Overview

As a quick refresher from our protocol introductory post, SuperPositions are ERC-1155 tokenized representations of yield positions minted through Superform.  To improve security, Superform uses an opinionated variant of ERC-1155, termed ERC-1155A, that allows for single ID approval.

A SuperPosition can represent a vault on any chain. For example, depositing into a vault on Arbitrum from Optimism will result in a SuperPosition minted on Optimism. SuperPositions make yield positions cross-chain, allowing users to manage their yield from any chain. SuperPositions are one of the core components of Superform, allowing for improved UX, cross-chain composability, and visual representation of yield.

Diving a little deeper

By default, SuperPositions are ERC-1155A token IDs. There is a single SuperPosition ERC-1155A contract deployed on every chain Superform supports.

Each ID within a SuperPosition represents a vault on a chain, and the balance of an ID represents vault shares of that vault. E.g. ID1 on Optimism could represent the yvUSDC vault on Polygon, ID2 on Arbitrum could represent the GLPUSDC vault on Arbitrum, etc. When a user is minted SuperPositions, they receive a balance of the ID of the vault they deposited into.

SuperPositions are ERC-1155 and not ERC-20 or ERC-721 for gas efficiency and UX. ERC-1155 allows for fungible tokens (each ID is fungible with another token of the same ID) and batch transfers, which result in cheaper minting and burning. Superform extended the ERC-1155 standard, termed ‘ERC-1155A,’ to allow for single ID approvals. ERC-1155A enables users to approve the specific SuperPositionID they want to interact with rather than all SuperPositionIDs in their wallet, enhancing security.

The current DeFi landscape is much more composable with ERC-20 than ERC-1155. For holders of ERC-1155A SuperPositions that want additional composability, they can call the transmuteToERC20 function on the SuperPosition, which converts a specified amount of a single ID within their ERC-1155 SuperPosition to ERC20 (termed aERC20) SuperPosition tokens. For example, if Alice has 50 ERC1155A SuperPositions with ID2 on Arbitrum, representing 50 GLPUSDC vault shares, she can “transmute” up to 50 of those into aERC-20 tokens. After transmutation, Alice can use her aERC20 SuperPosition on Arbitrum in another DeFi protocol.

UX Benefits

The existing paradigm for how users access yield is as follows: For each chain that a user wants to earn yield on, they must have a wallet that they manage, and the wallet must have a sufficient balance of native tokens (ETH, AVAX, MATIC, etc.) that they can use to pay gas for their deposit. When they make a deposit, vault shares are minted to their address on the same chain as their vault. This can become quite cumbersome for multi-chain yield management and will only become more cumbersome as more rollups, L1s, L2s, and app chains gain popularity.

In the new paradigm, when a user deposits into a vault through Superform, they are minted a SuperPosition on the source chain, regardless of what chain the vault is deployed on.

For Example

• Alice has a balance of 100 USDC on Optimism

• Alice uses Superform to deposit that 100 USDC evenly into a Yearn Vault on Polygon and a Benqi Vault on Avalanche

• Alice is minted 50 sp-yvDAI and 50 sp-bAVAX on Optimism. These are ERC-1155A SuperPositions

• Alice can send these SuperPositions to any address on Optimism. Whichever address holds these SuperPositions can redeem them at any point in time for the underlying tokens in the vaults

This enables users to manage and access yield on multiple chains while only ever having funds on a single chain. A user could access all vaults on Superform, irrespective of chain, without ever switching their RPC. Conversely, protocols don’t need to worry as much about which chain to deploy on if they know their yield is easily accessible regardless of where users hold their assets.

By default, SuperPositions are minted to users as ERC-1155A tokens. ERC-1155A is cheaper than ERC-721 and allows for batched approvals or approvals on specific IDs. Users can perform batched withdrawals of multiple SuperPositions representing different vaults, even from an EOA, because all SuperPositions are minted from a single SuperPosition contract that is deployed on each chain.

Composability

Up to this point, yield has been represented solely on the chain of the vault it represents. Now, with Superform, any ERC-4626 vault yield can be represented on any chain Superform is deployed on.

Beyond the UX benefits described in the previous section, this allows for:

• Builders to use liquidity from other chains in their protocols

• Protocols to make their yield tokens cross-chain composable without having to make yield tokens conform to standards like xERC20 or ONFT (which are great standards, but they’re difficult to implement retroactively)

Some cool things that could be built/enabled with SuperPositions by the community:

• Provide aERC20 SuperPositions to liquidity pools to swap directly between yield, enabling cross-chain liquidity markets without bridging

  • Example: Provide USDC and an aERC20 representing an Aave USDC market on Ethereum to a pool on Arbitrum to allow users to obtain yield-bearing tokens on other chains without bridging

  • Example: Provide aERC20s representing an Aave USDC market on Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, and Arbitrum to a curve pool on Ethereum to create a liquid USDC yield index

• Use aERC20s as collateral in permissionless lending protocols

We’re excited to see what other ideas the community has for SuperPositions. Hop into our discord if you want to discuss directly with the team!

Visual Design

With SuperPositions being ERC1155s, it opens up the ability for them to be represented visually through metadata. We wanted to do something special with SuperPositions to emphasize the tangibility and importance of your yield positions. SuperPositions will be viewable on any wallet or platform that supports displaying ERC-1155.

The design takes inspiration from trading cards, receipts, and Superform design language. There are several special touches that make each SuperPosition unique.

Color:

The chain of the underlying vault determines the primary and secondary colors.

Data:

All the data on the card comes from the vault’s on-chain read-only functions.

Pixel Illustration:

A random pixel illustration from a set of 15+ will be chosen.

CHDATE:

Date that the vault was listed on Superform.

Foil:

A random foil from a set of 14 will be chosen.

For an animated version of SuperPositions, see here.

SuperPositions are an exciting new way to represent and interact with yield. By allowing for cross-chain yield management and enhanced security through single ID approvals, SuperPositions simplify the user experience and expand the possibilities for liquidity utilization and yield generation.

For more information on SuperPositions check out our docs.