Paladin

Paladin runs Paladin Vote — a bribe marketplace for liquidity gauge incentives — and liquid locker products that wrap vote-escrow positions while retaining voting rights. PAL governs the protocol.

Combines bribe marketplaces with liquid locker infrastructure so depositors keep voting power on locked governance positions.

- Quest (v2): Paladin's flagship gauge-vote incentive marketplace. Incentive providers create a 'Quest' targeting a specific gauge, set a target amount of votes and a reward budget in whitelisted tokens over a fixed duration, which fixes the cost-per-vote in advance. Rewards are distributed to voters who fill the target (sorted oldest-to-newest vote); unfilled budget is refundable. Supports Curve (veCRV), Balancer, Bunni, and f(x) Protocol gauges. - Warlord (WAR / stkWAR): A yield-bearing governance index over the Convex (CVX) and Aura (AURA) ecosystems. Users mint the WAR token by depositing CVX and/or AURA; the underlying is vote-locked and delegated by Paladin to optimize vote incentives. Staking WAR (stkWAR) earns rewards distributed in WETH, with BAL/CRV harvested as auraBAL/cvxCRV and any AURA/CVX auto-compounded into more WAR. Launched June 2023. - hPAL (Holy PAL) liquid staking / locker: The governance token of Paladin DAO, minted 1:1 by staking PAL. hPAL accrues PAL rewards and can be locked for 3 months to 2 years for boosted rewards (up to a x6 multiplier at 2-year lock) and enhanced voting power (locks over 1 year grant +50% voting power). Staking withdrawal requires a 10-day cooldown plus a 2-day unstaking window. - Paladin Lending (PalPools): The original non-custodial governance lending market. Lenders deposit a governance token into a PalPool and receive a yield-bearing PalToken (ERC20); borrowers rent voting power via a PalLoan clone contract that delegates governance power to them without transferring the underlying tokens. PalLoan ownership is represented by a transferable PalLoanToken (ERC721). Initial assets targeted UNI, COMP and AAVE. - Autovoter / Delegation: A delegation service where holders of vote-locked tokens (vlCVX, vlAURA, vlLIQ) delegate voting power to Paladin, which optimizes vote allocation across incentive platforms to maximize yield while reducing gas cost and dilution. - Dullahan: A vault product generating passive income for stkAAVE holders and offering reduced interest rates for GHO borrowers on Aave. Audited by Pessimistic in April 2023.

- Smart Contract: Paladin runs multiple interacting contract systems (PalPools/PalLoans, Quest, Warlord/WAR, hPAL staking/locking). Code4rena contests found high- and medium-severity issues (e.g. 2 HIGH + 14 MEDIUM in the 2022 Holy PAL contest), so bugs in delegation, minting or reward accounting remain a core risk. - Governance: The protocol and products (e.g. Warlord asset inclusion, resource allocation via PGM proposals) are governed by hPAL voters. Concentration of hPAL or captured proposals could redirect delegated voting power or treasury resources against smaller holders' interests. - Counterparty: Warlord and the Autovoter delegate user voting power to a Paladin-controlled delegation address that manages CVX/AURA/vlLIQ locks and claims WETH incentives. Users rely on that operator to vote optimally and distribute rewards honestly; mismanagement or a compromised delegate address is a direct counterparty risk. - Systemic: Paladin's revenue and product utility depend heavily on the external 'vote market' meta around Curve, Convex, Aura and Balancer. A collapse in gauge-vote demand, veTOKEN emissions, or the underlying DEXs would sharply reduce vote-incentive value flowing through Quest and Warlord. - Collateral: WAR is backed by illiquid vote-locked CVX and AURA that unlock only on staggered schedules. Redeeming WAR queues withdrawals to each asset's unlock date, so holders face lock-up/exit-liquidity risk and potential discount to backing during stress.

- Proxy-vote solicitation / proxy advisory market: similar — Like a proxy solicitation firm that gathers shareholder votes behind a resolution, Paladin's Quest lets a project pay to align governance voters (veCRV/gauge voters) behind a specific outcome, and its delegation/Autovoter aggregates voting power much like a proxy advisor concentrates votes.; differs — Everything is on-chain, permissionless and priced by a transparent per-vote formula rather than negotiated advisory fees; votes are rented or incentivized directly via smart contracts rather than solicited through registered intermediaries, and there is no regulatory proxy-statement regime. - Securities lending: similar — Paladin Lending mirrors securities lending: a holder lends out an asset's embedded rights (here, voting power) to a borrower for a fee/yield while the position stays economically theirs, comparable to lending shares so a borrower can vote or short.; differs — Only the voting/governance right is transferred via delegation (the underlying tokens never leave the pool), it is non-custodial and collateral-managed by smart contracts, and there is no central agent-lender or recall mechanism.