FAQ
Travelers
What is CHARON?
An exit-liquidity protocol for Elysium. CHARON's exit pool pays you your HYPE on HyperEVM, then CHARON takes assignment of your Elysium withdrawal and waits out the challenge period in your place. The toll is 1%.
Why do standard exits from Elysium wait?
Elysium is an optimistic rollup that settles to HyperEVM. Its standard withdrawals wait out a challenge period, during which anyone can dispute the state Elysium has posted. The community reports that period at about 6 days. Once the exit pool is deployed, the app reads the exact value from Elysium's rollup contract. See the river.
How can you pay me before the challenge period ends?
The exit pool on HyperEVM fronts your HYPE from staked liquidity as soon as the ferryman picks up your deposit. The escrow then hands your deposit to the standard bridge, addressed to the pool, and when that withdrawal lands, it repays the pool.
How long does a crossing take?
The ferry's target is about 30 seconds from deposit to payout. The pool status page shows the measured average over the last 24 hours, computed from on-chain timestamps.
What does "takes assignment" mean?
You don't start a standard withdrawal yourself. You deposit into the escrow, and once the exit pool has paid you, the escrow starts the standard withdrawal with the pool as its recipient. The slow leg of the crossing becomes CHARON's. See Assignment, in detail.
What does it cost?
1% of the amount you cross, plus Elysium gas for your deposit. The toll is a constant in the escrow contract, and before you sign, the app shows exactly how much you'll receive. See Fee comparison.
How does 1% compare to other ways out?
For context, the community reports P2P OTC desks at about 3% and community fast exits at about 10%. The standard bridge charges no toll but makes you wait out the challenge period. These are reported market rates, not quotes, and CHARON doesn't operate or partner with any of those routes.
Which chains and assets?
HYPE, from Elysium mainnet (chain ID 99901) to HyperEVM (chain ID 999). On testnet, from Elysium testnet (99801) to HyperEVM testnet (998).
Can I send to a different address?
Yes. When you board, you can name any HyperEVM address as the recipient. The escrow records it, and the exit pool can pay only that address.
What if the pool can't cover my crossing?
Your crossing waits in the queue, first in, first out. The app shows your position and an ETA based on settlements already on the river. You can reclaim at any point before you're ferried.
What if I'm never ferried?
Request a reclaim on the escrow. Once the 1-hour reclaim delay passes, you get your full deposit back on Elysium, with no toll. See Reclaiming a crossing.
Can the ferryman or the CHARON team take my deposit?
The escrow is built so they can't. It releases a crossing only on a confirmation from the exit pool contract, delivered over Elysium's canonical messaging, that matches your recipient, amount, and boarding time exactly. The escrow has no admin withdrawal and no upgrade path.
Who runs the ferryman?
The ferryman is a single permissioned address, set in the exit pool contract and shown on the pool status page. The CHARON team operates it. The exit pool's per-crossing and hourly caps limit how much it can front, and a guardian can pause it.
What's on my receipt?
Every crossing gets a receipt: two coins laid on the traveler's eyes, one for what crossed and one for the toll. Every field reads from the escrow and the exit pool, and you can download it as SVG or PNG. Find yours at /receipt/<crossing ID>.
Where do the pool numbers come from?
From the contracts. Pool size, 24h crossings, and average crossing time are read from the exit pool on every refresh. Nothing is seeded, so until a pool is funded its numbers read zero.
When does CHARON open?
The status badge at the top of every page shows which networks CHARON is live on. A network shows as live once CHARON's contracts are deployed and configured there. Before that, the site runs as a pre-launch preview and sends no transactions.
Stakers
What is OBOL?
The toll token. It's an ERC-20 share of the exit pool: you stake HYPE, receive OBOL, and tolls reach you as a rising exchange rate. There's no premine, team allocation, or emission. See Tokenomics.
Is every token called OBOL CHARON's?
No. Other tokens use the ticker. CHARON's OBOL is only the contract listed on the pool status page, and only the exit pool can mint it.
How do stakers earn?
Every crossing pays a 1% toll. The whole toll stays in the pool and vests over the toll vesting period. There's nothing to claim, and there's no fixed return: tolls follow crossing volume.
Can I unstake any time?
Yes. There's no lockup, and unstakes pay out from idle liquidity. If part of your HYPE is out on the river, that part becomes an unstake ticket. Tickets fill in order from incoming settlements, ahead of any new crossing, and you claim a filled ticket on the stake page.
What are the risks?
Pool depth, sequencer liveness, the ferryman key, late confirmations, Elysium's canonical bridge, challenge period changes, and smart contract bugs. Any loss lowers the OBOL exchange rate. Risks explains each one and what limits it.