FAQ
What is Osmosis?
Osmosis is an advanced AMM protocol that enables developers to build customized AMMs with sovereign liquidity pools.
What innovation does it offer over existing AMMs?
Osmosis is a cross-chain AMM that supports multiple assets in a pool and custom weights. Every parameter in Osmosis is customizable.
Is Osmosis audited?
Not at launch, but the first round of audits have been planned for shortly after launch. The protocol has been rigorously tested for bugs by our engineers.
What is an AMM?
AMMs are decentralized market makers.
What does it mean to be an LP (liquidity provider)?
Liquidity providers provide assets to decentralized trading pools in exchange for fees and other rewards. A general explanation is provided here. An explanation specific to Osmosis is also available.
Impermanent Loss
Impermanent loss is the opportunity cost experienced by liquidity providers, realtive to simply HODLing their assets. See here for a more detailed explanation.
What is the use case of OSMO?
The OSMO token is a governance token used for
Voting on protocol upgrades
Alocating liquidity mining rewards for liquidity pools
Setting the base network swap fee
Securing the network through staking
Can I create my own liquidity pool?
Yes, pool creation is permissionless in Osmosis. See here for more information on this process.
How much does it cost?
At launch, there is no cost other than transaction fees. In the future, governance may choose to require an OSMO fee for pool creation.
Who decides the swap fee for new pools?
The pool creator.
Can there be different pools with the same trading pairs?
Yes! Different pools can have different parameters such as swap fee, weights, and AMM model (e.g., Uni v3 vs Balancer v2). Allowing users to create distinct pools with the same pairs encourages experimentation and innovation.
Does Osmosis require 50-50 token weights?
No, Osmosis allows pool creators to create custom weights and use more than two assets.
How long are my tokens bonded in a pool if I want to withdraw them?
Users choose their bonding length.
How long does it take for staked OSMO to unbond?
Does Osmosis have frontrunning protection?
Not yet, but soon.
Will Osmosis be an IDO platform?
Yes, Osmosis can be used for token launches, specifically liquidity bootstrapping pools.
Do OSMO stakers receive rewards only in OSMO, or also in tokens traded in the AMM?
OSMO stakers receive staking rewards in OSMO. Validators decide what assets to accept for payment of transaction fees. Stakers receive transaction fees in these assets.
Are reverse staking derivatives available at launch?
No, but soon.
Are there any plans for stablecoin pairs in Osmosis?
Yes, stablecoins in the Cosmos ecosystem will be available on Osmosis when these protocols upgrade to Stargate and enable IBC transactions. Compatibility for BNB and BUSD will also come later. After the Althea/Gravity bridges, bridged USDT and USDC from Ethereum will also be available.
What is the difference between Osmosis and Thorchain?
Osmosis does not require OSMO to be the base pair in every pool. In fact, pools can be created without any OSMO in them! Thorchain also does not enable pools with two or more assets. Osmosis is intended as an AMM laboratory, while Thorchain is committed to a very particular model.
Currently, Thorchain is capable of cross-chain swaps without using IBC. Osmosis will be able to introduce this feature at a later date, but at launch, only protocols utilizing IBC are compatible with Osmosis' design.
What is the difference between OSMO and Gravity Dex?
Gravity is built on the Cosmos Hub. Osmosis has a Layer 1 blockchain with a native token, OSMO. Gravity also does not have liquidity mining rewards. Lastly, Osmosis does not require pools to utilize the same AMM model, unlike Gravity.
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