AGI Token Staking 1 — Motivations and Concepts

The SingularityNET team has been hard at work creating the first robust, scalable, general-purpose decentralized AI platform — and, as announced in a recent blog post and roadmap update, the first half of 2020 is going to be the most exciting phase yet in the growth of the project. The next few months will see the launch of a mobile SDK, an AI Publisher portal making it easier to put new services on the platform, a number of spinoffs and advanced research projects leveraging the platform reach maturity, and the advent of AGI token staking — a key aspect of the SingularityNET ecosystem whose time has finally come.

Staking will begin in April 2020 and the particulars of the staking process and model will be elaborated in a series of blog posts, mostly to be published in February. This initial post in the staking blog series simply explains what kind of staking we are launching and what objectives we have in mind. Later posts will outline the quantitative parameters and provide how-to information for those who wish to stake their tokens.

The Fiat-Crypto Gateway

The role of staking in the SingularityNET platform ecosystem is closely tied to the fiat-crypto gateway — a collection of software processes that together allow users the option to interact with AI providers and other users on the SingularityNET platform using entirely fiat currency rather than AGI tokens.

Even with a full fiat-crypto gateway in place, all value exchanged between AI services and their users on SingularityNET will take place using AGI tokens on the back end. Designing the gateway in such a way allows the SingularityNET platform to provide the convenience of fiat currency to its users and additionally permits the gateway to co-exist with the unique economic logic of the AGI token, which is key to the philosophy and operation of the SingularityNET network

The first half of the fiat-crypto gateway — automated fiat-to-AGI conversion for platform usage — is already in place, at least in initial form. A PayPal interface to the platform has been constructed, which allows users to purchase AI services from providers using their PayPal wallets. As PayPal wallets are easily filled using fiat currency, this interface allows for payment using fiat for service users on the platform.

Of course, PayPal as a particular service has its limitations in terms of cost and jurisdiction, and due to this, we have plans to augment it with other fiat-to-AGI approaches. However, given PayPal’s huge user base the PayPal interface represents a solid option for SingularityNET users that desire to use fiat for the consumption and provision of AI services.

The second half of the fiat-crypto gateway is planned for release in June 2020 and will enable AI service providers to automatically convert the AGI tokens they earn on the platform into fiat. By implementing this solution, SingularityNET will be able to fully participate as an end-to-end system in the conventional fiat and crypto economy. This is critical for the platform’s success as an alternative to the Big Tech AI ecosystem, enabling rapid growth in the adoption of the platform beyond the community of current blockchain and cryptocurrency users.

We are big believers in blockchain and cryptocurrency and would like to see more of the world economy shift away from fiat and towards decentralized and democratically governed mechanisms for transmitting and storing value. However, we also need to be practical and we do not want SingularityNET’s growth as an AI platform to be dependent on the speed at which cryptocurrency is accepted as mainstream by the AI business and research communities.

Why the AGI Token Needs Staking

To make the fiat-crypto gateway work on the back end requires the operator of the gateway (i.e. SingularityNET Foundation or some entity it nominates) to engage in continual exchanges of fiat currency for AGI tokens. When a user pays for an AI service in fiat, this fiat then needs to be turned into AGI to pay the AI agent. Further, when a service provider requests payment in fiat for access to their AI agent, the AGI that these agents have received as payment need to be turned into fiat.

Doing all these exchanges, in practice, requires a “liquidity pool” of AGI tokens that can be provided in exchange for fiat as needed. The operator of the fiat-to-AGI and AGI-to-fiat exchanges need to have some AGI tokens and some fiat currency on hand so that when someone needs to change AGI for fiat, it has the fiat; and vice-versa when someone needs to change fiat for AGI, it has the AGI.

Staking is an elegant way of securing an additional pool of AGI tokens usable for mediating the exchanges this gateway requires.

When an AGI token holder stakes their tokens, this means they are agreeing to “lock-up” and not use their tokens for a period of time. They are temporarily handing over their tokens to the Foundation to manage the staking process — until the lock-up period expires, and they can request the tokens back. These staked tokens are then part of the pool that can be used to mediate the fiat-to-AGI exchanges required on the back end of the fiat-crypto gateway.

In exchange for providing their tokens to be used in this way, the AGI token holder who has staked their tokens is provided with a certain number of bonus AGI tokens, similarly to fiat depositors earning interest. Other rewards for staking may also be introduced, including perhaps rewards related to selected SingularityNET spinoffs or projects incubated by X-Lab or Todalarity.

For the AGI token owner who has bought tokens in advance of needing to use them for purchasing AI services, the tokens on their own are typically not providing any immediate value until used for payment. By implementing staking, people in this position are provided with a way to obtain some short-term value from these tokens, while holding onto them and waiting for the right time to use them.

The initial quantitative parameters of the AGI token staking process and the practical procedures to follow for staking your tokens will be covered in later blog posts in this series. Hopefully, in this initial post, we have made clear how AGI token staking will work on a general level, and what role it will play in the rapidly evolving SingularityNET ecosystem.

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