👋Introduction to Calculum

Calculum is a DeFi protocol on a mission is to democratize access to professional-grade, fully-automated, quantitative trading strategies.

We are building permissionless, non-custodial vaults that execute systematic trading strategies on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) using perpetual futures, starting with dYdX.

Before you start reading the section below and, more generally, any Calculum materials, please do spare a few minutes to read Disclaimer & Risks.

Vision

Calculum aim at becoming the blue chip DeFi protocol for users looking for sustainable returns (i.e. not dependent on token emissions) via the use of "set & forget" vaults that are:

• Executing systematic trading strategies on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) using spot and/or derivative instruments such as perpetual futures, and

• Offering returns that are either:

  • Lowly correlated with the rest of the market (e.g. Long/Short strategies), or

  • Correlated but offering superior risk-adjusted returns vs. buy & hold (i.e. volatility-controlled strategies)

During the Beta version of the project, Calculum will start with the initial contributors' own strategies as a proof of concept, and will later open the floor to any quant from the community (each new proposed strategy being subject to vetting by a competent committee elected by the DAO members).

Values & Principles

As a protocol, we are strong supporters of the core DeFi values with some twists to ensure sustainability of the project over the long term:

• Permissionless: We believe equal access to wealth creation tools should be a fundamental right; whether you are a retail investor, an institution, or a DAO, you should be given the same chances and should not have to ask for anybody’s permission.

• Education, not censorship: Of course, investment is risky and blockchain technology is still experimental, but we believe that information empowers people to make their own decisions. No government or agency should have the right to forbid certain tranches of population to access higher risk / higher returns opportunities simply because there are not deemed wealthy enough.

• Transparency: We aim for radical transparency regarding the state of the DAO, its mode of operation and its finances.

• Security first: We would rather build slow and right than quick and get rekt.

• Alignment of interests is key: We believe proper alignment of interest is key to long-term sustainability and success of any organisation. At the start, we will be charging both a management fee and a performance fee on our vaults (we have not raised any third-party capital and the management fee will help funding the early days operations), but as we grow, we will progressively reduce the management fee towards 0%. That way, the protocol will only collect revenue when the users are making money, which is the purest form of aliment between strategy builders and users.

• Decentralization is a process: Initially, as a start-up protocol, we need to be able to rapidly iterate across multiple build-evaluate-learn cycles to find the optimal design and maximize our chance of long-term success. This requires opinionated leadership with the ability to respond rapidly to market feedback. Therefore, smart contracts will initially have admin rights (via a multisig) and the protocol will be controlled and developed by the initial contributors while taking into account inputs from the community. As the protocol matures, we will progressive transitioned toward a decentralized governance model starting with the launch of the Calculum token.

• Automation & governance minimization: We are “governance minimalists”, meaning that as the protocol matures, we aim at automatizing as many things as possible, and implement incentive designs that minimize the need for human intervention/manual input wherever possible, and use community-driven governance for things that cannot be fully automatized.

• Distributed governance and ownership: We believe in the web3 vision of a world where blockchain-based applications will be owned by large communities of users and contributors, that have a say in governance and share the economic upside of the projects/products they build and use. Ultimately, this should lead to a world where value creation is more efficiently distributed across society (yes, we are dreamers!).

When in doubt, the above values and principles should serve as a guide to inform future governance decisions.