About

Amp is a universal collateral token used to guarantee asset transfers by escrowing AMP in a collateral manager until the underlying transaction reaches final settlement. Collateral managers can be deployed with application-specific rules for payments and other escrow use cases. The token contract supports partitions so holders can allocate collateral to managers without transferring tokens to another address. Amp is used as collateral in payment networks such as Flexa and can also collateralize individual transfers or margin and DeFi protocol obligations.

History

Amp is a digital collateral token designed to facilitate fast and efficient value transfer, especially for use cases that prioritize security and irreversibility. As collateral, Amp insures the value of any transfer while it remains unconfirmed—a process which can take anywhere from seconds to hours to days. Amp tokens used as collateral are generally released when consensus for a particular transfer is achieved, making them available to collateralize another transfer. In the event that consensus is not achieved for the transfer, the Amp collateral can instead be liquidated to cover losses. Amp facilitates instant, verifiable assurances for any pending or future value transfer, so that any actions dependent on the transfer can proceed without delay. By using Amp as collateral, individuals and entities benefit from the security and efficiency of collateral which is transparently attestable on an immutable ledger.

Flexa, a payments network, is the first use case of Amp's features as a collateral token. The Flexa Capacity contract is a collateral manager that uses Amp to collateralize the payments of 40,000+ merchant locations across the US and Canada. Users stake Amp in exchange for rewards funded by the merchant fees.