The Situation
Phore has a long history. It was launched in 2017, but some of you may not know that it was also a redesign and rebrand or a legacy coin called KryptKoin, which launched in 2014.
Throughout KryptKoin’s existence and the early life of Phore, the primary focus of the project was to allow users to conduct eCommerce with Cryptocurrency in an easy way.
When we first embarked on adding smart contract capabilities to Phore, we initially planned to add it to the existing Phore blockchain as a set of sidechains. However, once we really dug into the design and assessed the pros and cons of that architecture, it was clear that it would be a much stronger solution to build a new blockchain that had a better fundamental structure with vastly improved scalability, security, and flexibility. This became the project we code named Synapse.
These vastly improved capabilities led us to reimagine Synapse’s future. It was capable of so much more than eCommerce. This led to a clear issue of conflicting identities–Phore still has a very strong use case and future providing both eCommerce and other decentralized applications, but with an identity strongly associated with eCommerce, new users would not very easily see and appreciate everything that the Synapse architecture was capable of.
The cryptocurrency industry is a highly competitive space, and because of this, first impressions stick. For many investors, there simply isn’t enough time to review every project in the industry multiple times, so a large percentage of potential users and investors who have looked at Phore before will continue to see it as an eCommerce focused project.
Yes, the Marketplace and other decentralized applications are a big part of our future, but so too is Synapse.
Synapse and the Marketplace are two completely different products that are being developed by the Phore Blockchain team. If both of these things remain under a single Phore project identity, neither will be able to develop to its full potential, and it would make it difficult to focus our branding and marketing activities.
The Proposal
The Phore Blockchain team proposes that we split the project into two parts - separate projects.
The Phore project will continue to be responsible for the current Phore Core codebase and will continue developing the Marketplace and all its feature (including the DEX….etc).
Synapse will become its own project with tokens will be airdropped to Phore holders at an equal ratio, with the exception of any PHR that is held by cryptocurrency exchanges that are no longer providing services and have not allowed users to withdraw their PHR. Whether we start Synapse with an equal initial supply to Phore or if ultimately we decide Synapse should have a larger initial supply, Phore holders would receive their proportional share of that. Phore holders will receive 100% of Synapse tokens, there will be no token sale and no premine. We will incorporate a similar decentralized governance system to what currently exists in Phore.
We have a plan in place (pending community approval) that would allow us to manage both projects simultaneously (essentially something we already do).
Initially, the team would be the same for both projects, however, as time progresses we would expect each project to add team members which are exclusive to one or the other project.
Synapse tokens would be airdropped to Phore holders at either:
1 PHR = 1 Synapse, Ratio.
User % of PHR supply gets equal % of Synapse supply.
Example:
Phore total supply = 10 million
Synapse total supply = 100 million.
Synapse total supply is 10x the Phore total supply. This means for every 1PHR a user holds, they would get 10 Synapse tokens.
The token parameters for Synapse are yet to be confirmed. This is something that will come just before the release.
#The Benefits
The projects get to form their own identities.
Phore will be able to focus on enhancing the Marketplace and bringing more high-quality decentralized features and applications product to market. We will be able to market this effectively as the vision will be concise.
Synapse will have the ability to develop its own identity and will actually appeal to different users than Phore currently does. This is because we can explain what the architecture is capable of without having the ‘Marketplace Coin’ association.
Users will be able to issue their own tokens on Synapse, write smart contracts, build customized shards that are optimized for things like DeFi….etc.
Essentially, with Synapse, the sky is the limit.
Both projects will be better funded.
As the vast majority of people reading this will be aware, Phore had no ICO (or any other token sale) and no Premine. The project is funded by the monthly superblock rewards generated by the blockchain and voted on by the governance system.
Synapse will also be designed in the same way, where the blockchain will generate rewards for use as a development fund. Similar to Phore, the use of these funds will also be dictated by community governance. We expect this will allow us to expand both projects more rapidly by making them each more self-sustaining and being able to devote the budget governance funds directly to the development of each project.
We are hoping this will result in a positive feedback loop as:
Increased funding => Faster development/better marketing => More interest => Increased funding => Faster development/better marketing => More interest…etc
Conclusion
This proposal has already been discussed with the Phore community extensively, and has already received positive feedback from the vast majority of community members. This budget proposal is intended to formalize the governance decision to implement what we have discussed.
The natural evolution of Phore has led to the need for two separate projects. Leaving both the Marketplace and Synapse under one umbrella would be damaging to both as it limits their ability to fulfill their full potential. Phore distracts from Synapse’s vision and Synapse distracts from Phore’s vision.
Domains have been secured and branding work has already begun on Synapse. If we get the support of the community, we can begin rolling out the first phases of announcing Synapse to the world.