A look at the evolution of crypto staking, from a useful tool to a quasi-Ponzi scheme, and how Yuga Labs is effectively paying people in ApeCoin to hold ApeCoin
Recently, I was contacted by a member of the board of ApeCoin, which is the BAYC token's equivalent of a board of directors I guess. Tweets: @cobie , @degenspartan , @cobie , @choffstein , @deezefi , @idrawcharts , @xbenjamminx , @iamdcinvestor , @novogratz , @mrjasonchoi , @fiskantes , @maariabajwa , @notsofast , @mdudas , @mdudas , @bobmcelrath , @cobie , @durdenwannabe , and @emilyjnicolle Tweets: @cobie : Have updated the post to add in this image https://twitter.com/... @degenspartan : @cobie okay we call it staking but actually its not and its just rewards for not selling your coins so that i can do it first https://twitter.com/... @cobie : Feels like we should've protested the repurposing of the term “staking” from being a reward for work in a consensus mechanism, with risk of losing collateral, into this current “idk just lock it off market to receive more coins risk-free lol” Corey Hoffstein / @choffstein : “The casino is the boot program” — @LDrogen @cobie provides some great color here as to why staking should lean less “casino,” and more “boot program” https://twitter.com/... @deezefi : Always love cobie's honesty https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... David Holt / @idrawcharts : great read imo, the most broadly applicable use for implementing staking rewards is to ensure that other more necessary sources of emission (such as LP rewards) do not punish your users and investors excessively with dilution in absolute terms https://twitter.com/... BenJammin.eth / @xbenjamminx : Cobie makes great points here, I'm still reading but it's worth your time. “Since this APE staking doesn't actually do anything practically or technically, it can be imagined simply as a bribe to not sell. It says “we'll give you more APE if you don't sell your APE or BAYC!"" https://twitter.com/... @iamdcinvestor : too many people are threatened by takes like this, reducing disagreement to “cope” responses, etc. instead of reading them to create more anti-fragile and resilient systems which are sustainable long-term welcome to on-chain gov with a raid-able treasury https://twitter.com/... Mike Novogratz / @novogratz : @cobie I liked your post on fake staking. Well done. Put me in the 10 percent. One of the biggest challenges for our community is that we will need to self regulate (a lot better than we do) or Sheriff Gensler is going to have a lot of ammo to make the case that he should regulate. Jason Choi / @mrjasonchoi : All roads lead to unsustainable liquidity mining https://twitter.com/... @fiskantes : Crypto famously sucks at naming stuff, and even what it names somewhat correctly at first, it bastardizes over time. “modern “staking” just seems to mean idk we give you more coins as a reward if you don't sell your current coins lol.” staking = incentivized locking https://twitter.com/... @maariabajwa : This is a great read. I've been working on a piece around tokenomics and how you build a sustainable ecosystem Will try to finish today bc it ties in well with what @cobie writes In the meantime you all should read @VitalikButerin posts on governance https://vitalik.ca/... https://twitter.com/... @notsofast : pour one out for staking as a decentralized money network-securing proof 😭😭😭 https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Mike Daodas / @mdudas : “A multi-billion dollar organisation, which @ApeCoin now is, needs to have a sufficiently long time-horizoned plan. There should be a good answer to the question: how do we turn this $7B of APE-denominated treasury assets into $100B of value over the next decade or two?” https://twitter.com/... Mike Daodas / @mdudas : Spot on by @cobie. Current NFT holder expectation is that there will be a constant stream of value given to them, eg a “roadmap”, that consists of additional speculative assets and/or tokens. This “utility” drives / sustains the price of the NFTs. https://cobie.substack.com/... Bob McElrath / @bobmcelrath : Interesting argument: PoS creates Ponzis by locking up coins such that the earliest stakers are eligible to unlock their funds first and sell at the top. https://twitter.com/... @cobie : It's staking except it doesn't actually do anything, your position is not “at stake”, and it provides no benefit to the system, technical or otherwise, perhaps besides the financial benefit for existing holders of less liquid sellers @durdenwannabe : Staking 👏 is not 👏 passive 👏 income https://twitter.com/... Emily Nicolle / @emilyjnicolle : modern staking mechanisms “don't make an ecosystem more robust. They are a shell game, using the name of a different thing to obfuscate their actual purpose, which is to encourage less selling.” — enjoyed the @cobie takedown of crypto's current obsession w/ rewards-based staking https://twitter.com/...