High level introduction to the design of Boson Protocol

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BosonProtocol

5 min readAug 10, 2022

What is Boson Protocol

Boson Protocol v2 is a decentralized optimistic fair exchange protocol, which enables the trust-minimized, automated exchange of off-chain assets, whilst tokenizing commitments to trade as redeemable NFTs.

Introducing Redeemable NFTs

Boson Protocol enables the tokenization, transfer and trade of any physical thing as a redeemable NFT. Boson is an optimistic fair-exchange protocol which enables the decentralized commercial exchange of any physical thing, without centralized intermediaries or trusted counterparties.

Instead, Buyer and Seller make incentivized commitments to trade, via smart contracts encoded with game theory and tokenized as redeemable NFTs.

The Redeemable NFT module is an NFT smart contract that provides redemption functionality alongside the ERC721 NFT features. The purpose of the module is to manage the lifetime of the rNFT between the time a Buyer commits to buy an item, and the moment of redemption.

Redeemable NFTs (rNFTs) can be thought of as forward contracts for physical things, programmed within smart contracts. rNFTs can be held, transferred or traded like any other NFT.

Game theory in Boson Protocol

Boson uses game theory to incentivise good behaviour and mutual resolution of disputes. As an exception, disputes can be escalated to independent or decentralized resolvers.

Thus providing the bearer of an rNFT with strong and credible assurance, that either they will be able to redeem the token for the physical thing or receive their money back.

The protocol enables the creation of a single digital market for physical assets, built on decentralized infrastructure and without the need for centralized intermediaries to enable fair exchange.

Web 3 native commerce

Commerce is an exchange of valuables between entities, where participants have their subjective valuation functions that need to be matched.

Usually that means that a Seller sells a thing to a Buyer for remuneration. By tokenizing the promise to deliver a thing, Boson Protocol can facilitate exchanges of any item for tokens (usually fungible, a.k.a. cryptocurrencies).

Supporting all types of assets in a unified way is powerful, because beyond compatibility with existing commercial concepts, it also unlocks the potential to list and trade all items in a single, digital market for physical things.

As a native Web3 protocol, Boson Protocol brings autonomy to participants, nonrepudiation and superior efficiency compared to legacy because it is disintermediated at the base layer.

Core exchange mechanism

The protocol provides access to the fair automated and trust-minimized commercial transactions via the core exchange mechanism. The core exchange mechanism is a key protocol subsystem.

A seller creates an offer for an off-chain asset (a product or a service) and puts an optional deposit in the form of ERC-20 tokens or a native token (e.g. Ether). A buyer, on the other hand, commits to that offer by paying the offer price and receives a Redeemable NFT (rNFT) that they can use to redeem the item during the defined period of time.

The protocol processes the exchange.

As a result, the buyer receives the agreed product or service, and the seller can withdraw the funds they asked for in the offer. If something doesn’t go as planned, the protocol is capable of handling the dispute and reimbursing the loss according to the offer.

Standardized tokens enable Interoperability

The use of standardized tokens when and only when needed, enables ecosystem interoperability. One example of such interoperability is easy access to financing. For example, while the exchange is in-progress, Buyers can pick up their locked value in the form of a redeemable NFT and put that token to work in any number of DeFi protocols, secondary markets etc.

Open infrastructure

Boson Protocol is open infrastructure. While it is permissionless to use, the commitment to progressive decentralization means that the design and build of the protocol will ultimately be open too. This will lead to commerce becoming transparent, programmable, and composable with the wider Web3. As such, Boson is the foundational primitive within a nascent, but rapidly evolving dCommerce ecosystem.

Guaranteed by design

Unlike Web2, the above is guaranteed by design. The commerce rails set forth by Boson Protocol’s design and implemented as smart contracts are enforced and immutably the same for all.

Read on: Download our v2 whitepaper

Boson enables the decentralized exchange of physical assets- tokenized as redeemable NFTs.

The launch is planned later this year, and over the coming weeks, we will be releasing additional information about what Boson is, how it works, and how you can build on the protocol, and participate as either buyer, seller or integrator.

To read more in the Boson v2 whitepaper, you can download it here

About Boson Protocol

Boson Protocol enables you to build commerce applications that anyone can use and everyone can trust. Decentralized Comerce enables a new world of commerce that bridges the on-chain and off-chain world.

Easily add dCommerce capabilities to your dApp, build a web3 marketplace or even create your own loyalty program where your customers can redeem real-world rewards in a Web3-native way.

Want to Build on Boson?

Keen to learn more?

Watch the Boson v2 whitepaper keynote at EthCC[5]