Token Use Case

[bitcraft3r]

Discussion from #1

The only way to truly verify performance data is to rely on a centralized institution, "the exchange" to provide correct data on their API.

If we would be writing traders performance on the blockchain users would have to trust, "The exchange" and "Aluna Social" to provide and to re-write the information on the blockchain, already making it a 2 point of failure.

In short, verifying user performance data on our website or on data written on the blockchain by us would not be any different ( aside from we would be expending money on TX FEES ), therefore i can't see this feature happening on a blockchain.

@hems yeah you're right I never thought about that when I brought the example up.

what would be the simplest use case for how aluna.social currently works? as of now, crypto can be used to make payment for subscription, paying other traders for unlocking signals (and shadow trades in future), or pay out referral fees. Also, remember one idea of the pricing structure, was a fixed monthly subscription rate say $60, which gets the user say 1000 points or it could be tokens, which could be used for the micro-services or micro-transactions on the site, such as for social trading, or even in future for the signal and strategy marketplace etc.

Last month i watched a demo of an online gambling platform using eth smart contracts. so basically when u place ur bet, you create a smart contract. and depending on the outcome of the bet, the smart contract executes the desired action. i wish i took a video of how it looked, but explaining is the best i can do here. for the UX it is seamless and works exactly like a normal betting site, i.e. the number of clicks to make the bet remain the same. no extra technical knowledge required by the front end user. though, this was done with ethereum and we will have to tackle the question of why a token is required, and come up with functions that BTC and ETH themselves cannot accomplish.

Why i bring this example up is perhaps, one of the most straightforward use-case for a token on aluna social platform, would be for the micro-services (not subscription payment) - such as buying/unlocking social signals? using smart contracts could be useful (trustless transparent escrow), especially if we intend to charge different amounts for winning and losing signals, which will require escrowing for a certain time, then taking different action for paying out based on the outcome. i also bring this up as the first use-case, because this is probably the most easily demonstrable based on the available features by around beta stage. other micro-services could include automating trades with strategy from tradingview, shadowing social traders.

IMO a second straightforward use case would be to have a social feed - users can post a tweet such as trading analysis, thought or chart - and others can like and tip token. basically incentivizing for sharing market analysis. wisdom of crowds, swarm intelligence etc.. this is similar to steemit.com. this token emission could be directly created in the protocol, and seems like quite an important function in making token a 'utility'.

3rd use case could be related to how binance uses BNB to give users discounts on trading fees. the more BNB a user has, the lower his trading fees are. can't pinpoint exactly how this could be implemented on our site, but the philosophy behind giving benefits for token holders when using the site, is something we should think about more. maybe if we think about the subscription payment as the first layer, and the micro-services layer as the second payments layer -- perhaps holders and users of aluna token get some discounts on the micro-services layer

[bitcraft3r]

first use cases as pointed out in https://github.com/alunacrypto/aluna-social/issues/235:

1. tipping content creators
2. micropayment for copy trading
3. selling signals

[bitcraft3r]

token economics will need further work but is well documented in our working documents and email convo with DA