What’s NEXT?
Introducing the Connext token and our Contributor Program
Why Next
At Connext, we believe in the power of decentralized systems to put value and ownership back into the hands of individuals rather than institutions.
Our mission is to make the next generation of dapps and protocols simple, scalable, and secure for the global market of users.
Our focus on fixing the key UX and trust hurdles of a scalable Ethereum drove us to build the first fully trust-minimized bridge in the Ethereum ecosystem last year, which to date has completed over 700,000 transactions and $1.3B in volume.
It is also why, through our recently announced Amarok upgrade, we’ll soon be the first and only network that enables generalized communication between chains without introducing trusted counterparties. We believe this breakthrough will drive a new wave of innovation around trust-minimized crosschain application (xapp) development.
Connext is set to become a critical piece of public infrastructure for the decentralized web, we are convinced it must be owned and operated by its community.
To enable this, we’re excited to introduce NEXT, the Connext network token.
What’s NEXT
NEXT is an ERC20 utility and governance token that powers fair utilization of the network.
Unlike other solutions in the interoperability space, where the security architecture relies on economic incentives (tokens of the protocol), Connext is secured directly by the chains underlying it.
The purpose of the NEXT token, then, is not to provide security but instead to maintain operational fairness for routers after our Amarok upgrade.
Routers, the nodes of Connext, stake NEXT to participate in the network, and earn a proportional share of work from the network in return. NEXT keeps the network running by ensuring that all routers are beholden to the same set of rules around fair transaction ordering, and a router’s NEXT is slashed if they violate these rules.
In addition to its role as a utility, NEXT will be used to govern the ecosystem treasury of the Connext network through a DAO. We believe the community are the best long term arbiters of resource allocation towards the key contributors that will push our network forward.
NOTE: Snapshots for the distribution of NEXT have already been taken and at this point the only way for community members to potentially earn more tokens is through our Contributor Program (explained below).
Additionally, the token is deployed, but is not yet publicly available. Please watch out for scams involving false distributions of NEXT!
High level details of the token:
- Ticker: NEXT
- Standard: ERC20
- Total supply: 1B tokens
- Token address on Ethereum: 0xFE67A4450907459c3e1FFf623aA927dD4e28c67a
- Current status: not distributed
More information about token distribution and technical governance will be released as we get closer to the full launch of the token. We are extremely excited for this new phase of Connext as a fully decentralized protocol and organization.
Time to Join us: discord.gg/connext
Where NEXT? Introducing the Contributor Program
To accelerate Connext’s decentralization, we are excited to launch our Contributor Program, a community incentive program designed to encourage community members of different backgrounds and skillsets to steward and take ownership of key aspects of our ecosystem.
- Start date: April 20, 2022
- Duration: Phase One of the program will take place until NEXT goes live, roughly a month from now.
The program consists of 5 Tracks (Community Leadership, Builders, Content & Education, Routers, and Grants), that are operated by Track Operators, experienced leaders within the community that are not part of the core team.
Participants of the program will be given points based on the quality of their contributions to the ecosystem using evaluation criteria developed by Track Operators. When the NEXT token goes live, we plan to submit a proposal to the Connext DAO to retroactively reward participants proportional to points received.
We hope to achieve a series of objectives that are critical for our mission:
- Scale the (active) community and increase awareness of Connext’s work.
- Decentralize critical initiatives within the community, such as the Community Leaders program, Grants, Connext Academy, and router ecosystem management.
- Identify talent in the community and elevate this talent into leadership positions.
- Build a grassroots developer community that can foster adoption of the protocol.
- Drive growth of routers, and simplify their onboarding process.
- Educate new and existing community members about Connext’s vision and technology.
Unfortunately due to legal reasons we cannot accept participants from the US to the Contributor Program at this time.
Tracks
👫 Community Leaders
Community Leaders steward our ecosystem. They are responsible for running localized Connext communities around the world, supporting new users of the network, educating their regions about the network, managing social spaces for the ecosystem, and stewarding the community by upholding our values and policies.
- People Skills Level Required: Advanced
- Technical Level Required: Low
- Fluid online-IRL presence: Recommended
🛠️ Builders
Builders are the heart of the network. Builders are responsible for developing new use cases for the protocol, integrating Connext into other ecosystems, mentoring new devs that are using Connext, and evangelizing Connext in developer spaces.
- Technical Level Required: Advanced
- Web3 ethos: Required
- Ability to transform bugs into features: Appreciated
📚 Content & Education
Content creators & educators help the world learn about Connext. They create high quality content around Connext (Videos, Tweets, Medium posts, Memes, etc..), and develop technical and nontechnical educational resources.
- Creativity Level Required: Advanced
- Technical Knowledge: Preferred
- DeFi/Bridges Knowledge: Recommended
🗼Routers
Routers operate the network. Members of this track run their own routers as part of our public testnet of the Amarok upgrade (and eventually mainnet!), build tooling and interfaces to improve the experience of operating a router, and generally help manage the router community.
- Technical Level Required: Advanced
- Passion for Web3 Infra: Required
- Extreme desire for automation: Appreciated
🎁 Grants
Grantees are the innovators of the network. While the other tracks encapsulate the key mechanism by which community members can get involved, there are always innovative ways to support the network that we haven’t yet thought of! Grantees propose and receive funding for special one-off projects that they expect to grow the ecosystem.
- Technical Level Required: Moderate
- Passion for Innovation: Required
- Open mindset: Appreciated
Get involved
You can find more information on each track, the code of conduct and how to apply here: contribute.connext.network
We cannot understate how excited we are for this new phase of Connext, and we are looking forward to you joining us in this journey.
About Connext
Connext is a network for fast, trustless communication between chains and rollups. It is the only interoperability system of its type that does this cheaply and quickly without introducing any new trust assumptions. Connext is aimed at developers who are looking to build bridges and other natively cross-chain applications. To date, over $1.3b in transactions have crossed the network.
