Five Pools and the Turbine

The five official pools

HELIX starts with AiLGNS as the shared asset of one main pool and four satellite pools: Whitepaper p. 113

Source: Whitepaper p. 113

The main pool handles price discovery. HELIX uses DAI as its unit of value, so AiLGNS/DAI carries core price discovery, the DAI value reference and most of the market depth. Whitepaper p. 114 The satellite pools connect other assets to AiLGNS. Whitepaper p. 114

Being the main pool does not guarantee the most emission; all five compete for protocol resources. Whitepaper p. 114

Main Pool Status ≠ Guaranteed Highest Emission

Five pools is only the start

Anyone can create an AiLGNS pool, but only pools that pass the protocol's review and join the contract whitelist can compete for votes, emission and official resources. Whitepaper p. 113

Pool Creation → Qualification → Whitelist → Gauge

Adding pools does not add emission: every qualified Gauge competes for the same DAO budget available that period. Whitepaper p. 114

More Gauges ≠ More Total Emission

In the other direction, a pool that keeps failing the standards can have its status changed: active, suspended, removed. Suspension or removal only stops new votes, emission and routing for that pool; it can never stop LPs from withdrawing their own assets. Whitepaper p. 123

Gauges: one voting slot per pool

Each whitelisted pool has one Gauge. Every epoch, veAiLGNS holders vote across the pools, and pool i's base weight is its share of all valid votes. Whitepaper p. 105 Whitepaper p. 106

Gᵢ = Vᵢ / VTotal

More votes do not automatically mean more emission. Two limits apply:

• Single-pool emission cap: stops vote concentration from turning into an emission monopoly. The exact percentage is a governance parameter and is not fixed in the whitepaper. Whitepaper p. 108
• HealthScore: a weighted score of real liquidity, real trading, fee efficiency, price stability and capital stability. Votes and voting incentives do not count toward it. Below a score of 40, new emission to the pool is paused. Whitepaper p. 108 Whitepaper p. 109

The weekly voting timetable and the full flow are in veAiLGNS governance.

Three routers

Three mechanisms allocate resources across the pools: one for emission, one for buying, one for selling. Whitepaper p. 112

Source: Whitepaper p. 115

Being on the Gauge whitelist only means a pool may compete for emission. It does not oblige the Turbine or the LSP to route trades to it. Whitepaper p. 115

The Turbine: emission meets the real market

Emission activated through the Turbine has to be matched by a real 1:1 market buy. Whitepaper p. 77

1:1 Market Buy + 2.5% Activation Fee + 24H Lock

1. Buy 1:1

   For every AiLGNS of emission you receive, you buy the same amount of AiLGNS through the Turbine at the current DAI market price. Whitepaper p. 77

2. Pay the 2.5% activation fee

   This is not a generic buy tax; it is the protocol fee for activating emission. Whitepaper p. 77

3. Activate and lock

   The emitted tokens are activated immediately; the tokens bought through the Turbine are locked for 24 hours. Whitepaper p. 77

How the 2.5% is split

2.5% = 1.5% Ecosystem Buyback & Burn + 1% Voting Incentive

• 1.5% buys back and burns an ecosystem token chosen by the protocol. Which asset is set by protocol rules and governance; it is not necessarily AiLGNS. Whitepaper p. 77
• 1% goes into voting incentives for the official pools, paid to veAiLGNS holders who vote. Whitepaper p. 78

Both parts are taken from the same fee base. Whitepaper p. 110

The buy money and the fee are separate

The 1:1 buy principal goes through the Router into the official pools and becomes real trading volume. The 2.5% fee pays for the buyback-and-burn and the voting incentives. They are two separate flows of money and should not be confused. Whitepaper p. 80

Turbine Buy Principal ≠ Activation Fee

The Turbine Router

Turbine buys are not all sent to the main pool. The Turbine Router spreads them across the five official pools, turning buying that has to happen anyway into volume and fees for each pool. Whitepaper p. 79 Routing weighs liquidity, price, slippage, volume and risk, and the pool with the least liquidity does not automatically get the most flow. Pools with abnormal prices, very thin liquidity or excessive slippage can have their routing reduced or paused. Whitepaper p. 80

Lowest Liquidity ≠ Highest Routing

The sell fee

The base AiLGNS sell fee is 3%, split three ways: Whitepaper p. 172

3% = 1% Voting Incentive + 1% Ecosystem Reserve + 1% Community Development

In a sharp decline, a continuous price-protection surcharge of 0% to 25% can be added on top, with the total sell fee capped at 28%. Whitepaper p. 159 Trigger and recovery rules are in Risk control.

LP exit: 5% stays with the protocol

Every Gauge LP exit follows the same rule: 95% goes back to the user and 5% is retained as protocol-owned liquidity (POL). It applies to everyone, whether or not they qualify for LFEO. Whitepaper p. 117

LP Withdrawal = 95% · LP Retention = 5% → POL

The 5% is not meant as a steep exit penalty. It balances the protocol's need to accumulate liquidity against capital's freedom to move. Whitepaper p. 118 How this 5% can earn LFEO emission rights, and where else POL comes from, is covered in Treasury and POL.

TVL and POL

TVL tells you how much capital is sitting in the protocol today; POL tells you how much market infrastructure the protocol actually owns. When incentives stop, TVL can leave quickly; POL stays. Whitepaper p. 124

The whitepaper calls this the move from renting liquidity to owning it. Whitepaper p. 116

Rented Liquidity → Protocol-Owned Liquidity