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Leaders & Followers

Who leaders and followers are, what each controls, and how the binding between them works.

2 min readSource: site/content/docs/concepts/leaders-and-followers.md (opens in a new tab)

Leaders

Plain English. A leader is a trader whose Stock Token activity a desk copies. Leadership is explicit: the protocol owner chooses leader addresses when deploying desks, and a leader's address is bound into their desk's vault forever. Leaders never touch depositor funds; they are compensated with the majority share of performance fees.

Technically.

  • The binding is the immutable leader address set in the DeskVault constructor. DeskFactory enforces one vault per leader (deskOf mapping, DeskExists error).
  • Bootstrap desks are created by the owner via createDesk(leader). After Phase 2 TGE, anyone can permissionlessly create a desk for a leader via listDesk(leader) by posting the $SEAT listing bond (default 100_000e18, configurable at setListingParams).
  • The leader receives the leader share of fees at leaderFeeRecipient, which defaults to the leader address itself and can be redirected by the owner via setFeeRecipients.
  • The keeper reads the binding from chain (vault.leader()); an operator can override observation with LEADER_ADDRESS, but the vault's executed copies are always for its immutable leader's desk.

What a leader cannot do: withdraw from the vault, call executeCopy (that is the keeper's exclusive surface), change risk parameters, or unblock a drawdown halt.

Followers (depositors)

Plain English. A follower deposits USDG into a desk and receives seat shares. From that moment, their money participates in every copy the desk makes — gains and losses — proportional to their share count. They can redeem shares for USDG at the current NAV per share, instantly when the vault has cash, otherwise via a queue.

Technically.

  • deposit(assetsUsdg) mints shares pro-rata to equity (NavLib.sharesForDeposit); the first deposit into an empty desk bootstraps 1
    .
  • redeem(shares) burns shares and pays NavLib.assetsForRedeem — instantly if the vault is unpaused and cashUsdg covers it, otherwise the request is queued (WithdrawQueued) and paid by processWithdrawals as cash becomes available.
  • A desk may have a deposit cap (depositCapUsdg); mainnet desks are capped at 50,000 USDG of equity after each deposit. 0 means unlimited (the testnet configuration).
  • Followers take market risk on the desk's positions and pay the fees described in Fees & High-Water Mark.

The relationship in one diagram

Full step-by-step walks: Leader journey and Depositor journey.