The concept of meta-governance as a phenomenon for accumulating voting power in third-party protocols and managing it using the proxy token was introduced.
The foundations of the meta-governance concept and the idea of how to build it using a lending protocol were published. Afterward, the PowerPool idea received support and recognition in the form of a Polygon(Matic) grant.
PowerPool announced its project launch without traditional VCs or investors.
PowerPool used the classic liquidity mining approach of distributing tokens to LPs and also distributed small portions of tokens to known Defi community members (named as “testers”). The list of testers includes Delphi Digital, Defi Dad, Meltem Demimors, and many other notable people and entities.
The lending market was deployed on the xDAI (now Gnosis Chain) and Matic (now Polygon) networks and was tested.
If you're signed up to test @powerpoolcvp in the next few mins (you'd have to have signed up and been whitelisted) here's a few things to know I figured out:
— DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) August 26, 2020
1⃣Go to https://t.co/yjXwhrE8Kl
2⃣At 2:30 pm PST, we'll all be able to transfer tokens via "the bridge" to xDAI network https://t.co/GZmvRyyk0h pic.twitter.com/xKn67gRsYr
xDAI working its magic with @powerpoolcvp https://t.co/aaBU1XkyWv
— METACARTEL VENTURES (@VENTURE_DAO) August 27, 2020
It's time for meta governance protocol!? 👀#DeFi https://t.co/h932uonN0u
— 1inch Network (@1inch) August 28, 2020
Many congrats 🎉 to @powerpoolcvp on the $CVP token release!
— Gnosis Chain 🦉 (@gnosischain) August 28, 2020
++ 🎱 ⚔️ Powerpool #DeFi running on xDai! ++ https://t.co/xrBdFFESyR
1/ Recently came across @powerpoolcvp and was fascinated by the possibility of it capturing a sizable governance stake in the top DeFi projects across the sector. With a slight change, it could even become a governance blackhole. Read my proposal belowhttps://t.co/C7hfk8YRLM
— Medio Demarco (@mediodelphi) August 30, 2020
The meta-governance idea attracted interest from Cointelegraph, the PowerPool team was interviewed regarding the idea and its implementation.
The first governance proposals on gov.powerpool.finance was published. The PowerPool protocol updated its vision to an ETF-like basket of tokens ‘Power Indices’ after Delphi Digital’s proposal was supported by the community.
Based on this decision, the team started developing a smart basket of tokens on top of Balancer v1 and faced on-chain automation problems for the first time. The idea to use tokens from a basket for (a) governance (b) yield-generation in third-party contracts required us to develop an asset manager for the AMM and to ‘find’ somebody who will sign transactions and call contracts in a reliable and trustless way.
As a result, PowerAgent (legacy name: Power Oracle) was launched. In the next few months, we decided to expand the concept and make Agents send transactions not only to update TWAP prices in Oracle, but also to execute other contracts. According to it, we renamed Power Oracle into Power Agent since it started to carry out the function of a fully-fledged on-chain automation network.
We're live with our Alpha.3 featuring the @powerpoolcvp integration, where you can set up your voting wallet and participate in PIP-1
— Boardroom 🗳️ (@boardroom_info) September 14, 2020
We'd love your feedback and bug reports! Drop us a line on the #feedback channel on Discord https://t.co/tgErtFmcaPhttps://t.co/fPwxmnfF6s pic.twitter.com/nRgoQ8QIPa
🎱 A self-balancing governance token index to come from PowerPool protocol... me likey.
— DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) September 18, 2020
👁️ That'll be interesting and accessible #DeFi exposure!
🌀Indices of GT indices of GT indices.
👏Governance tokenception. https://t.co/BxM1G2nKUG pic.twitter.com/AUEEGr7Tm9
Incredible to see Governance Token Pooling Protocol @powerpoolcvp's Gamma Round in full swing!
— Polygon - MATIC 💚 (@0xPolygon) September 18, 2020
Users spent $1766.55 in gas fees on Ethereum compared to $0.000182 on @maticnetwork#GovernancePowerOnLayer2#Layer2IsHere pic.twitter.com/lkP53itqvH
'Proposal 6: Vesting, Liquidity Mining & Voting Power' has just been put to vote. CVP governance do your thinghttps://t.co/0pqapv4agd
— Medio Demarco (@mediodelphi) September 30, 2020
🎱We proud to announce the first Power Index participant and ecosystem partner: Synthetix ($SNX)https://t.co/QL3QAOpAWG
— PowerPool $CVP (@powerpoolcvp) October 13, 2020
🎱Baby Power Index reached $300k liquidity cap$CVP #PowerPool #MetaGov
1/ #DeFi governance tokens are coming to Matic via @powerpoolcvp!
— Polygon - MATIC 💚 (@0xPolygon) October 19, 2020
👥PowerPool is a meta-governance protocol aimed at accumulating voting power in decentralized protocols and using it based on decisions on its community. PowerPool offers three main products to the ecosystem: pic.twitter.com/WNjjkZ6Fx0
After one month of limited cap testing, Power Index (PIPT) was launched with a structure that was influenced by the Delphi Digital proposal; PowerPool achieved $17m TVL in PIPT.
Shortly after that, Ryan Watkins from Messari proposed YETI (Yearn Ecosystem Token Index).
Pioneering the concept of an asset manager for Balancer v1 that could use tokens outside AMM was developed for building yield-generating indices.
PowerPool received a new level of industry recognition: PowerPool was featured in Paul Veradittakit’s newsletter, Binance Research, Cointelegraph, Messari, and Bankless.
The most important spotlight of PowerPool and $CVP was PowerPool’s feature in the Messari Crypto Thesis 2021. PowerPool was cited multiple times in that document, including in the general 01: Top 10 trends category:
Well, with maker (crypto dollars), Uniswap (automated market making), Compound (liquidity mining), Balancer (dynamic liquidity pool rebalancing), YFI (smart asset management), AAVE (flash loans), ChainLink (data oracles), SushiSwap (defensive countermeasures), CVP (proxy aggregation), and bZx (decentralized bug bounty protocol), we've got examples of the building blocks needed to power a fully decentralized and algorithmic financial system. (More on all of these later in the report.)
and in 06: Defi Money Legos category
I'm most interested to watch the evolution of PowerPool's CVP (the "concentrated voting power" token, basically a proxy service for accumulating DeFi voting power) and Aragon (the original DAO manager) because there is a LOT of money on the line. It's not just governing monetary policy and protocol parameter changes, either; we're going to see more in the realm of protocol M&A

Wrote a Daily about our proposal (9) to improve the liquidity incentive programs for the PowerIndex and CVP ahead of the index's launch next week.
— Yan Liberman (@YanLiberman) November 18, 2020
Disclosure: Delphi Ventures is an investor in PowerPool https://t.co/W6B0UJbZSt https://t.co/eIWcKY5Db4
📺Will share more detail on @powerpoolcvp PowerIndex PIPT later but wanted to get this #DeFi tutorial out sooner!
— DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) December 5, 2020
😎Happy Saturday #DeFi fam! https://t.co/hJGCTC8Wzc
On Thursday I posted a proposal to the PowerPool community to create a Yearn Ecosystem Token Index (YETI).
— Ryan Watkins (@RyanWatkins_) December 7, 2020
One common question about the proposal was about CVP’s presence in the index.
TL;DR: CVP is an integral part of each PowerPool Index.
1/ https://t.co/tQOGIE98IH
If you're looking for a farming opportunity, @powerpoolcvp launched this YETI Index, and there's 2 farming opportunities for holding YETI:
— DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) December 10, 2020
1⃣Deposit YETI-ETH Balancer LP and earn $CVP (463% APY)
2⃣Deposit $YETI and earn CVP (528% APY) pic.twitter.com/V13X3BzrnU
On the surface index protocols appear to just be vehicles for passive exposure to cryptoassets.
— Ryan Watkins (@RyanWatkins_) December 22, 2020
However under the hood they're much more powerful than that.
Through meta-governance index protocols may be an attractive DeFi aggregation play through voting power accumulation.
1/ pic.twitter.com/9AvmQFPhR8
After the PIPT and YETI release, the third and fourth PowerPool index baskets were proposed: the ASSY (AAVE SUSHI SNX YFI) index by Marc Zeller from AAVE and the yToken index (a basket of Yearn.Finance yield-generating Vaults) by MilkyKlim, the core Yearn developer; Later on, this product became widely known as Yearn Lazy Ape (YLA).
These two products had a unique feature: both of them required on-chain automation and offered new functions and a higher yield to the end user because of it.
The ASSY index featured Dynamic AMM - a Balancer pool with weights changing according to the market cap of assets and SUSHI asset manager.
More information: DAMM and automated Wrapper&Router staking architecture for Balancer pool. This is the first article that was published that explored PowerPool’s on-chain automated strategy with implementation details (additional info and links to contracts are here).
After launching YLA, the Yearn.finance treasury deposited $250k into YLA.
PowerPool products were featured in How to Defi (Advanced) by Coingecko. PIPT was named the “cheapest option” (by fees) for index investors. The protocol income strategy and fee structure are mentioned as the “most diversified” among competitors.
In order to simplify the user experience and reduce their costs, PowerPool developed ZAP allowing LPs to supply/withdraw funds for 68 times cheaper than the average cost. It was 100% subsidized by the PowerPool DAO.
Proposal: Yearn yTokens Index https://t.co/GvA6QUlq0U
— banteg (@bantg) January 14, 2021
👏🏻 Another achievement for https://t.co/fLXva1SFRG unlocked - we’ve just added NEW LIQUIDITY PROTOCOL #PowerIndex by @powerpoolcvp ⭐️
— 1inch Network (@1inch) January 20, 2021
This integration allows all our users to get the best rates for 9 DeFi blue chips at once: $YFI $AAVE $CVP $SNX $WNXM $MKR $COMP $UNI $PIPT 🤑 pic.twitter.com/SyDvJRRwNS
1/
— PowerPool $CVP (@powerpoolcvp) January 20, 2021
DeFi ETFs shouldn't be limited by what defines a traditional ETF. Sky's the limit. What about complex automatically traded portfolios based dynamically changing weights in AMM based on strategy and triggers? pic.twitter.com/DGE5MSS7k3
If you were yield farming $CVP by @powerpoolcvp with the PIPT-ETH 80-20 LP in @BalancerLabs, the rewards program ended and migrated to @SushiSwap.
— DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) February 7, 2021
One might do one of the following:
1⃣Unstake LP + Claim CVP using the (1) link below
2⃣Unstake LP + migrate liquidity to @SushiSwap https://t.co/yUI7QLfl33
🎱 We're excited to announce the launch of #PowerOracle v2 – the key piece of upcoming Dynamic AMM https://t.co/pVJA8Zsyq3
— PowerPool $CVP (@powerpoolcvp) February 9, 2021
🎱 Dynamic AMM will be activated after ~1 day of v2 operation#PowerIndex $CVP
YLA has a crazy amount of layers, which makes it a good test case if you are developing on oracle which can peel it to the basic tokens. It goes Balancer -> Yearn -> Curve -> Iearn. pic.twitter.com/x8LSArfJIe
— banteg (@bantg) March 17, 2021
🎱 2 weeks ago, @powerpoolcvp cleverly launched an index of 5 @iearnfinance stablecoin yVaults.
— DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) March 16, 2021
🤔 Unsure which yVault may perform best?
🦍 Consider Yearn Lazy Ape Index $YLA https://t.co/IWqx0rQNjw pic.twitter.com/p5E8jGnuJc
🦍Yearn Lazy Ape (YLA) is a yield-earning basket of 5 @iearnfinance stablecoin yVaults on @powerpoolcvp.
— DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth (@DeFi_Dad) March 19, 2021
🌊A batched deposit triggers every 24 hrs or whenever $500k is deposited to save us gas.
🔥TLDR One can deposit into YLA for 1.5% of the gas with 1 txn vs a costly ~20 txns. https://t.co/EPvHmlX2Vb pic.twitter.com/K2TVf34XDL
The proposal for expanding PowerPool to Binance Smart Chain (now named BNB Chain) was published. YLA was updated to v2. The new vision for the protocol's future was published. Other launched products included xCVP and BSCDEFI (with PancakeSwap support).
PowerPool was featured as Balancer v2 launch partner in their blog and was announced on the ETHCC main stage.
Fernando Martinelli, Balancer CEO shared his thoughts regarding PowerPool’s groundbreaking idea for asset management.
🎱 $YLA successfully migrated to V2 @iearnfinance Vaults!
— PowerPool $CVP (@powerpoolcvp) May 15, 2021
🎱 New version of vaults => bigger APY
🎱 All $YLA functions are enabled from now, thank you for your patience $CVP community pic.twitter.com/vm6C7f2fTJ
🎱 https://t.co/g8j4EdMxXc
— PowerPool $CVP (@powerpoolcvp) June 24, 2021
👋 @binance @cz_binance @BinanceChain @powerpoolcvp
👉 @PancakeSwap
👉 @VenusProtocol
👉 @Mdexswap
👉 @Ellipsisfi
👉 @bakery_swap
👉 @LinearFinance
👉 @autofarmnetwork
👉 @AlphaFinanceLab
👉 @BreederDodo
👉 @CreamdotFinance
👉 @Tokocrypto pic.twitter.com/cRa1etbjX0
https://t.co/ZJM9wRCVrA
— Joel John (@joel_john95) July 16, 2021
A quick primer on token indices and the three prominent projects building them on Ethereum - @powerpoolcvp @indexcoop and @PieDAO_DeFi
Few know it but PowerPool was actually the main inspiration for asset managers in our V2 architecture.
— veFernando | Balancer 🦇🔊 (@fcmartinelli) August 9, 2021
PowerPool gave us precious feedback about how Balancer could become much better and extensible.
Can't show enough gratitude to their amazing team, THANKS! 🙏
.@powerpoolcvp's Yearn Lazy Ape Index allows for diversified exposure to four different @iearnfinance Vaults in a single token, including the crvLUSD Vault.
— Liquity (@LiquityProtocol) August 18, 2021
Learn how to use it here: https://t.co/l9Ifx38w5G
Join us on September 22 🗓 at 2pm UTC ⌚️ for an AMA in the Binance English Telegram group with @GordonGekko_CVP and @SumanovVasily from the @powerpoolcvp Public Team
— Binance (@binance) September 21, 2021
🏆 There will be $5,000 in $CVP to be won, so don't miss out and save the date!
➡️https://t.co/6A44tBLSZI pic.twitter.com/p1naqLptKD
Strategic research and development: multichain expansion, the “Curve wars solution”, the LUSD pool with two automated asset managers on Balancer. The project started to undergo evolution from “indices” and baskets to generalized automation network infrastructure.
✨ @powerpoolcvp #builtonBalancer to create structured investment products and Smart ETF Pools 👏 Just think of what your project could build?🤔 pic.twitter.com/v1ck8TYHq7
— Balancer Labs (@BalancerLabs) October 26, 2021
📣 @PowerPoolcvp will run smart contracts and bridge to @NEARProtocol through @auroraisnear, NEAR's EVM environment!
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) October 13, 2021
The high scalability of #NEAR is perfect for building a new generation of DeFi products with a high level of optimization and low operating costs.
Learn more 🔽 https://t.co/zDesAeykVI pic.twitter.com/F7zRFnSeC6
🎱 PowerPool Community update👇
— PowerPool $CVP (@powerpoolcvp) December 6, 2021
— $LUSD-$staBAL meta pool
— Window Rebalancing pool
— New strats for $YLA
— L1 chains DeFi research
— PowerAgent v3
— Modular PP architecture
🎱 BSCDEFI constituent tokens yield generation soon - Vaults are almost readyhttps://t.co/eTnxxH56Nd
PowerPool focuses on PowerAgent v2 (a decentralized task specific automation network) design & development, PowerPool Research division, and delivering complex Defi products such as LUSD Balancer v2 pool.
PowerPool launches ppTORN Vault: an auto-compounding strategy for tornado.cash $TORN governance staking.
🎱 New product: $LUSD StableSwap pool on top of @BalancerLabs and @LiquityProtocol
— PowerPool $CVP (@powerpoolcvp) February 1, 2022
🎱 ~12% APY generated w/o xtra rewards: Liquity stability pool + $BAL rewards (staBAL pool)
🎱 This solves secondary market liq issue for $LUSD w/o @CurveFinance incentiveshttps://t.co/JMjzFArjfa
Will they buy $ASSY or will they just buy $APE stay tuned to find out
— Darren Lau (Lau, Lau) 👘 (@Darrenlautf) March 17, 2022
the power of DAOs@powerpoolcvp @TornadoCash https://t.co/Ka0e3t3pC9
— Roman S (@rstormsf) April 7, 2022
Analyzing the last 2 years we made a conclusion that it is still too early for most Defi investors to favor sophisticated diversified token baskets/indices. To date, all existing Defi baskets/indices hold a tiny percentage of their underlying assets’ circulating supply. This metric was ᐸᐸ1% even on top of the market bull phase.
PowerPool’s capital acquisition results for ‘index’ basket products were as follows: $PIPT reached $16m TVL, other indices ($ASSY, $YETI) approximately $10m, BSCDEFI $1.7m.
The automated stablecoin yield $YLA (Yearn Lazy Ape) product reached $15m without any significant marketing, generating ~17% of pure stablecoin yield for LPs during the first year of operation. It was achieved by smart automation of multi-layer Defi products with a very high degree of reliability (not even a single bug or tech issue during >1y of operation). However, the short-term de-peg of constituent stablecoin (USDN) coupled with overall market fear after the UST collapse caused massive liquidity outflow.
Despite a large number of technical and ideological innovations, it's still not a very significant TVL for the Defi market.
But what’s a really significant outcome of our continuous work over almost 2 years is the automation of on-chain strategies, and approaches to do it in a robust and decentralized way.
Indeed, a closer look at modern web3 (DeFi,NFT, Metaverse, DAO, etc.) demonstrates that all of it comes down to 'a lot of on-chain automation'. It includes almost every service or solution built on top of other protocols such as Uni v3 position management, Vaults, strategies, even Bal v2 asset managers, collateral management, options, limit orders, etc.
Accordingly, our near-term focus is primarily on the development and adoption of our Power Agent automation network, deploying it to different chains, and then creating rather not indices, but automated products on top of it with simpler design. When the market is ready, we will deliver more complex automated indices solutions given our experience.
You can find detailed analysis in our article PowerPool/PowerAgent Roadmap Checkpoint: 2 years.
The roadmap for project development in 2022:
- PowerAgent v2 release on Ethereum, Aurora, and other EVM-compatible chains;
- LUSD Balancer v2 pool launch;
- TORN Vault V2 launch;
- Establishing partnerships for providing automation services to first DAO-clients.