FRĀMD Whitepaper

Introduction

Vision

FRĀMD’s vision is to leverage art’s potential in connecting NFT communities together. To this purpose, we are pioneering the concept of Art-Fi starting with the ICON Blockchain.

Art-Fi refers to a system built around the FRĀMD token ($FRMD) and designed to power a growing NFT ecosystem; one which includes Game-Fi but goes beyond to continuously reward NFT holders for buying, owning, selling, using, playing or promoting any NFT artwork, project, or game within the FRĀMD ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the FRĀMD token economy and the concept of Art-Fi.

Background

Non-Fungible Tokens

A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a token that symbolizes a one-of-a-kind asset with unique characteristics that cannot be swapped for or replaced by another token. NFTs allow for any digital asset to be virtually stored and traded on a blockchain. Examples of NFTs include but are not limited to digital artwork, collectibles, virtual assets in a metaverse, domain names, elements of a video game, contracts, IDs and more.

NFT technology helps solve multiple problems existing in the Art sector. In today’s rapidly increasing digital world, digital art has become a necessity, but like all digital assets reproducibility is too easy leading to questions about authenticity. NFTs and blockchain technology provide a fitting solution. Furthermore, NFTs make it possible for creators to monetize their work and sell it directly to collectors through NFT marketplaces omitting middlemen and lowering the barrier to entry.

Art

Much like blockchain technology, Art transcends geopolitical boundaries making it a perfect medium for cultivating mutual understanding and collaboration. Moreover, the arts have always defined culture. The success of some of the earliest NFT collectibles such as CryptoPunks, BAYC, and others can be attributed to them representing an emerging web3 culture. Art is an ideal concept over which communities can unite and grow together.

NFTs and De-Fi

The NFT space witnessed rapid growth over the past few years. As a result, several teams tried to implement ideas such as collateralizing NFTs and unlocking dormant NFT liquidity for use in De-Fi applications. To date, none of these approaches have proved to work.

The FRĀMD ethos is that Art is not De-Fi nor should it be. Art can have its own economy that includes elements of De-Fi, Game-Fi, P2E and PVP.

NFTs and the Multichain Narrative

Today, blockchain communities are generally siloed and interaction between chains is limited. It is now widely accepted that the future of this industry is multichain despite the maximalist narratives that still exist. The need for siloed blockchains to communicate has given rise to several bridging solutions and multiple protocols dedicated to developing true interoperability. It has also become quite evident that, to thrive and achieve the disruptive effect that this industry is aiming for, blockchains specialized for specific use cases must work together and complement each other. This reasoning is also true for digital art and the general NFT space. As interoperability technology improves, it will unlock new opportunities for NFT communities to interact exposing new utility for these tokens.

The Problem FRĀMD is Trying to Solve

NFT art or gaming remains one step behind De-Fi applications. Within the same blockchain ecosystem, De-Fi applications are built with composability and synergy in mind. NFT projects are generally not. This is a crucial factor considering that liquidity on many chains is low, and the average user may find it difficult to invest in multiple projects that are separate economically. It is easier to do so with De-Fi where applications are built to work together. As a result, NFT projects often compete economically and many end up failing.

FRĀMD is building an extensive NFT ecosystem in which separate and varied NFT projects share a common economy making economic synergy and composability possible. FRĀMD is building Art-Fi.

Market Analysis

The global art sector is valued at 65.1 billion USD while NFT-related sales volume topped 17 billion USD in 2021. Given the clear advantages that NFT technology brings to the digital art scene, the NFT space exploded over the past few years. The following table presents a year-on-year comparison.

Decentralized blockchain technology is shifting the paradigm of how people interact online be it socially, financially, politically, or artistically. The NFT industry came into the mainstream in 2021; however, the growth was somewhat imbalanced. Smart contract growth in the NFT space was limited compared to the total dollar value and the number of NFT sales. The supply could not keep up with the demand. As the market grows and matures, collectors will favor NFTs which provide additional value and utility.

The lion’s share of the NFT sale value during 2021 came from art-related NFT, collectibles, and gaming; furthermore, the secondary sales value was almost always higher than initial sales value. This point is important for the purpose of the $FRMD token economy and will be explored later in this paper.

The following graph presents a monthly comparison of the primary vs. secondary sales figures over the past 12 months:

Figure 1. Comparison of Secondary and Primary Sales

As mentioned previously, attempts to use NFTs as collateral types to unlock liquidity for use in De-Fi have been unsuccessful. This can be attributed to several factors such as:

• The relative youth of the NFT market (< 5 years)
• The volatile price of NFTs.
  – NFT average price seems vary with the general crypto market (see figure 2)
• The open unregulated nature of NFT marketplaces raises specific concerns:
  – Wash trading
  – Rug pulls
• The cheap or free minting fees for NFTs
  – Leads to this feature being misused
  – At one point, around 80% of all NFTs on OpenSea were plagiarized.

Figure 2. Change in an NFT’s average price

FRĀMD and Art-Fi is an alternative way of providing utility and additional value to an expanding NFT ecosystem. Art-Fi was developed to capitalize on secondary sales and provide additional benefit to the protocol and its users.

With a growing number of collections and projects sharing one common economy built around $FRMD, Art-Fi promises a system that continuously rewards all stakeholders:

• The team
• The collectors
• The stakers
• The traders
• The protocol

Token Economics

Token definition and purpose

The FRĀMD token ($FRMD) is an IRC2 standard token on the ICON blockchain. $FRMD is designed to power the FRĀMD ecosystem by providing complex utility and continuous value to all stakeholders.

Token Distribution

• $FRMD will be released only when an NFT is minted for the first time in the FRĀMD ecosystem.
• The amount of $FRMD distributed is proportional the amount of $ICX spent according to the following formula:

A=1.25*B (where A= amount of $FRMD issued and B= amount of $ICX spent)

i.e. 1.25 $FRMD/$ICX

• The Yeti Strong Club (YTSC) Collection is FRĀMD’s inaugural 10K NFT collection on the ICON Blockchain. To reward $ICX holders and early supporters, this collection will unlock unique privileges to its collectors.
• It will be the only collection to earn 1.5 $FRMD/$ICX on mint. Once minted, each yeti will accumulate 1 $FRMD per day for a duration of 1 year. After the first year the Yeti will stop generating $FRMD tokens.
• Minting NFTs from partner projects will also earn the buyers $FRMD at a ratio of 0.75 $FRMD/$ICX. The allocation ratio for partner projects may change and is not fixed.
• The team opted for this model because $FRMD distribution and inflation will decrease as the price of $ICX increases.

Token Supply

• The initial total supply will be set at 32,000,000 $FRMD and will follow a unique inflationary model.
• The circulating supply will depend on the number of NFTs minted and, more precisely, on the amount of $ICX spent to mint these NFTs.
• When the circulating supply equals total supply of 32 M, new mints will inflate the total $FRMD supply.

Token Allocation

Figure 3: $FRMD Token Allocation

The Yeti Strong Club Collection (YTSC)

• Mint price = 100 $ICX
• $FRMD distribution ratio = 1.5 $FRMD /$ICX
• Total Allocation = 1,500,000 $FRMD
• Additionally, as an exclusive privilege reserved only for the YTSC collection, each Yeti will earn 1 $FRMD per day for 1 year.

Balanced DEX

• The team is dedicated to creating $FRMD liquidity pools on the Balanced DEX.
• The team will dedicate a percentage of the total $FRMD supply to bootstrap the liquidity pools.
• This will not be available at launch and more information will be shared with the community at a later stage.

Future Projects and Partner Projects

• $FRMD distribution ratio = 1.25 $FRMD /$ICX
• There are several exciting projects in the pipeline. So far, the team revealed that a trading card game (TCG) is in development. Both the Yeti Strong Club and the Trading Card game already have planned expansions and are not static collections.
• Projects partnering with FRĀMD will be allocated 0.75 $FRMD / $ICX.

Voter Incentives

• The model includes running a node to contribute to the security and decentralization of the ICON Blockchain.
• FRĀMD will allocate 10% of the total supply (3.2 M $FRMD) to reward voters who stake their $ICX with FRĀMD.
• These incentives will be distributed weekly over a period of 2 years.

FRĀMD Team and Advisors

• 5,000,000 $FRMD ≈ 16%
• The tokens will unlock over a 5-year period at a rate of 1 M per year

Figure 4. $FRMD Token Economy

ICON Node

FRĀMD will run an ICON network node and become a block validator to contribute to the blockchain’s decentralization and security. The token model repurposes node rewards obtained from the network’s inflation towards strengthening the protocol.

Node rewards will be used as follows:

• 50% of the daily rewards will be deposited into the protocol’s treasury:
  – 30% of those will be shared with $FRMD Stakers
  – 70% will remain in the treasury
• The other 50% of the daily rewards will go into the Balanced LP(s).
  – The funds will be used to buy $FRMD and deposit it back into the pool.
• The above is true after subtracting the monthly node operating costs.
• The team will not keep any node rewards for themselves.

Treasury

The treasury will serve as a protocol reserve to be used for:

• Emergency situations to back $FRMD
• Funding the protocol’s growth and potential partnerships
• Supplementing the Balanced LP(s)
  – The treasury will pay out 1% of its total holdings to the liquidity pool(s) on a monthly basis. The % is subject to change based on the protocol’s need.
  – Funds will be used to buy $FRMD and deposit it back into the pool.
  – This further deepens the LP(s)
• The team is not allocated any % percentage of the treasury.

The treasury is set to pay out a percentage to the pool by design. This causes the treasury holdings to eventually plateau.

• If the treasury income is high, then the treasury will have a high plateau
• As treasury income decreases, the treasury in turn will have a lower plateau
• This ensures that the treasury will never run out of funds

Treasury holdings plateau once: Treasury Inflow = Treasury Outflow

Tax system

As a first on ICON, FRĀMD is introducing a taxation system on all buy and sell orders. The tax is intended to strengthen the protocol.

Initially the tax will be set as follows:

• Buy tax = 2%
• Sell tax = 8%
• The tax is separate from the Balanced transaction fees

The buying tax is fixed at 2%; whereas, the selling tax is designed to be flexible. The sell tax will not exceed 8%. Once the $FRMD price stabilizes, the lower boundary for the selling tax will be defined. However, the tax will satisfy the following general principles that reach a fair compromise between the users and the protocol

• When $FRMD price is too low, the sell tax is at its highest
• When $FRMD price is too high, the selling tax is lowered
• The tax is always collected in the form of $FRMD

The tax earning and LP fees will be pooled and distributed:

• 75% are deposited back into the LP
• 25% are sent to the treasury
• The team will not keep any tax earnings for themselves

The tax deposited into the LP is never sold to the pool; taxed $FRMD is deposited in the LP by pairing it with node rewards, secondary sales/NFT earnings, or the monthly treasury deposits.

Secondary Sales and Ecosystem Earnings

As another first on ICON, earning from the FRĀMD ecosystem NFTs are to be shared between the team, the $FRMD stakers, and the protocol. The earnings include:

• Royalty fees on all secondary sales from all FRĀMD ecosystem NFTs (both FRĀMD and partner collections)
  – 25% go to the team
  – 25% are deposited into the LP
  – 50% are shared with $FRMD stakers
• PVP and P2E protocol earnings from the upcoming trading card game.
  – % to be announced later
• Earnings from other future collections (both FRĀMD and partner projects)
  – % to be defined later

Royalty fees on FRĀMD collections will be set to 15%. Partner projects may set a different royalty fee. Market analysis (Figure 1) show that secondary sales have been consistently higher than primary sales.

Without an engaged community of buyers, all NFT projects will fail. FRĀMD’s token model is built on the principle of sharing wealth to benefit all stakeholders and the protocol.

Protocol Owned Liquidity Model

The treasury, tax system, node rewards, and secondary sales and ecosystem earning distribution effectively applies a protocol owned liquidity (POL) model to the $FRMD protocol.

The advantages of POL are well established and include:

• Eliminating the need for users to supply liquidity. This removes all risk of impermanent loss from users
• Eliminates the problem of “Mercenary Capital” ensuring that the pool(s) remain liquid regardless of incentives and price action
• Eliminates the need for inflating the token to incentivize liquidity providers

Additionally, the system is cleverly designed to perpetually deepen the pool(s)’ liquidity. The tokenomics are built to constantly add liquidity to the $FRMD pool(s) through:

• Monthly pay outs from the treasury
• Dedicating 25% of secondary sales and a % of future protocol earnings to the pool
• Repurposing ICON inflation to benefit the token value and protocol liquidity
• Sending 75% of the collected tax and the DEX trading fees back to the LP(s)

Partnership Program

FRĀMD’s mission and vision is to connect NFT communities starting with the ICON Blockchain. The team is dedicated to establishing partnerships with quality projects to grow the community and to build synergy and composability within ICON’s NFT space. The partnership program provides added value to all parties:

• Partner projects benefit from:
  – Onboarding the $FRMD token economy and utility
  –Gaining exposure to the FRĀMD community
• FRĀMD ecosystem and stakers benefit from:
  – Onboarding new community members
  – An increased secondary sales volume

To unlock the full potential of NFTs and to create a truly successful and powerful community, NFT projects and communities should not remain siloed. The only way is to work together to grow together.

Token Utility

As mentioned previously, $FRMD is designed to power the entire FRĀMD ecosystem and to benefit all stakeholders. FRĀMD is dedicated to creating lasting value for an active and engaged community. The success of any blockchain project is a collective effort, and success, no matter how small, must be shared.

$FRMD Staking

Once released, users are able to stake $FRMD tokens to receive passive income:

• As mentioned previously, 50% of all secondary sales from any present and future FRĀMD ecosystem collections will be pooled and distributed weekly to $FRMD stakers proportionally to the amount staked.
• A yet-to-be-defined percentage of all PVP and P2E rewards generated through the upcoming TCG will be pooled and shared with $FRMD stakers proportionally to the amount staked.
• More sources of reward distribution may be announced at a later stage.
• 30% of the daily node rewards allocated to the treasury
• The unstaking period for $FRMD is 3 days

$FRMD — Medium of Exchange

$FRMD will be used as payment for different services and utility within the upcoming TCG and the greater FRĀMD ecosystem.

• Holding and staking $FRMD may give community members access to specific features within the FRĀMD ecosystem such as whitelists for future projects
• Used for rewarding community members and for giveaways

Token Value

The $FRMD model was developed to be balanced and cater to the interests of everyone in our community. It offers a balance between the incentive to stake in order to earn a share of the protocol earnings, and its use case as a medium of exchange for services and utility with the entire FRĀMD ecosystem.

The tokenomics ensure constant buy pressure via:

• Repurposing 50% the node rewards to help build a POL model
• Dedicating a % of secondary sales and protocol earning to the liquidity pool
• Dedicating a % of the treasury holding for the pool on a monthly basis
• Buying pressure from the community

The only selling pressure is exerted by community members selling the token.

• The selling tax is intended to slightly mitigate the effects of selling.

Once the liquidity pool(s) is/are deployed on the Balanced DEX, supply, demand, and the tokenomics will decide the token’s value.

Figure 5. Recap of the $FRMD community & economy

Why Build on ICON

The project’s ethos is similar to that of the ICON blockchain and core team. ICON aims to connect as many blockchain communities as possible through BTP. FRĀMD wants to connect as many NFT communities as possible starting with ICON.

BTP is a superior technology, and once it is ready the FRĀMD team intends to leverage BTP to seek partnerships with and connect to NFT communities from other chains as well.

Many members of the FRĀMD team are early ICON supporters. ICON is home, and we want to contribute to the network’s growth.

Last but not least, ICON’s NFT community is one of the best and most passionate. The tokenomics are dependent on an engaged community that is rewarded for promoting, buying, selling, growing the ecosystem, and voting for the FRĀMD node. Additionally, partnerships are at the core of the FRĀMD mission, and the creators on ICON are unique and talented. ICON is the ideal place for FRĀMD to launch Art-Fi.

Team

Figure 6. Team Members

Andrew Burns

Andrew is the Co-Founder of FRĀMD and Lead Developer. Andrew has been invested in ICON since its 2017 ICO and an active member of the ICON ecosystem since joining RHIZOME in 2019. Andrew has contributed significantly to ICON by developing multiple games on ICONbet, the MetrICX mobile application and is active within the ICON dev channels. Andrew currently holds a Senior Software Developer role working in the Fintech and Retail industry.

Geoff Mason

Geoff is the Co-Founder of FRĀMD and is the Social Media Manager of the team assisting with community engagement and management. He comes with a background in Education, teaching in Secondary School, as well as holding a Bachelor in Communications and Media. Geoff has been invested in ICX ecosystem since 2019 including ICONbet, EPICX and Craft Network.

David Browning

David joins the FRĀMD team as the Lead artist of the YetiStrongClub collection and will assist the collection generation development. David has over 12 years in the Animation industry working on a variety of projects for clients like Disney, Netflix, Marvel and Lego. David currently holds a Lead Animation Development role and freelance creative solutions artist. David has been invested in ICON and a part of its community since 2019.

Tom Thistle

Tom is a professional animator/cartoonist from Perth. Tom moved to Vancouver to pursue his goal of animation in 2014. Tom has over 7 years of experience in the industry and has held lead positions on Disney and Netflix shows. Tom is currently working at Sony on the Spiderverse sequel. Tom has been invested in ICON and a part of its community since 2020.

Alton Turner

Alton is an experienced developer of 20+ years, who has built several AWS-based API services to support multiple Icon based DApps, including 2 ICONbet games, MetrICX, and NFT projects. Alton has also run the DevShack Prep community node, and is always on the lookout for strategies to trade on Trading View.

Andy Awad

Andy joins the FRĀMD team as the communications manager and assists in community management, content development, and provides general support within the team. Andy has been invested in ICON and a part of its community since 2018. Andy comes from a science background and holds a high level regional management position with an international education service provider where he serves as the lead for communications and professional development.

Disclaimers

• This whitepaper is for information purposes only and nothing contained in this document constitutes financial or legal advice of any kind.
• Cryptocurrency and NFTs are highly volatile, speculative assets and investing in these assets is done solely at the investor’s own risk.
• References to third-party research, data, and industry publications may appear in this whitepaper. The accuracy and reliability of this third-party data are not guaranteed.
• No derivatives of FRĀMD NFTs are allowed unless expressly granted by the FRĀMD team.