Update: August 23rd - the first community survey is now live here: https://go.radixdlt.com/unlock-survey. This survey will be live until 23:59 UTC, August 29th 2021.
Radix will be conducting a single-question survey of community sentiment about the unlocking mechanism currently used to release XRD tokens into circulation. The topic is if the current mechanism should be changed so that all tokens are unlocked immediately. This community sentiment survey will start on Monday, August 23rd and will require participants to have a verified Instapass account.
This post provides some more context about what this survey is about, why it’s important, and why we’d like you to provide your answer.
To be clear, this survey is not a governance vote. We believe decentralized community governance is an important topic, and one which we intend to approach with the proper consideration it deserves as the network reaches a greater level of maturity. For now, this survey is simply a way of taking a cross-section of opinion on an important issue for the Radix community and Radix network.
Some Background on Price-based Unlocking
Over a number of years prior to the launch of the eXRD token, a significant number of tokens were sold to early supporters of Radix. These tokens were provided under the condition that they be locked and only released as the price of (e)XRD meets certain price thresholds (as detailed in our Economics paper). The purpose of this mechanism was to provide a controlled release of (e)XRD tokens – changeable for XRD tokens on mainnet – into the ecosystem as interest and adoption of the Radix network increased. We believe this approach provides wide distribution of the token and steadily increasing network security - consistent with our long-term focus on building a network suitable for the future of finance.
Recently, some members of the Radix community have expressed their preference for a change to this unlock system. They have argued that they would prefer to fully release these locked tokens held by early backers, as well as Radix itself, right away, arguing that Radix’s goals of wide distribution can be met more quickly by doing this.
With the successful launch of the Radix Olympia mainnet, we have been thrilled to see our existing community coming together to stake over 750m XRD - 40% of all circulating supply worth approximately $100m that is now backing the security of the Radix network. The fact we have achieved this positive level of distribution and staking means that unlocking tokens more aggressively may now be an opportunity to further increase the decentralization and security of the network ahead of our Babylon release, if the community believes it will be beneficial.
To get a more clear and complete view of sentiment on this issue, we will facilitate a debate and then conduct a survey of the Radix community. We hope this will provide both us, and the community itself, useful perspective on the issue before any changes from the current system are considered. We will be promoting this survey and its results as widely as possible on our social media and direct contact channels such as email to get as much of the Radix community taken into account as possible.
How to Participate
We will be announcing a link to a single-question survey via our social media and email channels asking the question:
“Would you prefer to unlock all Radix tokens that are currently locked (eXRD and XRD) immediately, or would you prefer to keep the current price-based unlocking schedule?”
The survey will ask your email address. Please enter an address that you used to register a verified Instapass account. This will ensure we can, as much as possible, give each individual in our growing community a fair voice. We will release this survey on Monday, August 23rd and will keep it live until 23:59 UTC Sunday, August 29th. Please note, only Instapass accounts that are verified will be eligible to participate. It can take a few days to verify an Instapass account, so if you have not already done so, we advise you to do this immediately. We have a guide on how to do that here.
If the results of this survey demonstrate a strong preference in favor of a change, we will send out the survey a second time, but this time consider the amount of XRD tokens held by accounts associated with the Instapass email addresses. This would run from Wednesday, September 1st through to 23:59 UTC Sunday, September 5th. Please note, only XRD held or staked from Radix wallet addresses linked with Verified Instapass accounts will be taken into account. If you have not already created and linked all Radix addresses you wish to use to participate in the second survey, we suggest that you do so immediately. We have a guide on how to add a Radix address to your Instapass account here.
The summarized results of these surveys will be published to the community.
If both results show a strong preference in favor of a change, then the directors of Radix Tokens (Jersey) will consider a change to the token unlocking mechanism and announce a decision no later than 10th September, 2021.
Further Info
In order to encourage a robust and inclusive debate on this topic, we will create a temporary #unlocking-debate channel on the Radix Discord server. We will encourage all discussion on this topic to move to this channel so that all who are interested can have a single location to stay informed and contribute their thoughts for everyone’s benefit. Following the surveys, this channel will be closed.