CoinDesk Exclusive Interview|Apollo Ω (3,3), Core Member of OlympusDAO: Why We Are Rebuilding the Olympus Pact On-Chain Financial System

Interview Date: August 15, 2024|By CoinDesk Contributing Editor

Since OlympusDAO ignited the decentralized finance wave in 2021, on-chain financial experimentation has reached both its peak and a deep period of introspection. OlympusDAO, once the flagship of DeFi 2.0 with its protocol treasury mechanism and “protocol-as-sovereignty” governance philosophy, also faced challenges of unsustainable inflation and structural flaws, raising fundamental questions about “institutions” themselves across the Web3 space.

CoinDesk Exclusive Interview|Apollo Ω (3,3), Core Member of OlympusDAO: Why We Are Rebuilding the Olympus Pact On-Chain Financial System

Now, three years later, OlympusDAO’s core development team returns with renewed focus and technological maturity to launch a new protocol dubbed the “On-Chain Financial Operating System of the DeFi 3.5 Era” — Olympus Pact.
In this edition, we’re honored to speak with Apollo Ω (3,3), Olympus Pact co-founder and veteran developer of OlympusDAO, to dive into the ideological evolution and future roadmap behind this new system.

CoinDesk Exclusive Interview|Apollo Ω (3,3), Core Member of OlympusDAO: Why We Are Rebuilding the Olympus Pact On-Chain Financial System

CoinDesk: Apollo, it’s a pleasure to speak with you today. Olympus Pact has clearly entered a substantial deployment phase. Can you share how the system was conceived?

Apollo Ω: Olympus Pact was never a spontaneous idea — it was an inevitable outcome of what we experienced through OlympusDAO.
In 2021, OlympusDAO sparked the idea of “protocol-governed sovereignty.” We built a radically experimental system: protocol treasury + high-yield staking + community consensus.
But after igniting that flame, we quickly realized that incentives alone couldn’t sustain long-term protocol evolution. Inflation led to capital bubbles, governance became superficial, real asset support was lacking, and the architecture was too rigid.
These weren’t minor flaws — they were structural issues.
Instead of launching a new token or simply rebranding, we committed to complete institutional restructuring. Olympus Pact was forged in that context. It’s our second attempt at scripting a decentralized financial order.

CoinDesk Exclusive Interview|Apollo Ω (3,3), Core Member of OlympusDAO: Why We Are Rebuilding the Olympus Pact On-Chain Financial System

CoinDesk: Olympus Pact is being called a “DeFi 3.5 operating system.” How is it fundamentally different from traditional DeFi protocols?

Apollo Ω: Put simply, it’s not a “project,” it’s a financial protocol architecture. There are three key differences:

  1. Modular Structure: Olympus Pact isn’t a single protocol. It comprises multiple functional components: DEX, bond engine, stability mechanism, governance layer, and RWA gateway. Developers and communities can freely build, combine, and expand on it.
  2. Multi-Chain Federal Governance: We natively support ETH, BSC, Solana, and XONE, with unified governance entry points and treasury protocol. Olympus Pact is the first system to truly enable multi-chain governance coherence.
  3. Institution-Driven Economic Model: We abandoned the typical incentive-driven model in favor of a tri-layered mechanism: “sovereign staking + capped yields + smart burn.” We’ve also integrated a DID-based behavior credit system — where governance rights are earned through contribution, not merely by holding tokens.

We’re not recreating OHM. We’re building a civilizational financial base layer that can grow, be governed, and evolve.

 

CoinDesk: You mentioned “sovereign staking” as Olympus Pact’s most significant structural innovation. How is this governance logic different from traditional token voting?

Apollo Ω: It’s a major shift.
In Olympus Pact, every staking action must be accompanied by an on-chain signature, which generates DID credentials and governance credit.
This means that governance power is no longer statically tied to token holdings — it’s dynamically earned through participation and contribution.

Whether you’re a promoter, a content creator, a developer, or someone who stakes for long periods and joins governance discussions — your actions are recorded on-chain and accumulate governance weight.
This builds what we call “institutionalized consensus”, far beyond a simple voting game.

 

CoinDesk: In today’s market, sustainability is more important than ever. How does Olympus Pact resolve the contradiction between yields and inflation?

Apollo Ω: This is something we took very seriously.
The problem with OHM-era systems was that while high APY worked short-term, they often led to destructive “inflate-burn-collapse” cycles over time.

We implemented two key solutions:

  1. Capped Yields + Smart Cycle Compounding: Each staking position has a 5x ROI cap. After reaching it, users must choose between burning PHI or extending the unlock period — this forms a natural deflationary game and dynamic adjustment loop.
  2. Real Asset-Backed Treasury: Our treasury isn’t a digital illusion. It’s backed by USDC, gold-mirrored assets, carbon credits, and stablecoins — dynamically mirrored on-chain.
    This shifts us from a “mechanism-driven returns” model to an “asset-driven credibility” model, giving the system strong anti-cyclical stability.

 

CoinDesk: Olympus Pact officially entered deployment in early 2024. What key milestones should the market watch for next?

Apollo Ω: Yes, we began deployment on January 22, 2024. We’ve already completed protocol module deployment and early community infrastructure.

Next, we’re launching several key components:

  • Full activation of the PHI smart staking module
  • Public opening of governance module interfaces
  • Completion of Phase I RWA Gateway — gold asset integration
  • Launch of our global treasury compliance expansion program
  • Public testing of the multi-chain federal governance system

We expect the system to enter a mature operational phase by Q4 2024 and begin its global expansion in 2025.

 

CoinDesk: Final question — if you had to summarize Olympus Pact’s mission in one sentence, what would it be?

Apollo Ω:
I’d say: “We don’t define institutions — we co-author them.”
Olympus Pact doesn’t belong to the developers. It belongs to every signer.
What we’re building isn’t the next crypto hype — it’s the foundational accord of financial civilization in Web3.

CoinDesk Exclusive Interview|Apollo Ω (3,3), Core Member of OlympusDAO: Why We Are Rebuilding the Olympus Pact On-Chain Financial System

In this deep and timely conversation, Apollo Ω (3,3) laid out a bold and well-reasoned evolution from idealism to structured governance, from firestarter to civilization. Olympus Pact is not a rush-to-market protocol. It’s the result of three years of silent reengineering — a comprehensive system aimed at long-term sustainability and institutional resilience within decentralized finance.
As deployment continues, we believe a more mature, verifiable, and institutionally sound on-chain financial world is emerging.
PHI is no longer just a token — it is becoming the essential bridge between governance logic and real-world assets.

Special thanks to Apollo Ω (3,3) for sharing his time and insights with CoinDesk and the global Web3 community. We will continue to track Olympus Pact closely as this new “era of institutional return” takes its next leap forward.

— CoinDesk Editorial Team
August 15, 2024 | London Office Exclusive Interview