Tokenomics

A Simple System for Supporting Writers and Controlling a DAO

The Nuance decentralised blogging platform is designed with one goal in mind: To bring the benefits of Web 3 hosting to the blogging community. This north-star guides the tokenomic design as well. Our goal is to enable readers to support and compensate their favourite writers and facilitate governance.

Supporting Writers In keeping with our mission, Nuance has developed the simplest possible system for users to pay writers for content. These payments can be made in any IC-based token supported by Nuance. Writers will be able to select which tokens they are prepared to accept. Initially, only ICP, ckBTC and the native Nuance token will be available. However, new tokens will be added over time as they reach credibility milestones. This limitation is to avoid cluttering the writer interface with unnecessary token options.

Tipping

As a reader, if you like an article you can tip via an applause button. We anticipate tipping will be the most broadly used tool for supporting writers.

Premium Articles

If writers so desire, a paywall feature will be made available for them to use. Nuance will enable writers to mint articles as NFTs. These will be sold through Nuance initially and then traded on popular marketplaces. This provides a unique difference to the paywall approach: Imagine a project you follow makes a major transformative announcement. They may post this as a Premium article (NFT), enabling readers to both support the project and own a piece of news. We anticipate writers producing research papers and other high-outlay content to also take advantage of this mechanism.

Payments

Payments are split in several ways:

• 10% is taken as a development fee and placed in the Nuance DAO (more on this below). A proportion of the remaining 90% goes to the writer.

• If the writer is publishing through a third-party property that takes advantage of our publication feature, the publication may take a fee in return for the promotion they provide.

• NFT articles will have residual fees when traded on marketplaces.

NB: If the writer is publishing through their own handle and third-party property they receive 90%.

The Nuance DAO

In keeping with the ethos of decentralised governance, an SNS-based DAO will control Nuance via a utility token.

DAO tokens will be distributed as follows:

• 30% will be allocated directly to the Aikin Development team. These will vest on a 25 - 1 month schedule. That is to say that upon launch, 1/25th will be minted directly into Aikin’s wallet, with an additional 1/25th unlocking every month for the following 24 months. This will provide security for future development and a remuneration pathway for the seed investors. It also ensures that Aikin has a voice in governance without giving them total control of the DAO.

• 30% will be sold to the community as part of the SNS launch. This is to enable immediate participation in platform governance. These will be distributed immediately upon completion of the SNS sale, giving the community vastly more control over the Nuance DAO than the Aikin development team.

• The remaining 40% will be distributed via faucet to reader accounts. Each reader account can have its balance topped up to 50 tokens on a weekly basis. These tokens will not be fully featured - they will be restricted. They can only be used to tip writers or purchase premium content. Once a writer has been paid with a restricted token, the token can be freely transferred or used in governance. Exact volumes may be changed by the DAO based on the number of reader accounts, token price, etc.

The fee structure will be governed by the community through the DAO, and changes may occur over time via successful proposals.

In summary:

Nuance enables readers to pay writers. A small fee is charged by the Nuance DAO to pay for research and development. The faucet system gives readers tokens to play with and creates an early economic base to support writers.