SIP-323: Adopt "s" prefix for Synthetix V3 asset tickers

Author	Millie
Status	Draft
Type	Governance
Network	Ethereum & Optimism
Implementor	pDAO
Release	TBD
Created	2023-05-16

Simple Summary

This is a proposal to maintain the current standard "s" prefix for all protocol issued assets through Synthetix V3 and reconfigure the current asset tickers to an "snx" prefix

Motivation

The aim of this proposal is to preserve the integrity of the Synthetix brand by not deprecating an extablished and well regarded set of asset tickers

Reasoning

The plan for Synthetix V3 involves a rebranding of the protocol-issued stablecoin to snxUSD. The rationale behind this plan is to establish a clear distinction between the stablecoins issued by Synthetix V2 and V3, respectively. It is believed that such a rebranding effort will help overcome the negative reputation associated with previous Synthetix stablecoins, which faced scalability limitations and peg stability issues.

However, I believe the community is not in agreement on the new ticker.

Recent events impacting the banking sector and the depegging of major competing stablecoins like USDC and DAI have improved the public image of sUSD. Additionally, I challenge the notion that rebranding to snxUSD will alleviate any lingering negativity associated with sUSD or other aspects of the protocol.

The main limitation of sUSD has always been its reliance on endogenous collateral to back its issuance. While there have been unjustified comparisons drawn between sUSD/SNX and UST/LUNA by some prominent DeFi builders, I concede that however unfounded these comparisons were, they cast an undeserved shadow over potential sUSD use cases.

Recognizing that the primary issue with sUSD stemmed from its endogenous backing, it becomes clear that labeling the next iteration, which will not rely on endogenous collateral, with the prefix "snx" (referring to the ticker of the criticized collateral) would at they very least cause some confusion among users, and at worst, could be a significant mistake.

I'll conclude by stating that sUSD is a concise and widely recognized ticker that has become a staple in the DeFi space. Its acronym, representing Synthetix (or synthetic) USD, offers a clear description and is easily understandable. Considering that Synthetix V3 will introduce a better method of issuing "Synthetic" assets by leveraging exogenous collateral, it makes perfect sense to maintain the current standard with a lowercase "s" followed by the ticker of the underlying asset and reconfigure the legacy version of those assets to an "snx" prefix

Technical Specification

Set Synthetix V3 asset tickers to sUSD, sETH, sBTC, etc.
Set Synthetix V2 asset tickers to snxUSD, snxETH, snxBTC, etc.

Test Cases

N/A

Configurable Values (Via SCCP)

N/A