diff --git a/pr-materials-march-2020.md b/pr-materials-march-2020.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c6cec0 --- /dev/null +++ b/pr-materials-march-2020.md @@ -0,0 +1,315 @@ +--- +author: @l1ndseymmc +published_utc: FIXME when published +--- + +# PR Materials March 2020 + +## Target audience + +Decred aims to reach a wide array of discrete audiences, from Bitcoin maximalists to Futurists. For high-level messaging purposes, these audiences can be grouped under three umbrellas: technical, investors and mainstream. + +### Technical audience + +Developers, members of the Decred community, ecosystem partners (exchanges, wallets, applications etc.) and people who are familiar with the technical nuances of blockchain technology. + +#### Target Audience: Developers + +From devs working at big tech and looking for a crypto side project to devs working on other projects, we want smart - but trusted - devs to come build on Decred. + +### Investor audience + +Individual and institutional investors who either already invest in or are interested in investing in cryptocurrency. + +### Mainstream audience + +Newbies to crypto and blockchain who are frustrated with the status quo of the current financial system, rentiers, third-party intermediaries, the surveillance economy, and are interested in the promise of crypto and blockchain. This can include borderless, refugees, underbanked or unbanked, those fearful or experiencing inflation. + +_Decred's end game is to be a global currency: a solid hedge to Bitcoin and a superior SoV-candidate that will dramatically change the underlying power and global politics of money._ + +## Key messages + +See also [Foundational Messaging](foundational-messaging.md) and [Decred Constitution](https://docs.decred.org/governance/decred-constitution/). + +### Origin Story + +The origin of Decred can be traced back to 2013, when an anonymous Bitcointalk user named 'tacotime' started a thread and published the paper for Memcoin2 (MC2). Tacotime worked alongside '\_ingsoc', another anonymous user. At the start of 2014 it appeared that tacotime also began work on another popular cryptocurrency: Monero. + +\_ingsoc approached Jake Yocom-Piatt, the CEO of Company Zero, with tacotime's MC2 concept. At the time Company Zero was primarily focused on the development of btcsuite, an alternative full node Bitcoin implementation written in Go. Their code is highly-regarded in the crypto community and used by many leading projects such as Ethereum, BitGo, Factom, OpenBazaar and the Lightning Network. Eventually the two teams joined forces to develop Decred. + +### What is Decred? Elevator Pitch + +Decred is a community-directed cryptocurrency with built-in governance to make it a superior long-term store of value. + +- Decred's hybrid PoW/PoS consensus mechanism, transparent proposal and voting system, and continually funded treasury make it secure, adaptable, and sustainable. +- Every Decred holder has "skin in the game", is a "stakeholder" and can vote on the direction of the project (regardless of being a miner, developer, or other contributor). Stakeholders collectively determine the policy, development plan, budget, and consensus rule changes. They also approve the miners' work - effectively aligning interests to ensure the best possible outcome for all. +- As it moves towards becoming a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), Decred is intentionally designed to fund all the parties involved in its governance. Each block reward compensates miners, stakeholders, and the Treasury, which pays contractors who work on Decred. + +### Decentralization - The Decred Ethos + +The founding principle of Decred is decentralization. Even its name reflects this: Decred = Decentralized Credits. Decentralization is one of crypto's core ideals, and something that Decred's founders saw was missing from Bitcoin. While the original cryptocurrency talks about being decentralized, the reality is that power is centralized among a small group, namely developers and miners, who make the rules and decide how to steer the project. Decred was created to give the community (and every coin holder who opts in) a voice, more fairly distribute power, and champion individual sovereignty - the power to control one's own destiny. + +### A Superior Store of Value + +According to monetary theory (and history has proven), money must be a quality store of value before it can become a medium of exchange or unit of account. While Bitcoin is the closest to being a store-of-value (i.e. digital gold), it still has a way to go before it's widely recognized as real money. Thanks to Anderson Cooper's "60 Minutes" segment, Bitcoin got its 15 minutes of fame in the mainstream media, but the masses are still in the dark about cryptocurrency. + +The real question is: "Which coins will be the last coins standing?" The coins best designed and positioned to establish themselves as quality stores of value to last for decades. + +Most coins are tokens pegged as cash-flow producing instruments (tokenized stocks or work-tokens) or unpegged liquid monetary instruments. DCR is the latter. Its end game is to be a global currency: a solid hedge to Bitcoin and a superior SoV-candidate that will dramatically change the underlying power and global politics of money. + +### Governance/Adaptability + +Traditionally, governance implies electing a set of representatives that establish the policies or rules for a group of people to follow. This is rife with self-dealing and conflicts of interest. In the blockchain and crypto world, those principles have largely been copied over, and Decred believes that ideal governance is decentralized: the power structure should be dismantled, and the people should be in charge of their own destinies (self-sovereign). + +If this is the case, then the people (crypto community) decide how the project will work (consensus-level) and how it will evolve and spend its money (project-level). These important decisions can be either on-chain or off-chain - both present complex circumstances that shape how decisions are made and by whom. + +While most projects agree on the principle of decentralization, few have set up working governance models that truly enable it. Even with the best intentions, power often ends up in the hands of a small, centralized group (in a Proof-of-Work system it's the miners with the most computing power). The result is that some core team still makes all meaningful decisions. In other systems, stake is delegated to a precious few, who might not be motivated by the same incentives as the rest of the holders. To combat this gravitational pull of power towards the center, Decred built a unique governance system that is ruled by the collective intelligence of the community, rather than a select group. The result is community-based decisions and policies in the best interest of all - not just a select few. + +### Self-funding: Decred Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth is + +In 2019, Libra made headlines as the new cryptocurrency from Facebook, the world's largest social network. The founding members pledged $10 million in Libra tokens to be part of the network, and help fund the project's initial development. + +For most technology projects - especially those that are not VC-funded - finding the funds to fuel development is extremely difficult. This is even harder in a yet-to-be proven space like blockchain and crypto. Decred stands apart as a project that is self-funded, meaning anyone who joins the community buys into a system that reinvests in its own development. + +Decred returns 10% of every block reward to the Treasury. The project was kickstarted by a team of developers that took compensation via a small premine, and included a system that continually funds itself. This mechanism provides additional runway in continuity while other projects die on the vine. Decred is committed to a self-funding Treasury, which is a testament to the community's dedication to building a store of value for generations to come. + +### Privacy: A Balanced Approach + +Privacy is a foundational belief of many early adopters of cryptocurrencies. No one wants their barista to know how many coins remain in their wallet when they pick up their latte. Digital bearer assets come with certain risks, and nobody wants to become an easy target for thieves because their high net worth was publicly available. + +The topic is complex and involves many tradeoffs. Blockchains are public ledgers, which means all transactions can be viewed by anyone. Many coins have taken various approaches to privacy, including zero knowledge proofs, ring signatures, Mimblewimble (no public addresses), and more. + +Decred takes a pragmatic approach that prioritizes "sound money" (which must be both fungible and immutable) over strict privacy. Decred aims to deliver incremental privacy without risking stealth inflation (the blockchain must be auditable at all times), which is unlike other privacy coins that have taken more extreme measures. + +#### Privacy Messaging + +1. Decred's privacy implementation is simple. + - The math, concept, and code are all straightforward and well-understood. + - Only several hundred lines of code are required, minimizing the opportunities for error. + +2. Decred's privacy implementation is creative. + - The process leverages Decred's unique governance system to create user anonymity. + - The same concepts can add privacy off-chain on the Lightning Network. + +3. Decred's privacy implementation is adaptable. + - Much of the process occurs off-chain, avoiding chain bloat and making it scalable. + - The process can be made post-quantum secure, ensuring privacy and fungibility for the long term. + +### Net Impact: How Consensus Controls Security (What Makes Hybrid PoW+PoS Better) + +The value of a cryptocurrency is largely determined by the security of the network. And what impacts security most? A project's consensus system. + +Cryptocurrencies use a variety of consensus systems with different security properties. The Decred hybrid consensus system combines the best aspects of PoW with those of PoS, to create a network that is far more secure than other consensus systems. + +In Decred's hybrid PoW+PoS consensus system, a 51% attack requires a combination of hash power and tickets in the staking system. Apples to apples, an attack on the Decred network would cost 20x more than one on the Bitcoin network. + +### Crypto Gig Economy: Flexible Contractor Model + +As a decentralized project that focuses on transparency and inclusivity, the Decred community welcomes input from all its members. When it comes to actually building the platform, the project is based on open source software. Code is written by people who are free to jump in and contribute based on their level of interest and skill. If the community likes what it sees, it will pay an hourly rate. As an added bonus, contributors can work anywhere in the world as long as they have Internet access. + +The amount of time contributors devote to the project is entirely up to them, which makes for a flexible part-time job. Many Decred contributors have other day jobs, and work on Decred as a passion project. Others have found that their passion has turned into a full-time job. This flexible contractor model attracts those developers who are inspired by the Decred ethos and are truly invested in the vision. + +### Tagline + +Decred: Secure. Adaptable. Sustainable. + +**Secure**. Decred's unique hybrid PoW/PoS consensus mechanism is more than 20x more expensive to attack (given equal conditions) than PoW alone because it provides layered security. By effectively aligning incentives between miners and stakeholders, it provides checks and balances to ensure long-term stability. + +**Adaptable**. Decred's built-in governance systems facilitate formal methods of making consensus changes and project-level decisions that avoid community-splitting forks. + +**Sustainable**. Decred's block reward system allows the Treasury to sustain itself over time - no outside funding necessary. This ensures the funding the project needs to realize the community's collective decisions. It also gives contributors the freedom to do the work that interests them most (and get paid). + +### Vision Statement & Values + +_An aspirational description of what Decred aims to achieve in the long-term._ + +Decred's vision is to build a self-directed, decentralized future ruled by the collective intelligence of the community. It will be built upon the pillars of sovereignty, fairness, transparency, inclusivity, privacy, and security. Everyone can vote on the rules and project-level decision making proportionately to their stake, yielding decisions and policies in the best interest of all - not just a select few. + +**Sovereignty** + +Decred believes that individuals are capable of collectively making better decisions via direct and formal sovereignty in which they have control over their own actions - without being subjugated to a representative, which typically involves self-dealing and conflicts of interest. + +**Fairness** + +Decred believes that the time has come to create a fairer system that benefits all participants equally - replacing the uneven playing field created by legacy financial systems. + +**Transparency** + +Decred believes that access to information is the cornerstone of informed, sustainable decision-making, and every stakeholder has a right to full transparency. + +**Inclusivity** + +Decred believes that no thoughts and ideas should be excluded - all stakeholder voices deserve to be heard and considered in the decision-making process. + +**Privacy** + +Decred believes in the fundamental right to privacy and in every person's freedom to choose the amount of privacy that's right for them. + +**Security** + +Decred believes that security is the key to building a long-term store of value, which in turn is the key to creating the money of the future. + +### Mission Statement + +_A short description of what Decred aims to achieve in the short- and medium-term._ + +Decred aims to build a community-directed cryptocurrency whose security, adaptability, and sustainability make it a superior long-term store of value. It is achieving this aim by building the world's first truly decentralized autonomous organization. + +### Positioning Statements + +_How Decred is distinct from its competitors for each audience_ + +**Technical Audience** + +Decred is designed to provide developers and community members with the most secure and adaptable cryptocurrency. It does so through on- and off-chain governance systems that leverage multi-stakeholder inclusivity to make collective decisions on consensus changes, block approval, budget, policy, and the development plan. Decred's self-sustaining, flexible contractor model allows anyone to join Decred at any time to work on the open-source projects they find most interesting and fulfilling - autonomously and voluntarily. Those who prove their value and merit to the project can become paid contractors. + +**Investor Audience** + +Decred is a cryptocurrency designed to be a superior long-term store of value. The hybrid PoW+PoS consensus system provides an additional layer of network security, while stakeholders control budget and policy to make the currency more adaptable. With ten percent of each block reward going to the project Treasury, Decred is completely self-funded. This financial model reduces conflicts of interest and enables ongoing development powered by a unique contractor model that allows contributors to receive payment for work they find interesting. Together, these systems provide solid protection against value-loss events like chain splits and hard forks, giving Decred the resilience to stand the test of time. + +**Mainstream Audience** + +Decred is a community-directed cryptocurrency designed to deliver a truly decentralized, fairer, and sovereign alternative to traditional money. In the current system, a centralized authority such as a bank or government holds the power. With Decred, the community members own and operate the system, make the rules, and determine the direction of the project. The result is a secure and adaptable currency that is a superior store of value. Everyone is invested and actively involved in helping Decred succeed. + +### Terms to describe Decred + +- Adaptable +- Built to last +- Cohesive +- Community-directed +- Decentralized +- Enduring +- Fair(er) +- Minority fork-resistant +- Future-focused +- Inclusive +- Iterative +- Hybrid PoW+PoS +- Long-term +- OG (Original gangsters - founders involved since btcsuite) +- Pioneers +- Reliable +- Resilient +- Revolutionary +- Secure +- Serious dev talent +- Self-directed +- Self-sustaining/Self-funding/Self-starters +- Sound money +- Sovereign +- Transparent +- Values-based + +### Principles + +(copied from [Decred Constitution](https://docs.decred.org/governance/decred-constitution/)) + +- Free and Open-Source Software - All software developed as part of Decred shall be free and open source-software. +- Free Speech and Consideration - Everyone has the right to communicate opinions and ideas without fear of censorship. Consideration shall be given to all constructive speech that is based in fact and reason. +- Multi-Stakeholder Inclusivity - Inclusivity represents a multi-stakeholder system and an active effort shall be maintained to include a diverse set of views and users. +- Incremental Privacy and Security - Privacy and security are priorities and shall be balanced with the complexity of their implementations. Additional privacy and security technology shall be implemented on a continuing and incremental basis, both proactively and on-demand in response to attacks. +- Fixed Finite Supply - Issuance is finite and the total issuance shall not exceed 20,999,999.99800912 DCR, with a per-block subsidy that adjusts every 6,144 blocks (approximately 21.33 days) by reducing by a factor of 100/101. The genesis block subsidy starts at 31.19582664 DCR. +- Universal Fungibility - Universal fungibility is fundamental to Decred being a store of value and attacks against it shall be actively monitored and countermeasures pursued as necessary. + +## Credibility Bullet Points + +- Decred is a top cryptocurrency by market cap (36) +- Decred was created by former Bitcoin developers who faced issues with the way Bitcoin was governed and decided to pursue their own original project +- Company Zero, one of the original Decred developers, helped develop btcsuite, an alternative full node Bitcoin implementation written in Go. Their code is highly-regarded in the crypto community and used by many leading projects such as Ethereum, BitGo, Factom, OpenBazaar and the Lightning Network. +- Decred is a fork-resistant store of value, which would be ~20x more expensive to attack than Bitcoin due to its hybrid PoW/PoS model, given equal parameters like hashrate and market cap +- Decred is one of the few projects with the capacity to deploy Lightning Network +- Decred developers produced open-source software for the public good, including tools for atomic swaps, zkc secure chat, TumbleBit, DEX +- Completed the first stakeholder-voted consensus change vote in the history of cryptocurrency +- More than 80 contributors from 35 countries spanning five continents +- Charlie Lee, Jimmy Song, Willy Woo, Chris Burniske, Joel Monegro, Murad Mahmudov, and many more have made strong public statements of support + +## Key stats + +- Decred launched on February 8, 2016 +- Decred has been hard forked multiple times, but always at the direction of the community, which has never been split +- Market cap rank between 35-50 with cap value $100-200 million throughout 2019-2020 (note: [CMC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/decred/) incorrectly lowers our market cap). +- Link to current stats: key stats exist here https://dcrdata.decred.org/ +- Ten percent of each block reward goes to the Treasury, which means that Decred is completely self-funded. There's around $12 million in the Treasury as of Mar 2020, based on $18.6 per DCR. Current amount is shown [here](https://dcrdata.decred.org/address/Dcur2mcGjmENx4DhNqDctW5wJCVyT3Qeqkx). +- In Decred's hybrid PoW+PoS consensus system, a 51% attack requires a combination of hash power and tickets in the staking system. Apples to apples, an attack on the Decred network would cost 20x more than one on the Bitcoin network. +- Decred's goal is to become a completely decentralized organization. It already operates remotely with 80+ people from 35 different countries across 5 continents. +- Politeia average voter turnout is 32%, average participation for consensus rule changes is greater than 50%. +- Decred Privacy is mixing 20% of the circulating coin supply, as of Mar 2020. See [here](https://alpha.dcrdata.org/charts?chart=coin-supply&bin=false&axis=time&visibility=true%2Ctrue%2Ctrue) for current numbers. +- Most of the other blockchain projects have voter participation around 1-3%, sometimes less. +- Privacy: 100% of Monero is private (default). Last I checked 3% of Zcash is private. + +### Decred Firsts: Actions Speak Louder than Words + +For the last 4+ years, Decred has been building one of the most advanced cryptocurrencies. Founded by early Bitcoin developers who wanted to stay true to crypto's decentralized ideals, Decred is a project that puts governance and individual sovereignty first. + +Beyond espousing decentralized ideals, Decred has self-funded and built (or passed proposals for) some significant industry firsts: + +- First-ever crypto atomic swap, between Decred (DCR) and Litecoin (LTC) +- Decred developers created btcsuite, the first alternative full-node Bitcoin implementation whose code served as the basis of Lightning Network. Decred has one of the first LN implementations (along with BTC and LTC). +- Built the first-ever off-chain proposal system (Politeia) that allows for public discourse and voting on project-level decisions and how to spend the treasury. +- First on-chain consensus rules change vote +- First project to fund the development of a truly decentralized exchange (DEX), which was passed via Politeia with technical specs announced. \*\*There are other DEXs, but this is the first of its kind. +- Decentralize Treasury control. Dash did it first, but Decred's won't be fully automated due to specific attack vectors. There will be a summary draft of payouts that will be voted on by the stakeholders. If they were fully automated, there could be a threat of someone draining the treasury via an attack. Full decentralization is the ultimate goal, but it will be done in careful steps. + +Decred is a leader when it comes to "walking the talk" of crypto. Other projects claim to be the first or talk about innovations, but Decred is actually building/implementing big leaps forward. + +## Additional collateral + +- [Design assets](https://github.com/decred/dcrdesign/releases) +- Videos: we have a new explainer video (less than 2 minutes) at https://decred.org/ +- Visual assets: The design team regularly generates [images](https://github.com/decred/dcrdesign/releases) to be used for each software release or integration. +- [Keynotes](https://www.notion.so/Decred-Keynotes-5c3fdfb0a73841c0a394efe002003409) + +## Topics and key conversations we'd like to join + +- Privacy - It's a universal human right that is being eroded by the surveillance economy. +- Evolving workspace. Work on what you want, when you want, work autonomously for the blockchain. +- Governance. What's the best way to make decisions in a decentralized fashion? +- DAO (decentralized autonomous organizations). +- Individual sovereignty versus delegated, agency problems, as it relates to money and the wider political system. Technology exists such that why is it unreasonable to endow the public with sovereignty to make decisions, rather than delegate them to an elite class who profits from them and serves their own interests first. +- What project maintains the OG principles of crypto? Decred continues to build the new financial system in a fairer way, and it continues to fund projects for the benefit of the entire crypto ecosystem (atomic swaps, TumbleBit (privacy implementation), DEX) +- Lightning Network (layer 2 scalability). Decred is one of the few projects with the capacity to deploy Lightning Network because it's quite difficult. +- Diversity and inclusion - working with people internationally based on the quality of their work as opposed to gender, race etc. + +See also: [education resources](https://docs.decred.org/getting-started/articles-and-media/). + +## FAQs + +**Is Decred a fork of Bitcoin?** + +No. Decred is a separate cryptocurrency created by former Bitcoin developers who faced issues with the way Bitcoin was governed and decided to pursue their own original project. Decred's founders looked at what was successful with Bitcoin and what they could add by baking in formalized governance from the start. The goal was to create a structure whereby anyone in the community with skin in the game could own and operate the system, make the rules, and determine the direction of the project. + +**How is Decred different from Bitcoin?** + +Decred is distinct from Bitcoin in three key ways: + +1. Secure: Decred's is a fork-resistant store of value, proven to be twenty times more expensive to attack than Bitcoin (given equal conditions like hashrate and market cap) thanks to its hybrid PoW/PoS model that places checks and balances between miners and stakeholders. +2. Adaptable: Decred has built-in formalized governance that allows it to make changes to its consensus rules while avoiding sustained chain splits (and creation of new currencies). +3. Sustainable: Both consistent funding through block rewards and the skin in the game model of stakeholder voting make Decred sustainable in the long-term. Where other projects are discussing developer funding, Decred is not only paying developers around the world - it's also autonomously selecting community leads, its PR firm, and building a decentralized exchange. + +**Why haven't I ever heard of Decred?** + +Decred has been quietly building during its first 3 years. This has allowed the community to focus on creating a superior long-term store of value that will stand on its own - marketing can't substitute for a great product. + +**When was Decred first launched?** + +Decred launched on February 8, 2016. All upgrade decisions since then have been approved by a super majority of the stakeholders so that no hard forks have ever been necessary. + +**What amount of money is in Decred's treasury?** + +10% of every block reward goes to the Treasury. As of Mar 2020, the balance is more than 640K DCR. For current balance see the [Treasury address](https://dcrdata.decred.org/address/Dcur2mcGjmENx4DhNqDctW5wJCVyT3Qeqkx). + +## Unique Value Proposition + +A top cryptocurrency by market cap - $212.49M (top 35, as of Mar 2020). + +**Governance**: While most projects agree on the principle of decentralization, few have set up working governance models that truly enable it. + +**Sovereignty**: Decred built a unique governance system that is ruled by the collective intelligence of the community, rather than a small group. The result is community-based decisions and policies in the best interest of all - not just a select few. + +**Sustainability**: Self-funding treasury - 10% of every block is awarded to the treasury. Very few projects have this. + +**Privacy**: Decred aims to deliver incremental privacy without risking stealth inflation, which is unlike other privacy coins that have taken more extreme measures. + +**Security**: In Decred's hybrid PoW+PoS consensus system, a 51% attack requires a combination of hash power and tickets in the staking system. Apples to apples, an attack on the Decred network would cost 20x more than one on the Bitcoin network. + +**Inclusivity**: Decred is a completely decentralized organization that operates remotely by 80+ people from 35 different countries across five continents.