Earn ALGO with Algorand’s Latest Incentive Program (Part 1)

Learn how to navigate Algomint like a pro and earn ALGO while doing it!

Jan 18, 2022

Disclaimer: This isn’t financial advice! As we say in crypto, don’t trust – VERIFY! Do your own research and don’t ever invest more than you’re willing to lose. Like any DeFi project, Algomint comes with risks. The project can fail, smart contracts can be hacked, assets could be compromised, etc. Be safe out there and make sure you do enough research before you decide if Algomint is right for you.

Welcome back to the club, gov! We have an exciting one for you today.

In our never-ending pursuit of earning ALGO as passively as possible, we’ve come across an incentive program directly from the Algorand Foundation called the Aeneas Liquidity Program. Long story short, this program rewards early-adopters of the Algorand DeFi ecosystem with cold, hard ALGO!

The rewards will be distributed through incentive programs from three key Algorand partners:

Algomint: In order to participate with Algomint’s incentive program, governors will need to mint BTC and/or ETH and keep their assets ‘locked’ (more on this later) until the end of Q1 2022.
Algofi: In order to participate in Algofi’s incentive program, users will need to borrow and lend ALGO, STBL, USDC, goBTC, and goETH. The full details (including rewards schedule and the commitment period) have yet to be revealed, but that news should be coming soon.
Tinyman: An incentive program on Tinyman hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll keep you posted if one is!

In Part 1 of 2 of this guide, we will explain the Aeneas Liquidity Program, Algomint & their incentive program, and how to navigate Algomint like a pro to secure your rewards. Then in Part 2, we will introduce you to Algofi, their incentive program, and how to secure your piece of the rewards pool.

If you follow this guide in order, you can mint goETH in Part 1 and then lend it on Algofi in Part 2 to secure your rewards. Unfortunately, the Algofi goBTC pool is at maximum supply at the time of this guide (likely due to the Tinyman hack shutting down liquidity pools), so lending goBTC on Algofi won’t be possible at this time.

Full disclaimer: we at the club decided to mint Bitcoin to avoid high gas fees incurred from using the Ethereum network. Due to this, our guide will be about minting BTC specifically; however, the same steps should apply to minting ETH as well.

Okay, gov, let’s dive in!

What is the Aeneas Liquidity Program?

The Algorand Foundation announced the launch of the Aeneas Liquidity Program, which is the second phase of its $300 million Viridis Fund, back in December 2021. Aeneas is the Foundation’s first official liquidity incentive program in which users are provided with rewards for simply engaging with Algorand’s DeFi ecosystem.

Aenas is centered on the “three pillars” of DeFi and its goal is to bootstrap all three pillars at the same time through key partners:

Robust bridges for newcomers and dedicated Algorand users (Algomint)
Automated Market Maker DEXs for aspiring traders and merchants (Tinyman)
An established borrowing & lending platform (Algofi)

What is Algomint and what is their incentive program?

To put it simply, Algomint is a bridge to mint (a pseudo way to transfer) a variety of digital assets to provide Algorand users with the ability to collateralize their assets within the DeFi ecosystem. It also provides an opportunity for users of other blockchains to test out the Algorand network and DeFi ecosystem with their already existing assets. At the time of this writing, users can only mint BTC and ETH on Algomint; however, there are plans for more assets to be added in the future.

When users mint BTC or ETH, their assets are ‘locked’ within Algomint’s secure, cold vault (supplied by Copper.co), and they’re provided with ASAs (goBTC and goETH) that are redeemable for their locked assets. When you redeem your goBTC or goETH for their respective assets, this process is called ‘unlocking’. When you unlock your assets, your goBTC or goETH is burned and your original assets are returned.

Algomint has been awarded up to 1,000,000 ALGO (A) to reward early-adopters of Algomint as part of the Aeneas Liquidity Program, and these rewards will be distributed equally no matter the total amount a user has bridged.

The rewards will be distributed based on the Total Value Bridged (TVB), meaning the more that is bridged the greater the rewards pool will be for all users who have participated. To remain eligible, users will need to bridge BTC or ETH and keep them ‘locked’ (meaning you can’t unlock your minted assets) until the end of February 2022. After this period has ended, Algomint will begin the rewards distribution based on the following schedule:

Let’s work through an example to break this down further:

600 users bridge BTC and 400 bridge ETH for a total TVB of $15,000,000, unlocking the 200,000A rewards tier. Based on the above schedule above and equal distribution across users, each eligible user would receive 200A. That’s 200A just for testing the platform out! How cool is that, gov?

As of January 12th, Algomint has reported that approximately $6,000,000 has been bridged across about 1,000 users which brings the rewards pot to 105A / user. Another $4,000,000 TVB would unlock the 200,000A rewards tier, so if you want to participate in this program make sure you grab a gov or two to get this rewards pool increased.

Don’t forget the only thing better than ALGO is free ALGO!

What are the fees?

Before we dive into how to mint BTC or ETH on Algomint, let’s review the fee structure first (taken directly from Algomint here):

1. When minting tokens:

0.2% minting fee charged by Algomint.
- However, this fee will be 0% until 3/1/22!
Plus mining fees to cover sweeping costs:
- ETH Transactions: 0.0025 ETH
- BTC Transactions: 0.0001 BTC

2. When burning (AKA unlocking) tokens:

0.2% burning fee charged by Algomint
Plus a mining fee to cover delivery costs:
- ETH Transactions: 0.0025 ETH
- BTC Transactions: 0.0001 BTC

If you’re interested in participating in this program (after assessing your risk tolerance), please proceed with the guide below.

How to Mint goBTC and goETH on Algomint

Step One: Prep Your Wallet

Before you get started, we recommend you add both the goBTC and goETH assets to your wallet. You can find their official name and Asset IDs below:

If you’ve never added an asset to your wallet before, it’s fairly simple on both My Algo Wallet and the official Algorand Wallet.

My Algo Wallet:

On the top navigation bar within the wallet you’re going to use for Algomint, click the ‘balance’ drop down menu and then select ‘Add Asset’:

Official Algorand Wallet:

Select the ‘Add New Asset’ at the bottom of your asset list within the wallet you’re going to use for Algomint:

Step 2: Create an Algomint Account

After you’ve added goBTC and/or goETH to your wallet, navigate to Algomint to create an account. You can sign-up with a Google account (‘Continue With Google’) or you can use another email address if you prefer. If you continue with a Google account, you can save some time during the KYC process by bypassing the email verification steps.

Step 3: Complete KYC Process

Once your account has been completed, you will need to complete the KYC process in order to use Algomint. To get the process started, select ‘Complete KYC’:

Then you will need to select the type of ID you will be providing to prove your identity:

If you’re on desktop, you can now switch to Mobile to complete this process. We'd recommend it as it makes uploading an ID and taking a facial scan significantly easier:

You may need to wait up to 15 minutes to be approved; however, it typically takes a minute or so. Until then you will see that your documents have been submitted for review:

If you used a Google account to create your Algomint account then once your identity has been verified, you can continue this guide. If you didn’t use a Google account, you will need to verify your email before you can continue.

To do so, click ‘Account Details’. Once there you will need to select ‘Verify Email’. This will send an email to your login address. If you can’t locate it in your inbox, make sure you check your ‘Spam’ folder in case it was sent there instead.. Once you locate the email, click the verification link within it.

If done properly, your ‘Account Details’ will say, “Verification Succeeded”:

You’ll know it's time to continue this guide when the ‘Documents Submitted’ notification flips to ‘KYC Verified’ within the ‘KYC’ section:

Step 4: Connect Wallets to Algomint

Okay, gov! Let’s take an inventory of what you should have completed before you continue forward:

Verified Account / Email
Completed KYC Process
Added goBTC and/or goETH to your minting wallet

Now let’s prep our Algomint account for the minting process. Select ‘Wallets’ from the navigation bar on Algomint and select the ‘Add Your First Wallet’:

Connect your Algorand wallet first by selecting the Algorand logo and entering its name and address:

Once that’s completed, you will need to connect either your ETH or BTC wallet depending on what you’re planning to mint. For the purposes of this guide, we minted BTC (through CashApp) to avoid ETH gas fees.

This process is similar to connecting your Algo wallet. You will need to provide the wallet name and address:

We have a few warnings for you when it comes to connecting your BTC and ETH wallets. If you use an exchange wallet (i.e. Coinbase Wallet), the exchange may deduct fees which will make the amount of BTC/ETH you’re planning to mint inaccurate. For this reason, Algomint advises users to not use an exchange wallet. Instead, set-up another wallet such as BitPay (for BTC) or Metamask (for ETH) and transfer your assets from your exchange wallet to your new wallet (i.e. BitPay) before you begin the minting process.

Disclaimer: please make sure you have enough additional BTC/ETH to cover transaction, mining, and withdrawal fees. If you don’t, you may risk a scenario in which your assets are lost and Algomint can’t provide you with a refund.

If you’re unsure if you have enough BTC or ETH, you can always do some test transfers first. However, we’d recommend you mint the minimum amount first to ensure you’re eligible for rewards and you don’t risk losing your assets. You can always mint more at a later date, especially if the ecosystem opens up a bit further before the deadline!

With the disclaimer out of the way, you should now have two connected wallets:

Step 5: Begin the Minting Process

Once your wallets are connected, navigate to the ‘Bridge’ section of Algomint. Make sure you have ‘Mint’ selected and not ‘Unlock’ once you’re there:

Please keep the minimum and maximums in mind. For BTC, you will need at least 100,000 sats (0.001 BTC for my non-Bitcoin savvy governors) and can’t exceed 1 BTC through the UI directly. For ETH, the minimum is 0.01 and the max is 10. If you’d prefer to mint an amount of either asset that exceeds the maximum amounts, you can contact Algomint Support directly to handle what they’re considering ‘higher volume’ transactions.

Gov Tip: These minimums have since increased to 0.005 BTC and 0.05 ETH

Now enter the amount of BTC or ETH you would like to mint and keep in mind the miner fee that will be taken. For example, if you mint 100,000 sats you will be charged 10,000 sats (.0001 BTC) which will result in .0009 goBTC:

Once you’re ready, select your Algorand wallet you’d like the goBTC/ETH to be sent to. Then drag the BTC or ETH logo to the right to begin the minting process!

Step 6: Finalize the Minting Process

Once you’ve started the minting process you will be provided with a transaction details screen:

While the transaction is pending, you will need to send your BTC / ETH to the Algomint escrow address provided to you. Please note that this address changes each time you start a new transaction, so if you’re planning to do multiple mints you will need to copy the address each time.

Now go to your BTC or ETH wallet and select the respective send button, and then send the full amount (before miner fees) of BTC or ETH you’d like to mint to the escrow address provided to you. It is recommended that you select a fast transaction speed if you can afford it. In fact, Algomint advises that using ‘slow mode’ on Ethereum can result in the minting process timing out and users being faced with a failed transaction. Luckily us governors don’t have to deal with such problems on Algorand!

Once you’ve sent your BTC and/or ETH to the Algomint escrow address, the transaction status will flip to ‘Confirming’:

Now you have to be patient as you’re now at the mercy of the BTC and/or ETH networks’ transaction speed (or lack thereof). Algomint advises this process could take 1 hour for BTC and 5 minutes for ETH. However, it took two full hours for us to receive our BTC! But don’t worry, you don’t need to stay glued to your screen while you wait for the transaction to go through. In fact, you may even be timed out of your session while waiting like we were. If this happens you can select the ‘History’ tab from the menu to navigate back to the above transaction details screen.

Once you received your assets, the transaction status will flip to ‘Completed’:

If this step begins to drag on a bit long and you begin to get nervous, you can reach out to Algomint Support by selecting the ‘Support’ tab.

Step 7: Confirm you received your goBTC and/or goETH

Once your transaction status updates to ‘Completed’, check your Algorand wallet for your goBTC and/or goETH! Don’t forget to reach out to Support if you didn’t reach your assets safely. If you’ve gotten stuck at all along the way, please feel free to refer to the official Algomint guide here.

We hope this guide was helpful, gov! Make sure you don’t miss the second part (Algofi guide) being released later this week by following us on Twitter @AlgoGovClub and subscribing to our newsletter to stay as up to date as possible.

And as always, please feel free to leave us a comment to let us know if you have any additional questions and what other guides you’d like to see in the future!

Governors Club