PrimeDAO is a DeFi (Decentralized Finance) prime broker which was announced in September 2020 by the Prime Development Foundation.

Overview

PrimeDAO was launched by the Prime Development Foundation on September 17, 2020. The foundation released its litepaper detailing how their proposed safety nets will make DeFi more approachable and less chaotic to current and future adopters, followed by a call to action for recruiting an open-source ecosystem of partners, builders, and users to help execute its vision for a more sustainable open financial system.^[1][2]

Members of the PrimeDAO ecosystem include Prime Development Foundation, Curve Labs, Draper Goren Holm, Totle, DAOstack, Validity, dOrg, Rivet, Level K, Kolektivo, BlockScience, API3DAO, DeepDAO, DAObase, and dHack, to name a few.^[3]

PrimeDAO Development

PrimeDAO’s projected development is segmented into three separate phases, each with its own characteristics, objectives, and strategies.^[6]

Current Phase: Incubation

The Incubation phase started in Q2 2020 with the creation of a PrimeDAO working group at ETHDenver and is expected to end in Q4 2020 with the launch of PrimeDAO. In this phase, the main objective has been to create a coordination structure that can facilitate ecosystemic DeFi advancement by providing democratized prime brokerage services.^[7]

Second Phase: Growth

In this phase, PrimeDAO plans to develop several tactical governable primitives for itself. This Growth phase is projected to start in Q4 2020 with the deployment and launch of PrimeDAO governance and resource allocation. The PrimeDAO will utilize the Alchemy platform by DAOstack at the beginning of this phase.^[5]

At the start of this phase, PrimeDAO will launch its first product, primedao.eth/trade, a DEX aggregator leveraging Totle’s smart routing technology. At this stage, PrimeDAO now consists of a broad network of independent stakeholders that coordinate publicly and transition value through PRIME tokens. In this phase, the function of the Prime Development Foundation will be limited, and the vast majority of interactions will be executed directly by PrimeDAO and its consortium of decentralized actors. All infrastructure, including the smart contracts, will become increasingly decentralized during this phase.^[4]

Final Phase: Maturity

The Maturity phase is projected to start in Q1 2022 with the launch of a native PrimeDAO backed by on-chain governance and fully integrated tokenomics. The "completion" of the Maturity phase depends on the state of the industry and the evolution of PrimeDAO.^[8]

Products

Prime Aggregator

PrimeDAO’s first governed product is a DEX aggregator that provides the best-price discovery, slippage reduction, and reliable settlement. It is an open-source version of the Totle aggregator. From day one, the Prime Aggregator will be integrated with hybrid DEXs, AMMs, and other DEX types. Soon after the DAO’s launch, the router’s parameters will be governed by the DAO, including its fee structure and whitelisted liquidity sources.^[9]

Token Sale

The official date of a token sale will be announced by the PrimeDAO team later in their future blog posts.^[10][11]

Token Distribution

PRIME, PrimeDAO’s utility token, will initially be limited to a total supply of 90 million distributed over multiple stakeholder groups.^[12][13]

Founders and Partners (Early Contributors)

A total of 22,350,000 PRIME tokens (25.9%) will be allocated to early-contributors and launching partners who have invested time, energy and funds during the Incubation phase and have an active role during the Growth phase of PrimeDAO. The amount allocated to each of the contributing groups is dependent on their past commitment and responsibility during the Growth phase. All early contributor tokens are vested for one year with a continuously linear release schedule.^[14]

Prime Development Foundation

The Prime Development Foundation, a Curaçao-based foundation mandated to support the initiation and development of PrimeDAO, will receive 1,500,000 PRIME tokens to be able to provide support services to PrimeDAO and to cover expenses for two years. 500,000 of the Foundation’s PRIME tokens are unlocked, while the other 1,000,000 are locked for one year.^[15]

Token Sale Participants

Up to 24,000,000 PRIME Tokens (27.8%) will be distributed to PrimeDAO Token Launch participants. These tokens will not be vested and can freely move after the launch. Alternatively, they can be locked to acquire additional voting power in PrimeDAO.^[16]

Contributor Rewards

Up to 13,200,000 PRIME Tokens (15.3%) are reserved for Contributors and awarded if they provide a valuable commitment to the development of PrimeDAO during the Incubation and Growth phases. Contributions could include developing Prime products and tools, technical audits, evangelism, research, good governance, or any other contribution deemed valuable by PrimeDAO. Contributor Reward tokens issued during the Growth phase may or may not include vesting schedules - this is up to PrimeDAO’s community to decide.^[17]

Incentives

Up to 13,200,000 PRIME Tokens (15.3%) are reserved for product users as incentives for protocol usage and community engagement. Following the token launch, a Balancer pool will be created to incentivize market makers for providing liquidity and additional price discovery for PRIME tokens. Up to 1,200,000 PRIME tokens will be distributed via this initial liquidity reward scheme.^[18]

Products

Up to 12,000,000 PRIME Tokens (13,9%) are reserved to providers of early PrimeDAO products and licences acquired by PrimeDAO. This includes the purchase of a license of Totle’s liquidity routing engine. Product tokens are vested for two years with a continuously linear release schedule.^[19]