[Proposal] $oneGTC - a stablecoin for the Gitcoin community

📜 Proposals
1

TLDR

  • ICHI builds and incentivizes stablecoins for other projects, like $oneGTC - always redeemable 1:1 to $USDC, and backed by $USDC + your project token ($GTC).
  • We believe any community should have it’s own medium of exchange to unlock the economic power it has - there’s no better place to start this public good initiative than experimenting with the Gitcoin community.
  • Countries have their currencies. Brands have their loyalty program point. Crypto communities need to have their own MoE that can be used to incentivize users to retain value within the ecosystem.
  • Looking to get Gitcoin’s community feedback and ideas on $oneGTC use-cases and initiatives.

A native medium of exchange for the Gitcoin community

(throughout this post I will use the Gitcoin example, but the same applies for any crypto community with a native token)

Today - Gitcoin allows grants and bounties to be paid in various currencies & stablecoins. With the introduction of $GTC, Gitcoin is ready to foster it’s own economic power, and encourage people to use the protocol native asset as the protocol mean of exchange.

Problem - As with any utility / governance token - $GTC volatility prevent it from being used as a medium of exchange

Solution - ICHI will launch $oneGTC - a stablecoin redeemable 1:1 for $USDC, backed by $USDC + $GTC. $oneGTC can be used across Gitcoin as a stable medium of exchange governed by the stablecoin holders. Anyone can mint $oneGTC by supplying USDC and $GTC to the mint contract. This creates a reserve of $USDC to ensure redemption at $1 and a community treasury of $GTC

How - Gitcoin user contribute, pay grants, hold funding in $oneGTC - protocol native stable medium of exchange - users can benefit from discount on platform fees or other means of rewards for preferring to use the protocol native stablecoin - helping the protocol increase the utility of it’s token and create a token sink as collateral to $oneGCT

Gitcoin community can use $oneGTC to:

  1. Pay contributors in stablecoins - giving them a way to hedge token volatility + generate demand for $GTC token (unlike using other stablecoins that require to give up on your token to acquire it)
  2. Encourage users to donate in $oneGTC
  3. Pay bounties with the protocol native stablecoin
  4. Treasury diversification - Gitcoin can hold part of it’s treasury in a stable medium of exchange, while using $GTC token as collateral
  5. Create work bonds backed by income service agreements (ongoing discussion with @androolloyd)

ICHI v2 launch

ICHI deployed a Decentralized Monetary Authority (DMA) which will deploy and manage the $oneGTC stablecoin. The DMA has been audited by Quanstamp and Solidified. It provides decentralized minting and redemption of oneGTC at $1. The DMA will manage collateral and yield strategies at the direction of the oneGTC community.

How will the launch of $oneGTC look like ?

If the community is supportive of running this experiment, there are usually two phases to the launch of a new $oneToken, and a core principle of value exchange between the communities

Phase 1 - Bootstrapping

  • ICHI will do all the heavy lifting of launching a $oneGTC, PR and marketing and providing liquidity rewards for $oneGTC minters and stakers.
  • Gitcoin will support with it’s own rewards and/or endorsement of this experiment by proposing use cases where users can use $oneGTC in the protocol.

Phase 2 - adoption

  • Introducing new use cases for $oneGTC to drive adoption and growth.

About ICHI

ICHI is a family of stablecoins (coins valued at 1 USD) designed to drive scarcity of member coins (ie, $oneGTC = $1). ICHI exists to provide price stability and community treasury to projects like Gitcoin, only the Gitcoin community governs its stablecoin treasury.

How is the ICHI design better than other stablecoin designs?

The peg is guaranteed; redeeming $oneGTC will always get the equivalent in USDC. However, unlike USDC, ICHI is 100% on-chain and non-custodial.

When minting a oneGTC - you deposit exactly $1 - no need for over-collateralization, or getting into a debt position as the case is with other stablecoin projects.

Who is behind ICHI?

ICHI was created with a top team of devs from Microsoft, Amazon, RedHat, and IBM. ICHI had a 100% fair launch and has been community-owned from the first block. There was no pre-sale, no initial team cut, etc.

ICHI already collaborates with top DeFi dex like Bancor (ICHI token whitelisted and co-invested for IL protection) Sushiswap, 1inch (rewards program in place), Balancer and loopring

Towards v2, ICHI is in the process of launching new oneTokens for top crypto projects (list can be found in the ICHI telegram channel)

Read more

Website - https://www.ichi.org/

dApp - ichi.farm

Docs- https://docs.ichi.farm/

Updated proposal here Proposal: $GTC-Backed Economy

18 Likes
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This is a sensible proposal but what makes oneGTC different from DAI/USDT/… which are widely accepted within Gitcoin community?

9 Likes
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Hi @raullen,

A good point I think is that you get more control using our ‘Own’ Stablecoin for example than using some DAI in many way.

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right, the key difference is that you need your project native token $GTC to mint a new $oneGTC, and when you pay in other stablecoins you have to give up on your token in exchange for that stablecoin. so If a community is incentivizing it’s ecosystem users to use it, you are driving another demand vector & token utility.

In a way it’s similar to how brands retain and engage user via loyalty programs, frequent flyer points etc - you encourage them to transact with your local medium of exchange to drive stickiness and retention of value within your ecosystem.

4 Likes
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GTC on its own was deemed to have no economic value (although that is strictly not the case as it listed on several exchanges), so pairing it with another stablecoins to create another token within the space can bring some challenges. Anyway, your proposal is worth considering-if we put a little more definition on gtc as being more than just a governance token only

4 Likes
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Since GTC is already trading and has a ‘value’ what stops the Gitcoin community from using it? If there is a need for a stable coin pegged to USD, ageUSD/ sigmaUSD type protocol is another option rather than a USDC backed coin.

1 Like
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$GTC is a governance token and as such over time it’s value will be driven by the value of the protocol it governs

A stablecoin that serves the Gitcoin community and is backed by $GTC - will introduce additional utilities for the $GTC token, which in turn make it more deisrable to hold → drive more demand for the token and overall have positive impact on the project

Example - if Gitcoin pays contribuoters in $GTC, most of them will immediately exchange it to a stablecoin to hedge the USD value, adding price pressure on $GTC value.

$GTC has only 1 out of 3 properties of money - Store of Value. Since price is volatile it cannot serve as a medium of exchange and unit of account. $oneGTC solve this problem and allows people to transact & save with it. other stablecoins are not backed by $GTC, so they do not drive demand to hold and use $GTC

Not your stablecoin - not your money.

4 Likes
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there are both advantages and disadvantages. There are inherent weaknesses of ‘stable coins’, pegged or algorithmic, example-- IRON/ TITAN.

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Right, not saying there isn’t risk when introducing any new practice or tools, but in this example I would highlight
$oneGTC is not algorithmic - it’s 100% backed, redeemable 1:1 to $USDC and governed by $oneGTC holders, so it is the Gitcoin community itself that would dictate what / if strategies will be applied to the collateral - not ICHI or other 3rd party - and therefore take the risk profile that fits them.

3 Likes
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A valid point raised here,we certainly do need a stable coin for the community. It will help take off pressure on GTC in times when people need to convert tokens to other forms to fund their projects

3 Likes
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How the stablecoin is really needed

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I think a $oneGTC could be very beneficial for the Gitcoin ecosystem. Mint and redeem for $1, all while building a $GTC reserve and providing a positive price impact solution for the native token.
Those who work within the Gitcoin ecosystem could find using a $oneGTC to be a valuable medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. Using a stablecoin that provides a hard peg at $1 and benefits Gitcoin as a whole. Thus, making real business safer and more effective.

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Hey @ETHan1Elohim I don’t think it makes any sense to create a stable coin for Gitcoin. It doesn’t really help us accomplish our mission of funding open source, plus there are plenty of other projects out there that provide stability pegged tokens that we can take advantage of.

See for example the $RAI coin from https://reflexer.finance/ of $DAI from MakerDAO | An Unbiased Global Financial System these are solutions that work now and built by amazing teams.

4 Likes
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ICHI is an open source project that allows any open source token community have it’s own stable medium of exchange, backed by that same community currency

I think once you realize the potential , it is obvious how this primitive can be super valuable to help other open-source projects unlock value in their ecosystem.

We propose Gitcoin to lead the way in experimenting with this - full alignment to Gitcoins mission

Yes - there are many stablecoins out there - non of them is backed by $GTC - the whole idea of $oneGTC is serving the Gitcoin community & ecosystem

Why it serve Gitcoin - you get a stablecoin that is backed by $GTC → to mint a new $oneGTC you need to deposit $GTC → it serves as demand driver for $GTC → support the Gitcoin project value.

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非常棒，永远相信美好的事物即将发生。i iiiiiiiiii

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Really good points here - definitely beneficial to the Gitcoin community to keep value within its own ecosystem and have a stablecoin that is backed by $GTC. When buying RAI, DAI, USDC, USDT, or any other stablecoin you have to sell your $GTC putting downward price pressure on the price. When minting $oneGTC you aren’t selling, but rather storing your GTC into a Treasury (Vault) which the community can decide how to invest. It removes those tokens from circulation and puts upward price pressure on the $GTC token.

2 Likes
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A quick update on ICHI v2 launch - The first oneToken on v2 to launch is $oneFIL - a stable coin for the Filecoin community

Introducing oneFIL: A Reliable Form of Payment for Filecoin’s DataDAOs and Storage Ecosystem | by Mr. Masanobu Fukuoka | ichi.farm | Jun, 2021 | Medium

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Since the topic has moved into a proposal status, I’d like to summarize what would be the next step to move forward in deploying $oneGTC and run an experiment in which ICHI and Gitcoin communities will push to experiment with a specific use case for $oneGTC:

  1. Approve launching a $oneGTC - ICHI will be doing all the heavy lifting and deployment (this is contingent to a similar proposal passing an ichi community vote)

  2. Support the launch with $GTC rewards for bootstrapping initial liquidity (ICHI will match with $ICHI rewards so both projects commit to the success of it)

  3. Support an experimental use case for using $oneGTC in the platform - anything from paying grantees in $oneGTC, to providing rebate or cash back for using $oneGTC as the medium of exchange for contributions in the platform etc…

Adding this poll for a temperature check :

  • Yes - Gitcoin wants to launch $oneGTC and lead the way in experimenting how crypto communities can benefit from having their own stablecoin!
  • No - Gitcoin doesn’t want to take part in this experiment

0 voters

20

Thank you for putting together this proposal.

I agree with @Yalor on this. I don’t think it makes sense to create a stablecoin for Gitcoin either. There are many other stablecoins that the community can use right now and this doesn’t seem like a priority in regards to Gitcoin’s mission.

1 Like
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We have a call scheduled tomorrow with several Gitcoin stewards to discuss this proposal and brainstorm ideas. It would be great to have community members join the conversation!

ICHI - Gitcoin $oneGTC
Tuesday, July 6 · 11.30am US Eastern Time (6.30pm CET)
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/apr-xyzf-zgz
Or dial: ‪(DE) +49 40 8081615268‬ PIN: ‪530 721 280‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/apr-xyzf-zgz?pin=9549163415621
Would love

1 Like