Aori Seats
Aori seats are combinable NFTs that allow the owner full and complete access to the protocol with added benefits. Seats on Aori are a tribute to the bygone traditional member-owned exchange models. All users must trade through a seat, whether they own the seat or not. If they do not own the seat, then they are charged the governance set minting and trading fees, and the seat owner receives a portion of the trading fees.
Why own a seat?
Seat holders pay zero fees.
- Aori Seat NFTs allow the owner unlimited trading with zero fees to mint and trade option contracts.
Seat holders govern fees.
- Non-seat holding users trading through a seat are charged a governance set minting and trading fee.
Seat holders collect fees.
- Seat holders earn a take rate of 40%-60% on fees charged to non-seat holders trading through their seat.
Member Ownership
Member ownership is a core component of the Aori protocol, and understanding it requires a bit of historical context. Traditionally, most stock or commodities exchanges began as “Mutual Beneficial Corporations” or, members-owned exchanges. These members collaborated rather than competing against one another in a sort of prisoner’s dilemma, where working together would lead to more liquid markets rather than the previously fragmented system.
Each member agreed to not charge fees to one another, and only to charge fees/a spread to non-members. This means that being a member enables trading freedom that currently is unavailable on rent-seeking exchanges that charge all users flat fees.
- Seat holders in traditional finance also came with certain perks for multiple seat ownership. By owning two seats for example at the CME, you were allowed to become an “Introducing Broker” and refer external trading flow to the CME; capturing a fee on top of all volume brought in.
- By giving members zero-fee trading, markets on Aori are able to be made substantially tighter than any fee-based exchange.
SeatsDAO
All revenues from the auctions and royalties from secondary sales will go to SeatsDAO, and be managed by the seat holders. Initially, revenues will be deposited into the Aori Ethereum Margin Pool to bootstrap liquidity for margin provision on the Aori Protocol.
Referral Fee collection
As a result of being located entirely on-chain, fees are accrued instantaneously with trade settlement occurring each block. The Seats DAO voting platform will be live on Snapshot upon the launch of Aori. An address-verified discord channel is available for all Seat holders as well. Similar to the introducing broker model at the CME, owning and combining seats allows you as a user to capture a higher percentage of the fixed 3 BPS fee for all non-seat holders trading through their seatID.
Tiers
Aori seats exist on a five tier system. Seats are either of tier: Black, White, Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Each tier offers an incrementally higher percentage of trading fees earned through the NFT.
| Tier | # of Votes | % of Fees: | Fees Captured (bps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 1 | 40% | 1.2 |
| White | 2 | 45% | 1.35 |
| Bronze | 3 | 50% | 1.5 |
| Silver | 4 | 55% | 1.65 |
| Gold | 5 | 60% | 1.8 |
Seats Auction
Aori seats were be available at auction at via a rolling 24 hour auctions. One seat was auctioned daily for 105 days following the initial launch.
| Tier | Length | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1 week | 7 |
| Silver | 2 weeks | 14 |
| Bronze | 3 weeks | 21 |
| White | 4 weeks | 28 |
| Black | 5 weeks | 35 |
Seat holders
Based on the historical norm set by exchanges like the CME/NYSE: holding seats is most advantageous for:
- Market makers, or liquidity providers - On Aori these both include centralized exchange market makers, as well as on-chain searchers. The attraction of owning a seat for them is the zero-fee nature of trading on the protocol. They’re able to directly use Aori as a price discovery venue.
- Protocols or high-volume referrers - This could be a protocol or DAO that actively trades or can use the Aori protocol and captures referral fees from all of the users it brings to Aori. If a user is simply an active referral partner on a CEX for example they can also use seat ownership in a similar capacity; as an on-chain referral link. All fees are accrued upon settlement and are included in the aori order.
Using your seat
Seat NFT Address:
0xD539e71371414F027Af025fd1EfFb6e11b5C902A (opens in a new tab)