The stable currency product has a lot of overhead. It requires people to be responsive, trustworthy, ongoing development for the client and NuBot among other layers. Nor does it generate any significant profit. Mind you I believe a 100% reserve system is the only trustworthy model. Anything else is dangerous at best. That’s a debate in itself but the only successful competitors are 100% reserve (Tether). Even BitShares is playing a dangerous game that I don’t think is entirely honest to the users. Therefor in the sense of the network in which i’m talking about I would define profit as network asset value (of assets we pair to NBT) > liabilities (Every NBT in existance). All of those layers of people and development need money to lubricate the process. If the network had a means of earning some profit then the stable currency concept would be extremely viable and scale.
As of now the network doesn’t generate any profit and so every layer required for operations to run smooth in maintaining the peg experiences enormous friction. People want to be paid for running bots, managing reserves, developing the client, developing NuBot, voting and staying active (Some may argue that people shouldn’t be paid for voting and staying active. I say this is a very narrow and idealistic point of view. It is a very time consuming process to participate in a DAO and time is money. We say people should participate to increase the value of their investment but to realize the value of that investment you have to cash out which reduces the incentive for participating. Without dividends simply holding the asset is not an attractive position to encourage the time requirements for the DAO investors to participate effectively or stay incentivized.) All that is required just to maintain the peg.
We think we can rely on NuShares value as a backing for failed NuBits policy but this has proven unreliable as well. What gives NuShares value? The utility of NuBits peg (being that it’s the only current product of the network) as @Phoenix has pointed out. Though if the peg fails what does that say about the value of NuShares? The only thing keeping NuShares afloat is hope. That’s literally what the network is running off of at this point. Hope. Which doesn’t pay the bills, and I’ve seen no initiatives that I believe will resuscitate the network from it’s current hope addiction into earning an income to pay for all those layers that’s its hoping to get back into supporting. Also not having an effective tier to combat peg maintenance prior to NuShares selling will destroy any confidence in NuShares investment because of its ever increasing supply. It’s a dangerously unattractive solution. As we already know peg maintenance is a costly enterprise, so having a profits as a buffer tier to supporting the maintenance assures a much higher level of investor confidence.
So… what the network knows now is that it’s entirely possible to produce this stable coin, but that it requires significant lubrication. I don’t believe any of the nonsense @Phoenix is peddling right now and at very best there’s significant manipulation associated with anything near that camp. We have @Cybnate’s proposal here, while closer based to reality requires a lot of the existing layers that the network cannot afford at this point. It’s a Bush era stimulus check rather than a long term solution.
I have been talking about the proof-of-park and proof-of-burn concepts as part of a cost API ad nauseam for almost a year now. and @woolly_sammoth has actually taken the first steps of cracking open the realization of it. The NuNetwork is unique in that we can create blockchain assets at will, and provably destroy them just as easily. By figuring out areas where that could be utlizied as a service every NuBits created, sold, and destroyed ends up as 100% profit for the network. Is it perfect? No, but I think it’s the best bet in generating a service more valuable than what Nu has offered thus far and what all the current propositions are trying to get back to.
It would be a unique blockchain based service, and potentially offer real value in being a programmable value gateway by proving value has been expended to access a resource. The biggest advantage would be to services who want to require a paywall for a resource but don’t want to deal with value transmission themselves. The stability of NuBits is ideal for such a crypto paywall. Use cases would need to be heavily explored and this has been the biggest criticism of the idea, but the the advantages of finding out how to make this work are a better use of the networks energy for the following reasons.
- It doesn’t require any further development of the client or NuBot. Only sell walls would be required in the early stages to assure NuBits are purchased as $1. The software that manages the API needs to be developed and since it’s open source anyone could start using burning in whatever capacity suits them, or utilize a network supported API.
- The funds generated selling NBT (and subsequently destroyed to utilize the API service) can be used to buy existing NBT off the open market until a healthy reserve to liability ratio has been attained (ideally being 100%). If a flow of NBT is being burned at some point the network will generate assets in excess of its liabilities (profit, in my model).
- Once the network has a continuous stream of NBT being sold and destroyed utilizing the API service at some point the excess profit can be regularly distributed as dividends. Excess profit being any value leftover after paying for network costs, whatever those may be. At this point we’re still not worried about 100% reserve because the focus isn’t on offering a pegged asset in the sense that you can buy/sell at 1$. Only assuring that they’re sold at $1. I’m guessing once a significant portion of the excess supply of NBT has been bought back we’ll start to build towards a reserve. Now NuShares will have real value outside of hope and the existence of a tight peg. It’s an asset that you can hold which lets you vote and earn a passive income without having to sell that asset. That is extremely attractive to investors, and so we’ll surely see an increase in NSR value. Real investor interest. I’ve rarely seen anyone ask about NuShares because they wanted to vote, but many people have asked about when dividends will payout.
- NuShares now having a very healthy value outside of the NBT peg means it can be reliable used to back a pegged asset. We can start to diversify the services the network offers to once again return to providing a 100% reserve pegged asset. The new NBT burning profits also acts as a new tier before NuShares dilution to replenish the reserve.
Continued growth of the burn API would provide profit to pay for all of the layers of overhead in offering that asset. The network would be offering a unique blockchain based service that isn’t trying to compete with existing financial platforms (which still far outperform blockchain based solutions). At least I don’t think VISA offers credit burning.
Taking the network focus to realizing this path would be a true pivot for the network. Instead of trying to fix a flat tire by pumping more air into it. It would also allow us to expand backward to pegged assets in a healthier, sustainable model. I think one issue with this is that people would probably buy the currently cheap supply of NuBits to utilize whatever services would enforce using the burning API. So the API for a while would need to use some pricing oracle to get an accurate stable burn value until the liabilities have been cleaned up.
This is kinda rambly but i’m just jotting this stuff down as I go. I’m sure i’m missing some stuff here. It’s not a perfect solution but I think it offers a path that is less risky in regards to the investment required to build out a working concept. If it works it would require less maintenance than @Cybnate’s proposal and less hand waving than @Phoenix’s proposal. it offers a better long term solution than both as well if people find value in using it. I haven’t followed many other proposals in depth so apologies if there’s anything better out there. I know this is kind of hijacking the thread as well so I can move it if need be, that’s those are my current feelings on what the network should do.
Most would only hold because they think something else will go down, called hedging. We have seen this clearly in the last few weeks. When people think BTC is bullish they will sell quickly. My proposal adds a price to hedging, user pays.