Getting Started
Glossary
Plain-English definitions of every concept and term used across the Topaz docs. Skim, search, or jump in from another page.
AMM
Automated Market Maker. A smart contract that lets users swap between two tokens using a pool of liquidity priced by a formula, instead of an order book.
See: AMM & Pool Types
Bribe
An incentive deposit attached to a specific gauge. Voters who vote for that gauge during the epoch share the bribe pro-rata in the following epoch. Topaz uses the terms 'bribe' and 'incentive' interchangeably.
See: Incentives (Bribes)
Concentrated Liquidity
An LP model where you supply liquidity inside a chosen price range instead of across the entire 0-to-infinity curve. Each dollar inside the range earns more fees, but liquidity outside the range earns nothing. Topaz's concentrated-liquidity engine is called Slipstream.
Dynamic Fee
A swap fee that adjusts upward when the current pool tick diverges from the TWAP tick — i.e. when the pool is volatile. Topaz's DynamicSwapFeeModule applies this on top of the base fee, capped at a configured maximum.
See: Pool Fees
Epoch
A one-week protocol cycle running Thursday 00:00 UTC → Thursday 00:00 UTC. Voting, emissions, rebases, and bribe accounting all align to this clock.
See: Gauge Voting
Gauge
The smart contract that distributes TOPAZ emissions to LPs in a single pool. Each pool has at most one gauge. Voters direct emissions to gauges; LPs stake their LP tokens or position NFTs into the gauge to earn.
See: Staking in Gauges
Impermanent Loss (IL)
The dollar gap between holding a position and providing it as liquidity, caused by price movement between the two assets in the pool. It's 'impermanent' only if prices return to the original ratio; otherwise it crystallizes when you withdraw.
Liquidity Pool
A smart contract that holds two tokens in a defined ratio and lets users swap between them. LPs add tokens to the pool and earn a share of swap fees.
See: Providing Liquidity
LP Token
An ERC-20 token issued when you deposit into a v2-style Topaz pool. It represents your pro-rata share of the pool. Burn it to withdraw your share back as the two underlying tokens.
Managed veNFT
A special veTOPAZ NFT that aggregates many user deposits under a single voter. Users deposit normal veNFTs into the managed NFT and get a passive share of its rewards. Useful for small holders who don't want to actively vote each epoch.
See: Managed Locks
Permanent Lock
An optional, irreversible upgrade of a normal veTOPAZ NFT. Voting power stops decaying and stays at maximum forever (until the holder voluntarily unlocks). Permanent locks can also delegate votes.
See: veTOPAZ Locks
Position NFT
An ERC-721 token issued by the NonfungiblePositionManager when you mint a Slipstream concentrated-liquidity position. It encodes the pool, tick range, and liquidity amount.
Price Impact
How much your trade moves the pool's price away from the current quote. Small trades in deep pools have tiny price impact; large trades in shallow pools can have huge impact.
See: Swaps & Routing
Rebase
A weekly distribution of TOPAZ to veTOPAZ holders to offset emission dilution. The amount scales with the ratio of unlocked-to-locked supply — when fewer tokens are locked, rebases get bigger.
See: TOPAZ & Emissions
Slippage
Your protection against price changes between submitting a transaction and it executing. Set as a percentage — the swap reverts if the output drops below (1 − slippage) × your quote.
See: Swaps & Routing
Slipstream
Topaz's concentrated-liquidity engine — a fork of Aerodrome Slipstream (which itself adapts Uniswap V3). Uses tick-spacing tiers, dynamic fees, and NFT positions.
Stable Pool
A v2-style Topaz pool that uses the x³y + y³x ≥ k curve instead of constant-product. Designed for correlated assets like USDT/USDC, where it gives very low slippage near parity.
See: AMM & Pool Types
Tail Emissions
The perpetual emission phase that kicks in once the decaying weekly emission falls below the TAIL_START threshold (8,969,150 TOPAZ). After that, weekly emissions become a small percentage of total supply, adjustable ±0.01 percentage points per epoch by EpochGovernor.
See: TOPAZ & Emissions
Tick
A discrete price level in a Slipstream pool. Each tick represents a 0.01% price step. Concentrated-liquidity positions are bounded by a lower and upper tick, both of which must be multiples of the pool's tickSpacing.
Tick Spacing
The minimum gap between active ticks in a Slipstream pool, set when the pool is created. Lower tick spacing = finer-grained ranges = more precise positions but more gas to cross. Topaz offers tick spacings of 1, 50, 200, and 2000 as defaults (0.01%, 0.05%, 0.30%, and 1.00% fees respectively), customizable per pool.
TOPAZ
The protocol's ERC-20 token. Pre-minted at launch (500M initial), then issued via the Minter's weekly emission schedule. Used to vote (via veTOPAZ), pay incentives, and seed liquidity.
TWAP
Time-Weighted Average Price. Slipstream pools store a rolling history of tick observations; the TWAP is computed by comparing cumulative ticks at two points in time. Used by the dynamic fee module and integrators who need manipulation-resistant prices.
See: Oracles & TWAP
Unstaked Fee
An additional fee that Slipstream LPs pay on swaps if their position NFT is not staked in the pool's gauge. Default 10%, configurable up to 50%. The fee flows to staked LPs in the same pool, nudging LPs toward staking.
ve(3,3)
The token model Topaz uses: vote-escrowed (ve) tokens with a (3,3) cooperative game-theory equilibrium. Holders lock for voting power; voters direct emissions and earn fees + bribes; LPs earn the directed emissions.
See: Overview
veTOPAZ
An NFT representing locked TOPAZ. Holds the voting weight, accrues fees and bribes from voted pools, and receives rebases. Voting power decays linearly from lock end (or stays at max if permanently locked).
See: veTOPAZ Locks
Volatile Pool
A v2-style Topaz pool using the standard constant-product x × y = k curve. Default for uncorrelated pairs.