ICO Spotlight | Bitnation – The Future of Governance

INTRODUCTION

Bitnation operates a peer-to-peer (P2P)-decentralized marketplace for legal services called Pangea. Pangea is built as a distributed web secure mesh network and is currently accessible through an android smartphone-chat user-friendly interface (iOS version in development).

Blockchain-smart contract technology makes P2P legal agreements possible, and more importantly: binding and immutable, once they are written to the blockchain. When an agreements are disputed, arbitrators are chosen to resolve them fairly and efficiently.

The currency to enable Pangea P2P blockchain transactions between platform participants is the Pangea Arbitration Token (PAT) (I’ll explain PAT’s purpose and structure in the next section).

Lastly, Bitnation allows citizens to create their own Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nations (DBVNs) – each with their own and separate Constitution, Code of Law and decision-making mechanisms. Alternatively, citizens that don’t want to create their own nation, can join an existing DBVN, or none at all.

PANGEA ARBITRATION TOKEN

Bitnation will hold a public sale on March 25, 2018 and distribute Pangea Arbitration Tokens (PATs) (see Token Sale Event Details section). PATs will be ERC-20 based, and serve as a reward for successfully executing contractual agreements on the Pangea platform. In addition, PATs will govern three non-tradable reputation tokens, each with specific functions and attributes. The three reputation tokens and functions are:

1. Proof-of-Agreement (POS): A non-tradable reputation for Pangea users and arbitrators which is governed by performance criteria for smart contract creation and execution;

2. Proof-of-Collective (POC): A non-tradable reputation token for DBVNs, user groups, and governance services created on Pangea, it is governed by user satisfaction with collective contract creation and execution; and

3. Proof-of-Nomic (PON): A non-tradable reputation token for contracts, laws, and legal codes governed by user satisfaction.

PATs are not used for platform voting. 34% of the PATs in existence will be reserved and released as citizens increase their POA reputations. The next 34% will be sold publicly through a two-stage Token Sales Event and the remaining 32% will be reserved to reward Bitnation founders, contributors, advisors, and current Bitnation citizens and early Pangea adopters for developing, improving and mainstreaming the system (18% will be pre-allocated and 14% allocation for bounties, future contributors, and other campaigns).

PANGEA PLATFORM PARTICIPANTS

There are four (4) types of participants on the Pangea platform. They are:

1. Core Contributors – These types of users are significant contributors to the platform by ensuring core DBVN functions (tech, community, finance, etc.).

2. Citizens – this participant group is the largest on the platform and will be the primary users of the DBVNs.

3. Ambassadors – this type of participant can be thought of as Bitnation experts that specialize in either community engagement or diplomacy.

4. Allies – This participant type is defined as any entity or group that is actively cooperating with a DBVN (private company, another DBVN, or even a Nation State).

The above participants can conduct business in DBVN embassies, consulates or ports.

PANGEA BUSINESS MODEL

The Pangea platform will have two main revenue streams:

1. A small fee with on top of any arbitrator, judge, or jury charge for their services.
2. A small fee on top of the amount miners charge to timestamp and execute smart contracts created on Pangea.

In both cases, the platform will collect PAT or convert other currencies into PAT.

TOKEN SALE EVENT DETAILS

The TSE will consist of 14.28 billion PATs (34%) will be sold across three (3) sale phases:

1. Phase 1: Presale – completed in December 2017.
2. Phase 2: Public auction – 1 month auction of up to 7.3% of PAT supply.
3. Phase 3: Slow release – the remaining unsold tokens will be sold via exchanges over a 24 month period (April 2020 completion date)

Click here to read Bitnation’s PAT purchase agreement for more TSE details.

PROJECTED USE OF FUNDS

STRATEGIC ROADMAP

FINAL THOUGHTS

Bitnation is one of the more progressive concepts that I’ve come across in the cryptosphere – particularly the idea of creating Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nations (DBVNs). Without DBVNs, Pangea could probably have held its own as a P2P platform for a set of legal services, but I don’t think it would have inspired anyone to use the platform. However, with DBVNs, Bitnation citizens can form and experiment with self-government structures. I think it’s very possible that Bitnation finds itself with hundreds or thousands of different types of DVBNs (have you met anyone that doesn’t think they can govern better than their own government?). However, over time I also think it’s likely that there will be a handful of popular DBVNs that are proven to work really well and rise above the rest. In my eyes, Bitnation created a test lab for a more efficient and less costly form of governance.

A few concepts popped into my head while I was reading Bitnation’s whitepaper. The first is the game Second Life. Second Life is the dream of existing in a better world than the one you live in. In a way I think Bitnation is selling a little bit of that dream as well, but don’t directly come out and say it. Ultimately, I don’t think 2nd Life and Bitnation are a good comparison in other areas, but I do think that it’s possible that a DBVN could one day be a template for a Second Life redux where both worlds could be combined. The second concept is the space kingdom of Asgardia. In a way, Asgardia is its own DBVN.

I also like that Bitnation has a working product. I registered as a Bitnation citizen on their website and downloaded their app. I haven’t been able to fully focus on what my goals are, but hopefully I will conduct myself as a valuable DBVN citizen somewhere. However, once I set things up, I’m a little concerned that I won’t have a ton of actual legal transactions that would require me to use PATs on a daily basis. I could be an arbitrator or ambassador, but even then I don’t know just how much a person will need to use PATs. In other words, I don’t know if the Pangea PAT velocity of money will warrant it to be a great investment (disclosure: I’m not a financial expert and these are just my personal opinions and observations). Even so, I find the Bitnation project intriguing and there are a lot of paths that I can see it evolving into. I can see why a number of ICO review sites have rated it highly.

I only outlined the surface of what Bitnation is proposing. My goal always is to convey my interest/excitement for a project and hope that it rubs off enough that readers want to read the whitepaper to know more about the project.

REFERENCE LINKS

Bitnation Website
ICO Details
Whitepaper
Telegram
Twitter
ANN/Bounty Thread

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Traversing the Cryptosphere,
Kryptonaut (GeneralCryptoZod on Telegram)
Bitcointalk profile: johnnyjj