Auctus: An Overview

Auctus (Symbol: AUC) was a cryptocurrency deployed on the Ethereum network with a primary goal of delivering on-chain options trading to the decentralized finance space. The project is viewed as inactive, with its last public blog entry being a security notice dated March 29, 2022.

History

The Auctus protocol launched a mainnet capability called "Private Option Pools" in February 2021, enabling liquidity providers to deposit assets and underwrite options contracts. In April 2021 the project broadened its availability to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) through a collaboration with Anyswap Bridge (now Multichain), aiming to offer users a lower-cost environment amid high Ethereum gas fees.

Public communications from the Auctus team stopped after the March 29, 2022 post that warned of a critical vulnerability in an older smart contract. No later blog updates addressing the vulnerability or the project’s status were published, indicating that active development likely ceased.

ACO Tokens (Auctus Crypto Options)

ACO (Auctus Crypto Options) tokens represented tokenized option positions that gave holders the right, without obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) the underlying cryptoasset at a predetermined Strike Price at or before the option’s expiration.

ACO tokens were structured as American-style options, permitting the holder to exercise at any time prior to expiration. Exercise required action by the holder and resulted in physical settlement, meaning the underlying asset was transferred upon exercise.

ACO Token Symbol

Every ACO option was implemented via its own smart contract, and each token’s symbol encoded the option’s critical parameters. The symbol consisted of four components:

As an illustration, the symbol `ACO ETH-3000USDC-C-25JUN27-0800UTC` denotes a call option to purchase ETH at a strike of 3000 USDC, expiring on June 25, 2027 at 08:00 UTC. The seller (writer) of this call would lock 1 ETH as collateral to mint a single option token, while the buyer would provide 3000 USDC plus one option token to the contract to obtain 1 ETH when exercising.

By contrast, `ACO ETH-2800USDC-P-25JUN27-0800UTC` signifies a put option to sell ETH at a 2800 USDC strike with the same expiration. The put writer would lock 2800 USDC as collateral, and the purchaser would send 1 ETH and one option token to receive 2800 USDC upon exercise.

• Underlying Asset: The symbol of the cryptoasset being traded (e.g., ETH).
• Strike Price & Asset: The price at which the option can be exercised and the asset used for settlement (e.g., 3000USDC).
• Option Type: Indicates whether it is a Call (`C`) or a Put (`P`).
• Expiration Date: The date and time (in UTC) when the option expires.

AUC Token ICO Details

• Price of Pre-ICO: 2500 AUC = 1 ETH
• Price of ICO: 2000 AUC=1 ETH
• Hard Cap: 20 million USD
• Soft cap: 3,000,000 USD
• ICO AUC token start date: March 27, 2018
• ICO AUC token end date: March 31, 2018
• All unsold AUC tokens were burned
• There was no minimum investment for investors to participate in ICO
• ETH was accepted as a mode of payment.
• No additional tokens were issued after ICO token sale.

AUC Token Distribution

• 2% of the tokens were reserved as bounty rewards
• 9% of the tokens were allocated for partnership and advising
• 18% of the AUC tokens were allocated as a reserve for future stakeholders
• 20% of the AUC tokens were allocated for the team.
• 51% of the AUC tokens were released for sale during the ICO sale

dPiggy

dPiggy was an investment application launched in April 2020 that operated on top of Compound and Uniswap. It was presented as the first on-chain product that allowed users to invest in crypto without risking their principal capital, offering a straightforward interface for earning interest on DAI deposits and using those returns to automatically purchase a selection of crypto assets at month-end.

The dApp imposed a 0.5% annual service fee, with proceeds used to burn AUC tokens distributed in the March 2018 ICO. Users who locked a minimum of 10,000 AUC tokens in their dPiggy account were exempt from fees. The platform was promoted as a 'no-loss crypto investing platform' on the premise that DAI’s stable value was backed by the Maker and Compound protocols.

Security Vulnerability

On March 29, 2022 the Auctus team published what became their final blog post titled "Action Required: Critical Vulnerability," alerting users to a security issue in an "old beta contract" and advising caution. The post provided no further updates on the vulnerability’s scope, its effects, or any remediation efforts in later communications.

• 42% of the funds collected through the ICO sale were used by the team for future product development
• 28% of the funds collected through the token sale were used for business development
• 18% of the funds were used for communication and marketing of the project
• 12% of funds were used for other expenses
• Vinicius Melo - Head of Strategy & primary author of major announcements
• Tiago Araújo - Senior Software Engineer
• Ariny Guedes - Lead Ethereum Engineer
• Iuri Santos - UI/UX Lead Designer
• Nico Pottebaum - Author of informational and educational content
• Ludmila Lopes - Editor for the project's Medium publication