THORChain hasn’t had an easy year. After three exploits in the space of a month during the summer the protocol’s native token (RUNE) took a beating, plummeting from all-time highs over $20.00 in May to a low of around $3.50 in late July.
Billed as a way to exchange crypto assets across different blockchains without an intermediary, the protocol disabled swaps completely as it looked to harden the network against exploits. With the relaunch of Ethereum swaps in late October, however, THORChain’s recovery was virtually complete — and the price of RUNE was within striking distance of the $20.00 mark again.
And then there was the THORSwap public sale.
THORSwap, a decentralized exchange powered by THORChain, had a successful initial capped sale that was oversubscribed by 198%, as community members stumped up a maximum of $300. But a second uncapped sale went badly wrong, as bots front-ran the Initial Dex Offering (IDO) and THORChain’s own treasury seized tokens before the public was even able to access the app.
Yet just one day later, a dip in the price of RUNE appears to be reversing, and previously-disaffected community members on Twitter are singing the praises of the THOR team. So how did THORChain succeed where countless other DeFi projects have failed to recover following hacks or exploits?
Why, following the three exploits, did some wallet holders actually donate Ether (ETH) to the THORChain protocol to help cover losses? And why, following a botched IDO, is THORSwap’s Twitter account receiving comments like “This is real @THORChain . They know how to be with the community. They know how community should be treated.”
The answer, according to some members of the community, lies not only in the fact that there is a deep commitment among participants to the decentralized ethos of the project; or even that the mostly anonymous developers and managers behind the THOR ecosystem are as diligent about community development as they are about technical implementation.
It’s about a virtuous circle of aligned incentives between the developers, the managers, the moderators, and the community that creates a genuinely antifragile economic system.
Following the IDO, THORSwap and THORChain rapidly addressed the community outrage at the mistakes that prevented many supporters from participating in the sale.
But rather than simply apologizing, the THOR team went significantly further — with the THORChain Treasury at first promising to donate 10% of its tokens back to the liquidity pool, and later reallocating its entire $11.25 million THOR position to be distributed between those liquidity providers who were unable to secure tokens.
11m$ donated to $thor LPs.@THORChain made everything right.
I wish I didn’t stay on the sideline 😛
Thanks to the team!!! pic.twitter.com/im4MCsQszc
— THORchain.BULL (@THORmaximalist) November 4, 2021
THORSwap Admin, an anonymous contributor to the protocol, told Cointelegraph that “THORSwap — the products, ideas and contributors — was literally born from the community. So we took it personally when the launch didn’t meet the community’s expectations. We worked feverishly to offer a solution that would suit as many people as possible.”
In addition, the THORSwap team has announced plans for an additional airdrop to prove that “We love the THORSwap and THORChain community and are absolutely committed to you.”
But even apologies and ‘free money’ have their limits. Which is why THORSwap has been developing a passionate community for almost a year. “We have over 18,000 members in our Discord channel,” explains pseudonymous representative CrowdPleasr, “And we still provide 24/7 one-to-one support whenever a community member has a question. Our response time averages under 30 minutes. And I don’t think any other DeFi project has worked that hard to provide service to its supporters.”
Moderating Discord channels is a challenge that has stumped many crypto projects — they often devolve into cesspools of spam and phishing expeditions — but THORSwap’s lead moderator and Product Manager, ‘The Bull’, explains that the overwhelmingly positive mood in their channel has been fostered by the transparency and continuous communication of the team. “We’ve always been the first to make announcements about the hacks,” they explain, “And we’ve announced every phase of the recovery… so the community feels comfortable talking with a member of the team.”
The team at THORSwap has been deeply hands-on with moderation, actively recruiting and paying experienced community mods rather than relying on volunteers to keep the peace.
Beyond their attempts to create a safe…
cointelegraph.com