Other · Underwriting · EASE
Ease.org (formerly Armor) provides coverage vaults where users deposit assets into reciprocal protection pools. EASE governs vault parameters and the protocol's coverage allocation across integrated DeFi venues.
Coverage vaults and reciprocal protection for DeFi portfolios.
Protocol TVL
$3.9M
Latest data · 15 min delay
Reciprocal coverage vaults that spread risk across multiple protocols in one deposit — a portfolio-style underwriting wrapper.
Ease's flagship DeFi-native coverage model. Users deposit yield-bearing tokens into RCA vaults; the deposited assets simultaneously earn yield and underwrite each other, so coverage carries no upfront premium and a fee only applies in the event of a validated hack. RCAs aim to cover the total value in a sector rather than a capped amount.
Per-protocol vaults where deposited capital is routed to an external DeFi protocol to generate yield while becoming covered. Vault capacity is dynamic and continuously rebalanced to spread shared risk across the system.
Growing-vote token model launched September 2022. Depositing EASE mints an equal amount of gvEASE whose voting/staking power grows linearly over a year up to 2x. gvEASE is used to back specific vaults and to vote in the Ease DAO.
On-chain governance for the protocol. gvEASE holders create and vote on proposals; a proposer needs 100,000 gvEASE delegated, and 50 million votes with an affirmative majority are required to pass a proposal. The DAO also decides validity of hack claims/payouts.
Original Armor.fi products: arCore pay-as-you-go cover brokerage built on Nexus Mutual capacity, and arNFT tokenized (transferable) Nexus Mutual cover. These predate the Ease rebrand and RCA model.
Armor.fi (Armor Finance); rebranded to Ease.org in May 2022
Cointelegraph - ArmorFi becomes Ease.orgUninsurance / Reciprocally-Covered Assets (RCA): no upfront premium; cost only on a validated hack; deposited assets earn yield and underwrite each other
OpenCover - Ease DeFi CoverOne-way 1:1 swap of ARMOR/vARMOR to EASE/gvEASE; not reversible
ease.org - The $EASE token swap is liveEase DAO via gvEASE; proposal creation needs 100,000 delegated gvEASE; passing needs 50M affirmative-majority votes; gvEASE power grows linearly to 2x over one year
ease.org - Governance and DAO knowledge base~7-day impact assessment window + ~5-day DAO vote on payout validity (~12-13 days typical); confirmed incidents covered automatically without individual loss evidence
OpenCover - Ease DeFi CoverRobert Forster (CEO, RCA whitepaper author, former Armor CTO) and Harry Kikstra
Ease.org rebrand coverage / CointelegraphHow Ease.org maps onto established TradFi structures, and where it diverges.
Mutual insurance / reciprocal insurance exchange
Ease.org
Ease's Uninsurance mirrors a mutual/reciprocal exchange: members collectively pool capital to cover each other's losses rather than paying a for-profit carrier, and members effectively act as their own underwriters.
TradFi analogue
There is no upfront premium (cost only accrues after a validated hack), the pooled capital simultaneously earns DeFi yield, payouts are decided by on-chain DAO vote rather than a claims adjuster, and everything is enforced by smart contracts on-chain.
Catastrophe (CAT) bonds
Ease.org
Ease's stNXM-style underwriting resembles a catastrophe bond: capital providers earn a yield/premium while their principal is at risk and is paid out only if a defined loss event (a hack) is confirmed.
TradFi analogue
Coverage is perpetual and self-maintaining rather than a fixed-term instrument, capital is composable DeFi collateral, and trigger validation is a community/DAO process rather than a parametric or modeled trigger agency.
Robert Forster
Co-founder / CEO (former Armor.fi CTO) Co-founder and CEO of Ease.org; authored Armor's whitepaper describing the Reciprocally-Covered Assets system. Previously served as CTO of Armor.fi.
Harry Kikstra
Co-founder Co-founder of Ease/Armor, cited alongside Robert Forster as bringing DeFi and smart-contract development expertise to the project.
Ease DAO
Decentralized governance body gvEASE-token holders govern the protocol, vote on proposals, and adjudicate the validity of hack claims. Proposal creation requires 100,000 delegated gvEASE; passing requires 50M affirmative-majority votes.
Strategic backers (undisclosed)
2021-01-31Undisclosed
Key milestones: launches, upgrades, exploits and governance events.
Armor.fi announces strategic backers
ExecutedArmor announced strategic investors including Collider Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Divergence Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, 1kx, The LAO, Blocksync and Bering Waters Ventures. Early traction cited $250M Nexus Mutual capacity opened and $185M of coverage sold within two days of launch.
SourceRebrand to Ease.org + Uninsurance flagship
ExecutedArmor rebranded as Ease and introduced Reciprocally-Covered Assets (RCA) / Uninsurance as its flagship product.
SourceEASE token + gvTokenomics + Ease DAO live
ExecutedOne-way 1:1 ARMOR-to-EASE swap opened; gvEASE growing-vote governance and the Ease DAO launched.
SourceEase.org is the rebrand of Armor.fi (Armor Finance), announced in May 2022. Armor began in 2020/2021 as a DeFi cover brokerage aggregating Nexus Mutual capacity (arCore, arNFT). The team then built a DeFi-native coverage model called Uninsurance / Reciprocally-Covered Assets and relaunched the whole brand as Ease.
RCA is Ease's coverage model in which covered assets simultaneously underwrite the other assets in the ecosystem. Users deposit yield-bearing tokens into vaults that earn yield and, by design, become covered against hacks with no upfront premium. It is described as the first coverage method unique to DeFi and able to cover the total value in a sector.
EASE replaced the ARMOR token via a one-way 1:1 swap: 1 EASE for every ARMOR (and staked vARMOR), launched alongside the September 2022 rebrand/tokenomics. The swap cannot be reversed.
Coverage is 'uninsurance': no premium is paid upfront and a cost only materializes after a confirmed hack. Following an incident there is roughly a 7-day impact-assessment window and a ~5-day DAO vote on payout validity (typically ~12-13 days total). Users do not submit individual loss evidence; validated incidents are covered automatically, and depositors' capital serves as the underwriting/payout source.
Ease/Armor was founded by Robert Forster (CEO, who authored the RCA whitepaper) and Harry Kikstra. It originated from the Armor.fi team.
