Scaling and Sustaining a Network State — Epoch Island Passports
- Epoch Island Passports introduce a recurring revenue stream to help grow and scale the potential Network State.
- 80% of ETH used to purchase Passports is used to buy EPOCH and provide “Citizen-Owned Liquidity”.
- Passports provide many possible benefits to Citizens and can be “Voided” to redeem underlying assets from the Epoch Island Vault.
Only two months since its inception, Epoch Island has seen a huge amount of early momentum and interest.
- Population: Onboarded 24+ Epoch Elders
- Funding: Sold out of Initial Time Offering
- Treasury: EPOCH: $3.18M Market Cap
- Participation: vEPOCH LP Stake Rate: 94.38%
With the 7-Steps to Diplomacy off to a quick start, Epoch Island is now moving into focusing on Phase Five: Revenue
This article introduces the concept of Epoch Island Passports while covering three primary topics:
- Primary Goals of Epoch Island Passports
- Potential Benefits and Utility of Passports
- How to Reserve and Manage Passports
1. Primary Goals of Epoch Island Passports
Passports aim to introduce three main benefits to the growth and scale of Epoch Island.
- Increase Population through a streamlined onboarding flow
- Increase Revenue through a recurring business model
- Increase EPOCH Value through 80/20 buybacks
1) Increase Population
One of the largest friction points of growing the population has been the amount of friction in joining the Island.
Currently, to join Epoch Island, a person has to:
- Go to Epoch Island Dapp
- Acquire EPOCH tokens
- Pair their EPOCH with ETH
- Lock their new EPOCH LP tokens to mint vEPOCH
Fundamentally, joining a country should not feel like a checklist. It should feel like an experience.
In the same way it only takes a few short seconds to join a new social media website, it should only take a few seconds to get onboarded into the ecosystem.
Passports would increase the population by introducing a 60-second or less onboarding flow for new potential Citizens of Epoch Island.
- Select Name of Passport
- Select Passport Quantity
- Select Years of Reservation
- Click “Reserve”
Similar to ENS or domain names, a Passport name could only be owned by one person at time.
Taking this a step further, Moai Labs has also been experimenting with a new concept of a “Dappless” onboarding system.
In short, a potential Citizen would not even have to connect their wallet or visit the Epoch Island Dapp to Reserve a Passport.
Instead, they would simply send crypto to EpochIsland.ETH and immediately receive back a Passport.
No extra gas. No signing messages. No approvals.
Just send and receive.
We think this is pretty damn cool.
Here’s a visual of what it could look like below.
2) Increased Revenue
No matter how big the vision is, if Epoch Island can’t generate revenue, the country won’t survive.
Similar to how ENS domains and multiple successful SaaS companies work, Epoch Island Passports introduce a reoccurring revenue model.
Each year, Islanders would be required to extend their Passports if they want to stay within the Island and receive the benefits it provides.
The cost per Passport could be changed/increased over time through governance.
The graphic below shows the potential annual revenue based on Epoch Island's population and Passport price.
While Epoch Island has a long way to get there, the above graphic shows how Epoch Island could scale to generate multiple billion dollars of ARR and buy pressure on EPOCH.
3) Increase EPOCH Value
The real impact on EPOCH value from Passports comes from how the ETH used to purchase Passports is utilized.
Instead of going to the Epoch Island Treasury, 80% of the ETH is used to purchase EPOCH from the liquidity pool.
Given Passports can be “Voided” (more on this later in the article), this generates Citizen-Owned Liquidity and provides true economic backing and value to the Passports from day one.
Example of Passport Reservation
- John reserves one Passport for four years for a total cost of 1 ETH (0.25 ETH per year)
- The 1 ETH is immediately deposited into the Epoch Island Balancer Pool for liquidity
- Since the pool is weight 80/20, 80% of the ETH would be used to buy EPOCH and generate LP tokens
The newly generated LP tokens would be sent to a Passport Treasury to be fully owned by Passport holders.
At any time, an Islander can choose to “Void” their Passport and redeem its underlying value from the Passport Treasury.
In this model:
- 80% of all capital used to purchase Passports is used to buy EPOCH
- 100% of all capital used to purchase Passport increases EPOCH liquidity
2. Potential Benefits and Utility of Passports
While the above information may seem exciting for EPOCH holders, the most important questions remain:
- Why would people buy Passports?
- What products or services do Passports receive?
- What value is Epoch Island creating in the world?
Below is a list of several potential products, services, and benefits Epoch Islanders could hold upon reserving a Passport.
They fall under five primary categories:
- Access
- Yield
- Ownership
- Mementos
- Influence
Important to note:
- These are not approved, funded, or finalized at this time and would first need to be approved by Epoch Islanders through governance
- All the below benefits of a Passport can be changed by Epoch Islanders over time
- Nothing stated in this article should be considered a promise of future rewards, products, or services.
Benefit 1) Access
This category would aim to provide access to a growing number of physical and digital realms around Epoch Island.
Digital
- Private Discord Server for Networking and Office Hours
- Minting passes or access to partner projects (NFTs, airdrops, etc)
- Access to private governance meetings or Elder Q&A sessions
Physical
- Epoch Island local meetups
- Epoch Island resort-style conferences
- Epoch Island co-working spaces
- Epoch Island rental properties
To reiterate, many of the above benefits (like co-working spaces) are long-term potential possibilities as we scale and should not be expected in the near term.
Benefit 2) Yield
This category would aim to provide real yield value to Passport holders. A few examples could include:
- Trading fees each time Passports are traded on OpenSea or other NFT marketplaces go to Passport holders.
- Trading fees each time EPOCH tokens are swapped through the Balancer Pool go to Passport holders.
- EPOCH Impact Distributions as voted on by vEPOCH holders.
- Real yield revenue generated by digital treasury holdings (stETH, rETH, etc)
- Real yield revenue generated by RWAs (Land, rental property, etc)
Benefit 3) Ownership
This category would aim to provide ownership of the underlying Epoch Passport Treasury.
At any time, an Islander could “Void” their Passport and redeem assets from the Passport Treasury.
The amount an Islander can withdraw is proportional to their relative “Passport Score”.
For example:
- The Passport Treasury has grown to 100,000 ETH
- John has a Passport Score of 100
- There are 1000 total “Passport Score” from all Islanders
- John can Void his Passport to redeem 10,000 ETH
Passport Scores can be calculated by the total years a person has reserved their Passport by the number of passports they wish to Void.
If Epoch Island can acquire real-world assets like land and tokenize them, holding a Passport would offer direct ownership to the growing world of RWAs.
Benefit 4) Swag
Imagine if, when you purchased a Passport, you were also sent a variety of physical gifts and souvenirs. These could include:
- Epoch Island Official Flag
- Epoch Island custom shirt/hoodie
- Epoch Island hat
- Epoch Island stickers
- Epoch Island Collectors Passports
- VR Headset to hangout with Islanders in the metaverse
Swag like this are not only a value add for Passports but a powerful potential brand and awareness builder for Epoch Island itself.
Benefit 5) Influence
Epoch Islanders (vEPOCH holders) can vote to allow Passport holders baseline voting rights to Epoch Island.
In doing so, holding a Passport would allow you to vote on the general direction and future of Epoch Island.
3. How to Mint and Manage Passports
Potential Islanders can take one of three actions with their Passport:
- Reserve
- Extend
- Void
1) Reserving a Passport
Any person can attain a Passport by depositing ETH into the Passport Treasury.
- Select the name of the Passport. Think of this as your ENS domain for Epoch Island.
- Select the number of Passports and duration of years you want to reserve.
Epoch Islanders decide how many Passports are available and at what time. The minimum time is one year with a maximum of 10 years.
Additional idea: Anyone can optionally enter a “Discount Code” they received from a friend. This gives a discount and sends ETH to the person who invited the user.
After clicking “Reserve”, the user immediately receives an NFT that represents their Passport.
Given Epoch Islanders (vEPOCH) can increase the price of Passports over time, a person may choose to Reserve their Passport for many years into the future and lock in a fixed price today.
Additionally, Passports with longer-term Reservations may hold additional benefits and influence within the Island.
2) Extending a Passport
At any time, an Islander can choose to Extend the duration of their Passport reservation. The maximum duration a Passport can be extended is 10 years.
In doing so, this will increase their potential influence and benefits within the Island.
3) Voiding a Passport
At any time, an Epoch Islander can choose to Void their Passport and exit the Epoch Island ecosystem.
In doing so, they can redeem assets from the Epoch Island Vault relative to their Passport Power.
If an Islander holds 1% of all Passport Power, they have the right to redeem 1% of any assets within the Epoch Islander Treasury.
Passport Power
The proposed formula to calculate Passport Score is as follows:
Score = Years Reserved / Total Passport Years on Island
For example:
- There are 100 total Passports reserved for an average of 2 Years each
- This means there are 200 total “Passport Years” on Epoch Island
- The Epoch Island Vault holds $25,000,000 in EPOCH/ETH value
- The user has a Passport Reserved for 5 Years
- This means they have 2.5% of all Passport Years
- Users can Void to redeem $625,000 from Epoch Island
Note: Epoch Islanders can vote to include a “Void Fee”. This essentially retains some percentage of EPOCH/ETH in the Treasury when people Void their Passports.
Escape the Regime
- Is there a better formula to calculate the “Passport Scores”? If so, what?
- What additional benefits or utility would you want to see for Passports?
- What open questions or concerns do you have about Passports?
We, Moai Labs, hope to see ongoing feedback and discussion around the Epoch Island Passports proposed in this article.
Join the Epoch Island Discord or the weekly Island Assembly on Fridays to participate in the discussion.
