Rakeoff: a cryptocurrency staking rewards application built on the ICP blockchain

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As per our final milestone of our Dfinity grant we are obliged to introduce our project here on the forums.

What is Rakeoff?

Rakeoff is a web application built fully on ICP that allows users to stake their ICP tokens and earn governance rewards, it abstracts away a lot of the complexities in participating in ICP governance but keeps the benefits - like earning staking rewards. In addition to this simplified and enjoyable UX, Rakeoff also offers insights into your expected APY, monthly reward estimates and a portfolio view with dollar value estimates and market prices -it’s an all-in-one dashboard for managing and staking your ICP tokens while keeping the UI / UX clean and intuitive.

To date users are most interested in using Rakeoff for these featured mentioned above, however, as we see room for innovation, we also launched this feature based around this idea of a no-loss prize pool in the dApp. Users have the option to disburse an amount of their newly spawned staking rewards into a pool with other users. Using a weighted selection algorithm and automatic timers the pool selects 3 winners every month, this is a way for users to potentially amplify low staking rewards while also preserving the initial amount of staked ICP - you only might lose your staking rewards - if you enter.

We encourage you to explore our landing page, docs and application: https://rakeoff.io/

Brief overview of the tech:

The dApp, landing page, API etc, are all built on ICP and hosted on-chain using it’s various tools, I have been building on ICP for awhile now and am thoroughly impressed with how things have advanced and what you can do on it. We are using a variety of tools such as the ICP ledger canister, the NNS canister, Internet Identity, Motoko timers, custom domains, Motoko server, ckBTC canister and more. Some of our code is open-sourced at Rakeoff Labs · GitHub, the goal is to open-source everything after audits and when we move out of beta.

Progress to date and future plans

We have had relative success in the ICP ecosystem so far, we bootstrapped this project by winning the Encode x Dfinity hackathon in July of this year, and things have come along at a steady pace since then with about 68 Stakers and over 8,400 ICP staked as of writing this post. We envision Rakeoff being a viable and intriguing alternative to staking on ICP and we believe we can continue to achieve success while also pushing the boundaries of staking - we have many more features planned and consider the project as having a nice base for us to continue to build and innovate on top of.

Feedback and discussion is of course welcome as we are a rapidly adapting project in the ICP eco-system. I’ll pop some links here for people who want to explore the dApp more:

Rakeoff home page: https://rakeoff.io/
Rakeoff application: https://app.rakeoff.io/
Learn more about Rakeoff: https://docs.rakeoff.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rakeoff_app
Medium: Rakeoff Labs – Medium
GitHub: Rakeoff Labs · GitHub

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Very cool project

How is the service controlled now and in the future? is there going to be a DAO model or how is it structured?
I see that there have been security audits, but I am just curious on how safe my staking would be if all of the rakeoff team disappears

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How is the service controlled now and in the future? is there going to be a DAO model or how is it structured?

Right now we are the controllers of the canisters code (the frontend and prize pool canister), how it’s structured means we can’t really do anything on the users behalf - so it’s quite secure.

Because everything is on ICP we would like to give this to a DAO one day and see it as a viable option once we build out the dApp a bit more.

I see that there have been security audits, but I am just curious on how safe my staking would be if all of the rakeoff team disappears

Since we are not the custodian of the stake and just provide the UX (Staking amounts are staked via the governance canister), You would be able to still access your stake by keeping the frontend topped up with cycles in the unlikely scenario the team disappeared.

Essentially we see this as no more of a risk for staking than staking on the NNS UI - staking via the governance canister directly would probably be the most doomsday proof approach.

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Could you go into more detail about how the governance aspect of this is managed? How are NNS voting decisions made and who makes them? Thanks.

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In the Rakeoff dApp itself users can adjust their governance following. If you are referring to the Rakeoff named neuron. That is currently set to follow krzysztof.

I manually vote with the Rakeoff named neuron sometimes, I usually vote yes for most proposals unless it is an obvious scam/spam proposal.

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Can I ask how these users’ voting power is determined? How does this relate to the Rakeoff named neuron (and how is the Rakeoff named neuron’s voting power determined)?

I usually vote yes for most proposals unless it is an obvious scam/spam proposal

With voting power comes responsibility. Effective malicious proposals are unlikely to be obvious (here’s some side reading you might be interested in). In a worst case scenario, it only takes one malicious proposal to be executed to bring the IC to it’s knees. Diffusion of responsibility is a trap that we cannot afford active voters to fall into (not if the IC is to truly decentralise, which is the goal).

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Rakeoff is essentially an alternative frontend to the NNS. Voting power is determined the same on Rakeoff as it is on the NNS (Rakeoff is not liquid staking btw).

I understand your points about voting the right way, but I don’t have the time to verify every ICP proposal, so the Rakeoff named neuron is set to follow others mostly.

If you want you can recommend who I should follow for some of the topics? I’m happy to re-evaluate the following if you think there is issues with the current set up.

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No problem, that’s what liquid democracy is for - but you should at least be intentional about who you follow. CodeGov is a great named neuron to follow for IC-OS and System Canister Management proposals. I would review this thread for up-to-date information →
Grants for voting neurons - Governance / NNS Governance - Internet Computer Developer Forum (dfinity.org)

Rakeoff is essentially an alternative frontend to the NNS. Voting power is determined the same on Rakeoff as it is on the NNS

Could you elaborate? Where does the Rakeoff neuron get its voting power from, and how does this relate to the voting power of individual users?

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