EDI Protocol Token

Published in

Freight Trust Ecosystem

4 min readApr 15, 2020

The most certain failure is to create a money-clone that is less useful, less liquid, less popular, less easy, and less likely to be used

Update: $EDI is now trading on Probit.com
https://www.probit.com/app/exchange/EDI-BTC

Probit: https://www.probit.com/r/93435042
Referral Code: 93435042

$EDI Token

In outlining the functionality of $EDI tokens, we will use the “BCP Framework for Assessment of Cryptographic Tokens” which is described as “[a framework] Categorizing tokens based on these criteria aims to clarify a Token holder’s rights, allowing the community to precisely define a Token’s value, mitigate any risks and provide a supporting framework. Following the above, our BCP distinguishes between three major classes of BCPs and Tokens.” — BCP Framework

Decoupling transactional token usage from system cycles

In brief

We adopt a “cryptoasset” pricing model, evaluate our current token model, and propose several changes in order to maximize value accrual as the network opens for public (i.e. business) usage. Much of this work is based on sources found at the end, and we would like to thank everyone who offered their critiques and thoughts on the subject.

Examining the “bifurcated” token model (having 2 tokens: a transactional token (network native) and a “system” token (erc-20) is shown to be a better model than a traditional singular token model.

Protocol

“Protocols encode the rules of engagement that coordinate the exchange of a service between a global supplier and global consumer.”

Protocols provide structure for businesses, but are not businesses themselves; they are systems of logic that coordinate exchange between suppliers (businesses) and consumers of a service. As coordinators of exchange, protocols should be minimally extractive, whereas businesses are incentivized to be maximally extractive (that’s profit, and a business is valued as a multiple of its profit).

The ERC-20 token, $EDI, acts as a right to receive the native network asset, xEDI on demand. xEDI does not act as a right to receive any other asset, instead, it grants the right to transact on the network-based upon market conditions and pricing. This does not preclude a trading mechanism from existing: we simply enforce a one-way mechanism for EDI to xEDI.

Threshold Utility Level

The ERC-20 token, $EDI, can enable access to the network level operator system, commonly referred to as “master nodes”. This is both a network and a legal operation as operators are part of a limited partnership that is compensated from Freight Trust Inc.

Network operation is distributed amongst “Master Nodes”. An amount of $EDI is required, x, in order to be able to be eligible for hosting part of the main network. Additionally, sidechain functionality may also be launched via the same mechanism (see permissioned sidechains and EDI Token on Freight Trust Omnibus Documentation).

End-market fundamentals

In our use case, we assume that the platform will accrue transaction volumes at a consistent dollar rate per user transaction set (e.g. EDI transaction to a trading partner). This transaction volume would likely be composed of an end-user directly paying for the transaction on a per kilobyte basis either through our SaaS platform (which buys off exchanges) or they themselves procure $EDI token through staking or purchase from an order book.

Value flows being distributed in the native cryptoasset requires an exogenous assumption to form a base of value, and even then, the supply-side’s assessment of the value they’re receiving can be unpredictable given the native asset’s volatility. We can make the assumption that at equilibrium the service should be 1/10th the cost of a service provisioned by a company comparable (e.g., storage at 1/10th the cost of AWS), as only networks that are more efficient than companies will be able to get demand-sides to make the leap. The cost of the service can then be pinpointed, the units of the service consumed can be projected, and the product of the two is the value stream flowing to the supply-side.

That value stream is what the cryptocapital has claim to, and so the capital asset component of value can be assessed. The “outside” anchor is the cost of comparable services that the cryptonetwork (freight trust network) will be competing with, though trouble remains if the native cryptoasset is too volatile, as that volatility influences the supply-sides’ perception of what they’re getting paid. Freight Trust, Inc includes a few “legacy” mechanisms to address this point, such as payment to node operators in fiat, thus establishing a fixed cost floor.

Governance mechanisms in general should:

1) Attract a willing supply-side that produces the resource (node operators, stakeholders, community et al)

2) Connect that resource to a demand-side that values and is willing to pay for the resource (businesses)

3) It creates an open layer of access to the underlying resource for distributors that want to build the last mile to the consumer. (Freight Trust Corporate)

As of right now, no formal governance mechanism besides the informal RFC process exists for EDI. We plan in the following days to formally propose a new governance mechanism based upon Dynamic Alignment. We have included a graphic to illustrate the idea behind it