What is Mirror?
Mirror is a DeFi protocol powered by smart contracts on the Terra network that enables the creation of synthetic assets called Mirrored Assets (mAssets). mAssets mimic the price behavior of real-world assets and give traders anywhere in the world open access to price exposure without the burdens of owning or transacting real assets.
The minting of mAssets is decentralized and is undertaken by users throughout the network by opening a position and depositing collateral. Mirror ensures that there is always sufficient collateral within the protocol to cover mAssets, and also manages markets for mAssets by listing them on Terraswap against UST.
The Mirror Token (MIR) is minted by the protocol and distributed as a reward to reinforce behavior that secures the ecosystem. With it, Mirror ensures liquid mAsset markets by rewarding MIR to users who stake LP Tokens obtained through providing liquidity. MIR is valuable as it is can be staked to receive voting privileges and to earn a share of the protocol's CDP withdrawal fees.
Mirror is a project developed and steered by its community: its markets are maintained by its own users through MIR incentives, and the protocol evolves with new ideas through democratic governance.
How It Works
Mirror Protocol allows the creation of fungible assets, “synthetics”, that track the price of real world assets. Mirror synthetics are intended to be used as key building blocks in smart contracts, and to bring the world’s assets to the blockchain.
To mint a Mirror asset (mAsset), an issuer must lock up > 150% of the current asset value in Terra stablecoins OR mAssets as collateral. If the value of the asset rises above the collateralization threshold, the collateral is liquidated to guarantee solvency of the system.
To target the price of the mAsset, the system reads in underlying asset prices via a decentralized price oracle - prices are updated every 30 seconds. When the price of the mAsset drifts significantly from the primary market, traders are incentivized to purchase / sell the asset to mint / burn to claim the collateral.
To burn a mAsset, the issuer must burn the equal amount of mAssets issued when opening the CDP - the collateral is then returned to the issuer.
Powered by Terra, available on the interchain
Mirror smart contracts are built on Terra and Cosmwasm,
and leverages TerraUSD as the collateral asset.
Developed by the community
The Mirror Protocol is entirely built and governed by the community of MIR token holders, which is fairly distributed via liquidity and platform incentives without a team or investor pre-mine. MIR tokens can be used to propose and vote on important changes to the protocol