SAIL Primer
Note: All information in this Primer is publicly available information.
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Note: All information in this Primer is publicly available information.
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SAIL is the token of Clipper is a DEX designed for the pairs that matter most, namely ETH<>USD, WBTC<>USD, and the the native token of a given chain. These pairs comprise 80% of all on-chain trading volume (70% of Uniswap’s volume is just its ETH<>USD pool). Winning the market for just these pairs would mean winning the majority of all DeFi volume.
Clipper uses a hybrid onchain/offchain architecture with a ‘compute offchain, prove onchain’ design philosophy. It computes prices off-chain using a publicly-disclosed formula that ingests low-latency price feeds from centralized exchanges along with a snapshot of on-chain state. Clipper’s onchain pool then uses on-chain proofs to validate prices and preserve permissionlessness. This allows Clipper to make money from arbitrage, instead of losing money to arbitrageurs, while keeping gas fees low. On Clipper, liquidity providers take home superior yields with no impermanent loss and traders can expect better prices with no whales or bots front-running their trades. Because Clipper can sustain better prices, it can capture value (the “Intel Inside” strategy).
Clipper was initially developed by Shipyard Software and licensed to AdmiralDAO, a nonprofit member-managed DAO LLC in the Marshall Islands (see ). It’s latest version (5th) was deployed in Q1 2023. See for full information.
Clipper earns protocol revenue by charging a ~10bps protocol fee on each trade.
SAIL can be staked for , which has voting power in Clipper’s DAO (AdmiralDAO). veSAIL also receives yield in the form of SAIL acquired from open market SAIL buybacks using Clipper’s revenue. SAIL was issued August 22, 2023 by airdrop. There was no ICO, presale or private sale.