After much anticipation, Boundless @boundless_xyz released the specific Tokenomics last night. The third horse of the ZK series is about to be gathered, and today I will provide a detailed interpretation and share my judgment.
For research and analysis on Boundless, please refer to my tweets below.
https://x.com/0xcryptoHowe/status/1936752023246184790
Table of Contents
1. Token Utility
2. Tokenomics Distribution Interpretation
3. Project Subsequent Trend Viewpoint
𝞝 Token Utility
Unlike conventional utilities of practical tokens (staking/service fees/governance, etc.), Boundless has incorporated some deflationary designs in this part.
➣ Ticket for Prover Participation: Provers who want to participate in the Boundless proof process need to stake at least 10 times the proof fee in $ZK tokens. If they default, 50% will be directly destroyed, and 50% will be rewarded to other normal-working provers.
This part is crucial; on one hand, it reduces the potential selling pressure on tokens by lowering the fee threshold, and on the other hand, it further reduces token circulation through an internal deflationary mechanism, achieving strong control.
➣ Staking Rewards: Staking tokens as provers to participate in proof activities to earn rewards, or through participating in protocol governance. Stakers can receive 25% of the reward for each Boundless proof.
➣ Node Mining Rewards: Rewards for provers participating in Boundless network activities can receive 75% of the reward for each Boundless proof.
𝞝 Tokenomics Distribution Interpretation
The specific token distribution rules are as follows.
➣ Ecological Growth: A total of 49% is allocated, of which 31% is used to establish an ecological fund. 25% will be released directly after a 1-year lockup, and the remaining 75% will be released linearly over two years; additionally, 18% is allocated as a strategic growth fund, which will be unlocked linearly within 1 year.
➣ Core Team and Early Contributors: A total of 23.5% is allocated, of which 3.5% goes to Boundless's parent company RISC Zero. This portion of tokens will be directly released 25% after a 1-year lockup, with the remaining 75% released linearly over two years.
➣ Investors: A total of 21.5% is allocated, with 25% directly released after a 1-year lockup, and the remaining 75% released linearly over two years.
➣ Community Round Presale and Airdrop: A total of 6% is allocated, with the airdrop fully released on TGE day. The community round will release 50% on TGE day, and the remaining 50% will be locked for 6 months.
The design of Tokenomics is relatively detailed. Since the official community round presale ratio has not yet been announced, we will tentatively calculate it based on a range of 1%-5%, with a circulation range of 5%-7% on TGE day.
However, looking at the token release chart released by the official side (if we focus on the details), the community round presale ratio is most likely 1%, corresponding to a circulation of 7% on TGE day.
However, I personally feel that the data ratio in this chart is not quite right. A 7% circulation means 7,000 tokens, but the data in the chart is already close to 250 million tokens.
It should be noted that $ZK has inflation, not a fixed total amount. The current setting is to reduce the stable inflation rate from 7% to 3% gradually over the next 8 years. For example, the 7% in the first year means issuing an additional 70 million $ZK on the initial 1 billion tokens, which is one of the reasons why Boundless designed a deflationary model.
𝞝 Project Subsequent Trend Viewpoint
Currently, the overall data and market sentiment of Boundless are doing well, not much different from the situation before the Succinct TGE.
Based on the current situation, the subsequent token valuation should stabilize above 1B, similar to $PROVE.
$PROVE can achieve a grand slam not only because of the ZK infrastructure narrative but also because it is a project fully managed by Paradigm. Although Boundless's financing lineup is also good, it lacks a synergistic push, which I feel may only affect the overall process's speed, with little impact on the upper limits.
As for the community presale round, a reasonable price should be around 500-600 million USD. If it goes higher, we need to consider the unlocking clauses and time costs (to break even at opening, it must double).