Velodrome Finance is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) on the Optimism blockchain, forked and heavily modified from Solidly. It's designed to be a crucial liquidity hub, aimed at attracting and retaining liquidity for the Optimism ecosystem. Velodrome utilizes a veToken (vote-escrowed token) model, where users can lock their $VELO tokens to receive veVELO, which grants them governance rights and the ability to earn protocol fees. This model incentivizes long-term participation and alignment with the protocol's success.