What is Hourglass?

Hourglass is a protocol that facilitates liquidity for time-bound and semi-fungible tokens.

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Protocol Overview

The Hourglass protocol is comprised of two core components:

1. Hourglass Boost, where users can time-boost their assets and receive time-bound tokens (TBTs) which represent receipts for a time-locked vault earning boosted yield

2. Hourglass RFQ, a request-for-quote market for buying and selling TBTs

Hourglass Boost

Boost is a platform for protocols to reward users who help improve their duration risk. Many protocols accept short-term user deposits (can withdraw whenever) while simultaneously deploying their assets into long-term commitments; for example, LRTs can be withdrawn almost instantly and yet most AVS agreements persist over many months or years. This duration mismatch looks analogous to a bank in the classical financial system. Boost helps prevent bank-runs by facilitating boosted incentives for long-term users.

Hourglass Boost

Hourglass Marketplace

RFQ is an intent-based platform that provides liquidity for semi-fungible and time-bound tokens. DeFi’s largest apps, Uniswap and Aave, have enjoyed widespread adoption for their permissionless liquidity and lending of largely fungible tokens. These protocols have built incredibly simple, elegant solutions by pooling tokens together and calculating a heuristic on the pooled amount.

This strategy doesn't work well for time-bound tokens and semi-fungible tokens because they cannot be pooled together. Hourglass solves this problem with an RFQ system that directly connects protocols with market makers who can value their assets. Marketplace uses Seaport to settle intents and can be accessed via Hourglass SDK.

Hourglass Marketplace

Further Reading

Hourglass, like all open source software that engages with tokens, comes with its own set of risks which should be fully understood before leveraging any of the features outlined above. Moreover, Hourglass is not available for use in certain jurisdictions—please see our Terms and Conditions.

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All Content in these Documents are information of a general nature and do not address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in these Documents constitute professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information therein constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto.

There are risks associated with investing in cryptocurrencies and participating in decentralized governance. Hourglass encourages all interested parties to undertake appropriate precautions before making any investments or participating in governance measures. Please see our user agreement before engaging with the protocol.