Merge pull request #163 from dimitrov-d/main

Add NCTR token section

about/8-nctr-token.md

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+# NCTR token
+
+The NCTR token (pronounced “nectar”) is Apillon’s native utility token and sustains Apillon functionalities when interacting with linked Polkadot parachains and transacting with their protocols.
+
+It represents a uniform means of value exchange in the process of building Web3 projects on the Apillon platform, as it replaces the need to interact with individual tokens of utilized parachains.
+
+For every value-based action on Apillon, the platform manages the utility of parachains’ features in their native tokens in the back end so that developers only deal with NCTR and do not have to worry about acquiring or exchanging other tokens.
+
+The Apillon business model also supports payments in fiat (EUR and USD), further boosting adoption among first-time adopters of Web3. The platform converts it to NCTR to unlock Apillon functionalities.
+
+## Utility
+
+The NCTR token is designed to be a multi-purpose and widely used asset, covering a range of utility cases for platform users and community members.
+
+### Proof of Adoption
+
+Working towards the ultimate goal of onboarding as many users as possible to Web3, Apillon implements the “Proof of Adoption” (PoA) concept. PoA serves as the main umbrella term for Web3 adoption through Apillon and is the platform’s main motivator for decision-making between individual stages of tokenomics and business model development.
+
+### Governance & Platform Upgrades
+
+Apillon’s main objective is to evolve to become a self-governing platform, built and run by developers for developers. The governance utility of the NCTR token allows token holders to submit proposals for new services to be supported by the platform, vote on them, and co-govern the development direction of Apillon to best respond to users’ needs and amplify their Web3 building experience.
+
+### Staking & Service Discounts
+
+The Apillon community, users, developers, and NCTR token holders are invited to co-govern the platform via long-term NCTR token staking. Incentivization is achieved via pricing discount on the platform service, offered to NCTR token stakers who participate in the governance process and help shape the product’s future. Moreover, users staking NCTR tokens get access to premium support, expert team consulting, and other perks yet to be announced.
+
+### Incentives & Grants
+
+To achieve awareness and engagement beyond the platform use, a portion of the NCTR token fund is reserved for user incentives and grants to support teams or individuals helping to build Web3. These include, but are not limited to, SDK Grants, Protocol Integration Grants, Bug Bounties, AOTW (App of the Week) Competition, Fair Play Staking, and more.
+
+## Tokenomics
+
+### Three-Stage Economic Model
+
+In the course of its MVP development, Apillon is set to start a three-stage tokenomics and business model release cycle that introduces new features, spanned across a maximum of 24 months.
+
+- Stage 1: Staking & Governance
+- Stage 2: Incentivization & Payments
+- Stage 3: Value Exchange & Proof of Adoption
+
+In each stage, the gathered performance data will either confirm or reject the project’s predispositions and help improve the tokenomics and business model to suit the users’ needs.
+
+### Technical Token Parameters
+
+The $NCTR token is an ERC-20-compatible token minted on the Moonbeam Network.
+
+Total supply: 150,000,000 NCTR
+
+### Apillon Tokenomics Whitepaper
+
+Learn more about the NCTR token, its role in the Apillon business model, and the general tokenomics.
+
+[Access the tokenomics whitepaper here](https://apillon.io/files/Apillon_Tokenomics_Whitepaper.pdf)
+
+## Governance
+
+The Apillon Governance primarily impacts the product evolution, and it's implemented with a three-phase approach.
+
+As a member of the Polkadot ecosystem, Apillon monitored Polkadot governance over time and implemented a similarly dynamic and progressive governance model. Polkadot's sophisticated governance mechanism allows it to evolve steadily at the ultimate behest of its assembled stakeholders, and Apillon pursues the same goal.
+
+### Apillon as a Product
+
+Before the governance model is defined, the functioning of Apillon as a product should be made clear.
+
+Apillon, a Web3 development platform on Polkadot Network, gathers the Polkadot parachains and projects onto a single dashboard delivering unified access for developers of Web3 products. It removes the complexities of parachain integration and provides an abstraction layer for front-end development. This way, Apillon eliminates the need for users to understand all the details of underlying blockchain technology, and allows them to launch fully functional Web3 product in hours or days.
+
+The user-facing elements of the Apillon platform are:
+
+* Apillon Dashboard
+* Apillon API and SDK
+* Apillon Documentation
+* Apillon code samples
+* Apillon one-click install products
+
+Apart from providing users access to the Web3 development flow, Apillon plans to integrate more parachains, protocols, and features in future versions, expanding the product offering to hundreds of Web3 building opportunities.
+
+Apillon’s product governance can be deducted by understanding the Apillon platform elements that are front-end accessible and calibrated for optimal user experience.
+
+### Apillon Governance Model
+
+Apillon's product governance does not imply an establishment of Apillon as an end-to-end DAO where participants propose and vote on everything, business decisions included.
+
+Instead, the governance aspect is focused on the product, a narrow scope of user-oriented services and features that participants can help control and upgrade.
+
+#### Governance Goals
+
+Apillon’s vision is to accelerate the world’s transition to a completely decentralized, Web3 future.
+
+The main goal is to establish a governance model that provides the Apillon platform users the opportunity to co-design its offering, integrating the features that bring them the most value, and thus spur adoption among Web3 building communities.
+
+Apillon’s product governance mode is based upon the following premises.
+
+* Apillon platform users build Web3 products.
+* Apillon platform users understand and respect Web3 and underlying technologies.
+* Apillon platform provides tooling for users to create Web3 products and bring them to commercial use in the shortest time.
+* Apillon sources from a governed, incentivized, and vote-weighted feedback loop between users and platform builders and commits to following the governance outcomes.
+* Product governance is one of the essential token utilities in the Web3 space, especially when it can achieve a network effect between token holders.
+
+#### Governance Scope
+
+Apillon’s product governance decides on all product-related questions, for example:
+
+* What parachains, protocols, and services get integrated into the Apillon platform, and when?
+* What improvements could the platform make to enhance the user experience?
+* What business models make sense within platform users' context and could get implemented in the platform's future versions?
+* What product partnerships would be a good fit for the platform?
+* What is the priority of accepted proposals, which upgrades should be implemented faster, and why?
+* Etc.
+
+#### Expected Outcome
+
+By narrowing the governance scope to strictly the Apillon platform, the feedback loop between voters and the Apillon team should improve significantly, leading to:
+
+* Faster and better product-market fit
+* Clearer back-log and development priorities
+* Expansion toward users' needs
+* Faster design decisions and delivery
+* Complete understanding of users' needs via weighted governance
+
+#### Governance Eligibility
+
+Apillon introduces several levels of Apillon governance eligibility, aiming to include the widest possible audiences while distributing voting power fairly according to participants’ involvement.
+
+A user can fit into either one or multiple eligibility levels simultaneously.
+
+##### NCTR Token Holders
+NCTR token holders are users who acquired NCTR tokens, either in presale, on an exchange, or in any other way, and keep holding them in their wallet.
+
+##### NCTR Developers
+NCTR developers are users who actively use and build on the Apillon platform, frequently perform API calls, and have acquired NCTR tokens through incentivization features, as defined in the Apillon Tokenomics Whitepaper.
+
+The role of governance in most NCTR incentivization features is to instill transparency between developers’ submissions, proposals, or applications on the one hand and a fair distribution of NCTR token rewards for their contribution on the other.
+
+##### NCTR Ambassadors
+NCTR ambassadors are users who obtained NCTR tokens or Apillon NFTs as a reward for promoting the Apillon platform.
+
+##### NCTR Staking
+In the final stage of product governance, only users who staked NCTR tokens can participate and govern the Apillon platform development.
+
+Staking assures the stability of the voting body and incentivizes governance participation.
+
+#### Governance Risks
+
+Despite the benefits of decentralized governance for Web3 communities, it also comes with some potential risks participants should be aware of.
+
+Company risk could include a range of threats that harm Apillon. Outsourcing a part of decision-making to a broader community could produce an outcome that might not correspond with business goals. Apillon is a start-up company and, by definition, a very agile organization that needs to react quickly to changing market narratives. While the fast reaction is in Apillon’s DNA, governance through the external community could affect the company’s roadmap. Consequently, any change on the roadmap affects all the company departments, from product development to marketing and finance. To avoid any such risk, the proposals in Phase 1 will be submitted solely by Apillon.
+
+Then, as seen in some DAOs, there is a risk that individuals exploit heavier voting power compared to others, by submitting a proposal and confirming on their own. For Apillon, this might become an issue in later phases, since the governance will be performed fully on-chain.
+
+The goal of the Apillon platform is to give users smooth access to Web3 services without them having to learn extensive documentation and complex programming languages. If Apillon fails at achieving this objective, users could no longer see value in using the platform, leading to governance losing its role.
+
+### Three-Phase Implementation
+
+Apillon’s three-phase governance model aims to steadily boost user participation while fairly distributing voting power and their influence over the Apillon platform evolution.
+
+#### Phase 1 - Expect Chaos
+In Phase 1, or Governance Beta, Apillon is launching a simple Discord-based voting system where voting is enabled for all registered users with a connected Discord account.
+
+The purpose of Phase 1 is to test the Apillon Governance voting protocols, user participation, and incentivization features, and monitor the open discussions on the proposals and other governance-related outcomes.
+
+The Apillon governance focuses on governing the product side of the platform, incentivizing users to submit feedback, turn it into well-described proposals, and join the democratic voting process. However, in Phase 1, in order to test the mechanics, the proposals are drafted solely by the Apillon team.
+
+In Apillon Governance Phase 1, expect chaos and plenty of testing.
+
+##### Phase 1 Governance Components
+* Mechanics to connect registered user accounts with the Apillon Discord group and automatic role assignment
+* Two Apillon Discord channels reserved for governance, one for proposal discussion and one for voting
+* Email announcements on voting outcomes by the Apillon team
+* Voting outcome blogs and reports by the Apillon team
+* Implementation of elected proposals by the Apillon team
+
+#### Phase 2 - Token-Based Vote
+
+In Phase 2, the Apillon governance model becomes NCTR token-based, where proposal votes are weighted according to the NCTR token amount held by participants.
+
+This represents a massive upgrade from Phase 1, since users with more NCTR tokens staked and with different roles assume more voting power.
+
+Phase 2 is designed to drastically change the dynamics of proposal discussions and voting outcomes.
+
+##### Phase 2 Governance Components
+* Feature allowing NCTR token holders to connect wallets to platform accounts and vote with specified voting weights
+* Blockchain-based voting
+* Email announcements on voting outcomes by the Apillon team
+* Voting outcome blogs and reports by the Apillon team
+* Implementation of elected proposals by the Apillon team
+
+#### Phase 3 - Fully Fledged Governance
+The Apillon Governance Phase 3 upgrades the blockchain voting mechanics by placing additional weight on participants who use the Apillon platform, that is, Web3 developers.
+
+Following the motives for Apillon governance, it aims to empower the platform's users who build Web3 products. This does not mean that other NCTR token holders are excluded from the voting, but rather that active and regular users assume slightly higher voting power since the platform's development mostly affects them and their work.
+
+Phase 3 is also focused on locating all the pain points that could have occurred in token-based voting during Phase 2, similar to the pain points described earlier in this document.
+
+If any anomalies occur in Phase 2, Phase 3 is the ideal stage to fix them.
+
+##### Phase 3 Governance Components
+* Weighted voting defined by user activity on the platform
+* Weighted NCTR token staking defined by the duration of staking
+* Continuous evaluation and adjustment of governance scope
+* Proposal committees to review proposal ideas and determine the governance scope fit
+* Incentivization of voting turn-up
+
+[Become a part of the Apillon Community](https://discord.gg/yX3gTw36C4)