Kalavian Tales Minutes (KATAMI) is a cryptocurrency token that serves to facilitate flexible development and direction of the Tales of Kalavia project.
This document presents the motivation behind establishing KATAMI, a specification of its key characteristics, and its main mechanisms for acquisition and use. It also describes how the token will be terminated at the end of its life time.
What is a Kalavian Tales Minute?
A Kalavian Tales Minute is a symbolic unit that equals roughly one minute of directly beneficial development effort on the Tales of Kalavia project.
Its short name is set to KATAMI for a number of reasons: (a) it’s fairly easy to pronounce, (b) the KM alternative already is a widely used unit, (c) a short name of KALM or KTM could imply that it is a miner token, which it is not, (d) the word KATAMI is not commonplace on the internet, (e) It stands for KAlavian TAles MInutes, (f) it translates to “souvenir” or “memento” in Japanese, which seems fitting.
The maximum supply of KATAMI will be 500,000, which equals approximately 5 person years of full-time work. The initial supply will be 10,000, all to be held in the @kalavia account. New supplies of 10,000 tokens may be printed whenever the @kalavia account supplies reaches 0.
How can KATAMI be useful?
In the first instance, we can introduce direct and measurable recognition for development effort by awarding KATAMI to contributors.
In the second instance, we can use KATAMI to help guide the direction of the project by commissioning bespoke developments.
Sources and Sinks
The KATAMI token features a single source and two sink mechanisms.
Source: Developer recognition mechanism
KATAMI tokens can be transferred from the @kalavia account to contributors that have made directly beneficial development efforts to the overall project. In this context, directly beneficial, means that the contribution made has become part of the core project, e.g. the background campaign world, the main @kalavia blog, or one of the Tales of Kalavia games. Contributions could include artwork, music, game functionalities, gameplay elements, physical items, background substories, new characters or new tribes, settlements or civilisations. KATAMI tokens serve as an award of recognition, and will not be transferred before the actual contribution has become part of the core project.
The amount of tokens transferred loosely represents one token per minute dedicated, though certain activities, such as blog posts, may be rewarded at fixed rates for simplicity (up to 50 KATAMI per post is the current convention).
Tokens are transferred directly to the contributors, and each contribution will be directly referenced in the memo of the transfer, so that transfers can easily be scrutinised by outside parties.
This mechanism will be the only source of KATAMI tokens, which means that the inflation of KATAMI is pegged to its developments. So any inflation instantly disappears whenever project developments begin to stall, and picks up again when major development progress is made.
Sink: Commissioning a bespoke development
Token owners can commission a bespoke development within the project by sending KATAMI to @kalavia, along with instructions what the project should entail.
These instructions are ideally included in the memo of the transfer, either as a short directive (e.g. please rename the city of “A” to “B”) or as a reference to a blog post or web page that describes the request in greater detail.
Each request will be evaluated and is either accepted or declined. A request may be declined for instance if the number of KATAMI sent is too low to feasibly fulfil the request, if the team lacks the expertise to complete the request on a feasible time frame, or if the request is in conflict with a major existing development.
A decline request will be communicated by a full refund of the KATAMI tokens sent, along with a brief justification in the memo. This process is done manually, so it can take some time for requests to be reviewed.
Sink: Ad-hoc NFT Distribution
From time to time, the @kalavia account will create new NFTs with the specific goal to reduce the circulating supply of KATAMI. These NFTs will then be put on the market (at https://kalavia.github.io) to be sold for KATAMI tokens. The price is not fixed and may depend on factors such as the uniqueness and strength of the NFT, the size of the community, and expected demand. The first time that this sink has been put to use was by issuing 9 additional character NFTs to accompany the Alpha release of the NFT Manager.
Sink: KATAMI buyback program
Over time, the @kalavia account will accumulate tokens, due to upvotes on posts and comments, and possible donations from third parties. These tokens may be spent on any activity benefiting the project, including buyback orders of KATAMI tokens.
Buyback orders can benefit the project, as they help reduce the potential pressure of external development requests, allowing the main contributors to focus on activities they personally enjoy the most. If used, they will also establish a lower bound on the value of KATAMI tokens.
The buyback orders will be made at a price level such that the @kalavia account has sufficient funds to buy back all tokens in one go.
Sink: Cameo requests
To start things off, I will accept the following kind of cameos for now:
- Minor plot characters: These will be brought into the story, and may or may not develop into major plot characters over time. You can suggest anything you like about the characters, including the looks (I will try to generate matching images for it). Characters may die or disappear at any time Price: 1 KATAMI
- Natural features or special items: These too will be brought into one of the storylines, and they will have at least a mention there. They will also persist for a very long time in the game world. Price: 2 KATAMI
- Minor buildings of note (e.g. a bar or shop): Will be introduced in the scenery of one of the storylines in one of the settlements. Will persist for at least an in-plot year and will be covered by the story if destroyed for any reason. Price: 4 KATAMI
- Minor creature types. Introduce a minor animal or monster type that will begin to roam in some places of Kalavia. I will choose an appropriate location to keep everything consistent and exciting, but suggestions are always welcome :). Price: 8 KATAMI
- Direct commissioned NFT request. Introduce your own NFT card in the Kalavian Tales collection, subject to a quick review. The price is relatively high to cover for the printing costs. Price: 50 KATAMI
Any of the suggested aspects may be selected to become NFTs at a later stage. If this is the case, then you will receive the first copy of the NFT for free.
If you want to create something mentioned in the list, it will take 3 simple steps. Please (1) leave a comment with your proposed addition, and the category it falls under. I will then (2) reply with a confirmation (or a rejection). Once the reply is there, you can then (3) confirm the creation by sending the required KATAMI to @kalavia through the Hive Engine. Your creation will then appear in the storyline over the next few weeks.
Exit strategy
At time of writing, the expectation is that the KATAMI token will exist for a few years before it disappears. There are two ways how this can be, through a Buyback and through a Scaling Out.
Buyback
If development stalls for a prolonged period, and the project is deemed to have no sensible future, then the token can be terminated through a buyback scheme. Here, the @kalavia account will provide a buy order on Hive Engine such that all its funds are exhausted to buy back all remaining tokens. This order will be announced on the blog, and will be in place for 30 days, before it is wound down.
Scaling out
The supply of KATAMI tokens is rather limited for a reason: if the project becomes sufficiently large that token supply becomes an issue, then there will be a need to establish a more advanced recognition and/or governance token, or a token with a larger supply at the very least.
In cases where this requires the definition of a new token, we may choose to wind down the KATAMI token as well. This will then be done either through a buyback scheme (see above) or by a token replacement scheme, where each KATAMI can be swapped for a fixed number of the new token type.
Changes to this whitepaper
As KATAMI is the first token of its kind, it is likely that some issues will arise concerning some of the definitions or circulation mechanisms. In addition, new sinks may emerge over time, or the way its source operates may be worked out in more detail.
Any changes to this whitepaper need to rest on community consensus: that is, KATAMI holders that collectively hold more than 20% of the outstanding supply (the @kalavia account is excluded) will have a right to veto any proposed changes to this white paper.
The Eye of Creation never rests