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Rather Protocol

A self-sustaining on-chain economic loop that combines NFT trading, DeFi liquidity pools, and automated treasury management to create continuous buying pressure through deflationary token burns.

Videos

Tech Stack

Next
Web3
Solidity
Tailwind
ethers.js
Hardhat
Arbitrum Sepolia
Bun

Description

Rather Strategy Protocol - Arbitrum Hackathon Submission

🎯 Problem Statement

NFT treasuries lack a mechanism to self-sustain and compound value. Most protocols:

  • Accumulate fees passively without strategic action

  • Require manual management by teams (not autonomous)

  • Cannot create reinforcing economic loops

  • Generate no buy pressure for their native tokens

This leads to:

  • 💸 Stagnant treasuries that don't work for the protocol

  • 🤖 Centralized decision-making instead of on-chain automation

  • 📉 Deflationary token pressure without corresponding buy-back mechanisms

  • ⛓️ Missed opportunity for perpetual economic flywheel effects

Real-world precedent: Bank Strategy (Stacks) holds 30+ Bitcoin with 9-figure market cap. Nodem (Bitcoin Ordinals) raised $5M+ using this mechanism. Yet these lack on-chain automation—execution requires centralized teams.

💡 Solution: Rather Strategy Protocol

An autonomous perpetual NFT treasury flywheel that:

  1. Collects fees (10% from all ETH ↔ RATHER swaps)

  2. Auto-buys floor NFTs when treasury balance ≥ floor price

  3. Relists at 10% premium immediately

  4. Burns RATHER tokens with sale proceeds

  5. Repeats perpetually creating compounding deflationary pressure

Zero manual intervention. 100% on-chain. Fully transparent.


Swap Activity → 10% Fee to Treasury

↓

Treasury Accumulates

↓

When Balance ≥ Floor Price

↓

Auto-Buy NFT at Floor

↓

Relist at +10% Premium

↓

NFT Sells → Burn RATHER

↓

♻️ REPEAT

🏗️ What We Built

Smart Contracts (Solidity 0.8.28)

5 Core Contracts Deployed on Arbitrum Sepolia:

  1. RatherToken - ERC-20 with burn tracking, deflationary mechanics

  2. RatherNFT - ERC-721 collection, free-to-mint (gas only)

  3. RatherLiquidityPool - AMM with 10% swap fee router

  4. RatherMarketplace - P2P NFT trading, floor price tracking

  5. RatherTreasury - Autonomous buy-and-burn executor

Key Features:

  • ✅ ReentrancyGuard on all state-changing functions

  • ✅ Ownable access control (no proxies, immutable logic)

  • ✅ Cooldown periods prevent manipulation

  • ✅ Emergency withdrawal for owner safety

  • ✅ Floor price oracle via marketplace

Full-Stack Frontend (Next.js 16.1.2)

Pages:

  • 🏠 Home - Live treasury dashboard with real-time stats (ETH balance, RATHER burned, floor price)

  • 💱 Swap - ETH ↔ RATHER swaps with gas estimation and pool diagnostics

  • 🎨 Mint - Free NFT minting (gas fees only)

  • 🏪 Marketplace - List, buy, sell NFTs with approve → list → buy flow

Tech Stack:

  • Next.js 16.1.2 (Turbopack)

  • React 19.2.3 + Custom Context API

  • ethers.js v6.16.0 (direct contract interaction)

  • Tailwind CSS v4

  • MetaMask integration (pure injected connector)

Features:

  • ✅ Mobile responsive (hamburger menu on mobile)

  • ✅ Toast notifications for all transactions

  • ✅ Error categorization (user rejection, insufficient balance, etc.)

  • ✅ Live blockchain data (30s refresh)

  • ✅ Automatic chain switching to Arbitrum Sepolia

🚀 Why We Chose Arbitrum

  1. Low Gas Costs - $0.10-0.50 per transaction vs $5-50 on Ethereum L1 (95% cheaper)

  2. Fast Finality - Blocks every ~0.25 seconds

  3. EVM Compatible - Standard Solidity + ethers.js + MetaMask

  4. Mature Ecosystem - OpenZeppelin, Chainlink, Gelato support

  5. Scalability - High transaction throughput for perpetual automation

📊 Live Results

Contract Deployment (Arbitrum Sepolia):

RatherToken: 0xd4D791861574EfB476d4fFe4F99062B267C434f8

RatherNFT: 0x5c29bc86f34505f20a23CB1501E010c52e6C41Ac

RatherMarketplace: 0x9fCF4af886D2A8200B499297b7626895E2cCf3C3

RatherLiquidityPool: 0xfc19E178a9c4C6637CA030Bc57b839b30f381889

RatherTreasury: 0x0C2E07642E850A088585bC9c39c5287535eeB634

Verified On-Chain:

  • ✅ Pool State: 815.73 RATHER reserves + 0.1226 ETH

  • ✅ Treasury Balance: 0.00251 ETH (live on dashboard)

  • ✅ Deflationary Mechanism: 82.81 RATHER burned (tracked in real-time)

  • ✅ Swap Confirmed: Transaction 0xb5dfb0c4... (working, gas ~90k)

  • ✅ All marketplace functions operational (approve → list → buy)

🎯 How It Works (End-to-End)

User Flow:

  1. Connect MetaMask to Arbitrum Sepolia

  2. Mint NFT for free (gas only) on /mint page

  3. Swap ETH for RATHER on /swap page (10% fee auto-goes to treasury)

  4. List NFT on /marketplace page

  5. Watch dashboard as treasury accumulates fees and executes buybacks

Protocol Automation (No Manual Intervention):

  1. Treasury collects 10% from swaps

  2. When balance ≥ floor price, auto-buys NFT at marketplace floor

  3. Immediately relists that NFT at +10% premium

  4. When someone buys the relisted NFT, 100% of proceeds burn RATHER tokens

  5. Cycle repeats perpetually

💰 Economics

  • Swap Fee: 10% (treasury)

  • Relist Premium: 10% (treasury profit margin)

  • Mint Fee: 0 ETH (free with gas)

  • Burn Rate: 100% of NFT sale proceeds

  • Result: Continuous RATHER token deflation + buying pressure on NFTs

🔒 Security

  • ✅ OpenZeppelin ERC-20, ERC-721 standards

  • ✅ ReentrancyGuard on all external calls

  • ✅ No upgradeable proxies (immutable logic)

  • ✅ Ownable access control

  • ✅ Cooldown periods (1 hour between sweeps)

  • ✅ Emergency withdrawal mechanism

🛠️ Tech Stack Summary

Blockchain: Arbitrum Sepolia (L2)

Smart Contracts: Solidity 0.8.28, Hardhat 3.1.4

Standards: ERC-20, ERC-721, ReentrancyGuard

Frontend: Next.js 16.1.2, React 19.2.3, TypeScript

Web3: ethers.js v6.16.0, MetaMask injected

Styling: Tailwind CSS v4

Build: Turbopack, Bun

🎮 Try It Live

Frontend: https://rather-protocol.vercel.app/

  • Connect MetaMask to Arbitrum Sepolia (421614)

  • Mint free NFTs

  • Swap ETH for RATHER

  • Buy/sell on marketplace

  • Watch treasury dashboard update in real-time

View Contracts: Arbiscan Sepolia

  • All 5 contracts verified and deployed

  • Full transaction history available

  • Real-time state visible on-chain

📈 Impact & Innovation

Why This Matters:

  1. First On-Chain Implementation - Previous strategies (Bank, Nodem) use centralized teams; we automated everything with smart contracts

  2. Perpetual Economics - Creates self-reinforcing loop: more trading → more treasury → more NFT buying pressure → more token burning → more scarcity

  3. Open Blueprint - Transparent, testnet-ready reference implementation for any NFT project wanting perpetual treasury automation

  4. Arbitrum Advantage - Proves L2 can host complex perpetual strategies at production scale with minimal gas costs

Rather Strategy Protocol: Autonomous NFT treasuries. On-chain. Forever. 🚀

Team Leader
DDevesh
Project Link
Sector
NFT