[#10] ForboleChain: insights from Game of Stakes
This blogpost covers the insights we have obtained from Game of Stakes (“GoS”), the aftermath of the BitFish’s drama, and the Cosmos community which have affected our design thinking in ForboleChain and the tokenomics of the entire Project Forbole. In case you don’t know about our project, here are the lightpaper and whitepaper:
The insights are in fact a series of experiments (and questions) we would like to try in ForboleChain.
1) Has fundraiser decided the destiny of decentralization?
When the blockchain raised fund by selling its native tokens, how can it ensure the distribution of token holders is sufficiently decentralized? Even if it is decentralized enough at genesis, how to ensure the level of decentralization will be kept healthy provided that whales can buy (and accumulate) the tokens from the market?
We are realistic to conclude that nothing can be 100% ensured. We should think of mitigating the risks instead of eliminating them.
Experiment: Presale of Desmo Token
That’s why we hope to include as many independent validators as possible when we design the first presale of Desmo, the native token of ForboleChain. Luckily, during the prolonged GoS and the testnet of IRISnet, we know who should we invite to participate.
Due to the heavy workload (you know it, Cosmonauts) recently, we have slowed down the presale process. But we plan to start a private testnet of ForboleChain by the end of Feb which will give validators more information to decide how to involve in our project. Stay tuned!
2) The rich get richer?
There is a potential threat in blockchain ecosystem that the people with more financial resources can accumulate wealth faster. This is exactly what is happening in real life capitalism.
Experiment: diminishing marginal voting power
We should not penalise the rich just because they are rich. What we are considering is to design a mechanism that the voting power will increase at a decreasing rate as the bonded stakes increase.
3) The road from rags to riches
Joining the presale of token means you need to invest in that. This is part of the rationales of staking: you need to feel some pains if you have done something wrong. What if you don’t have the financial resources to join the presale of a token?
Experiment: a series of bounty programs for every kind of contributions (as early as possible)
This is a stone to hit three birds. Firstly, this can provide a way for people with less financial resources to obtain the tokens by sweat.
Secondly, we can let the community to participate the development of the project asap and minimize the influence of the founding team. This can enhance the sense of ownership by the community and improve the decentralization of the project.
Thirdly, we may need less capital to develop the project and hence we may depend less on institutional investors whose goals may not be totally aligned with that of the community.
4) Governance: checks and balances between different stakeholders
For most of the PoS blockchain ecosystems, the stakeholders mainly include the team, the investors and the validators. For the sake of wide adoption of blockchain technology, we want a way to include layman users in the governance.
As you may know, Project Forbole includes two core parts: ForboleChain (well, the blockchain) and Forbole Referral Network (“FRN”, the business social networking app):
Experiment: Bicameralism
While ForboleChain and FRN have completely different target audiences and business models, the users of FRN will be quite a good source of community who can provide checks and balances to the governance of ForboleChain. The incentives and penalties mechanism can be provided by the design of the Desmo (ForboleChain) and Phanero (FRN) dual-token model.
As Phanero represents the more traditional type of business model of a social network (advertising income and membership fee), the conversion between Desmo and Phanero may provide a reliable guidance of the valuation of the entire Project Forbole which is easier to be understood from layman’s perspective.
We hope that more people are interested to take part in the above experiments. Please sign up our email list and Telegram to keep updated!
