Reducing Inflation

Some time has passed since our wild cousin Polkadot successfully reduced its annual inflation to 8%(with gradual reduction), as a KSM token holder I believe our loved bird is due an adjustment of its inflation parameters as well. Instead of copy-pasting Polkadot's model, Kusama can try something different, some DOT holders were left wondering if inflation could be lower, I propose we reduce it to 5%. The high initial inflation was good for early bootstrapping and incentivizing participation, the ecosystem has matured enough to aim for long-term sustainability.

Changed parameters

• Setting MaxInflation: From 10% to 5%
• UseAuctionSlots: From true to false.
  From the docs:

  With the move to agile-coretime, this parameter does not make much sense and should generally be set to false.

NOTE: As IdealStake is "75%", UseAuctionSlots = true had the effect of making the real target around 45%, this is intentional as it would increase the treasury income to around 10% with current staking levels.

Reducing ideal bulk coretime sales

The reduction of inflation should be balanced with an increased demand for the KSM, the main utility of KSM is to pay for coretime(which gets burned) but current prices are virtually 0 making it hard for the system to benefit from its main product offering. Elastic scaling will help grow demand for coretime and thus KSM, there might also be new sources of KSM demand like Kreivo's memberships but we need to adjust the core business model.

A while back I proposed setting a minimum price but it was pointed out by @seadanda that a better approach is to change the parameter that controls the ideal target for sales to a value that better reflects the expected demand of the Kusama cores to stop the price from further being driven to 0 and quite the opposite drive its price up to a more realistic value.

Note that this number is not set in stone, it's a starting point that can help us better discover coretime's true value.

Changed parameters

• Setting ideal_builk_proportion: From 100% to 40%

The proportion of cores available for sale which should be sold. If more cores are sold than this, then further sales will no longer be considered in determining the sellout price. In other words the sellout price will be the last price paid, without going over this limit.

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As self-proclaimed Kusama enthusiast#1, not only as KSM-only holder but as full-time exclusive builder on this network for several years, I hope this proposal well received and not seen as malicious as I only have the best intentions for this ecosystem :)

Members of the Fellowship Collective involved in projects flagged by the OG tracker should provide a proper explanation, return the funds to the Treasury, or face expulsion.

Invarch failed to provide the first two, so Gabe, a founding member of the team, does not meet the ethical standards required to have a voice in the Fellowship.

TENETS (extract from the fellowship manifesto)

"Members are expected to faithfully uphold the following tenets.
Clarifications to the rules should be in agreement with these tenets. Acting in clear breach of these tenets may be considered by voters as grounds for non-promotion, demotion or, in extreme cases, exclusion from the Fellowship.

(1) Sincerely uphold the interests of Polkadot and avoid actions which clearly work against it.
(2) Respect the philosophy and principles of Polkadot.
(3) Respect the operational procedures, norms and voting conventions of the Fellowship.
(4) Respect your fellow Members and the wider community"

This RFP was adapted over several weeks on AAG to turn a treasury proposal in discussion to an RFP with refined scope and oversight. To apply for the prize pls fill out this form.  

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Prize Pool: $43,000
Finder’s Fee: $2,000 **
Supervisors: $5,000

Supervisors (Bounty Curators)

• Flipchan
• Byte (Erin)
• James Slusser

Excess or unused funds will be returned to the treasury by Bounty Curators.

Timeline

Monday, March 17 - AAG Discussion & this forum post! ✅
Monday, March 24 - Single-ref Bounty + Curators ✅
4 Weeks after Bounty Funding - Submission Deadline Thursday
July 31 - Project Completion (Pending Kusama Hub Launch)

Project Scope

Smart Contract Development

• A Solidity-based smart contract deployed on Kusama Hub
• ZK enabled for private deposits & withdrawals
• Compatibility with all Kusama Hub assets

User Interface

• Browser-based, mobile-ready UI hosted on IPFS
• Support for: Deposits, Withdrawals, Transfers, XCM Transfers
• Compatible with popular ecosystem wallets (Nova Wallet, Talisman, Subwallet)

Anti-correlation Attack Mitigations:

• Fixed deposit amounts (e.g. 1, 10, 100, 1000 units)
• Batch payouts for withdrawals to multiple users
  Interoperability
• Ability to receive assets via XCM from any Kusama-connected parachain and transfer them to Kusama Hub for use in shielded pool.

Open-Source Delivery

• All code (smart contracts and UI) published under the MIT license
• Publicly accessible repositories Project updates shared transparently via Polkassembly, Subsquare, or Polkadot Forum from Team with Milestone deliveries
• Developer & User documentation

Milestones

Milestone 1, Initial Pools & Basic UI:
$16,200 USD
1 month

1. Tests - Smart contract test
2. Smart contract - ZK shielded smart contract with KSM and multi asset support on Westend or Paseo
3. Basic UI - A basic UI for interacting with the smart contract

Milestone 2, UI + XCM:
$9,900
1 month

1. Tests - tests for all features
2. User interface design - UI design
3. XCM transfers - XCM transfer assets in UI
4. Fixed amount transfer only - Allow fixed amount transfers in the UI

Milestone 3, Mainnet Deployment:
$16,900
1 - 1.5 months

1. Contract Migration to Kusama Assethub - Migrate contract from Testnet to Kusama Hub
2. Public documentation - Documentation for using Kusama shield and developer integration documentation
3. Test - tests for contract
4. V1 UI - User tested & something we can be proud of

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** re: Finder’s Fee: this payment is set aside to incentivize a broad search for the right implementor. Finder’s Fees are paid out at time of team engagement. Teams that submit themselves can collect their own Finder’s Fee at completion of project.