Happy New Year! Today, we are excited to announce the launch of our The Graph mainnet indexer node. Find us e.g. on the official dashboard (chorusone.eth). This post will focus on our journey so far and what you can expect when considering to delegate GRT tokens.
The Graph has become the industry standard for retrieving data from Ethereum applications, with prominent users including Coingecko, Uniswap, and many others.
We have experienced ourselves what it means to write custom code to retrieve blockchain data, to store it, and to service it for our staking platform Anthem. One of the reasons that makes us excited about The Graph is the potential to make extracting valuable information from any blockchain much easier, while at the same time not relying on a centralized party to maintain availability and to ensure integrity of the data.
The Graph is a core piece to enable truly trustless applications. By providing our infrastructure and expertise to the community, we hope to accelerate the growth of this ecosystem!
The Graph is one of the most complex decentralized protocols with various, highly interconnected elements. The intricate economic design that features multiple roles (check out a primer here) is designed to optimally provide indexing and querying capabilities through a decentralized network of participants.
As a GRT holder, one option to participate in the system is by delegating to indexer nodes that are storing and servicing data. By delegating, GRT holders essentially increase the power of their chosen indexer operator in the protocol. Indexers need to allocate stake to subgraphs and are required to service queries from data consumers, the volume of which is determined by their relative stake allocated to a specific subgraph. To compensate delegators for putting up their capital to back indexing nodes, they receive a portion of the query and inflation rewards earned by the indexer. Indexers can determine their reward cut (the commission taken on newly minted GRT from the protocol) and their query cut (the commission taken on fees from queries served).
The rest of this post will focus on the inflation and reward cut dynamics, since these are expected to have the majority impact on the staking rewards received, especially in this early bootstrapping phase of the network.
If you are seeking to find out how much you will earn at the start, when queries fees are still low, these are the things you need to consider:
There’s also a one-time 0.5% fee when delegating GRT that is burned lowering the circulating GRT supply. At the time of writing there is around 9% of the GRT supply staking meaning the APR for staking GRT is 30% (before commission). Since our indexer does not have many delegations yet, our effective commission rate is actually negative meaning you’ll earn an even higher APR until delegations fill up!
Fellow indexers and community members have already written delegation guides and built dashboards that are helpful if you want to put your GRT to work, here is a selection:
Official The Graph Dashboard: https://network.thegraph.com/
Staking Facilities Guide for Ledger + Metamask: https://stakingfac.medium.com/the-graph-staking-guide-5ec1455f4783
Graphlets Dashboard: https://graphlets.io/
The Graph Portal: https://thegraphportal.com/
Cover background image by Arash Ashgari on Unsplash.
Originally published at https://blog.chorus.one on January 1, 2021.
It’s been over 2 months since the decentralization of the SKALE Network ( mainnet phase 2) began. With an unique approach of requiring participating investors to stake a minimum of 50% of their tokens for a period of at least 2 months ( Proof-of-Use), the SKALE team focused on attracting long-term supporters of the project, as opposed to speculators looking for a quick flip.
In this post, I want to take a look at a snapshot of the on-chain data that shines light on how SKL holders are engaging with the network now that the Proof-of-Use period has come to an end.
SKL is an ERC-777 token (backwards compatible with ERC-20), so information about it is available on Etherscan. We can see that there are 4,083,530,877 SKL tokens, which are held by 3,903 different addresses. 166,857,860, or roughly 4%, of those were sold in a public sale through the Activate platform. For a detailed breakdown of the supply and associated lockups, check out this 1-pager.
I want to start this analysis by taking a look at token transfers. Visualizing the transaction counts and amounts, we can clearly see how the initial tokens were distributed to investors leading up to the phase 2 mainnet launch on October 1. We can also note an uptick in activity when the first SKALE staking period ended Dec 1 (as of now, tokens can only be staked for periods of 2 months). At this point, the first tokens unlocked and the SKL token gets listed, e.g. on Binance. On Dec 1, 6,358 transfers were carried out moving 267m SKL, or around 6.5% of the supply (see chart). Right after, activity declined significantly with on average around 500 transfers happening per day during the past week.
Looking at the total stake in the network, which e.g. can be found here, we see that the overwhelming majority of tokens are involved in staking. 74.5% of all tokens are delegated, which places SKALE in the company of established networks such as Cosmos (71.42%) and Tezos (79.44%, see Staking Rewards). In terms of addresses that are involved in staking, we see that there are 1,167 unique delegators. 30% of all addresses that hold the SKL token are also staking.
Furthermore, one may wonder how many SKL tokens have been unstaked or are planning to unstake at the next boundary (Feb 1). The official dashboard shows 112m SKL (~3.7% of the currently staked supply) have been unbonded after the first staking period. So it seems like a majority of token holders plan to continue staking (it should be noted that a majority of token holders like the foundation, team, and early investors have longer lockup periods and cannot transfer their tokens yet).
Generally speaking, the interest in staking seems to remain high. While this amount will likely increase as the month continues, we can currently see that 15m SKL tokens plan to unstake at the next boundary (Feb 1). This is three times as much as new delegations that are coming in (i.e. accepted and proposed), which amount to around 5m SKL tokens at the time of writing. If we assume constant growth and that this ratio will remain until the end of January, then the staked supply would decline by roughly 80m, which would barely impact the staking ratio.
There are currently 47 validator organizations running a grand total of 152 nodes, whose resources are distributed across elastic SKALE-Chains. The average reward per node, which is split between the node operating entity and its delegators, is 211,075 SKL per node. With 152 nodes, this means the SKALE Network is currently paying out 32,083,400 SKL (or 1.04% of the supply) per epoch.
Using the median commission rate across validators of 12%, this means the average SKL delegator is currently earning 0.9152% per month on his SKL, translating to an APR of 11.55% (including compounding).
Looking at the stake distribution among nodes, we can see that a majority of the stake is controlled by a small subset of validators with only 3 of the 47 entities controlling right about 33% of the stake (see chart).
SKALE’s design seems to have successfully incentivized an engaged base of holders that are interested in supporting the project through staking. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the project is still in a very early phase of decentralization, which can be seen both by looking at the token distribution among addresses (the top 100 addresses hold a majority of all tokens), as well as in the stake distribution across validators. For more on the importance of censorship resistance in Proof-of-Stake, check out e.g. this thread by the Solana team.
Chorus One is offering staking services and building protocols and tools to advance the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem.
We are an active validator on the SKALE Network. Support our work by delegating to us. Learn more here.
Website: https://chorus.one
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone
SKALE is an elastic blockchain network that gives developers the ability to easily provision highly configurable fully decentralized chains that are instantly compatible with Ethereum. SKALE chains can execute sub-second block times, run up to 2,000 tps per chain, and run full-state smart contracts in addition to decentralized storage, execute Rollups, and machine learning in EVM.
Website: https://skale.network/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skalenetwork
Originally published at https://blog.chorus.one on December 10, 2020.
On November 18, 2020 the Oasis mainnet transitioned to a fully permissionless platform with ROSE tokens becoming transferable on the network. This constitutes a major milestone for the Oasis ecosystem and we are proud to be part of the initial 75 validators that made this possible!
Oasis and its privacy-preserving technologies allow developers to build entirely new types of applications in which users remain in control of their data enabling a better Internet and a responsible data economy.
Coinciding with the official mainnet launch, we are excited to announce that we have finished our Ledger integration of Oasis in Anthem enabling ROSE holders to transfer and delegate their tokens to earn staking rewards to initially earn up to 20% APY (more on the economics here).
Connect your Ledger device or try out Anthem’s portfolio feature with any Oasis address at: https://anthem.chorus.one
At Chorus One, our goal is to improve non-custodial participation in the staking economy to strengthen decentralized networks and help them deliver on the promise of an open and transparent financial and user-owned Web3 ecosystem. Anthem is a tool geared towards helping users participate in these emerging networks.
To support our work, delegate ROSE tokens to our node and safely earn rewards. Learn more here: https://chorus.one/networks/oasis/
PS: A recent Chrome update is resulting in the Ledger integration not working on Chrome and Brave for some users. To fix it, you will need to go to chrome://flags#new-usb-backend and disable that flag.
Chorus One is offering staking services and building protocols and tools to advance the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem.
Chorus One is a grantee of the Oasis Foundation and a genesis mainnet node operator on the Oasis network. Learn more about us in our Node Operator Spotlight.
Website: https://chorus.one
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone
A better internet is only a matter of time. The Oasis network is trying to fix what’s broken by giving users back control of their data using a combination of secure compute and a proof-of-stake blockchain.
Website: https://oasisprotocol.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oasisprotocol
Originally published at https://blog.chorus.one on November 26, 2020.
We are excited to announce support for the Oasis mainnet release candidate Amber on Anthem! Starting today, token holders on the Amber network can track their account and transaction history by pasting in their address.
Try it out on https://anthem.chorus.one
Anthem is an essential tool for staking users on blockchain networks. Our goal is to improve non-custodial participation in the staking economy by giving users access to historical data about their investments, as well as allowing them to stake tokens and vote in governance on supported networks.
On Oasis, Anthem allows you to connect any address and access historical portfolio and transaction data with a focus on staking rewards. Token holders can display their balances in different fiat currencies (for Oasis this feature is not available yet). In addition, users can export account data as a CSV file and transaction data as a JSON file, enabling them to easily get the correct data for tax compliance or analytics purposes.
Try out Anthem for Oasis today and feel free to ask us questions on Telegram or through the live chat feature!
After Anthem has been live for a couple of months for the Cosmos Hub, adding Oasis marks the first step towards the multi-network experience we are aiming towards. We expect to soon add Celo and Terra, as well as expand features to improve participation for token holders in Proof-of-Stake networks such as Oasis in the near future.
Chorus One is providing staking services and developing cross-chain communication technologies for Proof-of-Stake blockchain networks.
Chorus One is a grantee of the Oasis Foundation and a genesis mainnet node operator on the Oasis network. Learn more about us in our Node Operator Spotlight.
Website: https://chorus.one
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone
A better internet is only a matter of time. The Oasis network is trying to fix what’s broken by giving users back control of their data using a combination of secure compute and a proof-of-stake blockchain.
Website: https://oasisprotocol.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oasisprotocol
Originally published at https://blog.chorus.one on June 30, 2020.
Chorus One has received a grant by the Web3 Foundation to develop parts of a bridge that will enable Substrate and Cosmos SDK-based blockchains to interoperate as part of the fifth grant cohort.
Such interoperability will allow, for example, a user on a Cosmos SDK blockchain to move TerraUSD coins to Substrate chains to take advantage of applications in the Polkadot ecosystem.
A core piece of Chorus One’s vision is the ability to freely transfer value and information across sovereign blockchain networks and applications. The Polkadot and Cosmos ecosystems have both been at the forefront of cross-chain interoperability.
We are excited to contribute to bridging these two ecosystems with this initial project that will enable Cosmos SDK blockchains to keep track of consensus updates on Substrate-based networks.
Polkadot combines the versatility of heterogeneous blockchains with the security and convenience of a single security pool and validator set. This is one of the most daring and promising visions of the blockchain space and could unleash unparalleled innovation. The Polkadot ecosystem is consistently shipping great software to advance that vision. We are incredibly excited to help bridge the flourishing Polkadot and Cosmos communities.
Brian Fabian Crain, CEO of Chorus One
A Substrate light client that’s compatible with the Cosmos SDK is a great first step towards bridging the Polkadot and Cosmos ecosystems. We’re excited to see the results of this work and eventually a complete bridge between both networks.
Dieter Fishbein, Head of Ecosystem Development at Web3 Foundation
This grant-funded project lays the groundwork for a bridge between Polkadot and Cosmos. The current project code consists of three parts: a relayer implementation that allows necessary information to pass between two blockchains, a Substrate-IBC module for the Cosmos SDK that is geared towards handling Substrate data, and a Substrate client consisting of WebAssembly bytecode to verify BABE and GRANDPA consensus information on Cosmos chains. In order to have a fully functional bridge, a second follow-on project that allows Substrate chains to validate Tendermint messages is required.
Our WebAssembly Light Client design for Substrate on Cosmos SDK can be extended to support any other blockchains whose light client logic is compile-able to Wasm. One key advantage of the design is the ability to upgrade the Substrate light client, which is derived from the canonical Rust implementation, on Cosmos SDK chains without requiring a full governance process and hard fork for each upgrade. Additionally, the design may be able to easily handle consensus algorithms and allow them to interoperate with the Cosmos ecosystem via IBC. Find the full details and technical description of our approach here.
We are excited to contribute to realizing a world of interconnected blockchains. If you are interested in working with us on this, reach out to us via the channels linked below.
Chorus One is operating validation infrastructure and building tools to advance the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem.
We will offer staking on Polkadot when the network goes live. You will be able to support our work and earn staking rewards by nominating our validators with your DOTs.
Website: https://chorus.one
Anthem Staking Platform: https://anthem.chorus.one
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone
Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone
Image on cover art by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.
Originally published at https://blog.chorus.one on May 5, 2020.
Today, we are excited to announce that Chorus One will join the Band Protocol ecosystem as a block validator and data provider.
Band Protocol is a data layer for Web 3.0 applications providing decentralized off-chain data to smart contracts through community-curated oracles. Band Protocol is backed by a strong network of stakeholders including Sequoia Capital, one of the top venture capital firms in the world, and the leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
Band Protocol 2.0 introduces BandChain, a blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK to accommodate user-defined data requests and support data oracles across multiple blockchains. Dapps can use BandChain to query data from traditional APIs and send it to the smart contracts in a verifiable and secure manner.
We have seen how price oracles have the potential to cause chaos in crypto. Synthetix had a close call when their price oracle failed last year. Recent flash loan arbitrage trades have shown that automated market makers like Uniswap can be fragile when low liquidity is paired with leverage. Similarly Terra, where Chorus One also runs a validator, saw their stablecoin swap mechanism subjected to arbitrage attacks leading to an effort to continuously improve the robustness of their oracle implementation.
We believe Band Protocol has the capacity to help mitigate oracle risks through their novel incentivized model on BandChain that incorporates flexibility, customizability, and speed while also ensuring the security and integrity of the data.
“As a validator and data provider on Band Protocol we hope to bring additional decentralization and security to all blockchain applications that seek to safeguard against critical failures arising from dependency on any sole oracle solution”
- Brian Fabian Crain, CEO & Co-Founder of Chorus One
Here are some of the reasons why we chose to support Band Protocol:
As Chorus One, we strongly believe in the Internet of Blockchains vision, as espoused by Cosmos and others. We believe that there will be many blockchain networks that all interact with each other and that, over time, these chains will become increasingly specialized. These chains will use inter-blockchain communication, via protocols like the Inter-blockchain Protocol (IBC), to securely transact with each other.
One key problem for the Internet of Blockchains is that blockchains are unable to verify data that is created outside of their network. This is known as the “oracle” problem and technologies designed to solve this problem are called oracles. Financial contracts need market data, insurance contracts need IoT data, and gaming applications need provable randomness. The oracle problem is such a fundamental one, we believe there will be many competing solutions, all providing unique benefits and making various data feeds available.
So while we recently partnered with Chainlink, the current market leaders in this space, we also see Band Protocol playing a key role in the evolution of oracles in the Internet of Blockchains. In an IBC context, oracles can bridge the Internet of Blockchains to real world data. As the Band Protocol network is built using the Cosmos SDK, it can operate as a Cosmos “zone”. This means it will naturally fit into the world of chains communicating over the IBC protocol, bringing high-quality data feeds to other application-specific chains built using the Cosmos SDK.
We expect to see many applications choosing to partner with multiple oracle solutions to improve resilience, as per the recent bZx announcement, where bZx have decided to partner with both Chainlink and Band Protocol to improve their price feed oracles.
We will be available to answer any questions you might have on the Chorus One Telegram group at https://t.me/chorusone, where we will host an AMA with the Band team on the 16th of April at 5PM CET.
About Chorus One
Chorus One is operating validation infrastructure and staking services for Proof-of-Stake networks.
We will offer staking on BandChain when the network goes live in April. You will be able to support our work and earn staking rewards by delegating BAND to our node.
Website: https://chorus.one
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone
Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone
About Band Protocol
Band Protocol is a decentralized oracle framework for Web3.0 applications. Band Protocol connects smart contracts with trusted off-chain information, provided through community-curated oracle data providers. Blockchains are enabled to connect to any web API with assured data integrity through dPoS economic incentives through one simple function call. Developers using Band Protocol will be able to easily build and manage off-chain oracles, reputation scores, identity management systems and much more.
To learn more about Band Protocol, please check out their website here: https://bandprotocol.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/bandprotocol
Medium: https://medium.com/bandprotocol
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BandProtocol
Originally published at https://blog.chorus.one on April 2, 2020.
We are excited to announce that Chorus One is joining Chainlink as a node operator. Starting today, our Chainlink node will assist in providing highly available and reliable data feeds to the crypto ecosystem.
The Chainlink team is providing a core piece of infrastructure for blockchain applications by allowing them to handle off-chain data. On their own, blockchains are unable to verify “real world” data that is created outside their native network. This creates a conundrum, as many blockchain use cases need to stay informed about external events to trigger the execution of smart contracts. For example, financial contracts need market data, insurance contracts need IoT data, and gaming applications need provable randomness.
Not only do smart contracts need off-chain connection, but they need that connection to be as secure as the underlying blockchain. Hence, there needs to be a way for external data to be fed into blockchains in a secure and reliable manner. This is widely referred to as the oracle problem, and Chainlink is leading the effort in making integrating off-chain data, such as price feeds, simple, yet secure for decentralized applications.
Chainlink relies on node operators providing streams of data to the network from external sources. These Chainlink-powered decentralized oracle networks are live on the Ethereum mainnet with additional plans to become blockchain agnostic over time. At the moment node operators are vetted by the Chainlink team to maintain Sybil resistance in the early stages of the network. A staking incentive model is in the works that will allow LINK holders to stake their tokens with trustworthy node operators. This will help create a permissionless, decentralized network focused on reliably providing accurate data to be consumed by blockchain applications.
We have valuable experience in working with networks that rely on price oracles. The Terra stablecoin protocol allows anyone to exchange their stablecoins with the network’s native staking token Luna through an automated market maker. The Terra community has implemented an incentivized, stake-based oracle protocol in which validators provide price data on-chain in frequent time intervals. While this approach may be suitable for some large applications and networks; it appears that a general, customizable solution that works across blockchains and applications will be more scalable, reliable, and ultimately trustworthy, if designed with the proper incentives.
Following Chainlink’s progress over the last couple of months, it is our belief that the protocol has a good chance of becoming the standard for providing off-chain data to blockchain applications. Our thesis is further supported by the transition of several major decentralized finance projects on Ethereum to the Chainlink network instead of running their own oracle implementations. Examples include Aave and Synthetix, which made this decision after their early price reference feed was exploited by a trader.
We are excited to join the Chainlink community to help make blockchain adoption for real-world applications a reality. We will be supporting the network with our infrastructure and knowledge of staking systems and look forward to publishing further content around Chainlink and the planned staking implementation in the future.
Chorus One is building validation and staking infrastructure for Proof-of-Stake networks.
We will offer staking for Chainlink when it goes live. You will be able to support our work and earn staking rewards by delegating LINK to our node.
Website: https://chorus.one
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone
Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web APIs, and traditional bank payments. Chainlink is consistently selected as one of the top blockchain technologies by leading independent research firms such as Gartner. It is well known for providing highly secure and reliable oracles to great companies like Google, Oracle, SWIFT, and many other large enterprises, as well as many of the world’s best smart contract projects/teams such as Web3/Polkadot, Synthetix, Loopring, Kaleido, OpenLaw, Reserve, and many more.
Learn more by visiting the Chainlink website, Twitter or Reddit. If you’re a developer, visit the developer documentation or join the technical discussion on Discord.
Humanity’s strive for economic growth fueled by carbon-based energy sources has led to the warmest 5-year period on record according to a recent report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Our planet’s atmosphere is reaching record high greenhouse gas concentrations and there are no signs of these trends slowing down. It’s becoming clear that major actions are required to avoid an impending crisis.
There are many theories regarding the best way to deliver peaceful social and political change. Most can be grouped into one of the following categories:
Change can and does come from each of these strategies (to different degrees, of course!). They are all useful in their own way. But in this time of climate catastrophe, where urgent action is required, the real challenge is to ensure that the efforts of all these strategies can be channelled so that they can mutually reinforce each other. In this post, we argue that the Regen Network can act as the coordination mechanism to align all of these efforts.
It’s worth noting that the Regen Network didn’t spontaneously arise. It builds on an existing global movement whose origins can be traced back to crypto-anarchism of the late-eighties and early nineties. More recently the thinking behind crypto-anarchism was reborn in communities that formed around the Bitcoin project, particularly with the ideas that led to Ethereum in late 2013. Regen Network is built using technologies from the Cosmos and Tendermint ecosystem, which are grounded in the vision brought forth by Ethereum. There are now tens of thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands) of developers across the globe working to build out a new internet that is sometimes called Web3 or the decentralized web.
The Web3 philosophy is based on the sovereignty of the individual as a route to political and economic freedom. Projects like Ethereum and Cosmos are also built around ideas of community, where sovereign individuals can achieve their goals by working together with others. This results in new forms of economic interactions mediated by smart contracts, new financial mechanisms (“DeFi”), new social structures (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations or DAOs), new models of democracy and governance, new forms of property rights, etc.
The Regen Network vision starts with the question: what if we could reliably measure the health of every inch of the planet? If we could, then we would notice when things got better or worse in any locality. We could know when soil health improves, when wildlife is reintroduced, when land use is diversified, when water quality improves, when forests are expanded etc. Once we know these things, we can use this information to create incentives rewarding anyone who can make a positive change. This is where capital comes in. Governments, corporations, citizens and communities all have a vested interest in helping to solve this problem. So Regen looks to attract investment capital from those who desperately need to see the problem solved (all of us!) and channel it to the projects that can have the most impact. Various sensors, satellite imagery, drones, data analytics and AI, etc. are used to verify the ecological data. Blockchains provide an open, transparent record of this data and how funds are being spent. The Regen Network is a shared commons: it is owned and operated by the Regen community.
The Regen Network gives us the one thing we are missing right now: trust. We can trust that change is happening as the data is verified at source and recorded on the blockchain. We can trust that the people that are making it happen are getting rewarded appropriately, as smart contracts set the rules regarding how and when people get paid. We can trust that the network cannot be taken over by vested interests, as the governance rules of the system are clear and transparent.
Let’s look at the how Regen fits into the categories of change introduced at the start of this post:
Petitioners are fearless warriors but they face two big challenges: complexity and an aversion to markets. Petitioners typically rely on governments to effect change. But this time governments don’t know how to fix the problem without the wheels coming off the global economy. The solutions required are too complex for any one government to solve and the global systems to manage this (G20, IMF, World Bank, UN) are not equipped to take on the challenge. A failed top-down attempt to reconfigure the global economy could easily slide into global conflict.
So what tools do we have to manage complexity? It turns out we already have a coordination mechanism that has been proven to work on a global scale. It takes inputs from every actor in the system and aggregates that raw data into usable information that is used to make informed decision making. It has enabled sustained growth in human well-being over centuries. This mechanism is called a market.
Unfortunately, petitioners don’t trust markets as they tend to get co-opted by vested interests. Luckily, we now have a solution to this: blockchain technology. The Regen Network uses blockchain technology to build market-mechanisms that are resistant to co-option. These networks are owned and governed by the community. They are carefully designed to avoid attacks by powerful players.
The Regen Network also provides a way for governments to play their part to enable a robust solution to the problem. Governments can’t solve the problem alone, but they can certainly provide funding, supporting infrastructure, regulatory assistance, and rally their citizens behind these efforts.
Localists are the doers. They work hard to get things done. They find solutions that work on a local level. They share these ideas across the Internet with others. Their model has also proved to be effective.
But it’s too slow for what we need right now. And because they haven’t been able to get access to capital, they haven’t been able to scale their ideas.
The decentralized nature of the Regen Network aligns well with the localist approach. With Regen you don’t need to get permission to act. You just need to prove that what you are doing is effective. This aligns well with localists, who are naturally results-focused.
Regen can add value by routing capital to the most effective localists and by providing a mechanism to quickly spread proven models across the globe.
Self-helpers need purpose. They need a mission. They want to build a better life for themselves and those around them. Yes, that includes a safe planet to live in. But they also want a comfortable life for them and their families. A purpose with no income is a life sentence of poverty. So they need purpose that also gives them opportunities to create wealth.
To date all we’ve heard about climate change is that it will cost us. We have to travel less, eat less meat, buy less goods, spend time recycling… It’s all cost and no rewards.
Regen is looking to change that. People should get paid for the value they create. And saving the planet is valuable for all of us. The people who are provably contributing to ecological well-being should be generously rewarded.
The paradigm shift model was proposed by Thomas Kuhn to explain changes in scientific interpretations in the world. The basic idea is that science resists new ideas, until at some point the old interpretation becomes untenable and a sudden and fundamental change occurs. The classic example is the shift from the geo-centric model of the solar system to the heliocentric model of Copernicus.
It is possible that a similar phenomenon is happening with public blockchains, where a new alternative economic and political model is evolving in parallel to our existing social structures. For some people, the old system cannot be reformed. It is destined to lead us to dire ecological consequences. They argue that the only way forward is to build a parallel economic model that can step in to take over from the existing system before it’s too late. In this view, the world will shift over to Web3 once the technology is ready.
Regen Network is one of the most promising projects that delivers on this Web3 vision. For those who believe the current system is doomed, Regen gives them hope and a viable way to contribute to solving climate change.
But you don’t have to be a paradigm-shifter to believe in the Regen vision. For those who think the solution is a pragmatic mix of the existing system with some ideas from Web3, then Regen can also fulfil their needs.
A solution that can align these groups needs to have the following:
The Regen Network has all of the above. They have a viable, credible and pragmatic vision. Regen Network (once it’s fully operational) will show us all a very clear path to contribute in whatever way we can (time, effort, money, education, etc.) Saving the planet gives us all a sense of purpose. Regen channels this purpose into ecological improvement.
You can think of Regen Network as an ecological commitments network. Just like the electricity grid moves electrical power to where it’s needed, their ecological commitments network acts like a grid to route money and effort to where it can have the maximum ecological impact. People plug into the grid. They commit to doing some work that contributes to our ecological well-being. The grid matches them with people who are willing to pay for that task. A binding contract is agreed. Other entities commit to act as auditors. They confirm that commitments were delivered upon by providing proof (e.g. satellite imagery, sensor data). When commitments are verified, the people performing the work are paid.
The solution is powered by blockchain technology, which provides three key enablers that we didn’t have before:
The biggest challenge for the Regen Network to overcome is prejudice within the activist community against market-based approaches to solving the climate crisis.
For a long time, capital has been a dirty word in social activism. For some, money is the fuel of the corruption that protestors have spent decades fighting against. Some contend that the desire to financialize everything has destroyed communities, cultures and the planet. But it’s time to let go of that notion. Capital is not the enemy. Markets are not the enemy. Capital and markets are the solution.
The problem with markets to date is that they were often co-opted to serve the needs of corporations. The rules were crafted to ensure favourable outcomes to those who controlled them. Blockchain networks have changed that. Now anyone can design a market. Anyone can invent their own incentives mechanism and build it in a few lines of code. People can opt into the market mechanism that they believe are the most effective at enabling the change they want to see in the world. This is a profound transformation in the global power structure that the activist community should embrace.
Regen’s vision is to use these new capabilities to build markets based on provable ecological outputs. Avoiding climate catastrophe is a multi-trillion dollar problem. We need a big ambitious vision that can scale. We need a model that can align all stakeholders.
It must channel the energies of the petitioners who can build awareness and spread the word. They can march, lobby, strike to get governments to provide financing for Regen-based projects. Self-helpers will find their life’s purpose and a meaningful way to build wealth for them and their families. These will be the entrepreneurs and individual contributors, the farmers, the data scientists, the IoT experts, the people building AI for analyzing satellite imagery. Localists can plug into the grid and get paid for the work they are doing. They can share this knowledge with other communities across the globe. For sure, some people will only focus on their ability to make money. That could be a global corporation or a poor farmer in sub-Saharan Africa. The Regen Network doesn’t filter people out based on their motivations. The incentives structure and blockchain-enforced rules will ensure that only legitimate activities improving ecological health will be rewarded. People, tools and technology will work together to prevent fraud, scams and collusion.
This is a crisis. It needs urgency. It needs everyone to work together. Regen Network is building the grid that aligns all these efforts at effecting change, and channels them into effective ecological action.
Check out https://regen.network for more information on how you can help.
Regen are currently raising additional funding. If you are a VC, crypto investor or accredited investor, then please visit this page or contact gregory@regen.network for more information.
Chorus One is currently running a validator on Regen’s testnet and will offer staking services on the upcoming Regen Network mainnet. We have partnered with the team building the Regen Network to help fulfill their vision and will own and stake XRN tokens.
Images taken from Wikipedia, a Regen Network slide deck, and Daniel Clay, Markus Spiske, Biegun Wschodni from Unsplash.
Originally published at https://blog.chorus.one on November 5, 2019.
