To be clear, from everything I’ve read and from the discussions that I’ve had with others in the community, the complete removal of the dividends function from Nu has never been proposed, publicly or privately. In case there is confusion about it, however, I’d like to offer my take on Nu dividends.
I’m just one voice out of many, but I feel that it is important for the Nu shareholders to hear from people who have worked on the product.
TLDR;
Retaining the ability to issue dividends is critical. The Nu shareholders should consider themselves part of a rationale, profit-seeking enterprise.
[on soapbox]
I will not support any movement by shareholders that attempts to remove the dividends functionality from the Nu protocol. The ability to issue dividends to shareholders is a fundamental component of the system that we’ve built. Dividends, along with NBT/NSR burning, NSR buy-backs, and NBT parking[1], are valuable tools that the Nu network can utilize to grow and adjust to the ever-changing environment(s) in which it operates.
Additionally, I want to stress that I, personally, cannot in good conscience support paying dividends at the expense of NuBit users. It’s uncomfortable to be sure (especially in these early days), but if we ever want to see wide-spread adoption of NBT (or another Nu network currency unit) as a transactional token, users must be able to have confidence that they can trade in and out of them at ~$1.00/NBT without friction[2].
Nu needs to be run by the shareholders like it is a rationale enterprise. It’s not rationale for a business to offer dividends when there is no profit to distribute; therefore it follows that dividends should not be scheduled if those dividends aren’t coming out of the network’s profit.
Nu is expected to be grow over time so early profit-taking at the expense of the network’s long-term health is to me, very short-sighted. Nu shareholders need to be able to justify their investment, to be sure, and being able to predictably offer dividends is a very public way of declaring the network’s health, but please always remember where those dividends come from. I implore each and every NSR holder today to work with us develop new network strategies to devise ways that the network can generate profits. Here’s your chance to help contribute to the emergence of a different type of finanical system – one that combines the best of the current one with innovations and inventions that are uniquely possible with blockchain technology.
Long-term I’d like to see discussions about expanding the types of dividends that can be offered by the network. We’ve seen evidence already that the Nu network exhibits emergent behaviors. Being able to provide shareholders multiple avenues for investment income should exist, depending on the source of the profits–be it in a crypto token, a NSR “split” or redistribution of network acquired shares, or at some point in the future, a way of moving fiat across the network directly.
[off soapbox]
[1] If NBT parking has value could NSR “parking” have additional benefits to the network’s ability to operate, too? Off the top of my head I can only think of a very narrow set of circumstances where it would be useful, but I don’t see that as being a reason why it should not be considered.
[2] I should also point out that I am a believer in the Nu white paper’s statement that this peg is held at $1.00/NBT – as a measure of USD. That NuBot had to adapt to support NBT/crypto pairings may have been a necessity at the time, but going forward I believe it’s in the shareholder’s best interests to identify ways to build gateways to bring fiat directly into the system and let organic arbitrage markets develop that can cover the conversion of cryptoX into NBT.
