Introducing Almanak

Welcome.

We’re excited to introduce Almanak — an agent-based simulation platform that maximizes web3-projects profitability, while simultaneously ensuring their economic security and sustainability.

We are a collective of execs and technologists from companies such as Google, Mckinsey, Uber, EY and DBS bank, with years of experience in crypto & DeFi.

Our quest is to research and advise web3 builders on maximum sustainable growth strategies, risk management, as well as provide them with an innovation simulation sandbox.

TLDR: We optimize web3 networks to perform.

Why we exist:

As of September 2022, the unparalleled growth of Web3, especially DeFi, has proven largely unsustainable: despite creative ideas & great community effort, most protocols failed to set up sustainable revenue generation mechanisms or develop responsible risk management practices (or both). This resulted in wasted capital, burnt innovation effort and, in some cases, catastrophic crashes. Zombie Protocols, promising projects that have lost all of their capital and trust, remain a reminder of a route not to take.

In order to fulfil it’s potential and scale sustainably, the next generation of Web3 protocols needs to become significantly more data-driven, and utilize the latest legacy finance capital efficiency & risk management frameworks, all dynamically applied within the new decentralized paradigm.

The problem is that the teams behind web3 protocols usually do not have the knowledge or resources to apply this know-how themselves, as it requires a highly specialised expertise bundled with complex tooling. This ultimately results in the sub-optimal growth of the protocol, as well as in high vulnerability to various economical risks.

We intend to be a solution to this problem.

What we do:

At Almanak, we thoroughly research, simulate and advice web3 builders on critical variables that matter for the success of their protocol.

The end result is regularly updated actionable intelligence, delivered in the form of reports, charts and dashboards, ready to use for DAOs and management teams to improve their protocol’s health.

Currently our focus lies in 6 general areas, all custom-tailored to every project we engage with:

1. Revenue oriented capital efficiency: optimizations of revenue generating products.
2. Risk management: resilience against crisis scenarios & black swan events — protocol & community protection.
3. Liquidity: optimal incentives design and value return for LPs to accrue optimal TVL (overspend/under-spend).
4. User base growth + retention: optimization of on-chain net revenue per user.
5. Gaming ecosystems: optimization of pricing & supply of in-game assets in order to achieve sustainable growth.
6. Innovation sandbox: stress testing and simulating new features impact on protocol’s key metrics and economy. Allows to deploy optimally configured products from day one.

How we work:

1. We analyse protocols to find out their current economic risks and in-efficiencies. We learn and model variables that could be improved to deliver maximum positive impact. The results of such analysis give protocol users and key decision makers the information they need to evaluate how competitive they are, and what economic risks they are exposed to.
2. We optimise protocols using agent-based simulations to ultimately mitigate risk factors and optimise for capital efficiency and sustainability. For this we have developed a simulation infrastructure, which simulates users behaviour and the protocols’ contract code to play out different scenarios. We then engage with DAOs and management teams to get these recommendations installed to the benefit of all parties involved.

The result of these steps is a protocol that generates more value, while being exposed to less risk.

We built robust, ML-powered decentralized networks simulators (EVM & Cosmos), capable of simulating bespoke scenarios under different parameters. We can tell you in which future (under what variables) your protocol wins.

For context, below are some examples of DeFi products and how they could benefit from our work:

• Money Markets — optimisation of the risk parameters (loan-to-value, liquidation bonus, liquidation thresholds) to increase the protocols revenue while maintaining solvency.
• Automated Market Makers — fees optimisation to increase revenue and while lowering exposure to Impermanent Loss.
• Stablecoin Issuers / CDP protocols- guarantee solvency in a run-on-the-bank scenario.
• Margin Trading — fees optimisation to increase volume and revenue and simulation of liquidation scenarios and decrease the risk of Bad Debt.
• Structure products — revenues optimisation of structured product and and stress testing of composabolity risks.

Work with us:

We’re open to collaboration in various formats and invite all web3 builders & contributors to reach out.

Is your team developing a DeFi or a crypto-gaming product? Do you want your DAO to engage with us? Or do you simply want to have a friendly chat and discuss the future of crypto?

Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn or through the form on our website.