I was reading 's &
's posts the other day about how the Minnowsupport account will be distributing upvotes in exchange for PAL tokens and then also distributing those PAL tokens to delegators while burning the portion that they receive.
Doing this creates a sink for the PAL token. Something that has talked about extensively.
- A sink is a means to permanently lowering the supply of a token by destroying it (sending it to
)
- A faucet is how you distribute the token (i.e. the rewards pool, digital mining tokens, etc.)
A token’s sinks, he explains, derive as much as 90% of the value that a token will have comparative to the 10% of value that a faucet brings to the token.
Thus, it is important to focus a great deal on how you will “sink” your token and take them out of circulation. Minnowsupport has this great model:
- Users can bid for Steem upvotes by sending PAL tokens to
- Delegators to
get a proportional split of those PAL tokens
also gets a proportional split of those PAL, but it burns the portion it receives (creating the sink)
keeps the Steem curation rewards powered up.. Increasing its native SP and thus, the amount of PAL that will be sunk over time
My Idea for a Subscription Sink
I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m working on building out my own tribe here on the Steem blockchain with the power of SCOT and Steem Engine. I want to ensure that I do it right and build something of real value. I don’t want to just launch another shit coin with no use case and no user base.
As I’m reading through all the SCOT posts by Aggroed and then also this latest post about Minnowsupport, I was lead to brainstorm how I could implement some sort of similar sink into the token I create as well.
I was writing down a completely different idea when this idea of a subscription sink suddenly struck me:
What if you created an account (much like the voting account) and you changed it into a subscription model rather than a bid model.
Instead of taking bids in your SCOT from users to upvote their posts, you could have a monthly subscription fee that is payed via your SCOT.
Users who pay the subscription fee each month will get upvoted regularly on their content from the platform’s main account, which would be holding a significant amount of Steem Power. You may even call them “Verified Authors” within your platform. How cool would it be if you could even build in a mechanism on condenser that puts a little verified check mark next to their Steem name?
There is a catch, of course — the content has to be good and thoughtful. Not abusive and solely driven by financial rewards. If you post bad content, you may get a strike. If you do it twice, you may get kicked out and blacklisted from the service.
Remember that the main idea here is to drive value to your token by not only creating a sink, but also encouraging thoughtful content and usage of your platform.
How Does This Subscription Model Create a Sink and Stack Up to The Minnowsupport Model?
- Users join the whitelist and become a “Verified Author” each month by paying a small subscription fee using your SCOT
- Delegators to the service will earn their portion of those monthly subscription fees (based on SP delegated)*
- The servicing account would also get its proportional split of the SCOT, but then burn the portion it receives (creating your sink)
- The servicing account would also keep the SP curation rewards powered up to increase the amount of the SCOT burned over time
A Few Notes:
*I realized that it may not be enough of an incentive for delegators because the subscription fees paid out in the SCOT may not be high enough. To combat this, you could divert a small portion of the inflation pool to also be distributed to delegators. If you do this, you further incentivize delegation to the platform which will help a great deal in attracting a growing user base and more verified authors.
There also must be a balance between the # of verified authors that you allow each month based on how much SP you have. You have to ensure that the verified authors are earning enough through upvotes to make it worth actually paying the subscription fee in the first place.
I think additional value could also be added to this entire system if you had other incentives for the verified authors outside of upvotes. Content creators are always looking for ways to get more eyeballs on their content. Some sort of promotional tools and strategies could also be implemented for verified authors on your platform.
I’m curious to get some outside opinions on this idea, as I’ll likely be implementing it into Steemleo (my SCOT/Tribe) right off the bat. On paper it seems like a great idea to me, but maybe you’ve got some insight that could improve/disprove the idea. Drop a comment below!