After much deliberation and careful thought Neptune Mutual decided to close the cover marketplaces.
After much deliberation and careful thought Neptune Mutual decided to close the cover marketplaces. Below the reasons for the decision as well as what it means for the community.
The marketplaces will be closed using an emergency withdrawal process whereby the liquidity provided to cover pools by LPs will be returned to the wallet addresses from which the liquidity was supplied. In addition to protecting cover pool LPs, there will also be refunds to all cover policy purchasers with an existing and valid policy who have paid over 10 USD in policy fees in one transaction.
For veNPM holders, please fill out this form to receive a refund for your veNPM to NPM conversion penalty.
From the end of June there will no longer be NPM emission incentives for LPs i.e. Epoch 3 of the liquidity gauge emissions will be canceled.
Unused funds raised from financial backers will be returned to those backers; this includes DEX liquidity that has now been removed from SushiSwap and Uniswap. A small amount of liquidity on SushiSwap Arbitrum has been left to enable a minimum amount of NPM trading.
The protocol will be open sourced, and become a true public good. Enabling the community to fork the code developed by the Neptune Mutual team such that others might use the existing resources to further our mission to make the blockchain space better protected against smart contracts and other risks.
There are numerous factors that have led to this difficult decision, some of which are external factors which are uncontrollable or unforeseeable. A few factors summarized below:
“Given Neptune Mutual’s Tier 1 backers, why have you not listed on a top CEX?”
This is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions. In short, the answer is that for a variety of reasons Neptune Mutual was not able to achieve the diverse set of performance metrics (community size and engagement, marketplace user activity, DEX 24 hour trading volume, TVL growth etc.) required to list on top tier CEX. The CEXs that are prepared to list NPM token do not have the depth of liquidity or breadth of user-base to offer good prospects for NPM tokenholders.
“Why has Neptune Mutual not achieved strong growth?”
It is tempting to take a shortcut to answer this question by pointing a finger at one specific factor, but the reality is that there are many contributing factors. A few summarized below:
Since the outset of engaging with the community we have endeavored to highlight the need for DeFiInsurance; Neptune Mutual built a comprehensive dataset of on-chain hacks available, anywhere, and each week we highlight the many millions of dollars that are stolen as a result of smart contract hacks. Despite this, we have consistently been confronted by projects unwilling to spin up cover pools in our marketplace because of the sentiment that audits of their code are sufficient to persuade their community that their protocol is safe. Less than 0.3% of all digital assets are protected with some form of DeFiInsurance, and yet despite all the media reports of hacks, the conference discussions about the importance of governance or CEX proof-of-reserves, it continues to be the case that it is extremely difficult to get media attention to focus on the need for a fast and efficient means of mitigating smart contract risk.
A variety of approaches have been taken by different DeFiInsurance protocols to address this, from attending multiple conferences throughout the year and significant marketing spend, to the leaner approach that Neptune Mutual took (in part as a result of the bear market in 2023). What can be said is that no DeFiInsurance protocol has managed to achieve significant growth over the last 18 months, sadly the overall TVL of the sector has shrunk a lot.
For all the reasons above, at this moment the best course of action is no longer to double-down on investing in growth, but rather to refund unused capital and close the marketplaces.
The consequences are very tough for the Neptune Mutual team who have spent the past 3 years of their time on the mission to facilitate safer environments within DeFi. The team has delivered products according to the roadmap and the fact that the protocol was never hacked, despite attempts being made on the darkweb, is testament to the expertise, passion and absolute focus on security. The team survived the FTX and UST crisis unscathed, and believed that the continued growth in hacks would lead to growth in the demand for a good solution to mitigate these risks, but sadly, as can be seen right across the DeFiInsurance category, this is not yet in sight. So we would like to thank the team for all the dedication, skill and passion invested into the Neptune Mutual project since the outset.
The team will open source the protocol, including blockchain indexing protocol (subgraph alternative), frontend, middleware, database, and backend code, to make it a true public good. This will allow anyone to fork the code and create covers by defining parameters and premium ranges, potentially leading to innovative covers and organic usage.
The Discord channel will be closed to reduce the risk of phishing and other types of cyber attack, any questions / queries will be responded to in the Telegram channel.
We want to take this final opportunity to thank you all for your support.
Neptune Mutual will contact only its financial backers, with whom a signed agreement exists, in relation to next steps (i.e. holding NPM tokens does not qualify you for any form of refund). Contact will be made only from a neptunemutual.com domain email address so please check the source of any email you may receive very carefully. Please ignore any messages from any other email or social media accounts in relation to token/cash refunds.
Announcing the launch of our first gamified testnet launch and how to participate.
Since day one, our users and the blockchain community have always been at the core of our project’s mission.
As a user-centric platform, we want to include you, our users, in the process to create a platform that’s designed by you.
So, coming this Thursday, March 10, 2022, we’re launching a gamified testnet where you can earn points and maybe a place on our dynamic Hall of Fame leaderboard!
This won’t be like your ordinary testnet. Besides improving the protocol, the testnet will be a fun community experience where you can interact and immerse yourself in the protocol. Earn points, report bugs, earn even more points, and gain your place on the leaderboard.
On launch day, Neptune Mutual’s testnet will introduce you to a reward points system along with an interactive Hall of Fame leaderboard.
Distinct monikers and your unique wallet addresses will distinguish you from other testers.
Each test you complete on the testnet will reward you with points.
Over time, every point will add up to the total number of points you earn testing the protocol. Then, our system will compare your total points against others to rank you on the leaderboard. Whoever has more points will, of course, get ranked higher. Select testnet users will get special rewards based on their engagement level.
To receive points, users will have to test several features on the platform. Over the course of the first three weeks, access will open up progressively to more and more of the protocol’s features, including:
Purchase parametric cover policy.
Provide stablecoin liquidity.
Bond and staking pools.
Report incidents.
Claim cover payouts.
Also, remember to look out for and report any bugs and glitches you’ll find on the protocol, as this will help you earn extra points. Please report anything that you think might improve the user experience. And of course, anything that you think is incorrect or might disrupt the process of the application.
You can also share your progress and updated Hall of Fame rankings through the share buttons found at the bottom-right part of the page. This way you can tell your friends and your community about the testnet through Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, and even a shareable link.
How to Participate in the Neptune Mutual Testnet?#
Provide needed information such as your wallet address to create your unique testnet user profile. Your wallet address will also be used for receiving the rewards you’re selected for.
User-Centric By Design
We hope that through this way of testing we can encourage you to provide valuable feedback. Your insights and comments about your experience with the protocol matter to us.
Our team will go over each of your tests and reports and use these to further develop the solution. In order for us to become the industry’s go-to parametric cover platform, we need your help.
On March 10, you will be one of the first to experience Neptune Mutual’s commitment to creating a safer and more secure blockchain ecosystem.
We recognise your need to protect your digital assets and minimise your crypto market risks.
Hence why Neptune Mutual is at the forefront of prioritising digital asset protection and security.
We want to make parametric covers super accessible for investors like you. Including the passionate protocol developers behind our favourite CeFi, DeFi, and Metaverse projects.
In the words of our CEO, Binod Nirvan:
We are really excited to launch the Neptune Mutual product on the Ropsten testnet. Obviously it will be the first opportunity for our community to try out the Neptune Mutual solution that we have been working hard to develop. The testnet is very important for a number of reasons: Feedback. It provides us the opportunity to receive and listen to feedback about the product from our community. We have gamified the testnet launch in a way that specifically encourages participants to leave feedback. Engagement. Community is at the core of Neptune Mutual. It is the Neptune Mutual community that will validate whether an incident has triggered the parameters of the cover policy of a dedicated cover pool or not. It is the community that provides liquidity to the dedicated cover pools created in the Neptune Mutual marketplace. And of course, it is the community that will choose what protection they choose to buy from the different cover policies created within the Neptune Mutual marketplace. So using the testnet as a vehicle to build understanding, interest and engagement in our community is vitally important. Perception. We hope that the launch of Neptune Mutual testnet is the starting point of a movement towards more widespread protection of digital assets. There is a perception that protection in its current form is unreliable, slow, costly and complicated (particularly in relation to the all-important matter of what is included or excluded in the small print). We hope that our community will enjoy helping us optimise and improve our solution which we believe is reliable, fast, competitively priced and simple.
