Introduction
I recently wrote an article about Truebit Protocol, an off chain scaling solution for Ethereum and other Blockchains. Although I had a small paragraph about the tokenomics, I didn’t do a great job of breaking down the price mechanisms that will kick-in when the protocol is adopted and used. I included a video by an anonymous You Tuber in that article, which gave a thorough technical and mathematical break-down of the token. In this article I hope to simplify the information given in the Truebit Whitepaper and You Tube video in order to clarify a few commonly touted misconceptions regarding the TRU token’s price potential.
Key Points:
- Use of the TRU token is fundamental and incentivised in the Truebit Protocol OS model. TRU is used to pay Task Givers, Verifiers, and Solvers to run off-chain computation.
- After the TRU has been used to complete the task and return the solution to the blockchain (which involves an ETH Gas fee), the remaining TRU is burned. This will result in the TRU supply being -1 from what it was before.
- There is a Mint feature built into the Operating System (OS). This, however, does not mean that the price of TRU is static. This is because the cost of minting TRU is in Ether (ETH). This mint price is 0.000422 ETH. Based on the price of ETH today, this equates to $13.6. Although a strong determining factor, this does not mean the price of TRU is pegged to ETH — there are other mechanisms at play.
- There is an additional Burn function in the OS as a safeguard for the solvers and verifiers. The Burn price will always be lower than the market price.
- When used as a scaling solution, projects incorporating Truebit will need to buy TRU to run their off-chain computations. They can either buy on the OS, or on the open market. For various reasons it should be cheaper to buy on the open market.
- Whenever you buy and remove a coin from a liquidity pool (e.g. Uniswap), the value of that coin will go up due to the ratio change inside the pool. In this case there would be less TRU and more ETH. If most of these tokens are being used in the OS to run computation, they will be burned, and will not return to the Liquidity Pool, ever.
- Users of the OS will continue to buy from the market / LP’s until the price is equal to or greater than the mint price. As soon as the mint price is less than the market price, an arbitrage opportunity will exist, and the price will quickly stabilise.
- However, this is not to say that the price will remain stuck at the mint price, as mint price increases every time a new TRU token is minted.
- As the mint price is pegged to Ethereum at 0.000422 ETH, when ETH rises in price, so will the cost of minting new TRU.
- The percentage change in the Market Cap of Truebit = Percentage change in Price squared. More simply, the change in price is the square root of the change in the market cap. But it’s important to remember that this is in Ethereum!
- The USD price equation, without taking into account the burn mechanism, is as follows:
△Price(%)(USD) = [SQRT(△Market Cap (%)(ETH))] x (1+△ETH(%)(USD))
- The above assumes the token is already at its equilibrium price (market price = minting price). TRU is currently 25% of it’s minting price (1 TRU = 0.00011201 ETH). Based on this fact, the above USD price equation would remain the same, except we would multiple the answer by a factor of 4.
- The burn mechanism will increase the price appreciation, but more importantly, a dramatic / parabolic increase in the price of ETH would result in a parabolic increase in the value of TRU.
Conditions for price appreciation
The most obvious condition for the appreciation of the TRU token is its adoption and use. Should blockchains or other scaling solutions choose to incorporate Truebit, they will buy TRU from the open market until an equilibrium price is reached. Tokens must be burned in the operating system for TRU to reach its equilibrium price.
If the wider crypto community believe Truebit will be adopted as a much needed scaling solution, speculative investing will occur. Although Truebit currently do no marketing, there is a strong community of supporters, and growing interest from Crypto influencers.
Other Interesting Points:
Truebit did not allocate any TRU tokens to themselves when they launched the token. Unlike 99% of other crypto projects, they are not looking to make money from capital gains, but are rather basing their success and income on minting revenue from their operating system (which will pay them in ETH). Truebit will only get paid if the price of TRU on the open market reaches the equilibrium price, and new tokens are minted. If this doesn’t show a sincere and long-term commitment to the project, I don’t know what does.
Investment Considerations
- Will Truebit gain widespread adoption as a scaling solution?
- Will Ether (ETH) continue to appreciate in value over time?
- Unlike projects like Ripple where the token has no real utility, the TRU token is SEC compliant.
- Truebit is blockchain agnostic, and can be retrofitted as a scaling solution to other popular blockchains.
- Truebit is a PolyChain Capital company, with some well-respected investors behind it.
- Truebit has strong ties to the Ethereum Foundation.
Truebit’s tokenomics are very interesting and attractive, when you break them down mathematically. The TRU token price is linked to the price of Ether due to the minting mechanism, but that does not mean the price is capped. The token burn mechanism in the operating system, and the likelihood of Ether appreciating over time, means Truebit Protocol could potentially achieve parabolic growth. But this will depend on genuine adoption and use. The need for scaling solutions is great, and Truebit offers a workable solution that is both promising, and SEC compliant.
I would like to acknowledge and thank the anonymous creator of the Truebit Token Economics / Pricing video for his detailed analysis of Truebit’s tokenomics.
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