Hi TPP Builders,
We are excited at the opportunity of contributing to ZKsync’s TPPs. My name is Amin and I am happy to introduce Superfluid as a building block for trustless execution of token programs.
Summary
Superfluid enables dynamic autonomous cash flows by adding real-time balance updates to tokens on-chain. Any token can be streamed 1:1 or 1:many, with Superfluid’s programmable, composable, and modular token mechanisms. No capital is locked up, and all inflows and outflows are netted in real time at every block. The protocol is open-source, non-custodial, permissionless and designed to support decentralized decision-making.
We built the protocol primarily for integration into evolving token economies and governance frameworks. More broadly, Superfluid accelerates capital, enhancing productivity for treasuries and efficiency for the system as a whole.
Thanks to Superfluid’s continuous settlement, recipients of streaming tokens can immediately spend them, allowing for seamless “chaining of streams” without the need for locked capital or any transactions. This lends itself very well to multi-tiered governance structures.
Use Cases
Many teams like Optimism, ENS, Animoca, and 1inch use Superfluid for distributing grants, salaries and rewards. And that’s how most people first come across the protocol. But increasingly, Superfluid is also being integrated as a foundational part of different applications to create entirely new experiences. Examples of that include streaming quadratic funding, web3 games where 1000’s of users rent assets using real-time streams, natively streamable stablecoins and a streaming DEX where users DCA by streaming out their sell token and always buy at the mathematical average price. Here are some of the main use cases in the Governance and Treasury space:
- Grants & Contributor Compensation: Recipients earn in real-time as they contribute.
- Staking & Yield Mechanisms: Streaming combined with staking contracts provides gradual token emissions that reward long-term alignment.
- Liquidity Incentives: LP rewards streamed continuously based on each users’ LP duration and performance rather than in lump sums.
- DAO Funding & Treasury Management: Treasuries can fund teams and projects via ongoing streams without requiring huge upfront capital commitments, while also allowing the recipients to re-stream their income to sub-DAOs or community members.
- Streaming swaps allow for smooth rebalancing of portfolios, automated selling/buying with reduced market impact.
Token Mechanics
Superfluid Streaming and Distribution Pool smart contracts give token distribution powerful new token mechanics which are autonomous and predictable, bridging the gap between mechanism design and onchain execution.
- Streams enable continuous per-second token transfers between accounts at a constant flow rate. Streams can be created, modified or deleted at any time by the sender.
- Distributions are a Superfluid primitive that allow scalable one-to-many or many-to-many transfer of value, in the form of discreet transfers or continuous streams. Superfluid’s implementation of this concept allows for the creation of Pools with a designated pool admin who manages units for pool members. Members of these pools can receive funds either instantly or through continuous streaming, making it highly efficient and scalable.
Every recipient or sender in Superfluid can be a contract, allowing for infinite customizability. As Superfluid uses a custom ERC20 compliant Token system, the development ergonomics are very familiar, leading to relative ease of development and broad out-of-the-box integration into many systems (ex. wallets)…
TPPs objectives resonate very much with Superfluid’s and we are looking forward to helping with the governance innovation here however we can.