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Token Center

Token Center enables holders to take the following actions:

  • Bridge between native SYNT and ERC-20 SYNT
  • Stake tokens to secure the chain and earn rewards
  • Vote on governance proposals
  • Monitor key token distribution statistics

Bridging​

Synternet Bridge was launched in August 2024 to facilitate the SYNT token transfer between Ethereum mainnet and Synternet mainnet.

Before you can bridge your SYNT tokens, both MetaMask wallet, managing your Ethereum address, and Keplr wallet, managing your Synternet address, have to be connected to the Token Center. You can only send tokens between the addresses that are connected to the Token Center at the same time. Bridging is at 1:1 ratio and consists of two steps:

  1. Request: request the tokens to be bridged on the source chain,
  2. Claim: claim the same amount tokens on the destination chain.

Understanding Synternet Bridge​

Bridge uses a lightweight voucher system and is very fast on Synternet blockchain end due to its instant finality. However, on Ethereum end the transfer speed is limited by Ethereum finality mechanism. Voucher is the representation of your SYNT tokens while they are still in the bridge.

  • When SYNT is moved from Ethereum to Synternet blockchain, it is burned on Ethereum first. The Bridge sees the proof of burn and therefore it will issue the Voucher. When the Voucher is claimed on Synternet end, the tokens are released form the locked supply to the user wallet.
  • Conversely, when SYNT is bridged from Synternet to Ethereum blockchain, it is locked on Synternet first. The Bridge sees the proof of the lockup and therefore it will issue the Voucher. When the Voucher is claimed on Ethereum end, the tokens are minted and sent to the user wallet.

Voucher has all the details about the bridge transfer, such as amount of tokens owed, source address, destination address, time of validity, etc. The Voucher can be:

  • either Claimed on the destination chain (default mechanism),
  • or Refunded on the destination chain and then Redeemed on the Source chain (a fallback mechanism), which effectively results in tokens staying where they were in the first place.

Claiming the Tokens​

Claiming the tokens under the hood means providing the Voucher signed by the bridge authority to the destination chain. If the signature is valid, the amount tokens indicated in the voucher is minted (on Ethereum) or unlocked (on Synternet) and sent to the user's destination address.

Gas Fees and Grants​

Obviously, users need ETH to pay gas for the Ethereum transactions and they need SYNT for the transactions on the Synternet blockchain.

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The first time bridge users are not likely to have any SYNT on their Synternet address. To promote the bridge usage, the fees for claiming SYNT on Synternet blockchain are granted, in case the user does not have enough SYNT, i.e. the gas fees are paid from the special account during the transaction execution.

Undoing the Bridge Requests​

There are fallback bridging actions if something went wrong after the first request transaction was executed, e.g. user has changed his mind or there was some technical difficulty with claiming.

  1. Refund: request tokens to be send back to the source chain before claiming them on destination chain.
  2. Redeem: claim the refunded tokens on the source chain.

For example, John wanted to send 250,000 SYNT from Ethereum mainnet to Synternet mainnet in order to stake them and earn yield. However, after requesting the tokens on bridge, John noticed that liquidity provision to SYNT/ETH pool on Uniswap V3 is currently paying a better yield and thus is likely a more profitable investment. John now has a voucher that says that he is owned 250,000 SYNT on Synternet mainnet. Since, John wants to get back SYNT tokens on Ethereum mainnet, he then refunds the original voucher. This action results in the original voucher destroyed and an opposite voucher created, stating that now John is owed the 250,000 SYNT on Ethereum mainnet. Finally, he has to redeem this claim on Ethereum. As a result, 250,000 SYNT is sent to John's address.

Learn More​

Staking​

note

In Cosmos ecosystem staking is often referred to as delegation.

Token holders can stake (or delegate) their tokens on any validator. Validators earn by taking the percentage fee from its delegators, e.g. 5% validator fee means, that the delegator would earn 95% of block rewards attributed to his stake, validator will keep the remaining 5%.

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It is recommended to distribute the stake across multiple validators to reduce the probability that your stake is slashed.

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To promote the decentralization, it is recommended to stake on smaller validators instead of those that are at the top as measured by their total voting power.

After the tokens are staked on some validator, rewards accumulate each block. The actions you can take with the existing stake:

  • Claim rewards - this will transfer all rewards accumulated with that staking position to your wallet address.
  • Unstake tokens in order to retrieve them back in the staker's address. Note that unstaked tokens will be subjected to unbonding period of 14 days, after which they will be transferred to the wallet address. Also note that during the unbonding period, rewards are no longer accumulating.
  • Restake tokens from one validator to another validator. This is much faster and more optimal way to move your tokens to another validator instead of unstaking and staking again, since the rewards keep accumulating uninterrupted. However, unbonding period of 14 days still applies in a sense that during this period these tokens cannot be restaked once again.
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Both unstake and restake actions will additionally claim all the rewards from that validator, so there's no need to claim them separately.

Governance​

on the official governance page any SYNT staker can easily vote by connecting its Keplr wallet and using the comfortable user interface. Voting power equals the number of staked tokens. Staker (or delegator) votes with all his voting power at once, i.e. all tokens staked across multiple validators. Voting is an on-chain transaction like any other, staker will be asked to sign their transactions with Keplr wallet.

tip

If delegator does not vote, it is likely that validators he staked on will be voting with all their voting power including the delegated tokens. However, even if the validator has already voted, delegator can still cast his own vote independently.

Proposal States​

The proposals can attain several states in their life-cycle:

  • Upcoming. The proposals are shown some time in advance as upcoming, which means the voting has not started yet but community can already view the proposal details.
  • Voting. These proposals are live, the voting has started. Voting end time can be found within proposal details.
  • Passed. Proposals that were voted "YES" and the decision came into effect, e.g. the code upgrade was applied.
  • Rejected. Proposals that were voted "NO" keeping the status quo existing before the proposal.
  • Cancelled. Proposals where the voting outcome did not come into effect, e.g. a bug was discovered during the upgrade process, so the upgrade was not applied.

Vote Options​

  • YES - agree with the proposal, your votes count toward the quorum.
  • NO - disagree with the proposal, your votes count toward the quorum.
  • NO WITH VETO - disagree with the proposal and additionally signal that the proposal itself is malicious or considered a spam. If the proposal is rejected with veto, the tokens deposited on the proposal by the proposer will be burned.
  • ABSTAIN - a neutral option, your votes count toward the quorum, but you signal that either outcome is acceptable for you.

Parameters​

On-chain governance parameters can be found on block explorer.

  • Min Deposit is the minimum amount of SYNT tokens that need to be locked on a proposal for it to enter the voting period.
  • Max Deposit Period is the maximum time between proposal registration and the start of voting. If the deposit requirement isn't met within this time, the proposal is automatically rejected, while the deposit is returned.
  • Quorum is the minimum percentage of total staked tokens that must participate in the vote for it to be considered valid, i.e. to NOT fail automatically.
  • Threshold is the minimum percentage of "YES" votes (excluding "ABSTAIN") required for a proposal to pass, provided quorum is met.
  • Veto Threshold is the percentage of "NO WITH VETO" votes that, if reached or exceeded, causes the proposal to be rejected regardless of "YES" votes. As a result, the proposer’s deposit is burned.
  • Voting period is the standard period of time during which the votes should be cast.