Community AMA with Props CTO, Peter Watts
On March 9th, Props Community Manager, Cydel, sat down with Props CTO, Peter Watts, to answer some community questions and share some updates from the Props Product and Engineering team.
Some of the highlights include updates on the upcoming launch of the Staking Protocol, more details on App rewards, product plans for 2021 and more.
Moderator: Are there plans to allow apps to implement token burns with their allocated PROPS? If so, how would this affect the network as a whole.
Peter: This is something that we are definitely looking into. Tegger has a new mechanism where Props can be redeemed for various offers, and they plan to burn a portion of the Props redeemed. If this goes well, then we plan to continue looking into other ways to roll it out more broadly across the network.
Moderator: Could we elaborate with our relationship with Algorand? Has it been mutually beneficial for us? Would we ever consider using Solana?
Peter: We’ve actually gained a lot out of our partnership with Algorand, both on-chain, enabling cost-effective transactions and transparency, and off-chain, with industry relationships and shared marketing efforts. Solana is doing some cool stuff, and we’re keeping an eye on it, but we are happy where we are right now.
Moderator: What else can we expect for the rest of Q1 and Q2?
Peter: We expect the first half of this year to be quite big, with the launch of the Staking protocol that is outlined in the new whitepaper. We anticipate having an incentivized Testnet in the near future, where users will be able earn real Props for testing the system, followed by the Mainnet launch after that.
Beyond that, our focus is on getting new Apps live, and ensuring that they have all the tooling that they need to be successful. A lot of this is behind the scenes but has a big impact on our ability to sign new Apps and get them live quickly.
Moderator: At the moment, while ETH gas fees continue to rise, it is very expensive to send ETH to your wallet for Props and also expensive to send Props to an exchange. How do we plan to mitigate this problem and are we considering any Layer 2 solutions?
Peter: Yes, 100%. We are working on Layer 2 support right now, and it will go live at the same time that the Staking protocol is deployed. We expect this to reduce transaction costs. The goal is that most users can live entirely on Layer 2, both for staking and for accessing exchanges. The UX will also be seamless, so you won’t need to switch networks, and will feel like you are just using regular Ethereum.
We’ve been reviewing all of the different options, ZK Rollups, Optimistic Rollups, Sidechains, etc. We plan to have a blog post soon announcing the technology we plan to use, and the thought process behind it. Some of the most promising tech like ZK Rollups are still months away from being ready, so our plan is to build on a solution that is stable today, while leaving the door open to adopt superior solutions as they become available.
Moderator: Within the new protocol design, apps will be incentivized to attract stakers which will likely be utilized by a more limited number of technical users and not mainstream consumers that are utilizing the partner apps. In the prior protocol design, one could argue that apps were more incentivized to attract mainstream consumers to hold props. With this protocol change, is there any concern that the attention from app partners will shift too much toward attracting this narrow group of stakers and away from mainstream consumers?
Peter: Props is a loyalty solution, meaning it is designed to enhance an Apps existing business model, not replace it. Apps still need to attract and retain mainstream consumers in order to be successful. Stakers are incentivized to stake towards the apps that they believe will be the most successful. Apps will still earn based on their ability to attract mainstream consumers, but with the new protocol, the evaluation can be more nuanced and consider many more factors, not just raw user numbers.
Moderator: Could you provide more information regarding the Props protocol that will leverage staking, a community governance portal and the eventual transition towards full community governance. How can community members participate?
Peter: The first step towards community governance will be the launch of Staking. Anyone holding Props tokens will be able to participate and earn rewards for providing information to the protocol about which Apps are creating the most value. Then, over time, we intend to transition various decisions from the team to the community. We are still a while away from that and will share details when it gets closer to happening.
Moderator: To take a step back and look at the whitepaper, it is understood that the Props Token is an ERC20 token and the Props Protocol is using an Algorand smart contract (ASC1) as a side chain that is utilized for allocating app points and app rewards. Is staking done via the ETH platform and requires stakers to pay the (current) high gas prices? Or is the staking done via the (less expensive) Algorand platform?
Peter: The Protocol and Staking will actually run on an Ethereum Layer 2, in order keep costs low, while maintaining full compatibility with an Ethereum wallet and contracts. We use Algorand for something different, which is the transparent publishing of Pending Props microtransactions.
Moderator: Can you provide a real world example of how app points are going to be used? What are the expected benefits from adding this to the protocol? How will the experience differ for app points for regular app users vs stakers?
Peter: The expected benefit of introducing App Points is a protocol that it can scale to many more Apps in a fully trustless way. This simply wasn’t possible with the old design and is incredibly important for the protocol’s future.
The impact for regular users will be quite minimal. They will continue earning Props, which will impact their in-app benefits. But for those who decide to get involved with staking, they can earn something additional, that also contributes to their benefits, alongside Props.
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