Rather Strategy Protocol - Arbitrum Hackathon Submission

🎯 Problem Statement

NFT treasuries lack a mechanism to self-sustain and compound value. Most protocols:

• Accumulate fees passively without strategic action

• Require manual management by teams (not autonomous)

• Cannot create reinforcing economic loops

• Generate no buy pressure for their native tokens

This leads to:

• 💸 Stagnant treasuries that don't work for the protocol

• 🤖 Centralized decision-making instead of on-chain automation

• 📉 Deflationary token pressure without corresponding buy-back mechanisms

• ⛓️ Missed opportunity for perpetual economic flywheel effects

Real-world precedent: Bank Strategy (Stacks) holds 30+ Bitcoin with 9-figure market cap. Nodem (Bitcoin Ordinals) raised $5M+ using this mechanism. Yet these lack on-chain automation—execution requires centralized teams.

💡 Solution: Rather Strategy Protocol

An autonomous perpetual NFT treasury flywheel that:

1. Collects fees (10% from all ETH ↔ RATHER swaps)

2. Auto-buys floor NFTs when treasury balance ≥ floor price

3. Relists at 10% premium immediately

4. Burns RATHER tokens with sale proceeds

5. Repeats perpetually creating compounding deflationary pressure

Zero manual intervention. 100% on-chain. Fully transparent.

Swap Activity → 10% Fee to Treasury

↓

Treasury Accumulates

↓

When Balance ≥ Floor Price

↓

Auto-Buy NFT at Floor

↓

Relist at +10% Premium

↓

NFT Sells → Burn RATHER

↓

♻️ REPEAT

🏗️ What We Built

Smart Contracts (Solidity 0.8.28)

5 Core Contracts Deployed on Arbitrum Sepolia:

1. RatherToken - ERC-20 with burn tracking, deflationary mechanics

2. RatherNFT - ERC-721 collection, free-to-mint (gas only)

3. RatherLiquidityPool - AMM with 10% swap fee router

4. RatherMarketplace - P2P NFT trading, floor price tracking

5. RatherTreasury - Autonomous buy-and-burn executor

Key Features:

• ✅ ReentrancyGuard on all state-changing functions

• ✅ Ownable access control (no proxies, immutable logic)

• ✅ Cooldown periods prevent manipulation

• ✅ Emergency withdrawal for owner safety

• ✅ Floor price oracle via marketplace

Full-Stack Frontend (Next.js 16.1.2)

Pages:

• 🏠 Home - Live treasury dashboard with real-time stats (ETH balance, RATHER burned, floor price)

• 💱 Swap - ETH ↔ RATHER swaps with gas estimation and pool diagnostics

• 🎨 Mint - Free NFT minting (gas fees only)

• 🏪 Marketplace - List, buy, sell NFTs with approve → list → buy flow

Tech Stack:

• Next.js 16.1.2 (Turbopack)

• React 19.2.3 + Custom Context API

• ethers.js v6.16.0 (direct contract interaction)

• Tailwind CSS v4

• MetaMask integration (pure injected connector)

Features:

• ✅ Mobile responsive (hamburger menu on mobile)

• ✅ Toast notifications for all transactions

• ✅ Error categorization (user rejection, insufficient balance, etc.)

• ✅ Live blockchain data (30s refresh)

• ✅ Automatic chain switching to Arbitrum Sepolia

🚀 Why We Chose Arbitrum

1. Low Gas Costs - $0.10-0.50 per transaction vs $5-50 on Ethereum L1 (95% cheaper)

2. Fast Finality - Blocks every ~0.25 seconds

3. EVM Compatible - Standard Solidity + ethers.js + MetaMask

4. Mature Ecosystem - OpenZeppelin, Chainlink, Gelato support

5. Scalability - High transaction throughput for perpetual automation

📊 Live Results

Contract Deployment (Arbitrum Sepolia):

RatherToken: 0xd4D791861574EfB476d4fFe4F99062B267C434f8

RatherNFT: 0x5c29bc86f34505f20a23CB1501E010c52e6C41Ac

RatherMarketplace: 0x9fCF4af886D2A8200B499297b7626895E2cCf3C3

RatherLiquidityPool: 0xfc19E178a9c4C6637CA030Bc57b839b30f381889

RatherTreasury: 0x0C2E07642E850A088585bC9c39c5287535eeB634

Verified On-Chain:

• ✅ Pool State: 815.73 RATHER reserves + 0.1226 ETH

• ✅ Treasury Balance: 0.00251 ETH (live on dashboard)

• ✅ Deflationary Mechanism: 82.81 RATHER burned (tracked in real-time)

• ✅ Swap Confirmed: Transaction 0xb5dfb0c4... (working, gas ~90k)

• ✅ All marketplace functions operational (approve → list → buy)

🎯 How It Works (End-to-End)

User Flow:

1. Connect MetaMask to Arbitrum Sepolia

2. Mint NFT for free (gas only) on /mint page

3. Swap ETH for RATHER on /swap page (10% fee auto-goes to treasury)

4. List NFT on /marketplace page

5. Watch dashboard as treasury accumulates fees and executes buybacks

Protocol Automation (No Manual Intervention):

1. Treasury collects 10% from swaps

2. When balance ≥ floor price, auto-buys NFT at marketplace floor

3. Immediately relists that NFT at +10% premium

4. When someone buys the relisted NFT, 100% of proceeds burn RATHER tokens

5. Cycle repeats perpetually

💰 Economics

• Swap Fee: 10% (treasury)

• Relist Premium: 10% (treasury profit margin)

• Mint Fee: 0 ETH (free with gas)

• Burn Rate: 100% of NFT sale proceeds

• Result: Continuous RATHER token deflation + buying pressure on NFTs

🔒 Security

• ✅ OpenZeppelin ERC-20, ERC-721 standards

• ✅ ReentrancyGuard on all external calls

• ✅ No upgradeable proxies (immutable logic)

• ✅ Ownable access control

• ✅ Cooldown periods (1 hour between sweeps)

• ✅ Emergency withdrawal mechanism

🛠️ Tech Stack Summary

Blockchain: Arbitrum Sepolia (L2)

Smart Contracts: Solidity 0.8.28, Hardhat 3.1.4

Standards: ERC-20, ERC-721, ReentrancyGuard

Frontend: Next.js 16.1.2, React 19.2.3, TypeScript

Web3: ethers.js v6.16.0, MetaMask injected

Styling: Tailwind CSS v4

Build: Turbopack, Bun

🎮 Try It Live

Frontend: https://rather-protocol.vercel.app/

• Connect MetaMask to Arbitrum Sepolia (421614)

• Mint free NFTs

• Swap ETH for RATHER

• Buy/sell on marketplace

• Watch treasury dashboard update in real-time

View Contracts: Arbiscan Sepolia

• All 5 contracts verified and deployed

• Full transaction history available

• Real-time state visible on-chain

📈 Impact & Innovation

Why This Matters:

1. First On-Chain Implementation - Previous strategies (Bank, Nodem) use centralized teams; we automated everything with smart contracts

2. Perpetual Economics - Creates self-reinforcing loop: more trading → more treasury → more NFT buying pressure → more token burning → more scarcity

3. Open Blueprint - Transparent, testnet-ready reference implementation for any NFT project wanting perpetual treasury automation

4. Arbitrum Advantage - Proves L2 can host complex perpetual strategies at production scale with minimal gas costs

Rather Strategy Protocol: Autonomous NFT treasuries. On-chain. Forever. 🚀