Everclear is like UberPool for the liquidity world, allowing cross-chain transactions to bid farewell to the traditional high-cost era through large-scale matching and settlement.
Author: Shenchao TechFlow.
After a long period of dormancy, the crypto market has recently become lively, with not only the thriving Meme and compliance concepts but also many infrastructure projects experiencing a wave of growth. Infrastructure projects that understand the importance of timely updates may be more favored by the market in this enthusiastic bull market.
Today, the cross-chain settlement layer protocol Everclear (@EverclearOrg) announced an important upgrade plan: upgrading the NEXT token to CLEAR and introducing an innovative vbCLEAR (vote-bound CLEAR) mechanism.
Through our understanding, we found that this is not just a simple currency exchange, but more like a key upgrade for Everclear in the competition of cross-chain infrastructure.
Understanding the value reassessment of the settlement layer through data.
The current cross-chain ecosystem is facing a somewhat awkward situation: the number of public chains has exceeded 250, and the traditional one-to-one liquidity docking model is becoming unsustainable. New public chains often need to invest significant resources to establish partnerships with various bridges and market makers at the initial stage, and inefficient liquidity acquisition methods have become a bottleneck for ecological development.
Everclear coordinates global settlements through the settlement layer, allowing the platform to achieve a tenfold optimization of rebalancing costs. As Everclear itself states: "Everclear is like UberPool for the liquidity world, allowing cross-chain transactions to bid farewell to the traditional high-cost era through large-scale matching and settlement."
During the past three months of the testnet mainnet operation, Everclear has shown impressive data performance: cross-chain transaction fees have dropped to a historic low of 0.011%, nearly 90% lower than traditional cross-chain solutions; the net liquidity settlement rate has reached 50%, meaning that every two cross-chain transactions can achieve one hedge through the settlement layer. The tripling of growth over three consecutive months also proves that settlement layer solutions are not a 'pseudo-demand' in the market.
Innovation based on Arbitrum Orbit.
From a technical perspective, Everclear chooses to build its settlement layer infrastructure based on Arbitrum Orbit. The Orbit technology stack not only provides high-performance transaction processing capabilities but also ensures seamless compatibility with the Ethereum ecosystem.
In terms of specific implementation, Everclear's settlement layer design adopts a unique dual-layer structure:
Basic Cross-Chain Layer: Users initiate cross-chain transactions through traditional cross-chain bridges (such as Router protocol, Across, Synapse, etc.)
Settlement Optimization Layer: Professional Solvers (settlers) conduct cross-chain settlements through the Everclear protocol, significantly reducing capital costs.
This design allows Everclear to provide more efficient settlement services for cross-chain infrastructure without affecting user experience.
Currency exchange + staking, a rethinking of the economic model of the settlement layer.
In this track, Everclear is not a solo act; traditional cross-chain bridges like Stargate and Hop Protocol are continuously optimizing their settlement mechanisms. However, Everclear's differentiated advantage lies in its focus on the settlement layer as a niche track, achieving extreme efficiency through specialized division of labor. This also aims to seize the growing market trend of cross-chain demand and conduct brand upgrades.
The vbCLEAR mechanism rewards staking votes.
In addition to the 1:1 exchange of NEXT tokens for CLEAR, the core of this upgrade lies in the introduction of the vbCLEAR mechanism. Under the new mechanism, CLEAR token holders can obtain vbCLEAR by staking, thereby participating in ecological governance.
The vbCLEAR mechanism has a complete token economic cycle:
Staking mechanism: CLEAR holders obtain vbCLEAR through staking.
Governance voting: vbCLEAR holders participate in the decision-making of emission allocation, including voting to guide liquidity incentives (emissions) to specific chains and Solvers.
Incentive allocation: incentives are allocated to Solvers on each chain based on voting results.
Fee rewards: vbCLEAR holders can receive two types of rewards.
Protocol fees: Sharing the dynamic fees paid by solvers and users using the Everclear liquidity settlement system (currently between 0.2-1 basis points depending on transaction conditions).
Quarterly incentives: Fixed reward pool, such as the 1.75 million CLEAR in the first quarter, distributed to vbCLEAR holders.
Season 1 quarterly incentive program.
To ensure the rapid launch of the upgraded ecosystem, Everclear has launched the first quarterly incentive program Season 1. During the three-month incentive season starting on December 6, the project will release a reward pool of 1.75M CLEAR tokens and 70 ETH.
By creating a self-driven positive feedback loop: more staking leads to more precise liquidity allocation, which in turn attracts more trading volume, ultimately benefiting ecosystem participants.
Summary.
This upgrade of Everclear is essentially a strategic layout betting on the future. The settlement layer, as a niche track of cross-chain infrastructure, holds long-term value, and Everclear's innovative attempts bring more diverse participation methods to this track.
The vbCLEAR mechanism balances governance rights, economic incentives, and market efficiency, providing new ideas for solving the cross-chain liquidity dilemma. The high incentives of Season 1 provide a good entry opportunity, but market participants still need to participate cautiously and pay attention to the actual operational effects after the project upgrade.