What is $ZOO?
$ZOO is the native utility token of ZooDAO, a community-driven solution to NFT utility. $ZOO is an ERC-20 token, based on the Ethereum blockchain. ERC-20 is the most widely accepted standard for tokens, with standard parameters for tokens to be housed on the blockchain, how tokens may be transferred, traded or generated.
$ZOO is associated exclusively with ZooDAO, and has a fixed supply. To maximise the rewards available to the community, $ZOO is a deflationary token — meaning it reduces in supply over time, driving increased value as tokens are redistributed as community incentives.
It was necessary to introduce $ZOO to ZooDAO’s solution for two key reasons. First, $ZOO enables participation of the community in deciding the future of the DAO through participation in governance, and second, $ZOO provides a mechanism to continually reward participation of users in ZooDAO’s NFT Battles.
We explore the exciting use-cases for $ZOO in more detail below.
The role of $ZOO
The tokenomics and mechanics of $ZOO are primarily focused on providing a viable solution for the community that prioritises fairness and rewards. $ZOO has strong utility in the ZooDAO suite of solutions, enabling users to generate more value from their NFTs.
Holding $ZOO is not a prerequisite for participation in ZooDAO’s NFT Battles. In order to keep ZooDAO as openly accessible as possible, the only prerequisite to participate in voting during NFT battles is holding $DAI, a readily-available decentralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. All solutions in ZooDAO are built with inclusivity in mind, ensuring that $ZOO serves to enhance the user experience, but does not serve as a barrier to entry and participation.
NFT Battles
$ZOO token is featured in multiple stages of ZooDAO’s NFT Battles. $ZOO first appears when a user stakes their NFT in the Battle Arena: upon staking, the user incurs a cost (gas fees) due to the act of staking taking place on-chain. To compensate this cost, ZooDAO distributes $ZOO tokens to users, offsetting the cost of participation. By removing this barrier to entry, we encourage NFT holders to participate, and ensure they get their hands on $ZOO tokens at an early stage of participation.
In Stage 4 of an NFT Battle, users who previously voted for an NFT with $DAI can boost the votes cast by staking $ZOO in favour of their selected NFT. Earlier in the Battle (Stage 2), users stake $DAI in favour of their selected NFT, with votes tallied and visible to users in Stage 4. Users holding $ZOO then have an advantage, of being able to further influence the outcome of the battle, by strategically voting on their selected NFT with $ZOO, improving their odds of winning.
As NFT holders rally their communities, those communities are more likely to aggregate large numbers of $ZOO to improve their odds of success in NFT Battles, thereby creating a continuous incentive to hold $ZOO and gain an upper hand in battles. Yield generated in NFT Battles is distributed to NFT voters and NFT holders, with 94% of the yield returned to voters, creating additional incentives for participation.
In V2 of ZooDAO’s NFT Battles, we expect to adopt the Ve model to enable communities holding large quantities of $ZOO tokens to decide on the proportion of rewards distributed to their community. This would enable an NFT project community to increase their yield generated, drastically increasing returns to their users.
ZooDAO Governance
ZooDAO is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), supported by a governance model which places the future of the project in the hands of $ZOO token holders. Holding $ZOO entitles any user to participate in the governance of the DAO, submitting proposals and voting on changes proposed in ZooDAO’s Aragon portal.
Proposals made to the DAO can seek to alter multiple dynamics of NFT Battles — for instance, the weight of distribution of yield to voters, the length of each stage of NFT Battles, or the weighting of votes available per $DAI staked. Zooligans participating in DAO governance stand to benefit from introducing votes which are advantageous to their communities.
$ZOO Tokenomics
The tokenomics of $ZOO are designed to provide a fair, reward-driven solution to the community with built-in mechanisms for increasing value.
Main Features:
- There is a fixed supply of 100M $ZOO, with minting of new $ZOO tokens only available with approval of the community of $ZOO token holders through a governance vote. This ensures longevity of $ZOO and prevents dilution of value over time. Total supply can be verified through the ZooDAO Aragon portal, here.
- $ZOO is deflationary — a 0.5% burn mechanism in NFT Battles makes $ZOO rarer over time
- Over 50% of the 100M supply of tokens are dedicated to the community
To ensure $ZOO supports our mission of delivering long-term value for users, there are several controls to prevent price fluctuation and exploitation of users.
- $ZOO distributed to early backers of ZooDAO are locked for 10 months, and available at 10% per month over 10 months.
- $ZOO available to team members are available after a 12-month lock period, with a vesting limit of 10% of tokens available to each team member per month following.
In keeping with our mission of fairness, ZooDAO has not entertained offers from Venture Capitalists, and will only permit VCs to purchase $ZOO on the open market from other users.
Further information on our tokenomics can be found in the Litepaper, and on our website.
Securing $ZOO
$ZOO tokens were made available to 500 whitelisted users during the ZooDAO IDO at a preferential rate (0.2 $DAI per $ZOO), to reward early supporters of the project in their efforts to develop the community. In the second stage of the IDO, $ZOO was available publicly at the same rate as during Stage 1, with an additional 343 users securing over 800,000 $ZOO tokens. The IDO raised 400,000 $DAI towards supplementing the Balancer LBP, investments in human resources to deliver on new features of ZooDAO, and security audits.
The Balancer LBP follows the IDO, with a second opportunity for community members and the public to secure $ZOO at a variable price. For more information on the LBP, visit this article.
$ZOO will be tradable following the launch of ZooDAO, with trading pairs available on multiple platforms.
Disclaimer
The information provided in this article or any other article by ZooDAO does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and you should not treat any of the DAO’s content as such. ZooDAO does not recommend that any cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held by you. Do conduct your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
Some jurisdictions regulate or prohibit purchase, trading or holding of cryptocurrencies. It is the responsibility of individual users to determine if purchase, trading or holding of a token or any crypto-related asset complies with the relevant laws and regulations of the country or jurisdiction in which they reside.
