Anthony In Announcements, Blockzero Blog, Flash

The Path to Flash v3 | Perpetual Liquidity + FlashBurn + Layer 2

Article Breakdown

Flashstake v3 Overview
Five Primary Upgrades
v3 Token Allocation
$150,000 KPI Unlock
Roles, Phases, and Budget
Flash Council Transition
Apply for Position

Note: As Flashstake is permissionless, the v2 iteration of the protocol will continue to exist and live on Ethereum for as long as people want to use it.

TLDR

Blockzero Labs is pushing forward to build Flashstake v3 — an upgrade to the current Flashstake protocol. V3 will include five primary updates:

Perpetual Liquidity Locks
Layer 2 Gas Optimization
FlashBurn Trading Fees
Flexible Token Governance
Partnership Integrations

July 31st

A single snapshot will be taken on July 31st at 18:00 UTC. This is not the token distribution date — simply the date of the snapshot.

Current $FLASH (both v1 and v2) holders will be airdropped $FLASH v3 at a 1:1 ratio based on their holdings. This includes v1 and v2 tokens that are held in a wallet, staked, or providing liquidity on the Dapp/Uniswap.

V3 tokens will be fully unlocked. No migration needed.

Additionally, 1M $FLASH v3 owned by the Blockzero Vortex will be given to $XIO holders and earned over the course of three months. The start date to begin earning $FLASH v3 as an $XIO holder is set for July 31st.

In total, this proposal is being subsidized by a $175,000 grant from Blockzero. If the Flashstake v3 protocol is able to hit certain predetermined KPIs by March 31st, 2022 — Blockzero would offer an additional $150,000 grant to be used for the continuous development and growth of the project.

Flashstake v3 Overview

Flashstake v3 will be a time-based DeFi protocol that allows anyone to earn an instant upfront yield on their crypto. Users can do this by:

Converting ERC tokens into flashTokens
Staking the flashToken for a predetermined amount of time
Receiving instant upfront yield on the stake paid out in $FLASH

User Flashstaking Flow

Here is an example of the proposed Flashstaking experience for v3 users.

User converts LINK to flashLINK — an LP token with 50% LINK and 50% FLASH
FlashLINK is an ERC token with inherent flashstaking abilities
User stakes flashLINK for 100 days and immediately receives 50 $FLASH

The user then has the option to either:

Swap the 50 $FLASH for any other asset they want (ETH, DAI, LINK, etc)
Pair the 50 $FLASH with another asset and Flashstake again (flashETH, flashDAI, flashLINK, etc)
Hold the 50 $FLASH in their wallet

At any point, the user can unstake their flashLINK. If a user unstakes their flashLINK before their entire stake duration is completed, a portion of their flashLINK will be retained by the protocol as a fee.

The usage of this fee will be decided by governance over time. A few examples of what could be done with these fees include:

Keep it in Vortex
Burn the underlying FLASH
Sell the LINK for FLASH

The above flow is the protocol process, however, additional ways to customize and optimize the user experience can be made over time.

Five Primary Upgrades

There are five primary upgrades Flashstake v3 would offer.

1) Perpetual Liquidity Locks

In v2, it has been an uphill battle to increase and retain liquidity.

While various liquidity mining campaigns have been proposed and performed, these issues have created a revolving door of refilling liquidity and inflating the $FLASH token in the process.

There are two primary reasons we have run into these issues:

Split Liquidity Focus: In the current token model, liquidity is separated into two different protocols: Flashstake v2 and Uniswap. This creates a constant battle between the two protocols competing over liquidity.
Inverse Economic Incentives: When individuals stake in v2, arbitrageurs are incentivized to buy $FLASH through the Flashstake protocol & sell it on Uniswap. This means, with each stake, Uniswap liquidity (relative to USD) decreases. This has created an unfortunate inverse relationship between stake volume & liquidity.

In v3, these issues are resolved in two primary ways:

Concentrated Liquidity: Flashstake will have its own internal AMM (FlashSwap) and will no longer be dependent on Uniswap. Stakers will now be able to fully buy and sell $FLASH directly through the protocol using an internal FlashSwap system.
Guaranteed Liquidity: All participating Flashstakers will simultaneously be liquidity providers. This means flashstaking is not possible without a proportional amount of additional liquidity added to the protocol.

In short, this means $FLASH tokens cannot be inflated or minted unless there is an even greater amount of liquidity provided to the protocol. As long as there are people flashstaking, the amount of locked liquidity in the protocol is perpetually increasing.

Note: Another traditional benefit of increased liquidity is better price stability as it takes much larger buys/sells to move the price.

2) Layer-2 Gas Optimization

In v2, gas fees of $50 to $500 aren’t uncommon when trying to perform a flashstake. If you also consider the amount of gas it takes to acquire $FLASH, approve the token, and unstake the original tokens — this has made it nearly impossible for many flashstakers to justify participation.

In v3, we are proposing to launch the Flashstake v3 protocol natively and exclusively on a Layer 2 or sidechain. This means, 100% of Flashstaking activity will happen without having to pay the normal amount of L1 fees.

The two current top options for this are Arbitrum and Polygon. Some estimates include 100x savings on gas fees using these scaling solutions.

3) FlashBurn Trading Fees

In v2, the only time $FLASH tokens are burned is when individuals unstake early by removing the tokens before their pre-committed stake time has completed.

In v3, as the protocol has a built-in AMM to both buy and sell tokens, $FLASH tokens are burned each and every time someone makes a swap.

For example, if the FlashBurn fee is set to 1% and a user wanted to swap their newly acquired ETH for DAI, the transaction would look like this:

$100,000 of ETH is swapped for $100,000 of FLASH (FLASH/ETH)
$1000 of FLASH would be burned
$99,000 FLASH would be swapped for $99,000 DAI (FLASH/DAI)
$990 of FLASH would be burned

To find out if Flashstake v3 will be a deflationary or inflationary currency, the formula is simple:

If the trading fees on the Flashstake v3 protocol are greater than the amount of flashstaking rewards, the protocol will be deflationary. The opposite is also true.

In this model, Flashstake v3 no longer relies on inflationary rewards to generate yield for users. The Flashstake v3 protocol generates yield the same way Uniswap does: trading fees.

The two major differences between the Flashstake v3 AMM and current AMMs are:

Upfront Fixed Yield: Flashstake v3 LPs get guaranteed upfront yield with a pre-determined APY and don’t have to guess or estimate their potential fees.
Loyal Liquidity: Since liquidity is locked in Flashstake v3 unlike traditional AMMs, the Flashstake v3 protocol has a natural defense mechanism to vampire attacks or unloyal LPs.

4) Flexible Token Governance

When we originally created v2, our goal was to be as algorithmically set as possible. This means formulas are set solely by the activity of the protocol.

While this has offered some decentralization to the protocol, it has at times handcuffed our ability to adjust the interest rates as needed to fit the changing demands and needs of the project.

One analogy to understanding the advantages of flexible protocol governance over algorithmically set governance is understanding MakerDAO.

MakerDAO has a stability fee that is controlled by MKR holders. When they want to encourage borrowing, they decrease the stability fee.

In v3, we are proposing two parameters of the protocol to be controlled by flexible token governance: FPY + FBF

Flash Percentage Yield (FPY)

The current v2 FPY (Flash Percentage Yield) dictates how many $FLASH tokens are minted. It is determined by a formula that decreases/increases as more/fewer tokens are staked.

One current problem with this is, if we want to decrease inflation or increase activity, we are unable to do so.

If we allow the FPY to be adjusted by $FLASH token governance, we would have more flexibility and freedom to adjust as needed while providing more control to $FLASH token holders.

For example, if we wanted to increase liquidity in certain pairs (i.e. FLASH/ETH), we could vote to increase the FPY for that specific LP. For example:

flashETH = 15% APY
flashLINK = 10% APY
flashUNI = 7.5% APY

Note: It would be easier for v3 to exist on multiple chains if the FPY was controlled by governance instead of needing an oracle to provide total supply vs staked across all chains.

FlashBurn Fee (FBF)

In addition to the FPY, another parameter we are proposing to be controlled by flexible token governance is the newly implemented FlashBurn Fee — similar to Uniswap’s 0.3% fee.

The FlashBurn Fee is what percentage of $FLASH tokens are burned when a user swaps tokens in both directions.

If token holders believe Flashstake v3 inflation is too high, they can vote to increase the FlashBurn Fee, thus increasing the amount of $FLASH burned per swap.

If token holders want to increase the activity of the protocol, they can vote to decrease the FlashBurn Fee, thus increasing the motivation to flashstake or to swap.

Note: Control for this will start through the Blockzero Council Multisig wallet with an intention to transition to more distributed governance over time. Any changes to the FPY or FPF would have to go through a cool-down phase where all Flashstronauts can see changes many days before they are implemented.

5) Partnership Integrations

The original idea to increase the number of potential partners integrating and utilizing the Flashstake protocol was through the use of UFOs (Upfront Flashstake Offerings).

With UFOs, projects can add liquidity to the protocol, get introduced to our Flashstaking community, and earn some nice LP fees in the process.

While UFOs are still a viable way to grow the Flashstake v2 protocol, the number of human resources and communication it has taken to facilitate these partnerships has been much higher than anticipated.

In v3, the value proposition of partner integrations moves away from fundraising and focuses on providing projects with more utility and locked liquidity for their native tokens.

With Flashstake v3, projects can give their token magical flashstaking abilities if their holders pair it with $FLASH. For example:

Pair $ABC + $FLASH = flashABC
User can Flashstake flashABC

Rather than having to get the approval and support of project founders to perform a UFO, we can now go directly to token holders to drive demand for Flashstake integrations.

Token Allocations

When we transitioned from v1 to v2, we require everyone to manually migrate their tokens. The intended purpose of this was to protect LPs who still had active liquidity positions in the protocol from IL.

However, for v3, we are proposing a simple 1:1 airdrop of tokens to all v1 and v2 holders, with $XIO holders also earning 1M $FLASH.

v1 + v2 Holders

A snapshot will be taken on July 31st at 18:00 UTC, 2021 of all v1 and v2 holders, LPs, and stakers. For example:

User A has 15,000 v1 tokens staked at the time of a snapshot. They would be airdropped 15,000 v3 tokens.
User B has 20,000 v2 tokens staked and 20,000 tokens in their wallet. They would be airdropped 40,000 v3 tokens
User C has 10,000 FLASH paired with 1 ETH in Uniswap. They would be airdropped 10,000 v3 tokens.

This snapshot would give LPs a full month and a half to remove their liquidity and receive 100% of the potential v3 with zero chance for impermanent loss.

$XIO Holders

Since Blockzero holds $FLASH v2 in our Vortex, we will also be receiving a proportional amount of $FLASH v3 tokens.

To include Blockzero Citizens in this process, we will be allocating 1M of our $FLASH v3 tokens to $XIO holders. The remaining tokens will stay in the Vortex.

To participate, hold $XIO from July 31st to October 31st. There will be daily snapshots taken and $FLASH v3 will be given proportionally to $XIO holders.

For Example:

User A holds 100 $XIO for 15 Days = 1500 Points
User B holds 200 $XIO for 20 Days = 4000 Points
User C holds 50 $XIO for 50 Days = 2500 Points

User Points / Total Points = User Percentage

User A = 18.75% = 187,500 $FLASH v3
User B = 50% = 500,000 $FLASH v3
User C = 31.25% = 312,500 $FLASH v3

XLP Multiplier

Users who have XIO in the XLP will receive a 4x multiplier on their holdings.

User A holds 1 ETH/1000 XIO for 10 days = 40,000 Points

Flashstake v3 KPIs Unlocks

From the beginning, we have stated the goal of Blockzero Labs is to build as many cool and experimental protocols as possible. Then, based on the success or failure of these creations, we would add additional resources as needed.

The obstacle this model has created is the extremely subjective and unclear nature of what “success” looks like, what resources Blockzero is capable of providing, and how long after a protocol is launched can we continue to subsidize its development.

To set proper expectations, Blockzero is setting the following KPI Unlocks in place. If the Flashstake community and Blockzero Citizens are able to rally together and hit these goals, more resources will be provided by Blockzero over time.

Primary KPI: Total Vortex Fees

The entire business model of Blockzero revolves around how much yield we generate through the Vortex. If we are creating protocols that don’t generate yield, Blockzero is simply not sustainable.

To align both sides and offer the Flashstake project the opportunity for continued long-term growth, Blockzero is offering an additional $150,000 in liquid tokens (from the Vortex) to the Flashstake project if the protocol is able to generate $250,000 in total liquid Vortex Fees for Blockzero before March 31st, 2022.

A formula to estimate Vortex Fees:

Average Stake Duration * Average Stake Quantity * Total Number of Stakes * Price of $FLASH * FPY * FPY Match

Depending on the FPY Match we set and the price of $FLASH, here are a few examples of what various protocol activities could look like.

Example One: $256,849

15% FPY Match
25% FPY
2500 Stakes
Average Stake Duration: 100 Days
Average Stake Quantity: 10,000
Flash Price: $1
Total Vortex Fees: $256,849

Example Two: $642,123

5% FPY Match
25% FPY
10,000 Stakes
Average Stake Duration: 150 Days
Average Stake Quantity: 25,000
Flash Price: $0.5
Total Vortex Fees: $642,123

Example Three: $1,926,369

10% FPY Match
25% FPY
250 Stakes
Average Stake Duration: 300 Days
Average Stake Quantity: 50,000
Flash Price: $7.50
Total Vortex Fees: $1,926,369

Roles, Phases, and Budget

With each new era of Blockzero, we are consistently trying to bring more transparency and efficiency to our development process. Below are the primary roles we are looking to fill along with a breakdown of a $175,000 go-to-market budget.

To ensure the project has the proper resources to succeed, the development will not start until all roles are filled.

$25k for Project Lead

Responsible for all participants and processes involved in the v3 development from beginning to end.

Recruitment/organization of v3 Leads and participants
Leads weekly Group Meetings
Leads weekly one-on-ones with each lead
Weekly updates to the community

$25k for Solidity Lead

v3 Token Contract
v3 Protocol Contract
v3 Layer 2 Deployment
Manage the end-to-end audit process
Two meetings/week (min)
Deliver all smart contracts related to making v3 a reality

$25k for Security Audit

It is difficult to estimate how much the security audit will cost. Any budget not used here will be returned to the Vortex.

$15k for Front-end Lead

v3 Dapp Integrations
v3 L2 Integration
Updated Flashstats site
Two meetings per week (minimum)
Deliver working front-end with all associated smart contracts for v3

$15k for Marketing Lead

Go-to-market strategy
Content creation
Growth campaigns

$15k for Ad + Video Explainer Budget

A $15k budget will be allocated for ad spend on social advertising and/or explainer videos.

$10k for 10 Explorers

A group of 10 individuals are eligible to earn $1000 to be active v3 ambassadors with a primary role to support project leads and consistently offer marketing/growth assistance as needed.

Mandatory 1 group meeting a week

$10k for Designer

Flashstake designs are already completed and would need updating rather than start from scratch.

Update website
Provide Dapp UI/UX
Two meetings/week (minimum)

$5k for Partnership

Recruit list of v3 “Launch Partners”
Manage Partner communication and relationships
Two meetings/week (minimum)
Responsible for all listings including CMC, coingecko, DefiPulse, etc

$25k for Reserves

Things come up. We want to be prepared. Any funds not used here will be returned to the Blockzero Vortex at the end of the development.

Budget Summary

In total, there are $170,000 funds allocated in the following three buckets + reserve:

Operations: $35,000 (Project Lead + Explorers)
Development: $75,000 (Solidity + Front-end + Designer + Security)
Marketing: $35,000 (Marketing + AdSpend + Partnerships)
Reserves: $25,000

Flash Payment Schedule

To align participants with the development timeline, the above individuals will receive 50% of their compensation on a bi-monthly basis and 50% based on the completion of four primary phases.

Phase One (12.5%): Functional Frontend UI/UX
Phase Two (12.5%): Testnet Competition
Phase Three (12.5%): Launch to Mainnet
Phase Four (12.5%): Flash Council Transition

Flash Options

As an additional incentive for those who help build Flashstake v3, we are offering the following 1.5M Flash Options from the Vortex as bonuses.

750k $FLASH to all participants, proportional to their budget earnings, if we hit mainnet before September 30th, 2021. Every week after the project misses this deadline will see a 187,500 $FLASH reduction in potential bonuses.
750k $FLASH to all participants, proportional to their budget earnings, if the project reaches 100M TVL in 2021.

Flash Council Transition

If there was one thing we could go back in time and change about the last six months would be reiterating the expectations of Blockzero’s long-term involvement with clear, binary, and objective expectations.

To this point, Flashstake has been 100% subsidized by Blockzero for over a year now. This means every single expense and resource provided has been 100% covered by the work of Blockzero.

Although we have high expectations and excitement for Flashstake, for Blockzero to be a sustainable project itself, we must set clear boundaries of how much we are going to support each project, what resources we are willing to subsidize, and how long we plan to do this.

If any existing Blockzero Council members wish to join the Flash Council after this point in time, they will have to be voted in like anybody else and prove that they are committed to ensuring Flash’s long-term growth and success as a protocol.

To ensure a smooth transition, the following three steps will be made:

1) Nominations

Blockzero will look for and nominate standout individuals to nominate to the Flash Council. At this time, the two nominated Flash Council individuals representing the project are Pedrox.ETH and David Baker.

2) Treasury

The Flash Council will receive v3 treasury tokens and has full discretion on how these assets are utilized.

3) Funding

If the Flashstake protocol is able to hit our Primary KPIs by March 31st, 2022, an additional $150,000 in liquid tokens from the Vortex will be released for continuous development and growth.

To provide clear expectations: Blockzero’s funding, resources, subsidies, and grants will stop after the transition to the Flash Council and will only continue if the project hits the Primary KPIs. For now, this Primary KPI is set at $250,000 in liquid Vortex Fees.

While it is our goal with the above expectations to create the foundation for a long-term sustainable protocol, we would like to mention that this transition does not deny Blockzero from participating and supporting the project through our own free will.

If community members of the Flashstake protocol would like the long-term and continuous support of Blockzero, the first step is creating a culture that we all actually want to work in.

Positivity, respect, and appreciation can go a long way.

We will soon be releasing the Blockzero Codex — a code of ethics and moral expectations that all Citizens and Flashtronauts must acknowledge to participate in our social communities. The refusal to follow these expectations will result in a removal from the chats.

Flash Forward

We learned a lot with v2. We are sure to learn a lot with v3.

Each time we build, we learn a little more along the way. Blockzero and the protocols we create will always be in a constant state of exploration and experimentation.

Blockzero will continue to follow our curiosity for the creation and challenging ourselves to build better protocols.

While it has been a wild ride to this point in time, we are extremely excited to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the future of the decentralized world.

Since building V3 is utilizing Blockzero funds, voting for this proposal will open up on June 25th through our official Governance page.

Apply for Position

As soon as we fill up all the positions, we will be off to the races with the above development process. If you believe you may be a good fit for one of these positions or would like to follow along for the ride, please fill out this form and join our discord channel.

Anthony In Announcements, Blockzero Blog

The 100k ETH Experiment

Can we turn 786 ETH into 100,000 ETH by the year 2022? There is only one way to find out.

Article Breakdown

TLDR: A quick breakdown of this experiment.
Nominations: Alist of nominated individuals and communities.
Valuations: A breakdown of how much everyone is eligible to receive and the current valuation, go here.
Involvement: How to get involved and help us reach our 100k ETH goal, go here.
Claims: If you have been nominated and are looking to claim your tokens, DM Zachary Dash on Twitter for verification.
Growth Hacking: Our views on growth marketing and how we’ve used this to structure the experiment, go here.
Updates: Follow along on this 100k ETH growth experiment, join our Discord here and/or text ‘100k’ to +18444864400 for updates.

To set the experiment in motion, a proposal will be made to Blockzero Citizens. Voting will take place from June 17th to June 24th on our governance page.

TLDR;Blockzero Labs has nominated a total of 125 communities, builders, and content creators across the decentralized world. These individuals and groups are eligible to claim 1 XIO Option token.
There are only 100 XIO Option tokens in existence. These tokens will be redeemed on a first-come-first-serve basis.
The XIO Option tokens are convertible up to 10M XIO tokens based on our primary KPI. Our primary KPI is the Total Liquid Value (TLV) inside the Blockzero Vortex — a decentralized venture fund.
These Options will be 100% convertible once the Vortex reaches a Total Liquid Value (TLV) of 100,000 ETH. At this time, one Option is worth 0.069168 ETH ($172.92).
If the market cap of XIO becomes equal to the TLV of the Vortex at the time we hit our primary KPI, one Option would currently be worth 250 ETH ($625,000).

What is Blockzero?

Here is how to understand the Blockzero project in one tweet.

https://twitter.com/blockzerolabs

The Blockzero project has been surfing along the waves of Web 3.0 for a year and a half now with one vision in mind:

Build, launch, and scale ideas into the decentralized world.

While never raising capital, Blockzero has been 100% bootstrapped through the pure passion and curiosity of our community of Citizens.

Experiment. Learn. Adapt. Repeat.

At the core of Blockzero is a desire for experimentation.

Sometimes these experiments flat out fail like the time we thought it was a good idea to pay 12% for individuals who join our “SMS Insider”.

Sometimes in these experiments, we stumble across really cool ideas like Flashstaking and decide to turn it into an instant upfront yield protocol.

Sometimes in these experiments, we start building tools for ourselves and end up open-sourcing them to the world like Dropzero — a universal token distribution Dapp that allows you to send to 1M+ wallets with one Ethereum gas transaction.

Sometimes, when luck meets opportunity, these experiments allow us to get ahead of industry trends like the XLP program we started in 2019 before “liquidity mining” was a thing.

Through the ups and the downs, we have documented our journey out in the open. This unapologetically transparent style has offered insight and empowerment to those who want to want to jump in and help us navigate the muddy waters at such an early stage.
No matter the thesis, the one constant in all our experiments is the consistent desire to learn, adapt and relentlessly pursue our curiosities.
Today, we are following our biggest curiosity yet by launching the 100k ETH Experiment.

What is the 100k ETH Experiment?

ex•per•i•ment

A test, trial, or tentative procedure; an operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown

Our unknown in this experiment is simple — can we increase the Blockzero Vortex to 100k ETH in TLV through a mass-scale KPI option event?

The plan of attack:

Identify a group of individuals & communities we believe add extreme value to the decentralized world
Incentivize them with the proper long-term ownership, opportunity, and upside in Blockzero
Involve them in our project and invite them to add value

1) Identify

To identify who we believed could help us push the project forward, we nominated individuals and projects based on the three divisions of Blockzero:

Thinkers: DAOs + communities using governance, discussion, and ideas to impact change
Creators: The developers and founders helping shape the decentralized world we all live in
Growers: The content creators and publications who help onboard people into the world of crypto

Thinker Nominations | DAOs + Communities

One thing all great projects have is a great community behind them. Without the thoughts and energy behind these communities, most projects would fail.

Below is a list of DAOs and communities that have inspired us with their massively organized community engagement and involvement.

MakerDAO, Aragon, MetaCartel Ventures, MolochDAO, Colony, Bankless DAO, Gitcoin, Syndicate DAO, 1Hive, YAM Finance, FWB DAO, BadgerDAO, Aave, Compound, Polygon, Yearn Finance, Curve, Uniswap, Sushi, Synthetix, Balancer, Index Coop, Indexed Finance, UMA Protocol, Liquity, Harvest, r/ETHDev, Solana, Avalanche, PolkaDot, Cosmos, THORchain, Alpha Finance Lab, InstaDapp, Tornado.cash, Alchemix, BarnBridge, Reflexer Labs, mStable, 1inch

These communities can hold onto their Option token or distribute it to their community members as desired.

Creator Nominations | Builders + Catalyst

The reason the world of Web 3.0 exists as we now know it is because there are individuals who pushed this reality into existence.

The following individuals were nominated for their continuous efforts to shape the industry through their thoughts, capital, or execution.

Kain.eth, Taylor Monahan, Fernando Martinelli, Joseph Lubin, Chris Burniske, Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss, Chamath Palihapitiya, Rune Christensen, Stani.eth, Garry Tan, Sacha, Jack Du Rose, Tim Beiko, SBF, Billy Luedtke, Balajis, Spencer Noon, Vance Spencer, Hayden Adams, Andreas Antonopoulos, Julien Bouteloup, Erik Voorhees, Brian Armstrong, Vitalik Buterin, Adam Cochran, Rob Paone, Ashleigh Schap, Emin Gün Sirer, Zhu Su, Anthony Sassano, Eric.eth, antiprosynthesis.eth, Naval, samczsun, Nick Sawinyh, DCinvestor, Andre Cronje, Spencer Bogart, Tom Schmidt, Mike Demarais, Mike Novogratz, Joseph Delong, Tyler Reynolds, Matt Huang, Ryan Berckmans, Robert Leshner, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jesse Walden, Nodar, Hudson Jameson, Linda Xie, Ari Paul, Arthur, Alex Svanevik, Jack Lipstone, Brian Flynn, banteg, Priyanka Desai, Amanda.eth, Anatoly Yakovenko, Gavin Wood, Ethan Buchman, Paul Razvan Berg, Austin Griffith, Ryan S Adams, David Hoffman

Grower Nominations | Content Creators + Publications

While the industry will always need builders, the magicians who relay our visions into the minds of the mainstream audiences are the content creators and media outlets of the world.

The following individuals and websites have been nominated for their efforts to continue to spread the gospel of cryptocurrency to the masses.

Finematics, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Laura Shin, Blockchain Brad, Sari Azout, Hashoshi, The Defiant, DeFi Dad, Benjamin Cowen, Dapp University, Girl Gone Crypto, Jason Choi, Today in Defi, Alex Saunders, Blockchain Chick, Super Massive, Bankless

2) IncentivizeThe individuals and communities we have identified have likely seen every trick and airdrop strategy under the sun to try and get them involved in other projects.
While we must acknowledge that no amount of incentives or capital can make certain people care about what we are doing, we want to structure our incentives in a way that gives those individuals who do care enough with adequate opportunity and ownership to hopefully get involved.

Distribution Structure

Utilizing the power of KPI Options from UMA, 10M XIO tokens will be locked in the UMA protocol and 100 XIO Options will be minted.

With 100 XIO Options in total, the nominated individuals & communities are eligible to claim 1 Option each. As there are more nominations than tokens available, these tokens will be redeemed on a first-come-first-serve basis.

DAOs + Communities (40)
Builders + Catalysts (67)
Content Creators (18)

Key Performance Actions

For Communities and DAOs, the Option token is fully unlocked. For everyone else, half the token remains locked until certain Key Performance Actions (KPAs) are met.

To unlock the second half of their token, nominations can offer five hours to the Blockzero Advisory Board or propose alternative methods of agreement. The focus of these meetings is to help us grow the project and tackle some of the biggest obstacles/challenges we face at Blockzero.

Option Valuations

Every 1 XIO Option is worth up to 100,000 XIO.

The percentage of those XIO tokens that are redeemable is equal to the percentage of how close our Vortex TLV reaches the goal of 100k ETH. For example:

30% of TLV = 30,000 XIO tokens that are convertible per 1 Option

The percentage of TLV = (Current Vortex TLV / 100,000 ETH)

At the time of writing this, one XIO Option token is worth roughly $172.92. If the market cap of XIO becomes equal to the TLV of the Vortex at the time we hit our primary KPI, one Option would be worth 250 ETH ($625,000).

Options Expiration

While the Option tokens can be converted to XIO at any time, the Options expiration date is set for January 1, 2022.

3) Involve

If our north star and KPI for this experiment is 100k ETH, how do we get there? It is one thing to have a goal, it is another to have a plan.

Below are six primary mining campaigns any individual reading this can join in on with Advisory Mining reserved for nominations only.

Advisory Mining
Liquidity Mining
Mental Mining
Recruitment Mining
Talent Mining
Explorer Mining

Advisor Mining

Advisor Mining is one of the two newest programs we have at Blockzero. In short, individuals who are nominated can trade their time to advise our project in various ways unlock their full XIO Option token.

Advisors can unlock their remaining XIO Options token through a course of five Advisory Hour meetings with the Blockzero Council.

Some of the various topics we are currently seeking advice for are:

How do we properly structure our DAO to operate in a more efficient manner?
What is the line between centralization and decentralization?
Are we currently overpaying for certain mining programs? If so, how should we restructure?
What is a good indicator we may need VC capital to scale?
Where is the best place to find and attract new developers into our ecosystem?

If you would like to set up your Advisory Hours, direct message Zachary Dash on Twitter.

Liquidity Mining

Liquidity Mining is our longest-standing mining program dating back to 2019. Participants in our XIO Liquidity Program (XLP) can earn up to 90% APY by following these instructions.

Note, the XLP will likely be transitioning into a more automated system in the coming months as participants will stake liquidity directly into the Vortex.

Mental Mining

Mental Mining can also be thought of as governance mining. On a weekly basis, sometimes 2–3 times per week, we host #XIOfeedback campaigns.

When you see this hashtag, if you dive into the discussion and provide some mental effort on the topic at hand, you can earn up to $1500 a month in the form of XIO tokens.

To learn more, go here.

Recruitment Mining

Recruitment Mining is another program that is new to Blockzero. In short, if you help recruit certain projects or talented individuals to the project, you can get compensated for your efforts.

For example, if you refer a project who gets accepted into the Blockzero Accelerator, you can earn $2000 in XIO tokens.

A more formal article with other Recruitment Mining opportunities will be made public in the weeks to follow.

Talent Mining

Talent Mining is the process of offering your skills, talents, or abilities to join the Blockzero Core in exchange for XIO tokens.

These skills can range from operations and development, to support and marketing. If you would like to apply to join the Blockzero Core, join our Discord and follow the instructions.

Explorer Mining

While these are some of the ways to get involved, Blockzero is truly a create your own adventure book.

If you are not sure of what value you can offer Blockzero, but you still want to get involved, we have created a Blockzero Explorers program — a 30-day opportunity to earn $1000 and explore what it’s like to work at Blockzero.

If you are interested in the Blockzero Explorers program — email John or Telegram @ johnvelasco.

Behind the ExperimentWhile this is an experiment, it is not without research. Below is a little insight on the historical evolution of crypto “growth hacking” — the good, bad, and ugly — and what items from this we have chosen to incorporate.
The Evolution of Crypto Growth HackingMarketing your project is hard.
Doing it with a limited budget, in a crazy noisy crypto industry, all while trying to withhold some semblance of a moral compass?
Damn near impossible.
From running CMO for a crypto marketing agency in 2018 to building three projects in the space since then, the creator of Blockzero has seen every “growth hack” trick in the book.
Here are three of the most commonly used tactics and potentially negative side-effects that follow.

Influence and Shill
Influencer marketing is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Find someone with influence and get them to talk about your project.
However, there is a large spectrum of ethical and unethical ways we have seen these campaigns in action.
From influencers charging $100k to tweet about the project and dumping tokens on their own audiences, to simply not disclosing the relationship they have with the projects, these types of campaigns have formed a large spectrum of ethical and unethical behaviors.
Unless a project is able to find a high integrity influencer who truly believes in their project, many times these campaigns can have long-term negative implications.
If a shady influencer gets hold of your project, projects are likely to see a community overtaken by “gem chasers” and token hoppers. The faster they flock, the faster they jump ship.
This process gives an initial bump of energy, followed by the long-term realization that this noise has infiltrated your culture.
Not all influence is created equal.
2) Drop it Like it’s Hot
Starting to gain popularity in 2017 and beyond, airdrops were all the rage. The premise is simple: given away tokens and hopefully, some of those people will learn about your project.
Airdrops are not something new created by crypto. People and companies have been giving away products and services for as long as capitalism has existed.
At the bottom of the bear market of 2019, we did an airdrop our own by giving away the world’s first self-destructing currency. However, instead of holding an ICO and giving away a small portion of tokens for marketing purposes, we gave away 80% of our tokens on day one.
While this strategy definitely helped us get off the ground and attract the attention of many individuals from around the space, there are many negative implications of this strategy.
First, you must accept that your token is going to get diluted to people who may have offered little to no value to your project.
A majority of the people will dump their tokens immediately.
Some will hold onto it and feel entitled to the decisions to make as a project.
If you’re lucky, a small subset of people will appreciate the drop, look into your project and get more deeply involved with what you’re doing.
The airdrop marketing strategy saw a newfound surge in 2021 with many top projects dropping their native governance tokens to the world for free.
$UNI may be the most impressive of the bunch with an average value of over $17,000 at peak prices.
3) Howdy, Partner.
Partnerships can be a great catalyst to grow a project. Even if they aren’t real, unfortunately.
Over the last year, we have seen a rise in the market for faux partnerships where two companies swap logos and make big “announcements” with their communities.
While this has been shown to trick many audiences and retail investors into thinking something big is happening, there are many times no actual increase of fundamental value for the projects involved.

Although there may be a time and place for the three above examples, we must also acknowledge that these “growth hacks” are often trading long-term value for short-term rushes of speculators, hopium, and artificial value.

The 100k ETH Experiment we have structured is our attempt to grow Blockzero while removing the downsides but retaining the ethical and aligned side of growth marketing.

Follow the Experiment

This wouldn’t be a true growth marketing experiment without the proper testing, observation, and reporting.

If you want to follow this growth marketing journey, we will begin making updates of the experiment directly here on medium. We will report on:

Increase or decrease of TLV
Nominations who have joined and their contributions to the project
Wins, losses, and learnings along the way

If you would like to stay updated, text ‘100k’ to +18444864400.

FAQ

This is a live and evolving list of questions. If you have questions yourself, feel free to join our Discord.

What is the Vortex?

The Vortex is a decentralized venture fund.

Currently, in the second stage of development, the Vortex currently holds roughly $15M at the time of writing this.

Why did we choose the Vortex TLV as our KPI?

The vision of Blockzero is to build, launch, and scale ideas into the decentralized world. Our best metric to see how well we are doing this is the TLV of our Vortex.

The Vortex is a collection of all the projects we have created or accelerated. If the TLV increases, it likely means we are helping these projects have greater impacts on the world.

While we were originally wanting to use TVL (Total Value Locked) for our primary KPI, we ended up using a less commonly used term — TLV (Total Liquid Value).

The TLV is simply the amount of ETH we could acquire if we liquidated all our positions.

We chose TLV for two primary reasons.

TVL (Total Value Locked) can be gamified if a bad actor were to pump the price of a low liquid coin in our Vortex.
TLV (Total Liquid Value) incentivizes participants in the experiment to increase the liquidity of our assets under management.

Total Liquid Value Breakdown

A widely used metric to compare different DeFi protocols is Total Value Locked (TVL). For our 100K ETH experiment, we chose a different, more pragmatic metric representing the actual utility of the assets locked in the Vortex: TLV or Total Liquid Value.

Total Liquid Value is determined by simulating the market selling all Vortex’s assets to ETH.

How do we increase the TLV?

There are three primary ways we can increase the TLV:

We create projects in the Blockzero Studio and deposit their native tokens into the Vortex as we did with Flashstake
We accelerate projects in the Blockzero Accelerator and deposit their native tokens into the Vortex as we did with the UMA protocol.
We increase the liquidity or value of the assets currently in the Vortex.

Vote

To set this experiment in motion, a vote will need to be passed by the Blockzero Citizens. This vote will take place from June 17th to June 24th on our governance page.

Livestream

A live stream hosted by Zachary Dash to discuss this proposal will start at 5pm UTC on Friday, June 11th.

bombxio In Blockzero Blog, DeFi Accelerator, Flash

Blockzero Accelerator Opens First Cohort | XIO Yield Swaps

TLDR;

As of today, blockchain projects in any phase or size can apply to the Blockzero Accelerator by filling out this application. Once three projects are approved into the first cohort, a three-week accelerator program will begin.

The goal of the Accelerator is to help blockchain projects increase industry awareness, grow their community, and hit targetted KPI goals like Total Value Locked or Daily Active Users. Each project receives:

Advisory: Five office hours to the Blockzero Advisory Network
Awareness: Introduced to over 8000 Blockzero Citizens
Engagement: Blockzero to host a custom Mental Mining Campaign
Incentives: Up to $100,000 in XIO Yield Swaps for KPI specific campaigns
Interview: Around the Block Video + Podcast hosted by Lea Thompson

To align the long-term incentives between Blockzero and participating projects, Blockzero to provide up to $100,000 of XIO Yield Swaps.

In the final week of the Accelerator, Citizens will be able to stake their XIO tokens into the Vortex and simultaneously earn yield from all the participating projects.

Our goal is to host multiple cohorts per year while doubling the number of projects in each batch. Anyone who refers a project to the Accelerator that gets accepted will earn $2000 in XIO tokens.

Livestream to discuss Accelerator will be hosted by Zachary Dash at 4pm UTC on Friday, May 28th.

UMA Protocol Case Study

Two months ago, the UMA protocol joined as the pilot project to the Blockzero Accelerator. Together, we identified three main goals that the UMA project was looking to achieve and created a custom game plan around them.

During this time, we learned how valuable this same process could be for other projects looking to grow their communities, increase engagement, and onboard users in unique/organic ways.

Today we are opening up applications for our first cohort of three blockchain projects. Projects can be in any phase. The only requirement is that the project must have a native token.

Three Weeks of Acceleration

One week before the launch, each project will meet with the Blockzero Council to customize a unique game plan that meets their specific goals for the Accelerator.

During this time, projects receive five office hours to the Blockzero Advisory Network to be used at any time in the future. The advisory can range from meetings with blockchain founders from industry-leading projects to one-on-one meetings with Web3 investors.

We are still in the early stages of building out the Advisory network. If you would like to be an Advisor and receive XIO tokens in the process, please reach out here.

Week One: Awareness

On the first day, a Medium article will be released that announces each of the projects in the Accelerator. The article will be distributed across all Blockzero channels including social, SMS, and emails to over 8000 Blockzero Citizens.

Additionally, each project in the Accelerator is required to share the announcement with their own native communities and audiences.

The goal of Week One is to provide a surge of new eyeballs and potential community members to each project through mass-scale cross-marketing efforts.

Week Two: Engagement

In Week Two, each project will have an interview released on the Around the Block Video + Podcast Series. Hosted by Lea Thompson, the previous guest for this series includes:

Stani Kulechov (Founder of Aave)
Hart Lambur (Founder of UMA)
Nick Johnson (Founder of ENS)
Fernando Martinelli (Founder of Balancer) Unreleased
Many more you can check out here!

Each interview will focus on the story of the project, how the technology works, and the overall vision for the project moving forward.

Directly after the interview, Blockzero will help each project perform a Mental Mining Campaign. The goal of this campaign is to generate high-quality discussions around each project that empower individuals to engage with and understand the project at a deeper level.

Here is one of many examples of MM Campaigns we have done with our own community.

Marketing Idea: KPI Droptions?

Marketing Idea: KPI Option token based on how many people claim their KPI Option token. Process: We distribute…

home.blockzerolabs.io

Week Three: Onboard

Week three is when the magic happens. Each project receives up to $100k of XIO Yield Swaps.

What are XIO Yield Swaps?

The purpose of XIO Yield Swaps is to incentivize and onboard users into the native ecosystems of each project based on pre-determined KPI strategies.

Projects who are accepted to the Accelerator are required to deposit a portion of their native tokens into the Blockzero Vortex. These deposits turn into yield opportunities for XIO holders.

Essentially — an XIO Yield Swap offers projects the ability to swap yield generating opportunities with Blockzero.

XIO Yield Swap Example #1: Increase Liquidity

Project ABC decides their main goal is to increase the liquidity of their native token
To accomplish this, Project ABC makes an ETH/ABC token on Uniswap and decides this is their primary KPI
ETH/ABC liquidity providers can stake their LP tokens and earn up to $100k of XIO tokens over the course of a year

XIO Yield Swap Example #2: Increase DAU

Project ABC decides their main goal is to increase the Daily Active Users of their protocol
To accomplish this, Project ABC gives a dauABC token to users who engage on their platform over the course of 30 days
dauABC token holders can stake their tokens and earn up to $100k of XIO tokens over the course of a year

XIO Yield Swap Example #3: Increase TVL

Project ABC decides their main goal is to increase the TVL of their protocol
When individuals increase the TVL of the protocol, they receive tvlABC tokens in return
tvlABC token holders can stake their tokens and earn up to $100k of XIO tokens

XIO Yield Swap Example #4: Increase Utility

Project ABC decides their main goal is to increase the utility of their native token
ABC token holders can stake their tokens and earn up to $100k of XIO tokens over the course of a year

XIO Yield Swap Example #5: Raise Capital

Project ABC decides their main goal is to raise capital for the project
Project ABC team members create teamABC token
teamABC token holders can stake their tokens and earn up to $100k of XIO tokens over the course of a year

In each of the examples, the project sets its own custom KPI strategy and uses XIO Yield Swaps to incentivize users to hit these goals.

What does this mean for XIO holders and Citizens?In the final week of the Accelerator, Citizens can stake their XIO and begin earning tokens from all three projects.
While we are starting off with a three-project cohort, our goal is to double the number of projects in each Accelerator and perform multiple batches per year.
Here is an example of what we aim to do:
First Cohort One: 3 Projects
Second Cohort: 6 Projects
Third Cohort: 12 Projects
Fourth Cohort: 24 Projects
To reach these goals, we need help from you, the Citizens. Accelerators will not start until each cohort is filled. If you refer a project who gets accepted into the Accelerator, you will earn $2000 of XIO tokens.
If you would like to apply to the Blockzero Accelerator, fill out this Application. If you have any questions, a live stream to discuss Accelerator will be hosted by Zachary Dash at 4 pm UTC on Friday, May 28th.

bombxio In Blockzero Blog, DeFi Accelerator, Flash

Blockzero, Explained

If you read through the following article, you will understand 99% of what you need to know about Blockzero. Here is a breakdown of what to expect.

What is Blockzero? 60-second overview of the project
The Divisions: How the project is segmented and focused
The Vortex: Token and incentive layer of Blockzero
The Tokenomics: Understanding the XIO token
The Governance: Voting, proposals, and participants
The Incentives: Mining program opportunities

What is Blockzero?Blockzero is a decentralized autonomous organization with a mission to build, launch, and scale the next generation of Web3 startups.
The entire success or failure of Blockzero can be measured through one simple thing: The Vortex
The Vortex is a development fund managed by the Blockzero DAO. Inside it contains an index of native tokens from various blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. All value captured or created by Blockzero is deposited into the Vortex.
<img class="v iq ir" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3228/1*0Z4Iyi1zQHQXYCRBt3Z-IQ.png" alt="" width="1614" height="970" />
The native token of Blockzero that makes all this possible is called XIO.
The only way to remove assets from the Vortex is through the voting, staking, or burning of XIO. In this model, the XIO token governs and aligns the incentives of the entire ecosystem.
If the Citizens utilize the dev funds inefficiently, the TVL within the Vortex will decrease. If, however, the Citizens utilize the dev funds efficiently to build innovative projects that push the industry forward, the TVL within the Vortex will increase.

The Divisions

To help grow the Vortex, Blockzero is divided into three separate divisions. Each division has a unique purpose, focus, and goal.

Blockzero Labs | Think
Blockzero Studio | Create
Blockzero Accelerator | Grow

1) Blockzero Labs | Think

Blockzero Labs is the research division of Blockzero.

Division Overview

Through a community of curious and contrarian thinkers called Blockzero Citizens, the focus of this division is to explore experimental ideas in a collaborative environment.

In Blockzero Labs, Citizens are encouraged to provide their talents, feedback, and liquidity to help grow the ecosystem. In exchange for these services, Blockzero Citizens can participate in various XIO Mining programs.

More info on the mining programs will be mentioned later in the article.

Citizens are encouraged to help Blockzero Labs in various ways such as:

Beta testing and product feedback
Structuring of liquidity campaigns
Creative marketing strategies
Tokenomic models and game theory

2) Blockzero Studio | Create

The Blockzero Studio is the development division of Blockzero.

Division Focus

The focus of the Blockzero Studio is to build experimental and innovative blockchain technologies.

100% of any revenue, fees, or tokens generated from the technologies built through the Studio are deposited directly into the Blockzero Vortex. This value can be anything from ecosystem upgrades that help bring value to other blockchain projects (i.e. Dropzero) to native digital tokens.

Some of the development areas that the Blockzero Studio provides are:

Solidity smart contract development
Front-end UI/UX design
Unit testing and security audit
Testnet battle testing

To date, the Blockzero Studio is responsible for the creation of:

Flashstake: Earn instant upfront yield on your crypto
AquaFi: Universal liquidity mining protocol
Dropzero: Permissionless and gas-efficient token distribution system

3) Blockzero Accelerator | Growth Division

The Blockzero Accelerator is the growth division of Blockzero.

Division Focus

The vision for the Accelerator is to be the Y Combinator of the decentralized world.

Through a 3-week program, each project receives:

Advisory: Five office hours to the Blockzero Advisory Network
Awareness: Introduced to over 8000 Blockzero Citizens
Engagement: Blockzero to host a custom Mental Mining Campaign
Incentives: Up to $100,000 in XIO Yield Swaps for KPI specific campaigns
Interview: Around the Block Video + Podcast hosted by Lea Thompson

A separate article about the Accelerator will be released shortly this week.

In the final week of the Accelerator, Citizens will be able to stake their XIO tokens into the Vortex and simultaneously earn yield from all the participating projects.

Our goal is to host multiple cohorts per year while doubling the number of projects in each batch until we reach 24 projects per batch.

Anyone who refers a project to the Accelerator that gets accepted will earn $2000 worth of XIO tokens.

Business Model

Projects who are accepted to the Accelerator are required to deposit a portion of their native tokens into the Blockzero Vortex. These deposits turn into yield opportunities for XIO holders.

Essentially — projects are swapping yield generating opportunities with Blockzero.

The projects who apply for the Blockzero Accelerator must have a native token.

The Blockzero Accelerator will be opening our first cohort of three projects in the coming weeks. If you would like to apply, go here.

The Vortex

The entire incentive layer for the Blockzero ecosystem is made possible by the Vortex — a decentralized development fund controlled by the Blockzero DAO. Any tokens or fees generated through Blockzero are deposited into the Vortex.

The Vortex itself is separated into three sections, each with a unique purpose.

Orbit 1 | Treasury
Orbit 2 | Yield
Orbit 3 | Collateral

1) Treasury
The tokens inside this section are used for general expenses like development, operations, and marketing. The only way to get tokens outside of this Orbit is through voting with XIO tokens.
2) Yield
The tokens inside this section are used to provide yield incentives to the XIO token. The only way to get assets outside of this Orbit is through the staking of XIO.
3) Collateral
The tokens inside this section are used to provide a collateralized backstop to the XIO token. The only way to get tokens outside of this Orbit is through the burning of XIO.
If you would like to learn more about governance or make a proposal, go here.

The Tokenomics

XIO is the native token of Blockzero that fuels the entire ecosystem. There are three utilities for the XIO token.

Governance: The XIO token is used to make or vote on important proposals at vote.blockzerolabs.io
Rewards: The XIO token can be earned through various incentive programs including Liquidity Mining, Mental Mining, and Talent Mining
Staking: The XIO token can be staked into the Vortex to earn simultaneous yield and native assets from several different startups

There were initially 25M tokens given away to active community members in October of 2019. The remaining tokens were separated into three different wallets to fund Liquidity Mining, Mental Mining, and Talent Mining expenses.

Type: ERC-20
Max Supply: 100M
Primary Utility: Governance
Address: 0x0f7f961648ae6db43c75663ac7e5414eb79b5704

The GovernanceThere are currently three types of individuals that help govern the Blockzero DAO ecosystem: Citizens + Core + Council
<img class="v iq ir" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3376/0*OpgPFpwgRiNfdLRI.png" alt="" width="1688" height="708" />
1) CitizensThe responsibility of a Blockzero Citizen is to provide feedback, insight, and direction to the ecosystem through participating in collaborative discussions and voting on proposals.
The reward for being a Citizen is the ability to participate in Blockzero Mining programs while attaining permissionless access to the Blockzero Vortex.
Anyone can join as a Citizen by filling out the Blockzero Citizenship Application and becoming an XIO token holder.
<img class="po vv ew fi ff kf v c" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2876/1*kpFe_c0iqI4JXzuQu7XCHQ.png" sizes="700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*kpFe_c0iqI4JXzuQu7XCHQ.png 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*kpFe_c0iqI4JXzuQu7XCHQ.png 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*kpFe_c0iqI4JXzuQu7XCHQ.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*kpFe_c0iqI4JXzuQu7XCHQ.png 700w" alt="" width="1438" height="878" />
2) CoreThe responsibility of a Blockzero Core member is to offer their talents or abilities to the ecosystem on a consistent and long-term basis. Some core roles can include positions like blockchain engineer, growth hacker, or support leads.
The reward for being on the Core is the ability to help build the future of Blockzero while receiving Talent Mining rewards.
Anyone can apply to become part of the core by filling out a Blockzero Core Proposal and submitting it to the Blockzero DAO.
3) CouncilThe responsibility of a Blockzero Council member is to participate in weekly governance calls and provide strategic guidance to pushing the Blockzero ecosystem forward.
There are no financial incentives to being a part of the Council.
Any current member can be nominated and added or removed from the Council through a majority Council vote.
Blockzero is currently in Phase 2.0 of a three-phase system to decentralization

IncentivesBlockzero currently has three primary ways to earn XIO tokens through various mining opportunities: Liquidity + Mental + Talent Mining
1) Liquidity Mining
The XIO Liquidity Mining Program (XLP for short) currently allows anyone to earn up to 180% APY. All you have to do to participate is add 1 ETH + 1 ETH worth of XIO tokens to Uniswap v2.
Currently, there is no staking required. You simply add the liquidity and hold onto the UNI-V2 LP token and will be able to claim XIO rewards on a monthly basis through the XIO claims dapp.
To learn more, go here.
<img class="v iq ir" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3960/0*9WbUxO9k0HLKSnf0.png" alt="" width="1980" height="1035" />
2) Mental Mining
The XIO Mental Mining Program allows anyone to earn up to $1000 per month by simply participating in Blockzero governance discussions and providing input or feedback on #XIOfeedback posts.
To learn more, go here.
<img class="po vv ew fi ff kf v c" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2284/1*xPC76y3FXjhsUxd5DqJ7Sg.png" sizes="700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*xPC76y3FXjhsUxd5DqJ7Sg.png 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*xPC76y3FXjhsUxd5DqJ7Sg.png 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*xPC76y3FXjhsUxd5DqJ7Sg.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*xPC76y3FXjhsUxd5DqJ7Sg.png 700w" alt="" width="1142" height="894" />
3) Talent Mining
The XIO Talent Mining Program allows anyone to offer their skills or abilities to Blockzero Labs and earn XIO tokens.
If accepted, you join the Blockzero Core and earn tokens on a bi-weekly basis. There are no minimums or maximum amounts of tokens you can earn.
To you would like to participate, you need to go here and make a Core Proposal.
<img class="po vv ew fi ff kf v c" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2280/1*5dE2hRao1QNdwH5eIanc6Q.png" sizes="700px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*5dE2hRao1QNdwH5eIanc6Q.png 276w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*5dE2hRao1QNdwH5eIanc6Q.png 552w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*5dE2hRao1QNdwH5eIanc6Q.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*5dE2hRao1QNdwH5eIanc6Q.png 700w" alt="" width="1140" height="872" />
There may be various Mining program opportunities that open up in the future.

Next Steps

If you made it to this point, you now know a majority of what you need to get started in the Blockzero ecosystem. Here are some quick links to continue down your journey through the decentralized world.

Become a Blockzero Citizen: https://home.blockzerolabs.io/
Follow the Socials: https://linktr.ee/blockzerolabs
Liquidity Mining: https://blockzerolabs.io/xlp/
Mental Mining: https://blockzerolabs.io/mindmining/
Website: https://blockzerolabs.io

bombxio In Blockzero Blog, DeFi Accelerator, Flash

The Tokenization of Time | Rise, Risks, and Roadmaps of Alchemix (ALCX) vs. Flashstake (FLASH)

The Time Value of Money (TVM) is a straight forward concept:

Money you have now is worth more than the identical sum in the future due to its potential earning capacity.

While time traveling in the physical world is something still reserved for the adventures of Marty McFly, what if it were possible to time travel in the financial world? What if we could redeem money from the future, today?

The invention of Ethereum made all of this possible.

Article Overview

In a decentralized and permissionless manner, smart contracts allow us to manipulate money — but not just how we interact with it, but when we interact with it.

The remainder of this article will:

Rise: Give an overview of the two new time-based protocols growing and experimenting within the DeFi industry
Risks: Compare how they (currently) operate while breaking down the possible risk implications of each
Roadmaps: Explore what the future of tokenized-time may look like given the current plans and trajectories.

A few disclaimers before we start

Flashtake is a protocol developed out of Blockzero Labs — a project that I created. While I tried to be as objective as possible during this research and article, I wanted to transparently acknowledge the potential for my own personal bias here.
As of last week, I am both a small holder and massive supporter the Alchemix project. While I was not aware of the protocol until recently, I think what they are building is extremely intriguing and am excited to see their progress into the future.

Alchemix ($ALCX) Overview

Alchemix positions itself as “The future yield tokenization protocol.”

In short, it allows anyone to lock up DAI and mint (up to 50% in value) of the alUSD token. The alUSD token is the native stable coin of the Alchemix platform.

It is similar to taking out a loan, however, the genius of Alchemix comes when you understand two things:

You can’t be liquidated
Your loan repays itself back over time

“Your only debt is time” — a great tagline.

Flashstake ($FLASH) Overview

On the other hand, Flashstake positions itself as: “The time travel of money”

In short, users can stake $FLASH for a pre-determined amount of time and and instantly earn a variety of tokens like ETH, DAI, XIO, etc.

While the APY for the return is not limited, the average APY of the Dapp so far has hovered around 25–40%.

The same way that anyone can add pairs on Uniswap, anyone can add any ERC token they want to the Flashstake protocol in a permissionless manner.

Native Token:

Alchemix (ALCX) $315M Market Cap — Token that grants governance rights in Alchemix DAO.
Flashstake (FLASH) $9M Market Cap — Tokens needed to stake and earn instant upfront yield.

Inflation

ALCX: Fixed inflationary emissions

FLASH: Dynamic supply. Based on protocol usage. Only minted when tokens are locked into protocol. Tokens are burned if a user Unstakes early.

Distribution

ALCX

20% Alchemix DAO Premine (5% reserve)
16% Private Staking/LP Pools for Founders
64% Public Staking/LP Pools

FLASH

100% Pre-mine to $XIO holders (Native token of Blockzero Labs)
0–20% Stake Reward match to Blockzero Labs (voted on by Citizens)

Funding

Alchemix: eGirl Capital + Weak Simp Capital + DeFi Chad Ventures
Flashstake: None (Build by Blockzero Labs)

Auditing

Alchemix: Audits are pending. With as many companies and capital behind the project, we would hope this has to do with a backlog of available auditors more than anything else.
Flashstake: Audit was performed by Solidified + multiple weeks of battle testing + bug bounty performed.

Alchemix Risks

MakerDAO protocol failure (Unlikely)
DAI off peg
Alchemix protocol failure
alUSD off peg
Curve protocol failure
Lowering of yield rates on Curve would = prolonged rated of loan repayment. If Curve yield gets cut in half during a bear market, borrows of alUSD must wait twice the amount of time for repayment.

Flashstake Risks

Flashstake protocol failure
Flashstake token volatility
Decrease in usage/demand for native token

Alchemix Roadmap

Ensuring the security of the protocol and future add-ons
A wider choice of stable coin collateral types for alUSD
Addition of currencies like ETH and wBTC to be used within Alchemix
Additional dApps to expand the Alchemix ecosystem such as Alchemix based credit lines and more

Flashstake Roadmap

Go here to read Five things to look forward to in 2021
Upgrading to Optimism Layer 2
FlashstakeMe: Venmo and PayPal give you a custom link to send to your friends for payment. FlashstakeMe is a platform that will do exactly this.
The difference is, instead of having to send you money, they can simply Flashstake and redirect the yield to your wallet. They keep their capital. You keep the interest. Simple as that. FlashstakeMe would be the world’s first transfer-less invoicing system.

Upgrade to Zynthetic: Imagine being able to Flashstake any token. Whether it be DAI for LINK or SNX for AAVE, the Flash Zynthetic Upgrade would make this possible. Since making this video, the community has spoken and decided to move Zynthetic under the Flash protocol umbrella, rather than have it be a stand-alone project.

The Future is at Stake

While these two protocols are attacking the space in two very different ways, it seems clear the industry is curious on exploring and experimenting with time.

bombxio In Blockzero Blog, DeFi Accelerator, Explainer

Y Combinator vs. Blockzero Labs | The Astronomy of a Decentralized Accelerator

In 2005, Y Combinator (YC) was born.

A startup accelerator based out of Silicon Valley, YC has helped launch over 2000 companies into the world including industry giants like Coinbase, Airbnb, Reddit, DropBox, Stripe, and Twitch — just to name a few.

As of January 2021, the combined value of all YC companies totals over $300 billion dollars.

Twice a year, hundreds of wide-eyed founders from all over the world fill in applications to be accepted into the exclusive club that is Y Combinator.

If accepted, startups receive the necessary capital, advisory, and resources to grow their projects. In exchange, YC takes on early stage equity of these startups.

Instead of being the creator of innovation, YC found exponential growth by being the catalyst for innovation.

The Cost of Exclusivity

Although the YC model has helped grow some of the most successful companies of this generation, 98% of applications are rejected.

This level of exclusivity in the application process may frustrate some, but the reasoning behind only accepting 2% of potential startups is not without logic.

Limited Capital: There is only enough capital for YC to deploy
Limited Talent: There are a limited amount of talented humans to help review, process, and advise these startups
Limited Startups: There may simply be not that many good startups

While these limiting factors may be an expected trade-off for exclusivity, what happens when a sleeping giant like Shopify or Amazon falls through the cracks? What if the next Elon Musk was one of those 98% of applicants rejected?

The Sleeping Giant

Let’s rewind to July 2011.

A Russian-Canadian programmer began writing for a publication called Bitcoin Weekly that offered him 5 Bitcoin for each article he wrote.

This was worth $3.50 per article at the time — $300,000 as of today’s values.

Two years later, that same writer was inspired to publish the foundational white paper of a big, really big, idea: a world computer.

That person’s name is Vitalik Buterin and the white paper he wrote was for a project called Ethereum.

Unicorn Valley: The Ethereum-Effect

One popular term used in the startup space is Unicorn:

A startup valued at over $1B dollars.

At the time of writing this, Ethereum is responsible for over 29 Unicorns utilizing the ERC-20 standard.

Uniswap: $18B
Chainlink: $17B
Synthetix: $3B
Aave: $5B
Compound: $2.5

Over $50B of financial assets are currently locked on Ethereum’s blockchain. However, more than the capture of value in the world, Ethereum enables the creation of value into the world.

In less than 6 years, Ethereum reached a market cap that of over $275B. Today, that is only $25B shy of the total value all YC companies combined.

The Catalyst for Creation

Once every few decades, a new technology is born that re-teaches us the power of exponential growth.

1990s: The invention of the internet enabled the creation of value at a scale never before thought possible.
2000s: The supplement of YC became the catalyst and helped the creations reach scale.
2010s: The invention of the Ethereum blockchain enabled the creation of value at a scale we never thought possible

Although the YC accelerator model has been innovative, the timing of the internet made it possible. In the 2020s, what will Ethereum make possible? What will be the catalyst for creation in the decentralized world?

The YC of the Decentralized World

While Y Combinator will most likely go on to fund many great startups, the model simply does not align with the decentralized world.

Here are seven reasons we are building Blockzero Labs to be the YC of the decentralized world.

1) Permissionless Opportunity.

As mentioned earlier in the article, it makes sense why YC can only accept so many projects.

Similar to Harvard, Y Combinator must retain a high barrier to entry to remain an exclusive brand and ensure they can properly allocate resources (capital, mentors, etc) to the accepted startups.

However, this exclusive mentality limits the long-tail of innovative minds from around the world. If there is one thing that the invention of blockchain challenges to the core it is this:

No intermediaries should be able to control or censor the creation, control, or transfer of value.

Through Ethereum and the growth of DAOs, we now have the ability to operate, vote, and coordinate autonomously. Implementing a DAO-like system of incubation can unlock the 98% of startups to get the resources they need to succeed.

In the same way Ethereum allows anyone to launch a smart contract into the world without permission of third-party intermediaries, Blockzero believes the chances of your success should be based on your passion, ability, and execution — not who you know or how much money you have.

The opportunity to create value in the world should be permissionless.

2) Elastic Capital Deployment

When YC wants to invest money into a startup, they have a finite amount of capital they can deploy. If YC has illiquid positions or are running low on cash, they either need to raise funds or sell positions.

With Blockzero, however, the potential for capital deployment is dynamic, elastic, and dependent on the market cap of the native token: $XIO

With over 60M tokens currently in the Blockzero Treasury:

If the price of $XIO were $0.33, there would be $20M.
If the price of $XIO were $3.33, there would be $200M.
If the price of $XIO were $33.33, there would be $2B.

As you can see from the numbers above, the network effect of value creation leading to more potential capital deployment acts as a frictionless flywheel for financial inclusion.

3) Tokens vs. Equity

While some blockchain projects do still have the influence of equity, a majority of these startups are token-based over equity-based.

Blockzero Labs believes the token-based model requires an entirely new and creative structure to succeed. This is why we created The Vortex.

4) Dynamic vs. Fixed Valuations

YC currently treats all startups the same in terms of startup valuation and capital allocation.

All startups are either accepted or rejected
All startups give up the same amount of capital
All startups receive the same amount of capital

While it makes sense on why YC did this to automate the process and cut down on subjective clutter, this binary and objective process leads to some startups getting over-funded and some startups getting under-funded.

With with distributed nature of Ethereum and decision making processes at scale, startups can receive resource allocation in all shapes and sizes.

Blockzero allows projects to set their own valuation. If the market thinks it is over-valued, the project simply does not get the resources they need to scale.

5) Globalization of Talent and Time

Although YC has done a good job offering remote access during the Covid-19 pandemic, the model has historically been predicated on founders picking up their belongings and moving to Silicon Valley for extended amounts of time.

Additionally, with two batches a year than span three months each, six months out of the year there is no active accelerator (note: they do offer awesome startup school courses and education)

With Blockzero, anyone can apply from anywhere in the world at anytime they want. Innovation never sleeps.

6) Early Liquidity

The same day this article was written, Coinbase (a YC alumni) launched their IPO. Founded in 2012, it took over 8 years for YC to go public.

Although I don’t think YC will be complaining any time soon about one of their companies going public, this is a decent duration of time that they had to sit on illiquid assets.

In the decentralized world, projects are much more liquid in their early days. Some projects even jumpstart this process by launching with their very own Initial Liquidity Offering.

The early access to liquidity for Blockzero allows for a more efficient and dynamic use of capital.

7) Community Ownership

One of the biggest selling points of YC is the amount of highly talented individuals and mentors you will get connected with during your three months of incubation.

Although there will always be a place for advisors within a project, the decentralized world finds just as much value, if not more, throughout communities and the aligned-incentives that guide them.

More than ever before, community members share actual ownership in the network they are supporting.

Uniswap gave away over $18M worth of tokens to users of their protocol.
YFI gave 100% of their token to the users of their protocol.
UMA is actively offering $60M+ to those who help increase their TVL

This deeper level of connection has shown to turn early adopters into early brand ambassadors willing to go above and beyond to help a project succeed.

Blockzero Labs currently has over 8000 community members we call Citizens ready to support and discover new blockchain projects.

Decentralize the World

We believe opportunity should be decentralized, automated, and permissionless. This is why we are building Blockzero Labs.

Learn about XIO Tokenomics and the business model behind Blockzero
Submit your project and apply to join Blockzero Labs
Add liquidity to the ETH/XIO Liquidity Pool and earn 5–15% yield per month (up to 180% APY)
Participate in governance decisions and earn up to $1500/month for providing feedback
Become a Citizen and help us build, launch, and own the next generation of decentralized startups

bombxio In Blockzero Blog, DeFi Accelerator, Explainer

Blockzero Labs Governance | How to Make a Proposal + Council Members

The process for submitting an official Blockzero Proposal is as follows:

Create Blockzero Citizenship account at blockzero.tribe.so
Select one of the 5 types of Proposals (Think, Create, Grow, Core, General)
Submit your Proposal by filling out the necessary information.

The Proposal is then open for Citizens to debate, ask questions, and clarify any unclear points.

After one week, any Blockzero Council member can take this Proposal and submit it directly onto Blockzero Labs’ official Snapshot Page.

Using eligible tokens (currently $XIO + XLP tokens), Citizens are then able to vote on the outcome of this Proposal. If passed, the action items mentioned in the Proposal are set into motion by the Blockzero Council.

It is encouraged that Proposals include phased milestones that are delivered for grants to be paid.

Proposal Types

There are five primary Proposal types, each with their own purpose.

1) Think (R&D) Proposal

Think Proposals are R&D focused grants that compensate an individual to focus the time, energy, and effort on exploring/researching a new concept or idea.

The person submitting this proposal is expected to clearly articulate why this concept or idea is worth exploring.

Example

A Citizen believes they have a way to turn Citizenships into NFTs. This person could make a well documented Think Proposal with the goal of pursuing this project. At the end of their research, the Citizen would be expected to provide a well documented report and analysis on how to turn this idea into a reality.

Click here to make Think Proposal

2) Create (Building) Proposal

Create Proposals are development focused grants that compensate an individual to build a new project or add features to an existing one.

The person submitting this proposal is expected to recruit all the team members necessary to execute on the requirements of the Proposal.

Example

A Citizen wants to make an improvement to the Flashstake Dapp and believes they have the ability to turn it into a reality. The Citizen starts building a team around them and applies for funding to compensate their time and effort.

At the end of their building, the Citizen would be expected to take a product or idea to mainnet.

Click here to make Create Proposal

3) Growth (Marketing) Proposal

Growth Proposals are marketing focused grants that compensate an individual for bringing awareness, engagement, and users to a project.

The person submitting this proposal is expected to clearly outline the gameplan, KPIs, and talent to execute on the proposal.

Example

A Citizen wants to perform a marketing campaign that involves putting a massive AquaFi billboard in Times Square. The person would find out how much it cost and make a proposal to the community to make it happen.

The expected growth outcomes during this phase must be clear and deliverable.

Click here to make Growth Proposal

4) Core (Work) Proposal

Core Proposals are work related grants that compensate an individual for filling a role and providing their skills on an ongoing, part-time, or full-time basis.

Example

Examples of this include a Marketing Manager, Solidity Developer, or Telegram support individual.

The expected outcome during this phase is re-occurring value to the Blockzero Labs ecosystem.

Click here to make Core Proposal

5) General Proposal

General Proposals are general suggestions on how to improve the Blockzero Labs ecosystem.

Example

Examples of this could be changing a project logo or upgrading the tokenomics of a protocol.

Click here to make General Proposal

General Discussions

If you are wanting to brainstorm or get feedback before making an official Proposal, you can join the General Discussions Blockzero group.

Veto

For the early stages of this governance process, we believe it was important to put bumpers into place to ensure quality is maintained and bad actors are discouraged.

With this, if the Council believes any of the following to be true, the Proposal can be Vetoed by a majority vote. Here are just a few examples situations that could cause a Veto.

Proposal did not reach quorum of 2M XIO tokens. This amount can be changed over time.
Proposal results or call-to-action were not clear or objective.
Proposal was made in bad faith with poor intentions.

The goal of this process is to provide a temporary backstop in our path to decentralization. If Proposals are vetoed, they can be resubmitted.

The Council

The Council is a group of Citizens who are responsible for:

Submitting or vetoing official Proposals to the Blockzero Snapshot page
Moving of Blockzero Labs treasury funds (ex: XSI, XLP, XFO, FLASH)
Making any current or future protocol updates (ex: FPY Match)
Add or remove Council Members

All of the above decisions are made on-chain through a Multisig wallet. Currently there are four co-signers with control. Three of the co-signers need to sign off before a decision can be made.

Co-signer #1 | Zachary Dash

Position: Creator of Blockzero Labs
Location: Austin, TX
Focus: Community + Tokenomics + Business Development
History: Been with project 27 Months

Co-Signer #2 | John Velasco

Position: Operations Ninja
Location: Sydney, Australia
Focus: Operations + Finances + Strategy
History: Been with project 8 Months

Co-Signer #3 | Jorn

Position: Head of XSI
Location: Kassel, Germany
Focus: Social Engagement + Support Lead
History: Been with project 23 Months

Co-Signer #4 | Steve.ETH

Position: Creator of bz.to
Location: Tulsa, OK
Focus: Engineer + Data + Reporting
History: Been with project 23 Months

Closing

This is a great step forward, but not our final form. Governance will always be an iterative process. If you find the current system difficult or complex, please let us know ways we can improve upon it.

If you have any questions about governance, feel free to ask at https://blockzero.tribe.so/group/citizen-support

bombxio In Blockzero Blog, DeFi Accelerator, Explainer

Blockzero Labs (XIO) Tokenomics | The Vortex Proposal

Two weeks ago, I met a VC at a local Ethereum Meetup who had never heard of Blockzero Labs or what we were about.

Although I was not there to raise capital, I was excited to tell the story of Blockzero to a new person and share our vision of becoming the “YCombinator of the Decentralized World”.

While I quickly jumped into what we were building and the amazing community behind us, one hour into the conversation I realized this person was still not clear on the most important part of our entire ecosystem — the functionality of the token that powers the entire Blockzero Labs ecosystem: $XIO

Why would people want to hold/stake/earn $XIO?
What are the ways it captures, retains and distributes value?
How will it fuel the next generation of decentralized projects?

The remainder of this article is a proposal on how we can better communicate the value proposition and utility of the native token ($XIO) in a clear, visual, and consistent manner. As always, the community of Blockzero Labs Citizens will ultimately decide to accept or reject this proposal.

Quick Links:

The Model

Blockzero Labs provides projects in all stages the community, capital, and connections they need to reach escape velocity. In exchange for this value, these projects are asked to deposit ERC tokens into something called the Blockzero Vortex — a DAO that controls the inflow and outflow of capital.

The XIO token is needed to remove these tokens from the Vortex.

The Vortex

The Vortex is separated into three primary Orbits — each with their own purpose, distribution mechanism, and functionality.

Orbit #1 Treasury
Orbit #2 Liquidity
Orbit #3 Collateral

Orbit #1: Treasury (Vote)

The purpose Orbit #1 is to:

Provide capital for operational, development, and marketing expenses
Fund various programs like the Blockzero Mental Mining Program

Distribution

The only way to remove tokens outside of Orbit #1 is through an on-chain majority vote from Blockzero Council Members made through a Multisig wallet.

Logic

Since Blockzero Labs is 100% bootstrapped and has never raised any capital, having an adequate amount of assets in the Treasury is crucial for the sustainability of the project.

Balance

At the time of writing this post, the Treasury is composed of:

44,104,652 $XIO (XFO + XSI Wallets)
1,072,918 $FLASH
TBD $AQUA

Orbit #2: Liquidity (Stake)

The purpose of Orbit Two is to:

Provide liquidity and sustainability to the $XIO token
Offer a fair distribution mechanism of assets to Citizens.

Distribution

The only way to remove tokens outside Orbit #2 is through the staking of eligible tokens.

Logic

Having a liquid $XIO token allows Blockzero Labs to support more projects and provide additional incentive layers to Citizens.

Balance

At the time of writing this post, Orbit #2 is composed of:

19,813,380 $XIO (XLP Program)
TBD $AQUA

The only two eligible tokens at this time to receive these assets are XIO + the XIO/ETH LP token on Uniswap. More eligible tokens may be added over time.

Example

Let’s assume a project deposits 1,000,000 $XYZ tokens into Orbit #2 that are to be distributed over two years. Blockzero Citizens could stake $XIO and earn $XYZ tokens on a block-by-block basis.

If one $XYZ is equal to $1, and a Citizen represents 5% the Orbit, they would receive 50,000 XYZ ($50,000) over two years.

Note: In the current model, people must only hold $XIO or XLP tokens to participate in Orbit #2. In this proposal, however, users would need to stake $XIO or XLP tokens to participate. This would allow us to move everything on-chain in a decentralized and permissionless manner.

Orbit #3: Collateral (Burn)

The purpose of Orbit #3 is to:

Provide long term economic alignment to support decentralized projects
Collateralize the value to the $XIO token based on previous performance

Distribution

The only way to remove tokens outside Layer Three is through the burning of $XIO tokens.

Logic

Since the only way to remove tokens from Orbit #3 is through the burning of XIO, this ensures that Citizens have a long term reason to support the projects inside Orbit #3.

If the value of these assets increases relative to XIO, the underlying value of $XIO also grows. If the value of $XIO is to decrease below that of the value of assets within Orbit #3, Citizens can burn their XIO for a greater value.

This, in theory, creates a collateralized backstop to the $XIO token.

Balance

At the time of writing this post, the Treasury is composed of:

$50,000 UMA (Yet to be received)

Example

Let’s assume the following assets are in Orbit #3:

$5M UMA tokens
$3M DAI tokens
$2M UNI tokens

If a user holds 250,000 XIO tokens, this represents 0.25% of the entire supply. The user can burn their XIO and redeem:

$12,500 UMA
$ 7,500 DAI
$ 5,000 UNI

There is an active vote until April 16th to add FLASH to Orbit #3.

Calm Before the Storm

We have been working on this project for 18 months. Heads down, crafting the culture, focusing on building meaningful relationships, creating cool stuff, and giving everything away for free.

Those of you who have been Citizens know the value we have created within the industry is not yet recognized. I believe 2021 is our year to change that.

To reach the the scale we all know we are capable of, it is more important than ever that we have a crystal clear economic model for new people to join.

I am more confident than ever that if we can clean up the narrative, clarify the tokenomics, and communicate our vision — the industry will take note.

You can ask questions and provide feedback for this proposal on our new governance platform. Pending feedback, this proposal will be put into an official governance vote on May 1st.

Blockzero Labs

The Y Combinator of the Decentralized World

Anthony In Announcements, Blockzero Blog, DeFi Accelerator

DeFi-ing Gravity — UMA DeFi Accelerator Ready for Liftoff!

TLDR: One month of UMA education and onboarding campaigns in collaboration with Blockzero Labs. Incentivized with $50,000 worth of XIO + 2,000 of UMA’s uTVL KPI Options and $5,000 worth of UMA Call Options. Launches April 1st. This is not a joke!

Last month, we proudly announced that UMA would be the first project to join Blockzero’s new Defi Accelerator, a program that seeks to educate, incentivize, and onboard the next 1,000,000 users into the world of decentralized finance.

Today, we can finally reveal the details of this “Gravity DeFi-ing” mission, kicking off on April 1st. And to make sure we’ve got your attention, there will be $50,000 worth of Blockzero’s $XIO tokens, 2,000 of UMA’s KPI Options (uTVL) worth between $5k-$100k, as well as $5k worth of UMA Call Options up for grabs! Rewards will be distributed at the end of the Accelerator via the Blockzero Claims dapp.

What are KPI Options? “KPI options are synthetic tokens that will pay out more rewards as the core KPI of the protocol grows.” Essentially, it’s a way to incentivize users to help grow the UMA protocol, as the value of the KPI options are directly tied to the growth of UMA’s TVL.

For clarity, UMA’s KPI options will be referred to as uTVL from here on out.

Beginning on April 1st and running for 30 days, Blockzero will launch three unique campaigns designed to drive education, engagement and adoption of UMA’s various protocols and dapps. With each campaign, there will be an increasing amount of $XIO available to be earned by participants, as well as a set amount of UMA’s uTVL Options + Call Options.

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our weekly Medium articles which will outline exactly what you can do to participate in each initiative.

In order to participate and receive rewards throughout the entirety of the campaign, you must do the following:

JOIN UMA'S DISCORD JOIN UMA'S DISCOURSE FORUM WHITELIST YOUR ETH ADDRESS + DISCORD/DISCOURSE USERNAMES

Phase 1: Education — $10,000 XIO + 400 uTVL Options (April 1st — April 8th)

In Phase 1, we’ll be releasing an interview with UMA’s co-founder Hart Lambur on our Around the Block podcast, hosted by Lea Thompson (aka Girl Gone Crypto). In this interview, you will learn all about the story behind UMA, the bigger picture of the project, and gain a fundamental understanding of synthetic tokens.

Zachary Dash, the founder of Blockzero Labs, will also be creating a deep-dive macro-level explainer video of the UMA protocol.

So, where do you come in?

$10,000 worth of XIO + 400 uTVL Options will be up for grabs in a Walk-Through Bounty Campaign. We’re calling on the combined UMA and Blockzero communities to create unique walk-through articles, video guides, or even in-depth explainer Twitter threads to help newcomers learn about UMA’s Dapps, or the UMA protocol itself. It’s really up to you how you want to help educate the world on UMA.

Each participant will submit their “Walk-Through” links on the UMA Discourse forum for entry. More details will come next week on where to officially post your entries on the forum.

For clarity, we highly encourage you to post your content on whatever native platforms you choose — be it Youtube, Twitter, Medium, Facebook, Reddit, or all of the above — just be sure to share your original link on the Discourse forum thread to enter.

Two winners will be selected from each of the following Dapps/Protocols, derived from following two categories (so in total, 10 winners will be selected):

1. Walk-Through Guides — Creative, in-depth video or written article outlining in a step-by-step manner how to use the given dapp.

2. General Overviews — A more broad explainer of what the dapp /protocol does. This could take the form of a well-written twitter thread, Youtube video, blog, or explainer graphic.

Each category winner will receive $1000 XIO + 40 KPI Options.

uStonks(1 walk-through winner/1 overview winner)
UMA Bills(1 walk-through winner/1 overview winner)
Domination Finance(1 walk-through winner/1 overview winner)
Wildcard — Choose any of the other UMA dapps/projects…surprise us! (1 walk-through winner/1 overview winner)
Mystery Box — Literally anything at all. Could be an infographic, short-film, GIF, animation, NFT idea, a song about UMA… Surprise us with your skills. Unlock a hidden surprise bounty (two winners from this section as well)!

Voting will begin on April 8th at 2:00 p.m. uTC via a poll on UMA’s Discourse Forum, and will remain open for 24 hours. The winners will be announced via Discord/Discourse on April 9th.

Here’s a few existing guides to help you get started, and feel free to reach out to them on Discord! Each of these dapps has their own sub-channels on UMA’s Discord:

uStonks Guide, UMA Bills overview, Domination Finance guide

Phase 2: Engagement — $5,000 XIO + 200 uTVL Options (April 8th — April 15th)

Goal: Increase the understanding of the potential for synthetic assets through an incentivized and engaging synthetic token ideas tournament, as well as a KPI Option open debate.

XIO Option Open Debate

Zachary Dash, the founder Blockzero Labs, will hold an open debate to discuss all things related to KPI options on a Youtube livestream on Friday, April 9th (time is TBD). The goal of this discussion is to really expand the communities perception of what KPI options and synthetics are, and to fully wrap your head around the ground-breaking implications of them. For more info on their uTVL Options, check out their one-pager.

Synthetic Token Competition

Do you have what it takes to think of the next viral Synthetic token idea? By the time Phase 2 rolls around, you’ll have a better understanding of what a synthetic token is, and how there’s a seemingly limitless amount of ways they can be utilized and created. If you’d like further clarity, check out UMA’s insightful interview on Bankless.

We are giving away $5,000 $XIO + 200 uTVL Options to Blockzero Citizens and Super UMAns who can come up with unique, innovative, and unorthodox synthetic token ideas that would theoretically drive the most TVL for UMA. Who knows, the winning idea might even have a chance to get built.

Each participant will submit their “Token Idea” entry to the UMA Discourse Forum by April 14th, 3 p.m UTC.

After submitting, the top four ideas as voted on internally by the UMA/Blockzero teams will go into a final round.

On April 15th-16th, we will hold a community vote to determine the final top 3 winners on UMA’s Discourse Forum.

1st place will receive $3000 XIO + 120 uTVL options

2nd place will receive $1500 XIO + 60 uTVL options

3rd place will receive $500 XIO + 20 uTVL options

Phase 3: Adoption — $35,000 XIO + 1,400 uTVL options + $5,000 UMA Call Options ( April 15th — April 30th)

Synthetic Mining Competition

Goal: Increase UMA’s liquidity by incentivizing participants to mint and hold synthetic tokens.

In alignment with UMA’s $1 billion TVL goal, today we are announcing the creation of the XIO Yield Dollar.

During this two-week Synthetic Mining Competition, users will be rewarded for the minting of the XIO Yield Dollar. Stay tuned for a more in-depth video overview from Zachary Dash explaining the creation of this!

From April 15th-30th, we’ll be taking a daily snapshot of all whitelisted ETH addresses that mint XIO Yield Dollars. Participants will be rewarded at a rate proportional to their XIO Yield Dollar holdings (reward structure will be explained in more detail during Phase 3’s Medium blog).

As a bonus, the first 56 addresses to mint XIO Yield Dollars will receive 25 uTVL options each.

Closing

We’re excited to get this off the ground and kick off the first-ever DeFi Accelerator program with UMA. Stay tuned next week for the official Medium blog breaking down Phase 1 in further detail.

Anthony In Blockzero Blog, Citizen of the Week

Blockzero Citizen of the Week #11: Sam

Presenting our Blockzero Labs Citizen of the Week.