The Gyroscope protocol underwent a series of three community stress tests to validate some of Gyroscope’s core functionality in a production setting.

If you participated in ⅔ stress tests you will find your address in this CSV. If you hold a Gyroscope founding member NFT (GFF), you were also eligible if you only participated in ⅓ stress tests.

The first test evaluated the Reserve Balance Checks. This check aims to keep the Gyroscope reserve balanced and avoid that the reserve becomes less diversified or increasingly exposed to a single asset. Towards that end, the protocol may temporarily stop redemptions against underrepresented vaults.

To test this functionality, p-GYD holders were asked to redeem p-GYD against a target vault. The test was successful, but highlighted room for improvement for the UI/ UX of the DSM front-end, which were subsequently implemented.

The second test examined the short-term flows circuit breaker. This is a protective mechanism that temporarily halts protocol activity if too much inflows or outflows occur within a brief period. This circuit breaker guards generally against smart contract bugs and limits the potential of any exploit that could arise.

Test participants were asked to redeem against any vault within the specified time. The test was successful.

The third and final test focused on the Dynamic Stability Mechanism (DSM). The DSM enforces the ‘monetary policy’ of the stablecoin by providing quotes for mints/ redemptions of stablecoins. In undercollateralized conditions, the DSM lowers its quotes to manage remaining reserves and discourage exit runs. To do this, it also factors in the state of the system, including reserve health and ‘redemption pressure’.

To test this functionality, the reserve was temporarily placed into an undercollateralized state and test participants were asked to redeem small amounts of p-GYD against any vault. The test was successful.

Each of these stress tests provided valuable stress testing of the Gyroscope protocol's codebase under different conditions in production. Some front-end issues were identified in the handling of large traffic and have since been rectified. 

Similar to the testnet game, these stress tests introduced an isolated mechanism of the Gyroscope design: guardrails on the reserve composition, circuit breakers, and a unique stablecoin pricing mechanism. The goal of this exercise was to provide community members a more natural way to get familiar with these concepts, as well as stress testing the codebase in production.

These tests were also a testament to the strength of the Gyroscope community, whose active participation was instrumental in these exercises. Several times, the respective Gyroscope contracts became the most active contracts (in terms of gas used) on Polygon. Participants of ⅔ stress tests will receive an NFT to demonstrate their involvement.

In total, 1485 addresses participated in at least ⅔ stress tests and are thus included in the final list of eligible addresses as stipulated here. Participation details of each test - including a summary of the respective scope/ utility - is summarised in the below table.