FAQ

The best way to describe ourselves is “Ecosystem as a Service.” We are a team of entrepreneurs and builders creating analytics, tooling, and staking infrastructure for nascent ecosystems. We’ve been around for almost two years. To learn more about our various projects and our founders, please visit thunderhead.xyz Within Chainflip, we are solving the problems of illiquidity, immovability, and accessibility with FLIP staking. Our goal in stFLIP is to remove the barrier to entry for participation with FLIP and to bolster the security and performance of the Chainflip network.

Chainflip is a cross-chain AMM enabling native asset swaps without wrapped tokens or specialized wallets. To learn more about Chainflip, please visit chainflip.io/vision

A holder of FLIP who wants to participate in the security of the protocol can stake their FLIP to receive an equal amount of stFLIP in return. The stFLIP will automatically increase in number in your wallet as protocol rewards minus a fixed operating fee (TBD) accrue to the underlying validators. At any time, you may transfer or participate in DeFi with your stFLIP token. Users can unstake their stFLIP at any time, and once the protocol unbonding period has passed, may claim an equal amount of FLIP in return.

If you do not have any FLIP, you can purchase some via DEX. After acquiring FLIP, head to stakedflip.fi/stake Connect your wallet, enter the amount of FLIP you would like to stake, approve the amount and then submit the stake transaction. We’ve done our best to make it as easy as possible, but if you need help or have suggestions, feel free to reach out and we’ll do our best to help. You can contact us via email, or come directly to our discord channel where you can submit a support ticket.

There are always risks associated with any blockchain endeavor and we do our very best to mitigate risk. We adhere to a few principles:

1. We open-source and continually review and optimize our code.
2. We hired a security firm to audit our code
3. We provide proof of reserves and full transparency.
4. We have internal controls for data and key management
5. We manage all of our infrastructure fully in house (nothing is outsourced)
6. We are in constant communication with the Chainflip team as it relates to any security releases, bugs or enhancements.

Yes we do.

There are a few potential risks when staking FLIP.

• Smart Contract Security - There is a risk that stFLIP contains a smart contract vulnerability. However, the code is open-sourced, audited and covered by a bug bounty program. While we do our best, we cannot guarantee that there is no risk.
• Slashing Risk - The ChainFlip blockchain slashes the stake of validators that go offline or act maliciously. Although we have automated deployment tools, bespoke monitoring systems, and a multi region/datacenter redundancy setup, there is still the risk that these precautions fail and the protocol slashes the underlying validators.
• stFLIP discount risk - Due to the inherent nature of liquid staking, liquid staking representative tokens can trade at a discount due to the underlying asset being staked and thus illiquid. It is possible that the FLIP/stFLIP price could decline significantly due to market conditions. This is not a significant problem though since users can redeem their stFLIP for FLIP via an unstake.
• Custody Risk - Thunderhead maintains custody of the underlying FLIP. We have internal controls, dedicated key management software and employ encrypted disks among a variety of other measures. Although extremely unlikely due to the precautions we put in place, ultimately stFLIP is not trustless and it is possible that the underlying FLIP becomes lost to theft or exploit. Thunderhead is also a U.S registered LLC and the entire team is “doxxed.”

Due to the requirements of ChainFlip, it is not possible to have non custodial staking. Thus, Thunderhead maintains custody of the underlying FLIP. We do not commingle funds and we provide full proof of reserves. Please read about the rest of our risk mitigation techniques throughout this FAQ. It is important to understand that there are always risks associated with staking. While we do our best to mitigate risk, we cannot guarantee that a worst case scenario could not happen, which might result in a total loss of funds.

There is no minimum. Users can stake any amount of FLIP they would like!

Everything is on-chain and we highly recommend you utilize a third party tool to track your stFLIP address and use the chain to track all of your transactions.

You will need to work with your accounting professional on your taxes.

Yes. You can transfer your stFLIP to any ERC-20 support wallet. Please understand that we have zero capability to access your wallet, or any wallet you send funds to. We do not and cannot help you with an incorrect transfer nor any retrieval of funds.

We have a very active community on both Telegram and Discord. Please come join us, we’d love to have you.

If a user would like to unstake their stFLIP and receive FLIP, they have two options. First, they can sell their stFLIP for FLIP in the curve pool. This process happens instantly, but the user could possibly receive less FLIP than stFLIP sold. Alternatively, users can unstake their stFLIP. This process first involves burning stFLIP to enter the redemption queue. After a certain period of time, the underlying FLIP will become claimable (time period TBD). We are currently building an aggregator to optimize this process for users.

Thunderhead charges a percentage of the protocol rewards (TBD). The rest of the protocol rewards go to stFLIP stakers.

The protocol rewards generated from the underlying validators minus a fee go to the stakers.

Thunderhead stakes the FLIP onto validators to serve the network and earn protocol rewards. The FLIP are never used for extraneous activities. You can observe this with our proof of reserves.

Staking is the act of locking a crypto asset within a protocol in order to receive the privilege of doing a certain behavior, such as validating. In return for performing this behavior, the protocol rewards the staker. The stake also serves as a form of collateral to disincentivize malignant behavior.

Traditionally, while funds are staked they are not transferable or instantly redeemable. First, one would have to unstake them and wait for a certain period of time before they could transfer or sell their crypto assets. Liquid staking is the act of creating a token that represents staked funds which allows users to circumvent this unstaking process to be able to sell or transfer a representation of their staked assets at any time.

Liquid staking allows users to transfer their stake at any time. Users can also participate in DeFi to earn extra rewards on top of the protocol rewards.

Here are a few links. Please do your research, ask questions in our community and only participate once you feel 100% comfortable with stFLIP.

• What is Liquid Staking & How Does It Work? (moralis.io)