategy session in discord to discover the different ways LPs are using DLMM to earn more fees or manage their liquidity. These discussions would help inform our approach towards how low/high we set fees and how we allocate incentives on liquidity pools to make Meteora more competitive in the DEX arena.
MET DAO: Dynamics between MER stakeholders and MET point holders
As previously announced, MER stakeholders will eventually receive MET tokens based on the Feb 2023 snapshot of their MER holdings. However, the MET liquidity event would not take place until Meteora achieves suitable volume and liquidity milestones.
Instead of the actual MET token, MER stakeholders would likely be granted voting power in the MET DAO through a locked, non-transferable, and vote-escrowed placeholder token (e.g. vote-escrowed “mockMET” — name to be determined later) that represents their future MET allocation. The MET DAO would then vote on key proposals such as the 2% DAO Experts proposal, 10% LP Stimulus package, turning protocol fees, and tokenomics-related topics.
The community discussed the possibility of granting voting power not only to MER stakeholders, but also to LPs who earn MET points (currently points don’t grant voting power). This could be seen as being fair to ongoing contributors to Meteora and give them a say in the development of the project. One approach is structuring the MET points system into multiple “seasons” and after each season, MET point holders get allocated the vote-escrowed placeholder token that possess MET DAO voting power. Geometrica suggested that more community involvement is always good so he is supportive of this idea of giving voting power to MET point holders.
On the other hand, Richard_ISC didn’t feel there’s an urgent need to grant voting power to LPs with MET points. If these LPs truly wish to contribute, they can readily participate in governance through the community calls and discord discussions. Bennyy also reminded us that we should not be pressured to set up the MET DAO in a way that simply aims to satisfy MET point holders, as any decision made would still be slightly controversial no matter how transparent we are. The team should review the current situation holistically and consider the technical and operational requirements involved as well as other pending initiatives.
Richard_ISC did raise a question about whether MER stakeholders (who have all the voting power) could end up destabilizing governance since they may not be current LPs and thus not fully aligned with LP interests. This is unlikely though because the Meteora team, investors, and project collaborators are also big MER stakeholders and all want Meteora to succeed. The Meteora Council, initially comprising only team members, would also be approving which proposals proceed to a vote.
At this stage, with the MET token neither minted nor liquid, the team would likely leave room for more changes based on community discussion. It would be premature to finalize our tokenomics or governance model based on the current information we have, as there is a possibility that the situation may change a lot closer to the launch of the MET token.
Thank you Carrium.sol, Bskt, Richard_ISC, graceb, Yousef, Geometrica, Bennyy, and others for contributing ideas!
Join our LP army for the next community call (every Wed, 9.30am ET / 10.30pm GMT+8) in the Meteora discord!
