88mph Review

What is 88mph?

88mph positions itself as an open-source and on-chain protocol acting as an intermediary between users and third-party lending protocols, namely Aave, B.Protocol, Compound, and Harvest with the goal to capture the best capital efficiency on users' investments. The platform allows depositing crypto assets and earning fixed-rate yields, speculating on future yields, and earning various rewards. The protocol has been originally built on Ethereum and then expanded onto Polygon, Avalanche, and Fantom networks. 

How does 88mph work?

88mph users may benefit from two main products: Fixed-term fixed yield deposits and a yield speculation instrument, called Yield Tokens. 

The protocol users may earn a fixed yield by depositing their preferred assets and choose any maturity period between 1 and 365 days. Once deposited, users’ assets are pooled together and transferred to external yield-generating protocols to generate yield at a variable rate until the deposit reaches its maturity. 

As soon as the deposit is made, 88mph yields an ERC-721 NFT token. In addition, users will be also rewarded with the 88mph native tokens which will be linearly vested over the deposit duration. Users can also customize the metadata of their NFT by adding description, image, title, GIF, etc., and then transfer or trade it like a regular NFT. 

Depositors are free to withdraw their assets at any time, however, the protocol will forfeit the fixed-rate and charge the 0.5% early withdrawal fee (of the withdrawn amount). The withdrawal fee would be distributed to MPH stakers as protocol revenues, while the seized fixed rate will be utilized to build up a surplus helping to maintain the platform’s solvency. 88mph fees also include a 20% fee on the fixed-rate interest promised to the depositors.

Yield tokens (YT) are fungible tokens that allow speculation on variable yield rates of third-party lending protocols. YT can be purchased by users when a fixed yield rate deposit is made at 88mph, as each YT is tied to a deposit. The YTs are priced equally to the fixed-rate offered to the depositor. By holding the YT, the user will get the opportunity to earn all future variable-rate yields generated by the corresponding deposit and the purchase cost of the Yield Token, as well as MPH tokens. Whenever a deposit is partially or fully withdrawn, the corresponding yield tokens will receive a refund for the lost future yield.

Since 88mph is highly dependent on market-rate volatility, through this YT tool, the platform protects itself against drops in market rates by transferring these risks to the buyer and ensures that the protocol has enough means to pay the fixed rate to its users. 

How to use 88mph?

Before proceeding with the 88mph app, the user needs to choose the desired blockchain from the dropdown menu and connect a wallet. 88mph wallet support includes Metamask, Coinbase Wallet, Wallet Connect, Ledger, Trezor, Fortmatic, Authereum, and Portis.

Once done, the user needs to navigate to the Earn section for depositing assets and earning fixed interest on them. The page will display the list of available pools with their fixed APR range; users may also apply filters to choose the desired protocol and assets. After selecting the suitable pool, a user needs to click deposit, enter the desired amount of assets and set the maturity. Once done, the user will see the fixed APR, how much fixed income will be earned and how many MPH tokens can be claimed upon maturity. As the final step, the user needs to confirm the transaction by clicking the ‘Enter the amount’ button and paying the gas fee.

The user may supplement their deposit prior to the maturity date, this will create a new deposit with the same maturity date at the currently offered fixed yield rate. The new deposit will be merged with the existing deposit. The gas cost of supplementing a deposit is cheaper than creating a new one.

Those wishing to speculate on variable third-party protocols’ yields, have to head over to the Yield section, which will show the list of all available yield tokens options along with their maturity dates and estimated ROI. Once the choice is made, the Buy button should be clicked on and the gas fee paid to confirm the operation.

MPH Token

MPH is the native governance token of 88mph. An initial supply of 88,000 MPH was minted at launch and distributed through the 88mph liquidity mining program on Uniswap. MPH token holder can stake their tokens in exchange for xMPH to earn protocol revenue and take part in voting. 

According to the updated tokenomics, the total MPH supply is capped at 1,888,888 tokens with a vesting period of 4 years.  62.5% of the total supply will be given to the community and the remaining 37.5% will be allocated to the team, advisors, and future employees.

In addition, MPH holders will be able to stake their tokens for a period of up to 4 years in exchange for veMPH, while xMPH will be gradually phased out, as well as the previous incentive model where the MPH total supply depended on 88mph TVL growth.

Under the updated protocol’s revenue distribution model, 50% will be distributed to xMPH and veMPH holders, 25% of revenue will be given to the governance treasury to acquire protocol-owned liquidity 25% of revenue will be given to the governance treasury as working capital and metagovernance assets. 

Is 88mph safe?

The smart contracts of the 88mph protocol are open source and can be reviewed by the community. 88mph also runs a bug bounty with Immunefi for reporting undiscovered vulnerabilities. The protocol has gone through additional security analysis by Defi safety and Defiyield.  88mph is also transparent in terms of its data and statistics, which can be viewed in the Stats section.

The project was founded by Guillaume Palayer, aka McFly, and Zefram Lou in April 2020. Guillaume claims that he has been a product developer over the last ten years for various industries, while Zefram claims to have an extensive experience in developing Ethereum smart contracts and applications, as well as in cryptography research.

Partners

88mph’s current key partners are Aave, B.Protocol, Compound, Harvest, SushiSwap, and Uniswap.

88mph also offers grants for projects, initiatives, resources, NFTs, and events that contribute to the expansion of the 88mph ecosystem and empower the community. 88mph grants range from $100 - $5k worth of MPH. Individuals or teams interested in applying for grants can find detailed information here. 

What’s next?

According to the 88mph recent roadmap, the team plans to upgrade the protocol to the V4 version, which will also mark a new direction of the protocol’s development which will focus on the business side rather than the technical. 

Links

https://docs.88mph.app/ 

Author:

Camille A. Hanard

Last updated: Aug 14, 2023