What are Ink Finance and QUILL?
Introduction
INK Finance, founded in 2021, offers a decentralized, multichain SaaS platform that empowers Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), asset managers, and protocols with scalable tools to structure and govern financial activities across the blockchain ecosystem. With partnerships extending across major DeFi and metaverse projects, INK Finance has positioned itself as a critical infrastructure provider for DAOs aiming to establish secure and compliant financial operations. As of 2024, the platform has rapidly grown to support organizations in DeFi, crypto asset management, and other high-growth sectors.
This platform supports cross-chain interoperability, making it compatible with various Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains such as Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Binance Smart Chain, which allows DAOs to manage assets and governance structures in a unified framework.
Core Features
Ink Finance is a one stop solution platform designed to provide governance and fiscal tools specifically for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Its core features focus on enhancing financial management, transparency, and creditworthiness for DAOs.
Source: Ink Finance
Scalable On-Chain Execution
Ink Finance is designed to support DAOs in executing financial decisions on-chain with integrity and traceability. The platform addresses the challenge of aligning decision-making with secure on-chain execution by structuring workflows as parallel, end-to-end frameworks. Through its ExecutionManager and ExecutionAgent components, Ink Finance ensures that only approved governance decisions are executed, securing each step against manipulation. This architecture allows DAOs to automate the fiscal management processes critical to their missions, ensuring accountability and reducing the potential for loopholes in execution.
Plug-and-Play Convenience
Ink Finance offers DAOs out-of-the-box operational units that cater to different stages of growth and areas of focus. These pluggable modules—such as Treasury Committee, Community Board, Investment Committee, and Funding Committee—enable DAOs to manage their resources with ease. The no-code interface makes it accessible for DAOs to adopt and adapt these components, allowing them to operate autonomously without needing extensive technical resources. Each module includes predefined roles and procedures, making it easy for DAOs to implement tailored governance and operational structures.
Hierarchical Organizational Flexibility
Utilizing blockchain and tokenization, Ink Finance enables DAOs to create complex organizational structures with sub-divisions and subsidiaries, mirroring traditional corporate hierarchies. The platform allows meta DAOs to operate like holding companies, managing brand, resources, and top-level governance, while sub DAOs focus on specialized roles or communities, such as regional governance or developer support.
Integrity and Security Against Sybil and Whale Attacks
Ink Finance is equipped with a multi-layered defense against governance vulnerabilities like Sybil and whale attacks. By integrating customizable staking mechanisms and decentralized biometric identity protocols, the platform helps ensure governance is "one-wallet-one-person," mitigating the risk of vote manipulation by entities holding multiple wallets or substantial tokens. Additionally, decentralized legal identity verification is incorporated for roles requiring KYC, such as multi-signers and auditors, providing a high level of security and compliance in governance.
Comprehensive Financial Tooling
Ink Finance’s core architecture includes the Unified Custodian Vault (UCV) and InkEnvelope, designed to streamline financial operations across Treasury, Community, Investment, and Funding units. These tools allow DAOs to conduct secure, on-chain financial transactions, including periodic payments, asset categorization, and compliance-driven investments.
Customizable Financial Products
To enhance DAO financial operations, Ink Finance offers bespoke financial instruments for asset management and project funding. Through the InkEnvelope, DAOs can create and manage tailored financial products, covering a range of needs from investment pools to corporate finance instruments.
Regulatory Compliance
Recognizing the regulatory scrutiny associated with on-chain financial activities, Ink Finance is designed to support compliance with global financial regulations. By integrating regulated financial entities into DAOs’ operational frameworks, the platform ensures transparency and accountability in fund management, investor relations, and return distribution.
Tokenomics
The QUILL token is the backbone of the INK Finance ecosystem, serving multiple roles, including governance, staking, and transaction fees.
Token Utility
QUILL Utility. Source: Ink Finance
Stake-Based Access and Ownership
Unlike traditional Web2 SaaS models where users pay non-refundable subscription fees, Ink Finance enables DAOs to stake QUILL tokens to access platform features. This innovative approach allows DAOs to preserve capital and, if needed, liquidate their staked QUILL tokens when exiting operations, effectively recapturing their initial investment.
For DAOs that cannot or are unwilling to acquire and stake QUILL tokens, they can also rent QUILL tokens to use. The QUILL holder community can pool their tokens together to form a lending pool. The pooling will be organized as a sub DAO under the INK main DAO. Any income will be distributed to the pooling members, and a management fee will be charged that goes to the protocol's treasury.
Fee Capture and Value Retention
QUILL is a fee-capturing token that participates in the revenue generated from DAOs’ financial activities on the platform. DAOs using Investment Committees to issue funds or managing assets through Unified Custodian Vaults (UCVs) incur fees, which are partially used to maintain the platform and reinvested back into the QUILL ecosystem. Fees collected are also used to buy back and replenish the QUILL staking reward pool, reducing token circulation.
Governance Rights and Staking Rewards
By staking QUILL tokens, DAOs not only gain access to Ink Finance’s features but also participate in the governance of the platform. Stakers contribute to the decision-making process, helping shape the platform’s future.
Incubation Capital for Emerging DAOs
The QUILL token serves as a public incubation capital, encouraging established QUILL holders to sponsor and support emerging DAOs. In cases where DAOs lack their own meta tokens or require startup capital, QUILL holders can stake their tokens to sponsor these DAOs, providing essential support to launch their operations on Ink Finance. Sponsors gain staking rewards and may negotiate revenue-sharing agreements with the DAOs they support. This sponsorship system allows passive QUILL holders to actively contribute to the growth of promising new DAOs, driving a community-driven incubation ecosystem.
Token Allocation
QUILL has a capped total supply of 100 million. The token allocation and vesting plan is illustrated below.
Project Information
Official Website: https://www.inkfinance.xyz/
Whitepaper: https://ink-finance.gitbook.io/ink-finance-white-paper-v2.0
Github: https://github.com/Ink-Finance-Inc
Twitter: https://x.com/inkfinance
Medium: https://inkfinance.medium.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/InkFinance
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/InkFinance
