Connecting the yield sources
Each protocol — Aave, Morpho, the treasury bill fund — are Yield Sources: a protocol that generates yield. To plug into Railnet, each builds an adapter that implements the STEAM standard (State Transition Engine for Asset Management). STEAM extends ERC-4626 with a lifecycle that tracks every operation from creation through settlement or rejection. This matters because not all yield sources work the same way:- Aave settles instantly — deposit USDC, receive aUSDC in the same transaction. This is a synchronous operation.
- Dynamic tokenized treasury bill Strategy settles on T+1 — you commit capital today, but shares aren’t available until tomorrow, it’s a Advanced Strategy already running operated by this same asset manager. This is an asynchronous operation. Ethena’s 7-day cooldown and Syrup’s withdrawal queue work the same way.
Setting the rules
The neobank doesn’t give the asset manager a blank check. They issue a Mandate — a formal request for the asset manager to operate according to specific constraints called Guardrails enforced by on-chain Policies. Guardrails include:- Authorized yield sources — only Aave, Morpho, and the treasury bill fund
- Allocation caps — no more than 40% to any single source
- Enforced execution — only specific functions and parameters can be passed, reducing fat finger errors or wrong operations on the strategy
Guardrails in practice
How platforms set guardrails and how asset managers operate within them on a Allocation Strategy.
The asset manager operate the strategy
With three yield sources connected, the asset manager creates an Allocation Strategy — he setup and actively manage allocation across one or more yield sources. This single Strategy holds both synchronous sources (Aave, Morpho) and asynchronous sources (the Dynamic treasury bill Strategy), routing capital through configurable priority queues. The asset manager sets up a deposit queue: first 20M to Morpho, then 15M to Aave, then the treasury bill fund and no automated queues for the advanced stategy. As users deposit, capital flows down the queue automatically. A matching redeem queue works in reverse — each source has a minimum floor, and redemptions pull from the first source down to its floor. The asset manager don’t need to manually fullfill deposit and redemption request, it’s automaticly handled by railnet. Combining highly liquid sources such as Morpho and Aave enables instant fulfillment of customer withdrawal requests, eliminating the need to hold idle liquidity within the strategy or wait for redemptions from the T+1 dynamic Treasury bill strategy. This approach preserves a strong user experience while maintaining high returns, all without requiring additional effort from the asset manager. The asset manager can also intervene directly: rebalance capital between sources, and reconfigure queue priorities — all without interrupting active operations.Keeping the books
An Allocation Strategy can hold assets in many states at once — idle USDC awaiting deployment, shares earning yield in Morpho, capital mid-deposit into the treasury bill fund. Traditional balance tracking can’t handle this. Railnet uses Sectors — logical partitions that represent where assets are in their operational lifecycle. Every asset movement is a transfer between sectors, following double-entry bookkeeping. Idle assets sit in the DEPOSIT sector. Deployed capital sits in ALLOCATION. Assets mid-redemption sit in REDEEM. Even in-flight async operations have their own sectors. Because every state is tracked, the Strategy knows exactly what it holds every block — real-time NAV without off-chain oracles or batch reconciliation.In Railnet smart contracts, an Allocation Strategy is called a MultiVehicle. See MultiVehicle for the full technical reference.
The neobank ships the product
The neobank deploys a Conduit on top of the Strategy — a branded entry point for their users with:- Its own ERC20 share token — users hold shares representing their position
- A 0.5% management fee — with configurable recipients and automated revenue distribution between the platform and the asset manager. Performance, deposit, and redeem fees are also available.
- KYC-gated access — allowlists, blocklists, geographic restrictions, and sanctions oracle connections
- Mint-and-burn transfer mode — shares can’t be transferred between wallets, only minted on deposit and burned on withdrawal
Everything runs automatically
An other platform wants to offer the same strategy — but with a 1% management fee on top. They deploy their own Conduit on top of the neobank Strategy. No capital fragmentation, no duplicate infrastructure. The asset manager rebalances once, and earn products benefit. But what about the Dynamic treasury bill fund’s T+1 deposit and redeem? When a user deposits, the deposit query to the treasury fund enters a PROCESSING state. When it’s ready to settle tomorrow, who advances it? Railnet Keepers do. A Keeper is an off-chain automation system that monitors active Queries and executes state transitions when conditions are met. When the treasury fund cooldown ends, the Keeper advances the Query. When a user’s redemption is ready, the Keeper finalizes it. Keepers also manage redemption queues — when a Strategy doesn’t have enough idle liquidity for an immediate withdrawal, the request is staged as a demand and fulfilled in FIFO order as liquidity becomes available. Users never need to return to the app and manually claim. Async operations settle as fast as the underlying protocols allow — automatically.How they connect
Every yield source speaks STEAM. Every Strategy composes them with real-time accounting. Every Conduit distributes them with custom fees and compliance. Each layer is independently useful — together, they form a coordination network where every new participant amplifies the value for everyone else.Concepts reference
Quick definitions for every term introduced above, with links to deep dives.| Concept | Definition | Deep dive |
|---|---|---|
| Yield Source | Any protocol generating yield, connected via a STEAM adapter (Vehicle) | STEAM standard |
| STEAM | State Transition Engine for Asset Management — the standard lifecycle interface | STEAM standard |
| Query | A single deposit or redemption flowing through the STEAM lifecycle | STEAM standard |
| Allocation Strategy | Managed allocation composing multiple yield sources (MultiVehicle) | Allocation Strategies |
| Advanced Strategy | Standalone strategy with full flexibility via Specialized Vehicles | Advanced Strategies |
| Sector | Logical accounting partition tracking asset lifecycle within a Strategy | Accounting |
| Guardrail | On-chain constraint limiting what an asset manager can do | Guardrails |
| Mandate | Platform’s request for an AM to operate within guardrails | Mandate a strategy |
| Conduit | Distribution channel with fees, compliance, and branded shares | Conduit |
| Keeper | Off-chain automation executing state transitions | Keeper |
| Factory | Deploys contracts with consistent config and anti-inflation protection | Supported protocols |
| EAC | Unified permission layer — global, scoped, and public roles | Access control |