Shell Protocol v3 is like a DEX aggregator that can also handle LPing, lending/borrowing, and trading NFTs or derivatives—all within a unified interface. For developers, Shell is a simple way to programmatically interact with any DeFi protocol, like legos. Under the hood, Shell streamlines how protocols connect to each other: any project can plug into Shell to automatically integrate with all major DeFi protocols in one step.
Is Shell Protocol a DEX?
Shell is much more than a DEX. In addition to swaps, it allows users to make various other types of transactions like LPing, lending/borrowing, or trading NFTs, that can all be batched in an atomic transaction. This lets users bundle many transactions into one, and it lets developers build complex financial apps, new financial primitives, and more efficient DEXs.
Is Shell Protocol an aggregator?
Shell is much more than an aggregator. The goal of an aggregator is to optimize trade routes. In contrast, Shell Protocol is the underlying architecture that aggregators or solvers can use to facilitate trades. A big part of the vision is to streamline the process of aggregating DeFi protocols. Ultimately, this will improve competition and result in better rates for users.
What is the Proteus AMM Engine?
The first primitive built on Shell was the Proteus AMM engine. It is a tool that allows developers to create liquidity pools with custom bonding curves that can evolve over time. Proteus is incredibly flexible, enabling concentrated liquidity with fungible LP tokens. It can precisely replicate any shape bonding curve with dramatically increased precision. Well-designed curves capture significantly more trade volume than the competition.
What is the distribution of SHELL tokens?
At the time of the token generation event on January 22, 2024, 200 million Shell Protocol tokens were created. These were apportioned as follows:
80M - DAO Treasury
70M - Cowri Labs
40M - Early Community
10M - Shell Foundation
The Shell DAO has the power to mint more tokens beyond the 200 million supply apportioned above, but that would require a governance vote.
What is the utility of SHELL tokens?
Shell Protocol was designed with one, and only one, protocol-level fee. This fee is an "unwrap" fee, to be applied only when users remove value from the main smart contract (the Ocean). Initially, the fee is set to zero.
As more people use Shell, more volume will flow in and out of the Ocean, and the protocol collects more revenue.
The Shell DAO is the beneficiary of this revenue. SHELL token holders collectively control the DAO via voting. Hence, SHELL tokens directly benefit from the revenue collected by the Ocean.
The fee has a hard-coded cap of 0.05% to prevent rent-seeking behavior. It’s also a security measure—in case the DAO is compromised, an attacker can’t lock user tokens in the protocol by setting the fee to 100%.
Who created Shell Protocol?
Cowri Labs is the development team behind Shell Protocol. It is distinct and separate from the Shell DAO, the Foundation and the Protocol. Cowri Labs is a for-profit, US-based company that has raised capital from outside investors.
Note that as an independent company, Cowri does not (nor could it) own or control Shell (a decentralized, non-custodial protocol). The Cowri team built Shell Protocol from the ground up, starting back in October 2020 with Shell v1. The company is based in Honolulu, the hometown of its founder Kenny White. Although team members work remotely from different parts of the world, you can occasionally find them co-working by the beach at Shell Hale (pronounced HAH-leh), Cowri's solar-powered Hawaii hacker house.