BSIP 88: Increase maximum total Bitshares supply to grow the reserve pool fund

bsip-0088.md

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+    BSIP: 0088
+    Title: Substantially increase Bitshares' maximum total supply, significantly growing the reserve pool fund.
+    Authors: R
+    Status: Draft
+    Type: Protocol
+    Created: 2024-04-18
+
+# Abstract
+
+Currently the Bitshares reserve pool grows through the collection of BTS fees for broadcast operations, however there are dwindling funds.
+
+This BSIP proposes to substantially raise the amount of BTS tokens held in the reserve pool through a possible future core mandatory upgrade.
+
+# Motivation
+
+With a larger amount of BTS in the reserve pool, we can:
+* Pay witnesses at a higher rate, encouraging greater DPOS activity, strengthening the consensus mechanism.
+* Pay worker proposals which fund the development of next-gen core code and user interfaces in a full-time capacity.
+* Tackle stakeholder project apathy
+
+# Rational
+
+The current circulating supply of BTS is: 2,995,301,686 BTS
+The max circulating supply of BTS is: 3,600,570,502 BTS
+
+Meaning there's 605m BTS in reserves (16.82% of total supply).
+
+Considering the market cap on coinmarketcap is calculated from the circulating supply, issuing additional BTS supply to the reserves does not directly affect the market cap calculation, therefore a substantial increase in maximum total supply does not directly affect the price.
+
+Competitor cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin have no maximum total supply limit; there is real market tolerance for a larger core token supply.
+
+Initial crypto whitepaper economics can change, e.g. the fees are regularly changed the Bitshares committee as the price of BTS fluctuates, therefore proposing to change this total supply variable shouldn't be out of the equation.
+
+There's a great deal of historical precedent of publicly traded companies issuing additional shares to fund their continued operations; this proposal is similar except that Bitshares is a DAC, and the increased total supply wouldn't be liquid - worker proposals would be needed to make the funds liquid.
+
+By democratically distributing these newly raised funds through the worker proposal system we will be improving the decentralization of the network. At the moment there are several centralized exchange accounts with a substantial amount of BTS in their balances, by distributing worker funds to key stakeholders these whale accounts power are reduced substantially.
+
+# Specifications
+
+## Option A:
+
+Create a worker proposal to evaluate whether people are for or against such an increase in core token supply for reserve pool purposes.
+
+If it passes, create secondary worker proposals to vote on the amount to increase the total supply by.
+
+## Option B:
+
+Skip directly to voting on a worker proposal to increase maximum total supply to **100 Billion BTS**.
+
+## How to change the maximum total supply
+
+Considering the core token is not owned by the committee-account, but rather owned by the null-account, the asset settings cannot be easily changed; the increase in BTS total supply (not circulating supply) would need to be introduced by a core mandatory code change and supported by all witnesses.
+
+# Discussion
+
+How much would you tolerate the token supply increasing by?
+
+If you're someone who has put off approving worker proposals out of fear of the reserve pool running out, would a larger reserve pool settle your worries?
+
+If you're someone who is afraid of large CEX whale accounts and the potential power they could weild, would the distribution of additional funds to key stakeholders in an attempt to even the DPOS playing field help ease your concerns?
+
+Bitsharestalk thread: https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,34038.new.html#new
+
+# Summary for Stakeholders
+
+Proposed increase to the total supply of core BTS tokens; this would pose a static change to the original whitepaper economics.
+
+New supply would not be liquid, they'd be safe within the reserve pool.
+
+New supply becomes liquid through voted upon worker proposal payouts over time and potentially through increased witness pay rates set by the Bitshares committee.
+
+Greater competition for witness spots will improve DPOS reliability and resiliency, tackling DPOS apathy.
+
+Greater funding of core and UI development from the reserve pool through worker proposals will benefit the Bitshares blockchain. Full time dedicated development will lead to compounding improvements for open source project deliverables.
+
+A future greater balance held by developers and witnesses through witness pay and worker proposal payout will improve decentralization of the network, and will lower the influence that large CEX accounts have over the Bitshares blockchain.
+
+Motivational music: https://app.suno.ai/song/be25a104-5131-4e80-846a-4592b0fe26a3/