Note: This article comes from @yuanch0914 Twitter, and Mars Finance compiled it as follows:
Let me first say the conclusion. Merlin's second-layer pledge issuance is a very worthwhile project to participate in. In terms of overall score, I think it is similar to B Square, but the actual rate of return may be slightly lower than B Square (for B Square's rate of return estimate + tutorial, please see https://twitter.com/yuanch0914/status/1753642834673201184)
1) Project profile and valuation:
Merlin Layer 2 is an emerging BTC Layer 2, founded by Jeff @BitmapTech. The team has previously worked on rcsv recursive inscriptions, bitmap and BRC-420 protocols. Its investment institutions include Foresight Ventures, OKX Ventures, ABCDE, Waterdrop, etc.
Valuation: STX, as the current BTC second-layer leader, has an FDV of 3 billion, a circulating market value of 2.3 billion, and a TVL of 600 million. Merlin’s TVL is unlikely to be lower than 1 billion US dollars, so the FDV is conservatively estimated to be 1 billion US dollars.
2) Revenue forecast
The pledged funds can only be withdrawn in April, and the occupation period is about 2 months. The total token reward for staking is 20% of the total amount. The TVL is about 1-2 billion US dollars. The valuation will increase with the increase of TVL. We estimate it according to FDV 1-1.5 billion
Then the return on the deposit for two months is about 15%-20%.
3) Interpretation of the rules:
Merlin's rules are not as complicated as B Square's (which also means you get what you pay for, purely based on the amount of funds, with no excess returns)
Simply put, it counts how much assets each person has pledged every day, and all assets will be converted into points based on the average value per hour. Then, at the end of the activity, 20% of the coins will be equally divided among all the points.
The assets that can be pledged include:
·BTC
·BRC-20 ($ORDI, $SATS, $BTCS, $RATS, $MMSS, $AINN, $RCSV, $MICE, $TRAC)
·Bitmap
BRC-420 (blue box, music box, blue crystal)
·ETH
·USDT
·USDC
I won't mention the team play, the bonus is too little, if you have a luxury car, you can follow it, but if you don't have one, don't force it.
4) Practical tutorials
1. If you want to store assets on BTC:
1️⃣ Open the official cross-chain bridge and link the wallet https://merlinchain.io/bridge/staking
2️⃣Select Bitcoin in Network, and select the asset to be cross-chain in the Assets box. Note that if it is a BRC20 asset, it needs to be engraved in the wallet first:
3️⃣Click on staking and sign. The staking is completed when the Staking Successful pop-up appears.
The handling fee for each staking is around 12U, and the staking needs to wait for the block confirmation on the chain.
2. If you want to deposit ETH/USDC/USDT
1️⃣ Open the official cross-chain bridge https://merlin.meson.fi and link your wallet
2️⃣Choose the Ethereum mainnet (can store ETH) or ARB mainnet (low gas but cannot store ETH), then select the currency and amount you want to deposit
3️⃣Click stake and complete wallet signature and fee payment
The handling fee for each staking is around 0.000 U, and there is almost no waiting time for staking.
Finally, here is the timeline of the event:
Staking starts on February 8th → Asset swapping will be supported in about two weeks → Points will be exchanged for $MERL tokens starting in March → Assets can be unlocked and retrieved in April