The Pilot launchpad uses an innovative bidding system. If you want to learn the basics of how it works before earning earn your “Rookie Launch” badge, welcome! This article is a great place to start. A Pilot sale is extremely exciting, once you understand how it works.
This article covers the terminology used, the steps to participate, and includes some instructional videos made by others in the Kujira ecosystem. The focus is on how to make bids, and understanding the sale process. We left the strategising and game theory for another article.
SETTING THE PRICE IN A PILOT SALE
The launcher sets how many tokens will be available to buy when they create the sale, called the Sale Amount.
They also set a Base Price (this is the highest price a bidder will pay) and a Maximum Discount (the lowest price the launcher is willing to accept bids at). These two prices set the range within which bidders offer to buy tokens.
Another variable the launcher must decide is how many Silos, or changes in price, are available for the bidder to choose from, between the base price and the maximum discount.
A sale might look like this Example:
- Sale Amount – 1,000,000 tokens
- Base Price – $0.25 per token (the maximum price)
- Max Discount – 50% : $0.125 per token (the maximum discount or lowest price)
- Silos – 25 : 50% max discount divided by 25 Silos means a 2% change in discount per silo (bidders have 25 prices to choose from).
Bidders choose prices within the range they want to bid at, and amounts they want to bid. They can make as many bids as they want, and activate or cancel bids during the sale.
Every participant chooses their own price and risk tolerance.
DISTRIBUTING TOKENS AT THE END OF A SALE
The token launcher sets the start and end time of a sale. If the sale target has been reached when the sale end time is reached, the launcher distributes the tokens and the bids are filled.
Bids at the highest price are filled first, which is why some bidders choose higher prices to secure priority. Once all bids at a price have been filled, bids at the next highest price are filled. This continues until all the tokens in the sale have been allocated to bids. When there are no more tokens to allocate, outstanding bids at lower prices are left unfilled.
Once this process is complete, bidders must withdraw the tokens to their address.
FAIR TOKEN ALLOCATION
When bids are filled, the only consideration is price. It does not matter what order bids at that price were placed, or the size of the bid. All bids in the same price silo get allocated equally.
This includes when there are not enough tokens remaining to fill all bids at a price. When the bids in a silo require more tokens than are available, Pilot allocates tokens proportionally to all bids at that price.
For example, if there are enough tokens available to fill 50% of all the bids in a certain silo, then all bids at that price are filled at 50%.
Fully allocated Silos are shown in blue. Silos which will be partially filled are shown as blue and black. Completely black Silos will not be allocated tokens.
PLACING A BID
A bid is placed by first selecting the silo the bidder wishes to use, and then entering the amount the bidder wishes to place in the bid.
The default price is the base price, so be sure to double check you have entered the correct discount.
Once the bidder has chosen their preferred discount and the amount they wish to bid, the bid must be submitted, and the Tx approved. All your successful bids are listed below the sale details, and show whether they are active, or awaiting activation.
Bid details show the discount the bid is placed at, the total value of the bid, the maximum number of tokens the bid can be allocated, and the expected number of tokens based on the current total value of all bids in the sale. This tells you whether your bids are going to be filled, partially filled, or not filled at all. There is also a total of all bids displayed.
ACTIVATING A BID
Bids sometimes need to be manually activated by the bidder to prevent bots influencing the sale. The length of the Activation Delay is set by the launcher, so it will vary from one sale to another. It can be 5 minutes or 5 hours; whatever duration the launcher has chosen. Each sale shows the activation delay relevant to that particular sale below the sale timer in the top right corner on desktop.
If a bid needs to be manually activated, a countdown appears next to the bid once it is made, under the Bid Status column, telling the user how long to go until the bid can be activated. When a bid is ready to be activated, an Activate button appears next to the bid. Clicking the button and approving the transaction will activate the bid. Bids must be activated in order to participate in the sale.
An inactive bid will not be allocated tokens.
Once a bid is ready, it can be activated at any time during the sale.
WITHDRAWING TOKENS AND CANCELLING BIDS
Once a bid has been placed, it can be activated, or cancelled. It cannot be edited, or moved.
When the end time for a sale is reached, the launcher activates Token Distribution. This allocates tokens to bids. Successful bidders must then withdraw their tokens. The number of tokens available for withdrawal will be displayed in the top right corner. The withdraw button is below.
Hitting the withdraw button on Pilot will move tokens from the contract to your address, less the 0.5% commission, which is split between $KUJI and $yFUZN stakers.
The bidder can view tokens in their address by going to the wallet tab on Blue and connecting the address used to bid. The tokens will display a value of zero until the trading pair is active on FIN, so the tokens will appear near the bottom of the list. When the pair is trading, the token value will be displayed.
After tokens are withdrawn, bidders must manually cancel any bids that did not receive an allocation or were partially allocated. Cancelling these bids moves the USDC or USK used in the bid out of the smart contract and back to their address. Once a bid is successfully cancelled, it will be removed from the page.
Pilot does not charge the bidder to cancel a bid.
YOU’RE READY TO GO
This covers all of the basics you need to know to place a bid on a Pilot sale. If you’d like to learn more about some of the tokens that have launched on Pilot, or some of the strategies bidders employ during a sale, we’ve attached a couple of the videos made by Kujira creators.
Please keep an eye on the Fuzion Market page to stay up to date with any upcoming sales, and learn more about the tokens and projects involved.
Good luck!
For more info about bidding on Pilot sales, or launching your token on Pilot, please give our docs a read.
Videos About Pilot
Short and Sweet
This clip from Crypto Tube has a concise 3 minute explanation of the elements of Pilot.
More Detail
Just Crypto runs through the sale process and goes into detail on how Pilot works and how to place bids.
Placing a Bid
NAMI protocol have a short and thorough instructional of how to place a bid.
Para la comunidad española
Aquí hay una descripción en español de cómo funciona el Piloto.
Dipping Into Strategy
Just Crypto does a good overview of the game theory of bidding.