THORNames and payout settings

A THORName is a short name registered on THORChain and owned by your wallet. It can hold one address per blockchain and a preferred asset: the asset you want to receive. THORChain is a network for swapping coins between blockchains, and RUNE is its own token. If the name has a preferred asset, the RUNE that THORChain itself credits to the name, such as your yield payouts, is not kept as RUNE: it builds up in a holding balance and, once there is enough, THORChain converts it into that asset and delivers it to your address on that asset’s blockchain.

People who stake RUNE to the nodes that run THORChain earn rewards in RUNE. THORChain calls these stakers bond providers. Their rewards are paid at each churn: THORChain’s regular rotation of the nodes that run the network, roughly every few days. With a THORName, stakers can receive those rewards in another asset, for example USDC, instead of RUNE. RUNEBond lets you register, set up and renew THORNames from your portfolio, with your own wallet.

What a THORName is

The name. Up to 30 characters: letters, digits and the symbols +, _ and -. Each name is unique across THORChain.
The owner. A THORChain address (they start with thor1…). Only the owner can change the name while it is valid, that is, registered and not expired.
Addresses (aliases). One destination address per blockchain, for example an Ethereum address and a Bitcoin address. THORChain calls these aliases. Whenever THORChain has to send something to the name, it uses the address saved for the right blockchain.
Preferred asset. Optional. If you set one, the RUNE that THORChain credits to the name (your yield payouts, and affiliate fees if the name is used as an affiliate in swaps) is converted into that asset and sent to your address on that asset’s blockchain, in batches, once enough has built up. A plain RUNE transfer to the name’s address is not converted. The next sections explain how and when.

THORNames are part of THORChain itself, not a RUNEBond feature. Other apps use them too. A change you make to a name applies to every use of it, not only to RUNEBond payouts.

Registering and renewing a name

Registering a name costs a registration fee set by THORChain: 10 RUNE on the live network (mainnet) today. That fee includes the first year. After the first year, keeping the name costs about 1 RUNE per year. THORChain sets this fee and can change it. You can buy more time up front at the same rate. THORChain measures that time in blocks (the batches of transactions it adds every few seconds), so the extra time is priced per block. Registering for two or three years costs the registration fee plus the extra years.

A renewal adds time to the current expiry date. It does not restart the clock from today. For example, if a name has six months left and you renew it for one year, it then has eighteen months left.

While a name is valid, only its owner can update it: change the addresses, the preferred asset or the sensitivity, renew it or transfer it.

Preferred asset and the holding balance (collector)

If a name has a preferred asset, the RUNE that THORChain sends to that name is not forwarded straight away. That RUNE can be your share of staking rewards at each churn, or affiliate fees if the name is used as an affiliate in swaps. It builds up in a holding balance attached to the name (THORChain calls it the affiliate collector, or just the collector) until there is enough to be worth converting. THORChain then swaps that RUNE into your chosen asset and sends it to the address you set for that chain.

How much is enough is set by a threshold:

sensitivity multiplier × outbound fee of the preferred asset

The outbound fee is the network fee THORChain charges to send an asset out on its own blockchain, for example to send USDC on Ethereum. The sensitivity multiplier is a number you choose, explained below.

Each conversion is an ordinary THORChain swap at the market price. THORChain swaps against pools of funds supplied by other users. So each conversion first pays the pool a small fee (the liquidity fee). It may also get a slightly worse price because of the size of the trade itself (slippage). Both are usually small for these amounts. Then the outbound fee is taken.

Conversions are automatic. THORChain checks the holding balance against the threshold every time RUNE comes in, so you never have to start a conversion yourself.

Conversion sensitivity

The sensitivity multiplier decides two things: how often conversions happen, and how much of each one goes to the outbound fee.

Lower sensitivity: the threshold is lower, so conversions happen more often. But a larger share of each conversion is lost to the outbound fee.
Higher sensitivity: conversions happen less often, but less of each one is lost.

The outbound fee is taken from every conversion, so each conversion loses about 1 / multiplier of its value to it:

Sensitivity	Lost to the outbound fee per conversion
20x	about 5%
50x	about 2%
200x	about 0.5%

The liquidity fee and slippage of the swap come on top of these figures.

Here is an example with round numbers. Say the outbound fee is worth 1 USDC. At 20x, THORChain converts as soon as about 20 USDC worth of RUNE has built up, and 1 USDC of that (about 5%) goes to the fee. At 200x, it waits until about 200 USDC worth has built up. You wait longer between payments, but the same 1 USDC fee is only about 0.5% of each conversion. It works like a bank that charges a flat fee per transfer: fewer, larger transfers lose less to fees.

The network default is set by THORChain (200x today), and a new name starts on it. RUNEBond lets you choose any whole number from 20x up. It does not allow lower values, because below 20x each conversion would lose more than about 5% to the outbound fee. You can change the sensitivity later, or reset it to the network default.

What happens when a name expires

A THORName that is not renewed expires. In short, you lose the name, its settings and the payouts in your chosen asset. You keep any RUNE that was waiting to be converted, and the share of your rewards that was being paid out goes into your stake instead. In detail, from the moment the name expires:

The name is hidden. THORChain shows it with no owner, no addresses and no preferred asset.
Payouts go to your stake instead. A Bond Yield payout (THORChain’s automatic payout of staking rewards) sent to an expired name is not paid out. THORChain adds that share to your stake instead.
Anyone can register it as a new name, including you.
The holding balance is not lost. Any RUNE still waiting in its collector stays there until the name is registered again, by you or by anyone else. At that moment it is paid to you, the previous owner, in RUNE.
The settings are gone. The preferred asset, the addresses and the sensitivity are reset. The registration fee is due again, even if the previous owner registers it.

If you subscribe to RUNEBond notifications for your address, by email or through the Telegram bot, RUNEBond warns you before a name you use for payouts expires, so you have time to renew it. See notifications via email and Telegram to subscribe.

Managing THORNames in RUNEBond

In your portfolio, the Payout destinations section lists the THORNames your wallet owns and lets you:

Register a new name. RUNEBond checks whether the name is free as you type, and suggests short alternatives when it is taken. You choose how long to register it for, and the form shows the total cost before you sign.
Pick the payout asset, for example USDC. RUNEBond shows the assets and blockchains available.
Set the destination address on that asset’s blockchain. RUNEBond checks that the address has the right format for that blockchain. That includes its built-in typo check (the checksum) where the blockchain uses one.
Set or reset the sensitivity. For the value you pick, RUNEBond shows the threshold and the share lost to the outbound fee.
See the holding balance (collector): the RUNE waiting to be converted, next to the threshold it has to reach.
See the expiry date and renew the name.

Registering a name and setting its destination, payout asset and sensitivity is a single transaction. RUNEBond then watches it on THORChain and shows whether the change went through, was refunded (with the reason) or is taking longer than usual.

The destination address is yours to check. RUNEBond cannot verify that you control it, and payouts sent to a wrong address cannot be recovered.

The main use of a THORName in RUNEBond is receiving your staking rewards in another asset. See Bond Yield: automatic payouts at every churn.