FAQs
The most common questions on True Freeze answered at a high level. See docs for full details.
Last updated
The most common questions on True Freeze answered at a high level. See docs for full details.
Last updated
What do I do here? You lock WETH for anywhere between 1 day and 1,100 days. This puts ETH into the future, removing it from circulation. In exchange for this, you mint freezer-ETH (frETH) yield tokens and get a Certificate of Deposit Freezer NFT. When the NFT matures, it can be redeemed at no cost for the underlying WETH (i.e., you keep the frETH you got paid upfront). Redeeming the NFT prior to its maturity date requires fees. The fees are paid to stakers of the Freezer Revenue Token (FRZ).
What is a Freezer NFT? Freezer NFTs are Certificates of Deposit. Each NFT is backed 1:1 with WETH locked in the system. For example, locking 1 WETH on June 20, 2022 for 1,100 days (~3 years) minted this real Freezer NFT: These NFTs can be sold on any NFT marketplace (e.g., X2Y2) transferring ownership of the locked WETH with it. Of course, if the 1.00 ETH in this NFT is locked until 2025, you're not going to pay full price for the NFT. You'll expect some discount. At time of writing this NFT is on sale for 0.9 ETH, a 10% discount (11% ROI, ~ 3.5% APY in ETH). Why would someone sell this at a discount? - When the NFT was made, it earned 3 freezer-ETH yield tokens (frETH). If 3 frETH > 0.1 ETH, then the seller would profit. - Alternatively, if the NFT holder wants ETH (e.g., to sell high and rebuy low) this 10% discount may be cheaper than the early withdrawal fees for the Freezer NFT. On June 24, 2025 this 1.00 WETH NFT can be redeemed for 1.00 WETH for free. But redeeming the NFT before June 24, 2025 requires both frETH and 0.25% WETH penalty. For more details see: Early Withdrawal Cost Calculation
What is freezer-ETH (frETH)? The freezer-ETH yield tokens (frETH) is your tokenized proof of patience. When you lock ETH into the future you're committing to HODL that ETH. You might already be bullish on ETH, but the market doesn't know that. By using True Freeze, you create on-chain evidence of your willingness to HODL ETH (proof of patience). Because ETH is a volatile asset (so far in 2022 it has traded at both $3,500 and $1,000) HODLing is hard. True Freeze enables WETH holders to get paid to HODL. frETH is not pegged to ETH. It's value comes from people using it to redeem NFTs early and burning it to earn the Freezer Revenue Token (FRZ). For more details see:Freezer-ETH Token (frETH)
What is the Freezer Revenue Token (FRZ)? Freezer NFTs are minted when WETH is locked into the future. Redeeming the NFT early requires fees (in frETH) and a 0.25% WETH penalty. This is revenue to stakers of the FRZ token. Thus, the FRZ token is a standard dividend token.
What problem is True Freeze solving? There is no such thing as risk-free. But, in traditional finance, more money flows to lower risk things (e.g., treasury bonds) than higher risk things (e.g., tech stocks). Some even consider the US Treasury Bond as the benchmark 'risk free' asset. US Treasury Bonds are the US government taking dollars from the 'open market' and locking those dollars into the future. At maturity, owners of these bonds redeem them for cash. In DeFi, there are a variety of yield opportunities, some riskier than others. Instead of lending assets to others or automatically buying/selling assets (which is what liquidity pools do), True Freeze allows people to lock ETH into the future and get paid from people bringing ETH back to the present (early). True Freeze aims to be the simplest and closest to risk-free yield in DeFi by democratizing what the US Treasury does to dollars, but for ETH. No price oracles, no liquidations, no lending, no liquidity pools, no slashing. For more details on risk see: Common Risks in DeFi to Understand
Why would frETH have any value? - People need frETH to redeem Freezer NFTs early, e.g., to sell ETH high and rebuy it low. - The fees from early redemptions goes to stakers of the Freezer Revenue Token (FRZ). To keep the system functioning autonomously forever, FRZ inflates over time. People who burn frETH split this flow of inflation forever. So assuming revenue is flowing, burning frETH to get and stake FRZ earns that revenue flow.
Is this just a Ponzi game? No. ETH is a volatile asset and people actively trade it. The True Freeze ecosystem gets value from a single source: people willingly paying fees to turn the NFTs back into liquid ETH prior to the NFT's maturity date. True Freeze absorbs value from ETH's volatility. If 100% of the market is patient and nobody ever redeems the NFTs early; then FRZ and frETH will trend to 0 (no revenue = no value). The more impatient the market, the higher the values of FRZ and frETH. The question is how impatient is the market and how does this impatience change as the price of ETH changes? True Freeze tokenizes time-preference with frETH to answer this question.
Is there an ICO? a DAO? A community multi-sig? A discord? True Freeze is a 100% autonomous protocol developed and left to function on its own forever by Deep Freeze LLC. We are not equipped to run a DAO nor a community. We're just some random devs trying to make cool primitives. If fans of True Freeze decide to make a discord or DAO, we can't stop them. But there is no ICO, no governance tokens, no official discord or telegram. At time of writing, there is a community of users with a discord and twitter who shitpost, strategize, and share analytics from the MetricsDAO partner. But note they are a separate entity from Deep Freeze LLC. See MAX Freeze
How was the FRZ revenue token distributed? Initial supply of FRZ is 100M. It inflates over time. FRZ Inflation Schedule 42M airdrop to 230,000 ETH Addresses. 6M angels 12M core team & interns (8M of this vested over 2 years with llamapay). 20M Partner DAOs & Grants 20M bootstrap liquidity incentives for frETH/WETH on Curve Airdrop, Incentives, Insiders