An option you choose to exercise.

What oPLATE is

Emissions arrive as oPLATE, a call option on PLATE. It is neither PLATE itself nor a wrapper around it. Every oPLATE in circulation is fully collateralized: one PLATE is held against each one issued, before it is handed out.

Holding oPLATE does nothing on its own. To turn it into PLATE you exercise it, and exercising costs SPY.

How exercising works

You pay SPY at a discount to what PLATE is worth against SPY, measured as a time-weighted average price rather than a spot quote. In return you receive PLATE, in one of two forms:

• Liquid PLATE: free to move, sell, or clamp. The more expensive of the two.
• Clamped PLATE: delivered straight into the press, and cheaper to exercise into, because clamped PLATE carries a withdrawal lockup. You accept the lockup and pay less.

The exercise price is 20% of the time-weighted price for liquid PLATE and 15% for clamped PLATE. It is an adjustable parameter, so it is governed rather than fixed in the contract.

In the app, exercise from the Convert oPLATE box on the Clamp PLATE page: choose clamped or liquid PLATE, approve SPY the first time, then convert.

Where the SPY goes

The SPY you pay to exercise goes to the Ink Reserve. This is the point of the design: every exercise adds SPY to the reserve that funds below-target buybacks. An option that is never exercised costs the protocol nothing, and one that is exercised pays into the reserve.

oPLATE never gains the ability to print PAPER.

What it is not

Exercising is a purchase, not a claim. The discount is a discount to a measured price, not to a target, and not a guaranteed profit. PLATE's price against SPY can move between the moment you decide and the moment you exercise, and it can fall after. An option you never exercise delivers nothing. Nothing here projects a return.

The price is not adjusted silently: a change is published.