Auctus (Symbol: AUC) was a cryptocurrency that operated on the Ethereum blockchain. The project was focused on bringing on-chain options to the DeFi (Decentralized Finance) ecosystem. The project appears to be inactive, as its last public blog communication was a security alert posted on March 29, 2022^[5][1][2].

History

The Auctus protocol was initially developed on Ethereum, launching its mainnet "Private Option Pools" feature in February 2021. This feature allowed liquidity providers to deposit assets and underwrite options contracts. In April 2021, the project expanded to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) through a partnership with Anyswap Bridge (now Multichain) to provide users with a lower-cost trading environment amid high Ethereum gas fees^[5].

The project's team ceased public communications after March 29, 2022, when they posted an alert about a critical vulnerability in an older smart contract. No subsequent updates regarding the project's status or a resolution to the vulnerability were posted on their official blog, suggesting development is no longer active^[5].

Protocol

Auctus was a decentralized non-custodial options protocol built on top of Ethereum that allowed users to trade, mint, and exercise call or put options in a trustless and decentralized manner without having to rely on any third party^[3][4].

Each option series was integrated through an ACOToken contract, which was ERC20-compliant, making options transferable, fungible, and ready for further DeFi integrations^[4].

ACO Tokens (Auctus Crypto Options)

ACO (Auctus Crypto Options) tokens are tokenized options that convey to its holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy (in the case of a call) or sell (in the case of a put) an underlying cryptoasset at a specified price (Strike Price) at any time before or at expiration^[4].

ACO tokens are American-style options, allowing the holder to exercise any time before its expiration date. Exercise is not automatic and the settlement is "physical," meaning the underlying asset is transferred and delivered upon exercise^[4].

ACO Token Symbol

Each ACO token option has its own smart contract, and the token symbol contains all essential information about the option. The symbol is composed of four parts^[4]:

1. Underlying Asset: The symbol of the cryptoasset being traded (e.g., ETH).
2. Strike Price & Asset: The price at which the option can be exercised and the asset used for settlement (e.g., 3000USDC).
3. Option Type: Indicates whether it is a Call (C) or a Put (P).
4. Expiration Date: The date and time (in UTC) when the option expires.

For example, the symbol ACO ETH-3000USDC-C-25JUN27-0800UTC represents a call option to buy ETH at a strike price of 3000 USDC, expiring on June 25, 2027, at 08:00 UTC. The writer of this call option would need to lock 1 ETH as collateral to mint one option token, while the buyer would need to send 3000 USDC and one option token to the contract to receive 1 ETH upon exercise^[4].

Conversely, the symbol ACO ETH-2800USDC-P-25JUN27-0800UTC represents a put option to sell ETH at a strike price of 2800 USDC, expiring on the same date. The writer of this put option would lock 2800 USDC as collateral, while the buyer would send 1 ETH and one option token to receive 2800 USDC upon exercise^[4].

AUC Token ICO Details

• Price of Pre-ICO: 2500 AUC = 1 ETH
• Price of ICO: 2000 AUC=1 ETH
• Hard Cap: 20 million USD
• Soft cap: 3,000,000 USD
• ICO AUC token start date: March 27, 2018
• ICO AUC token end date: March 31, 2018
• All unsold AUC tokens were burned
• There was no minimum investment for investors to participate in ICO
• ETH was accepted as a mode of payment.
• No additional tokens were issued after ICO token sale.
• The AUC tokens became available instantly after the ICO sale

AUC Token Distribution

• 2% of the tokens were reserved as bounty rewards
• 9% of the tokens were allocated for partnership and advising
• 18% of the AUC tokens were allocated as a reserve for future stakeholders
• 20% of the AUC tokens were allocated for the team.
• 51% of the AUC tokens were released for sale during the ICO sale

Usage of Funds Collected During the ICO

1. 42% of the funds collected through the ICO sale were used by the team for future product development
2. 28% of the funds collected through the token sale were used for business development
3. 18% of the funds were used for communication and marketing of the project
4. 12% of funds were used for other expenses

dPiggy

dPiggy was a platform for investment in crypto, built on top of Compound & Uniswap and launched in April 2020. It was the first on-chain product that provided an opportunity to invest in crypto without taking capital risk. It provided a simple interface for users to earn interest on DAI deposits and have their returns automatically used to purchase a variety of crypto assets at the end of each month^[6].

dPiggy charged users an annual 0.5% service fee used to burn AUC tokens issued in the March 2018 ICO, and fees were waived for users who locked at least 10,000 AUC tokens in their dPiggy account. The dapp was marketed as a ‘no-loss crypto investing platform’ because the stable value of DAI was secured by the Maker and Compound protocols.

Security Vulnerability

On March 29, 2022, the Auctus team posted what would be its final communication on its official blog, titled "Action Required: Critical Vulnerability." The alert warned users of a security flaw in an "old beta contract" and advised caution. No further details regarding the extent of the vulnerability, its impact, or any subsequent remediation efforts were provided in later communications^[5].

Key People

During its operation, several individuals were key to the project's development and strategy. The team included^[5]:

• Vinicius Melo - Head of Strategy & primary author of major announcements
• Tiago Araújo - Senior Software Engineer
• Ariny Guedes - Lead Ethereum Engineer
• Iuri Santos - UI/UX Lead Designer
• Nico Pottebaum - Author of informational and educational content
• Ludmila Lopes - Editor for the project's Medium publication