Rome Introduction:
Rome breaks the traditional DeFi model that relies solely on treasuries by providing a more sustainable token economy through its dual staking mechanism and proof of burn. The core concept of the protocol is “Treasury as a Reward”, which utilizes treasury income to reward users instead of solely relying on token issuance to maintain incentives.
Dual Staking Mechanism:
Rome adopts a dual staking mechanism that allows users to choose between traditional staking and burn staking:
Traditional Staking: Users can stake either single tokens or LP tokens to earn rewards.
Burn Staking: Users can burn $ROME tokens to reduce the circulating supply in the market and demonstrate their long-term commitment to the protocol. In return, participants can unlock the power to mint new tokens, receive $ROME rewards, actual earnings ($wS), and governance rights.
Traditional Staking:
Single Token Staking: Staking $ROME tokens allows users to earn rewards based on the quantity and staking duration, with a reward of 4,500 $ROME in the first 7 days.
Current APY: 3.77%.
LP Staking: Staking $ROME-$wS LP tokens allows users to share a reward of 10,500 $ROME in the first 7 days, aiming to enhance liquidity.
Current APY: 11.2%.
Burn Staking:
Single Token Staking: By burning $ROME tokens and obtaining $bROME, participants can stake $bROME to receive $ROME (distributed daily at 9 PM UTC) and a 30% $wS earnings (distributed twice weekly).
Current APY: 7.63%.
LP Staking: After unlocking the minting function by burning $ROME, users can use $wS to mint new $ROME tokens at a discounted price and gain LP creation power. Participants can then stake $ROME-$wS LP tokens to earn $ROME, 70% $wS earnings, and a 3.5% weekly minting power for new tokens. The goal is to promote liquidity and increase token value.
Current APY: 32.91%.
It should be noted that after burning $ROME, new tokens cannot be minted immediately. Each minting cycle has a fixed upper limit for $ROME minting using wS to prevent excessive inflation.
Revenue Source for Rome:
Rome does not solely rely on token issuance to sustain its operations. Instead, it generates revenue through treasury funds, which primarily come from:
wS used for $ROME minting
Trading fees from liquidity pools
Rome deploys treasury funds to liquidity pools and yield farms within the Sonic ecosystem to generate real earnings (denominated in wS). These earnings are partially distributed to participants and serve as support for the value of $ROME. The revenue distribution mechanism is as follows:
25% is reinvested in the protocol for long-term operations.
75% is allocated to users participating in burn staking.
Overall, Rome’s dual staking mechanism and revenue sources are shown in the diagram below:
Token Economics:
Rome’s native token is $ROME, with an initial circulating supply of 100,000 tokens. The token distribution is as follows:
Liquidity Pool: 50%
Staking Rewards: 30%
Marketing and Advisors: 10%
Team: 5%, released linearly over 6 months
Ecosystem Fund: 5%
Rome’s token distribution strategy allocates 80% of the supply to liquidity and community incentives (50% LP + 30% staking), ensuring sufficient market liquidity and encouraging long-term holders to participate in the ecosystem’s growth.
Currently, Rome has a total staked amount of 30,700 tokens and a total burn amount of 10,500 tokens, resulting in an inflation rate of 0.92. The continuous growth of the total burn amount can be seen as an indicator of long-term confidence in Rome.
Conclusion: Is Rome Worth Participating In?
Rome adopts a dual staking model and combines burning, minting, liquidity provision, and treasury revenue-sharing mechanisms to create a more sustainable DeFi ecosystem. Unlike traditional “token staking mining” models, Rome does not solely rely on token rewards to attract participants. Instead, it utilizes treasury assets to generate real earnings in DeFi and regulates the supply of $ROME through burning and minting mechanisms, as well as LP creation rights to enhance market liquidity and ensure stable token value.
While burn staking yields are currently profitable due to the high returns in Sonic’s liquidity mining and the relatively low number of participants in Rome, the long-term feasibility of this mechanism depends on the treasury’s ability to appreciate. If:
Treasury revenues are insufficient (which is closely tied to the Sonic ecosystem), the incentive for burn staking will decrease.
The pace of burning and minting cannot be effectively controlled.
Rome may still face the risks of liquidity loss and token value decline. In the future, it is worth paying attention to whether the protocol will introduce new products to increase revenue sources.
In addition, the protocol is currently in its early stages, and the security of smart contracts, governance mechanisms, and market adaptability still need to be verified. Participants should fully understand the risks of DeFi and carefully assess their risk tolerance.