cyotee/Aerodrome Architecture

Aerodrome Architecture

Aerodrome is a ve(3,3) AMM on Base, inspired by Solidly. It combines vote-escrowed tokenomics with an automated market maker to align incentives between liquidity providers, voters, and token holders.

Overview

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   AERODROME PROTOCOL                         │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                              │
│  ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐       │
│  │   AERO      │    │ VotingEscrow│    │   Voter     │       │
│  │   Token     │───►│  (veAERO)   │───►│             │       │
│  └─────────────┘    └─────────────┘    └──────┬──────┘       │
│        │                  │                   │              │
│        ▼                  ▼                   ▼              │
│  ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐       │
│  │   Minter    │    │  Rewards    │    │   Gauges    │       │
│  │ (Emissions) │    │ Distributor │    │             │       │
│  └─────────────┘    └─────────────┘    └──────┬──────┘       │
│                                               │              │
│                           ┌───────────────────┤              │
│                           ▼                   ▼              │
│                    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐        │
│                    │   Pools     │    │  Rewards    │        │
│                    │(sAMM/vAMM)  │    │(Fees/Bribes)│        │
│                    └─────────────┘    └─────────────┘        │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Core Contracts

| Contract | Description | |----------|-------------| | Aero.sol | ERC20 token - the native protocol token | | VotingEscrow.sol | Vote-escrowed NFT (veAERO) for locking AERO | | Voter.sol | Manages votes, gauge creation, emission distribution | | Pool.sol | AMM pools (stable and volatile) | | Router.sol | Swap and liquidity operations | | Gauge.sol | Distributes emissions to LP stakers | | Minter.sol | Controls emission schedule and rebases | | RewardsDistributor.sol | Distributes rebases to veNFT holders |

The ve(3,3) Model

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    ve(3,3) FLYWHEEL                          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                              │
│  1. Lock AERO ──► Receive veAERO NFT                         │
│        │                                                     │
│        ▼                                                     │
│  2. Vote for Pools ──► Earn fees + bribes from those pools   │
│        │                                                     │
│        ▼                                                     │
│  3. Pools with votes ──► Receive emissions to their gauges   │
│        │                                                     │
│        ▼                                                     │
│  4. LPs stake in gauges ──► Earn AERO emissions              │
│        │                                                     │
│        ▼                                                     │
│  5. More LP activity ──► More fees for voters                │
│        │                                                     │
│        └──────────► Back to step 1 (positive feedback loop)  │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Epochs

Aerodrome operates on weekly epochs:

• Epoch Start: Thursday 00:00 UTC
• Vote Window: First hour after epoch start is blocked (distribution)
• Vote End: Last hour before epoch end is restricted (only whitelisted NFTs)
• Duration: 7 days

library ProtocolTimeLibrary {
    uint256 internal constant WEEK = 7 days;

    function epochStart(uint256 timestamp) internal pure returns (uint256) {
        return (timestamp / WEEK) * WEEK;
    }

    function epochNext(uint256 timestamp) internal pure returns (uint256) {
        return epochStart(timestamp) + WEEK;
    }
}

Token Types

AERO Token

Standard ERC20 token minted by the Minter contract:

contract Aero is IAero {
    // Only Minter can mint new tokens
    function mint(address account, uint256 amount) external {
        if (msg.sender != minter) revert NotMinter();
        _mint(account, amount);
    }
}

veAERO NFT States

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    veNFT STATES                              │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                              │
│  NORMAL ────────────► Regular veNFT with decaying power      │
│    │                  Can: vote, merge, split, withdraw      │
│    │                                                         │
│    ▼                                                         │
│  NORMAL_PERMANENT ──► Permanently locked, no decay           │
│    │                  Can: vote, delegate, split             │
│    │                                                         │
│    ▼                                                         │
│  MANAGED ──────────► Special NFT for aggregated voting       │
│    │                  Created by governance, always permanent │
│    │                                                         │
│    ▼                                                         │
│  LOCKED ───────────► Normal NFT deposited into Managed       │
│                       Restricted functionality, earning      │
│                       rewards through the managed NFT        │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Pool Types

| Type | Formula | Use Case | |------|---------|----------| | Volatile (vAMM) | x * y = k | Uncorrelated assets (ETH/USDC) | | Stable (sAMM) | x³y + y³x = k | Correlated assets (USDC/DAI) |

function _k(uint256 x, uint256 y) internal view returns (uint256) {
    if (stable) {
        // Stable pool curve: x³y + y³x
        uint256 _x = (x * 1e18) / decimals0;
        uint256 _y = (y * 1e18) / decimals1;
        uint256 _a = (_x * _y) / 1e18;
        uint256 _b = ((_x * _x) / 1e18 + (_y * _y) / 1e18);
        return (_a * _b) / 1e18;
    } else {
        // Volatile pool: x * y
        return x * y;
    }
}

Emission Schedule

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 EMISSION SCHEDULE                            │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                              │
│  Phase 1 (First 14 epochs):                                  │
│  • Weekly growth: 3% per epoch                               │
│  • Starting: 10M AERO/week                                   │
│                                                              │
│  Phase 2 (Epoch 15+):                                        │
│  • Weekly decay: 1% per epoch                                │
│  • Continues until tail emissions                            │
│                                                              │
│  Tail Emissions (when weekly < 8.97M):                       │
│  • Switch to % of total supply                               │
│  • Rate adjustable via EpochGovernor (0.01% - 1%)            │
│  • Default: 0.67% of supply                                  │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Governance Roles

| Role | Permissions | |------|-------------| | Team | Set team rate, manage managed NFTs | | Governor | Whitelist tokens, set max voting num | | EpochGovernor | Nudge tail emission rate | | EmergencyCouncil | Kill/revive gauges, modify pool names |

Key Differences from Uniswap V2

| Feature | Uniswap V2 | Aerodrome | |---------|------------|-----------| | Fees | Go to LPs | Go to voters (via gauges) | | Incentives | None | AERO emissions to LPs | | Governance | External | veAERO voting | | Pool Types | Volatile only | Stable + Volatile | | Bribes | None | External rewards for voters |

Deployed Addresses (Base)

| Contract | Address | |----------|---------| | AERO | 0x940181a94A35A4569E4529A3CDfB74e38FD98631 | | VotingEscrow | 0xeBf418Fe2512e7E6bd9b87a8F0f294aCDC67e6B4 | | Voter | 0x16613524e02ad97eDfeF371bC883F2F5d6C480A5 | | Router | 0xcF77a3Ba9A5CA399B7c97c74d54e5b1Beb874E43 | | PoolFactory | 0x420DD381b31aEf6683db6B902084cB0FFECe40Da | | Minter | 0xeB018363F0a9Af8f91F06FEe6613a751b2A33FE5 | | RewardsDistributor | 0x227f65131A261548b057215bB1D5Ab2997964C7d |

Reference Files

• contracts/Aero.sol - Protocol token
• contracts/VotingEscrow.sol - Vote escrow NFT
• contracts/Voter.sol - Voting and gauge management
• contracts/Pool.sol - AMM implementation
• contracts/Router.sol - Swap and liquidity router
• contracts/Minter.sol - Emission controller
• SPECIFICATION.md - Full protocol specification