I used to look at a native token from a certain L1 blockchain, and I generally only cared about two things: whether it could be used to pay Gas, and whether there were staking rewards. After I really worked through Dusk’s economic model, though, I think DUSK’s role is more interesting than those two use cases. It isn’t confined to just a couple of modules—it runs through the network’s operation end to end.
The most direct one is staking. Now Dusk’s direct staking threshold is 1,000 DUSK. After staking, a node can become a provisioner that participates in consensus. The rewards aren’t a fixed interest rate either; instead, they depend on actual consensus participation and changes in one’s share within the active stake. In other words, here DUSK serves as the economic foundation for network security: if you want to participate in consensus, you first need to put capital into the system.
Then there’s Gas. Dusk transactions and on-chain execution both use DUSK to pay fees. Fees are calculated based on the actual gas consumed, rather than charging a simple fixed service fee. What’s even more noteworthy is that these transaction fees don’t fully become a separate “fee revenue pool.” Instead, they enter the block rewards system and participate in distribution together with the DUSK minted newly by the protocol. Under the current rules, a block’s reward consists of newly issued DUSK plus that block’s transaction fees, and then is allocated across different parts such as the block producer, the validating committee, the certification committee, and the development fund.
Only then did I feel that DUSK’s three roles start to connect: people stake DUSK to provide economic consensus security for the network; users use the network and therefore need to consume DUSK; and the transaction fees generated by the network feed back into the protocol’s economic incentive system. As on-chain applications and transaction activity increase, the network’s real demand for Gas becomes part of DUSK’s economic model—not something maintained solely by continuously issuing new tokens to preserve security.
What’s also interesting is that Dusk is currently moving toward a multi-layer architecture, but the official team still hasn’t redesigned a token for different execution layers. DuskDS uses DUSK for staking, governance, and settlement. DuskEVM uses DUSK to pay Gas for Solidity applications, and DuskVM also uses DUSK to pay Gas for privacy applications.
So when I look at DUSK now, I’m not really willing to just call it “Dusk’s Gas Token.”
$DUSK @Dusk
#DUSK
The most direct one is staking. Now Dusk’s direct staking threshold is 1,000 DUSK. After staking, a node can become a provisioner that participates in consensus. The rewards aren’t a fixed interest rate either; instead, they depend on actual consensus participation and changes in one’s share within the active stake. In other words, here DUSK serves as the economic foundation for network security: if you want to participate in consensus, you first need to put capital into the system.
Then there’s Gas. Dusk transactions and on-chain execution both use DUSK to pay fees. Fees are calculated based on the actual gas consumed, rather than charging a simple fixed service fee. What’s even more noteworthy is that these transaction fees don’t fully become a separate “fee revenue pool.” Instead, they enter the block rewards system and participate in distribution together with the DUSK minted newly by the protocol. Under the current rules, a block’s reward consists of newly issued DUSK plus that block’s transaction fees, and then is allocated across different parts such as the block producer, the validating committee, the certification committee, and the development fund.
Only then did I feel that DUSK’s three roles start to connect: people stake DUSK to provide economic consensus security for the network; users use the network and therefore need to consume DUSK; and the transaction fees generated by the network feed back into the protocol’s economic incentive system. As on-chain applications and transaction activity increase, the network’s real demand for Gas becomes part of DUSK’s economic model—not something maintained solely by continuously issuing new tokens to preserve security.
What’s also interesting is that Dusk is currently moving toward a multi-layer architecture, but the official team still hasn’t redesigned a token for different execution layers. DuskDS uses DUSK for staking, governance, and settlement. DuskEVM uses DUSK to pay Gas for Solidity applications, and DuskVM also uses DUSK to pay Gas for privacy applications.
So when I look at DUSK now, I’m not really willing to just call it “Dusk’s Gas Token.”
$DUSK @Dusk
#DUSK
