Introducing Sonic: The Future of Liquid Staking

The biggest barrier to entry to staking today is still user experience. Some PoS commandeers have used several tactics to solve it. But all of them have missed the most fundamental problem.

The barrier to entry to staking has been reduced, but the barrier to exit? It has only increasingly harder to cross.

And that is exactly what we are solving.

For a smooth, capital-efficient, user-friendly experience for staking - we are introducing Sonic!

What is it?

A panacea for liquid stakers.

A pavilion for an exceedingly simple and efficient liquid staking experience.

And the only nirvana for liquid stakers.

We believe that getting into your liquid-staked position should be as easy as it is to get out of it. Currently, however, that is not the case. One of the most efficient ways to get your native assets from your liquid-staked positions is to swap via a liquidity pool or trade it on a DEX. We contend that it massively hampers the overall user experience of liquid staking.

Sonic will allow users to exit their liquid-staked positions instantly, at the closest 1:1 rate - all without relying on any liquidity pool.

It’s a revolution in making that will offer much easier on- and off-ramps to liquid staking for every user in the ecosystem. This pre-Alpha testnet version of the exchange will offer tiny glimpses into what it will be.

Making unstaking easy and efficient: Sonic

Sonic aims to offer instant liquidity to users for their liquid-staked positions without relying on any liquidity pools. As a liquid-staked token holder, you can ustake your assets and sell your existing position on Sonic at a customizable discount.

This gives anyone who wants to enter a liquid-staked position a chance to do it at a discount. And you get your native asset back. The current testnet version made available to the whitelisted users allows them to create custom orders for their csMATIC positions. If you are already whitelisted, then these are the features you’ll be able to access.

Create a discounted liquid-staked order

This is the order that you create to exit your csMATIC position. You can set the discount at which you’ll be willing to sell that position. This order can be picked up by someone willing to enter the csMATIC position at a discount. This is a fair exchange between the unstaker and the staker of MATIC.

The conditions that you set for the order, such as the discount that you are willing to offer, as well as whether you have already unstaked your csMATIC and are waiting for the unbonding period or you want to transfer the liquid-staked asset itself to a potential buyer - will decide the speed at which your order gets fulfilled.

You can set the parameters of your order according to those set by other users to ensure your orders get fulfilled fast.

Partial unstaking

In this case, multiple users can fulfill part of your unstake order. Let’s understand this through an example. You want to unstake 50 csMATIC at a 0.5% discount. In this case, multiple users can buy your csMATIC positions (some might buy 5 csMATIC, and others might buy 10 csMATIC, and so on).

Start unstaking

This enables the unstaking of MATIC from within the network while being listed on Sonic. If a user comes and fulfills your order before the unstaking process is complete, they get the original MATIC back from the network.

If your order, however, doesn’t get fulfilled via Sonic, then you get your original MATIC back from the network just by unstaking.

Expiration Time

This is the time at which your order expires in the Sonic. You can customize the expiration time of your order depending on how long you want the discount to stay valid. Customize the discount to avoid orders being fulfilled very close to unstaking - otherwise someone can come in at the last moment and enter your csMATIC position at a discount and get the unstaked amount quickly! As you can imagine, when there is a lot of demand for csMATIC, your orders will get fulfilled much faster.

FAQs

Can I cancel an order that I’ve already created on Sonic?

Yes, you can cancel the order if it has not been fulfilled yet by any other user on Sonic. You will receive your tokens back. Note that you can only cancel orders if you didn’t start the unstaking process. Otherwise, you can claim instead.

What parameters can I change once I’ve created and listed the orders on Sonic?

You can change the discount being offered for the fulfillment of the order, the expiration date of the order, and its partial fulfillment. You can even decide to unstake your order if you haven’t already. However, that change is irreversible.

Will Sonic support more liquid-staked tokens in the future?

Surprise 😉

How can I access Sonic?

Go to app.claystack.com and select “Exchange”. Play the game, mint your access NFT and get whitelisted to access.

When will Sonic be on mainnet?

We’re looking to push Sonic on mainnet within a few weeks. Stay tuned as we post more updates about what’s coming. Until then, if you have any questions check out our Discord and Telegram.