To serve its community effectively, a blockchain ecosystem must be self-sustainable. It must be built with resilience, autonomy, and longevity in mind. Therefore, we have made achieving self-sustainability one of our core objectives, focusing on creating an environment that operates independently and thrives over the long term. At Metis, we aim to establish a system that ensures continuous viability and growth without relying on external support.
This blog explores the essence of designing a self-sustainable blockchain. We will examine how the Metis Ecosystem Development Fund (EDF) and the decentralized sequencer combine to create a mechanism for incentives alignment – all guided by the principle of a positive-sum game to achieve organic network effects and increase collaboration between users, builders, and the network.
Self-sustainability in a decentralized blockchain refers to an ecosystem's ability to operate and grow independently, without reliance on external support or centralized control. This concept is crucial for several reasons:
At the heart of the self-sustainable design is the Metis Ecosystem Development Fund (MetisEDF), a 4.6 million METIS token initiative implemented to fuel the growth of decentralized applications (dApps) within the ecosystem. This fund is a resource meant to catalyze growth, network adoption, and enhance benefits for all stakeholders — from developers and protocols to end-users and contributors.
Incentives play a crucial role in driving growth, as they align the interests of all participants within the ecosystem. However, merely inflating the token supply indefinitely would dilute its value to zero. To address this, the MetisEDF is designed to avoid inflation and instead tap into the network's revenue streams. This approach ensures that incentives are sustainable, ensuring long-term growth without compromising the token's scarcity and value proposition.
The combination of the MetisEDF with the Metis Decentralized Sequencer results in a novel and highly functional design, enabling dynamic resource allocation and effective incentive mechanisms. The process begins by the MetisEDF incentivizing ecosystem dApps. When dApps launch incentive campaigns for users, they tend to see enhanced growth, in the form of:
Each of these indicators reflects the network’s vitality and its appeal to both current and potential participants. But how does this translate into self-sustainability for Metis?
The key point of this design lies in our understanding that transactions are the lifeblood of the network. Every transaction generates revenue, which is then distributed back into the ecosystem, benefiting node operators, builders, and end-users. This revenue is primarily allocated to decentralized sequencer node operators, ensuring a continuous flow of resources that sustain and enhance network operations. Additionally, a portion of the transaction revenue is filtered into the MetisEDF, providing a steady allocation to ecosystem funds for development.
Our decentralized sequencer is a groundbreaking technology that democratizes the benefits of the network’s growth. By distributing revenue among the network’s sequencer node operators, it ensures that those who invest their time and resources into the network are rewarded for their efforts.
The cycle of growth initiated by the MetisEDF is self-perpetuating. The more rewards that flow back to Metis, the more resources that can be allocated to the MetisEDF, enabling the fund to continue its mission of aiding ecosystem development. This creates a feedback loop that drives the network’s expansion, making Metis a pioneer for self-sustainability.
Funds allocated to the MetisEDF are strategically redistributed into the ecosystem, contributing to the development of new projects, improving existing ones, and introducing additional incentives for active participation. This accelerates the growth and adoption of the ecosystem and ensures long-term sustainability. Our strategy is built upon a simple yet powerful premise: the more incentives there are for dApps, the more substantial the network becomes, which in turn creates even more incentives; a cycle of self-sustainable growth.
For builders, Metis represents a fertile ground for innovation, offering incentives and a robust network of resources on which to develop and deploy dApps. In addition, the more who participate in sequencer nodes operations, the more secure, resilient and reliable our network becomes for protocols by eliminating single points of failure and reducing the risk of censorship and manipulation.
Users benefit from a continuously evolving ecosystem that offers a wide range of dApps, incentives and services, backed by the security and efficiency of our decentralized Ethereum Layer 2 technology.
DApps are presented with a compelling opportunity to be part of a self-sustaining, e ever-growing network that unceasingly incentivizes contributions to the ecosystem. The more transactions a dApp generates, the more resources for growth and development are obtained.
Looking Forward: The Future of Metis
This self-sustainable design serves as our blueprint for network growth, to ensure that our ecosystem is run autonomously by all of its participants in a fair, decentralized and mutually rewarding manner.
Sharing the revenue from transaction fees prioritizes the interests of all stakeholders, incentivizes participation, and fuels continuous progress and adoption. Our goal is to build a self-sustaining ecosystem that ensures its own continuous growth while simultaneously promoting growth for its protocols and users.
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For those eager to explore the many possibilities within the Metis ecosystem, or to become part of this shift toward self-sustainability, reach out directly to the Metis team or engage with the community on our socials.
