Featured Update - Campaign for BNC!

Written by Dodow

Back in November 2024, we covered Polkadot’s premier Liquid Staking Protocol, Bifrost. We provided a comprehensive overview of its journey, including the future direction with the new Bifrost 2.0 tokenomics and the launch of a campaign to usher it in.

This was immediately followed up with a guide on how to participate in the first phase of its Liquid Wave Campaign. LST Camper was the first phase and centered around minting vTokens (i.e., liquid staking derivatives). The campaign managed to generate $2,433,735 in TVL, subject to severe market conditions.

We are now at the second phase of the campaign and have until 27th March to participate. This phase is called BNC Explorers and focuses on Bifrost’s primary token, BNC. The approach is somewhat similar to what we laid out in our featured guide. So, if you are new, you might want to look at the event registration section and make sure to use a referral for an invite bonus.

For those already registered, use the link: https://wave.bifrost.io/bnc to get started. As with the previous campaign, the objective is to accumulate WAVE points, which when announced at the end of the campaign, can be redeemed for bbBNC. There are three main ways of earning WAVE points and a further two, subject to bonus conditions.

Minting vBNC

The key way of earning WAVE points is by using BNC, Bifrost’s primary token, to mint vBNC, where you’ll receive 5 WAVE points for every BNC. So to climb that leaderboard, where rank bonus rewards of up to 2K BNC are available, you’re likely going to need a decent amount of BNC.

The campaign dashboard provides you options on where to get BNC, whether from a CEX or a DEX. It’s probably best to stick with the options provided, as some CEXes may still be limited to using only Bifrost Kusama, which doesn’t directly enable you to participate in the campaign.

If you’re an EVM account user then the DEX options might be easier to navigate. The four EVM chains currently supported are Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, and Optimism. Once you’ve completed BNC swaps on the DEX options, head back to the campaign dashboard and click on “Full functionality of vBNC” link under the BNC mint button. The Bifrost dApp will pop up in another tab.

Previously, EVM account users would have experienced Bifrost via: https://omni.ls/stake, whereas Substrate account users would naturally be accustomed to the Bifrost dApp. The Bifrost dApp is now fully integrated with EVM accounts, so you can connect by selecting from the supported EVM wallets (such as MetaMask).

Once connected, you can use the cross-chain feature to transfer BNC from the EVM-supported chain to Bifrost. In doing so, you'll also experience trustless bridging powered by Hyperbridge. NOTE: Be mindful that transfer times and fees may vary.

To mint vBNC, you can do this either on the Bifrost dApp by heading to the vStaking page and selecting vBNC, or for simplicity, you can return to the campaign page. There, you’ll see the updated BNC balance. All you need to do is select the amount of BNC (while leaving aside enough for gas and other considerations) and then hit the big mint button. NOTE: Balances might not always update instantaneously.

Remember, vBNC is a yield-bearing token, which is equivalent to BNC plus staking rewards. So, not only will you be earning WAVE points, but also a mixed APY that includes base staking rewards and a campaign bonus.

Conditional Bonuses

It’s probably worthwhile to understand the two bonuses that are subject to conditions before looking at the other options for earning WAVE points. One option is time-sensitive and may have already elapsed by the time you get to read this update. It involves simply minting vBNC by block 6684119 on March 6th to receive an additional 10% WAVE points.

The alternative conditional bonus is through referrals, which was also included in phase one. Referees from phase one will carry over, and obviously, you should spread your invite to earn more bonuses. This time around, you’ll receive 10% of total WAVE points that your referee earns from minting vBNC.

Frosty Participation

Now that you’ve minted vBNC, make sure to participate in Bifrost’s governance to receive an additional 10% WAVE points. Governance was previously unavailable to EVM account users. However, now that the Bifrost dApp fully supports EVM accounts, the easiest thing to do is click on the “Go To Vote” button on the campaign page. The Bifrost dApp will pop up in another tab and will conveniently land on the governance page for vBNC.

It could be a great opportunity to go through the proposals and dig deeper by looking at their respective Subsquare pages to explore the finer details of Bifrost’s on-chain governance. That said, a few kind Bifrost councilors have issued proposals specifically for newbies to experience the voting functionality of BNC.

Do note there is an option to apply a conviction boost to your vote at the cost of locking your tokens for a longer period after the referendum has been decided. This is usually reserved for those who want their vote to carry more weight in favour of a particular outcome. Once you’ve voted, the campaign page will soon show that you have activated a 10% bonus for participation in governance.

The final way to earn WAVE points is by converting legacy points from participating in previous Bifrost campaigns. As covered in our previous guide, legacy campaign points are converted at a ratio of 100:1, and you will have until the end of all phases of the Liquid Waves Campaign to convert them. You won’t be able to convert again if you've already converted previously.

Study Bifrost

As per DeFi Llama, within Web3, there are numerous Liquid Staking Protocols, and in the Polkadot ecosystem, the leading one is Bifrost. Its liquid staking proposition has not remained confined to a single ecosystem. Through integration with Polkadot’s trustless bridging protocols Bifrost’s vTokens can extend to other ecosystems.

Conversely, Bifrost has demonstrated its ability to provide liquid staking across multiple chains, including outside of the Polkadot ecosystem. This has the potential to expand further through trustless bridging. In fact, the ultimate goal is to provide liquid staking on any blockchain.

This all sounds great, especially for newer users. As they might struggle to keep up with minimum staking requirements, validator-related complexities (whether it be solo or nominated proof of stake), and the lack of flexibility with lock-up periods.

For more experienced DeFi users, contributing liquidity could be a viable option. In DeFi, this is where diligent farmers typically harvest profitable yields. But what about holders of the protocol's primary token? Well, isn’t that for governance? Hang on, it’s an L1, so we have staking and need it for gas fees.

The concept of Fee Switch involves a mechanism that redistributes protocol profits from transaction fees or staking rewards to both liquidity providers and token holders. With Bifrost tokenomics 2.0, this concept is enhanced with the introduction of a non-transferable escrow token.

As mentioned in our featured report in November, buy-back BNC (bbBNC), is a revenue-sharing token designed to enhance the protocol’s sustainability. This model positions bbBNC at the center of a growth flywheel, granting it both governance powers and a share of the protocol’s revenue.

100% of Bifrost’s profit will buy back BNC, with 90% allocated to bbBNC holders and 10% burned. Coupled with locking vBNC to obtain bbBNC, this creates deflationary pressure, potentially increasing BNC’s price and enhancing the value of BNC-denominated incentives. This could drive more user engagement with vTokens, generating more fees for buybacks and further strengthening the cycle.

The prospect of taking part in this campaign to eventually redeem bbBNC can be compelling, especially given how lucrative Bifrost has been with fees and revenue. You can also participate by making content–join WagMedia to get involved. At the end of the day we’re all campaigning for BNC!