Thanks for the post. As is the case for many things, SEEDS is in a bootstrap process and it requires energy inputs (fiat, time, ideas, engagement, passion, etc). The destination “equilibrium” post GoLive is designed with the Harvest Protocol to flow the net new Seeds being created directly to “activities” generating positive regenerative impacts. These are both projects being designed and implemented by local communities, as well as active participants in circular SEEDS economic activity. There are many questions related to governance, metrics, and effective due diligence to be worked on and improved as the SEEDS ecosystem grows. There are also questions about scale, and how many new Seeds will be created, while keeping attention on the “stability” of the Seeds token. It’ll be a fun journey, and there will be a LOT of excellent ideas making the SEEDS ecosystem more reliable and more effective at creating impactful change for communities and the planet.
During the bootstrap phase, there is a need for both development and growth. To build SEEDS and support growing adoption and marketplaces becoming circular economies interior to SEEDS, there needs to be two things: [1] enough resources to build this, and [2] enough Seeds in the world to see it actually working. The milestone sales have injected about 79m Seeds into the ecosystem, about 58m of those sold primarily to small investors (and some larger), and the remaining 21m still in the Hypha Treasury. The fiat-equivalent proceeds of those sold so far have been used by Hypha to fund the development of the whole project (and Hypha has decided in a semi-decentralized way how to do that). As you know, there are proposals for a new shared distribution for the remaining two milestone payment (about 79m more Seeds). The fiat-equivalent proceeds from selling these Seeds would be shared among the various organizations (DHOs) helping to build and grow SEEDS, not just Hypha anymore.
There have also been about 70m Seeds injected into the ecosystem so far based upon Campaign proposals. These Seeds have gone to many different projects over the past year, via the existing Citizen voting process. Whether these Seeds are in good places and doing good things (for the growth of the ecosystem) is a subject of continued conversation. The goal, of course, is that all of these Seeds out in the world would be demonstrating increasing economic velocity interior to the SEEDS ecosystem. As the SEEDS ecosystem grows, then the value of the whole network grows, and the perceived and actual “exchange rate” with fiat (like USD) will continue to rise. This anticipated growth in the USD value of SEEDS is related to how the SEEDS ecosystem is using those Seeds, the more users and the more circulation velocity, the stronger the ecosystem and the closer we are to GoLive and the Harvest Protocols which will support the “stable” phase in the value of Seeds. The “stability” is a bit of an illusion and it’s really more of an “agreement” among all in SEEDS that we believe the number of new Seeds being issued is appropriately-sized, and we’re happy they are being distributed in a focused way to create large regenerative impact.
BUT, the communication of the needs and intentions of the current bootstrap phase need to be better. Contributing resources (fiat, time, ideas, engagement, passion, etc) is the way we grow the SEEDS ecosystem toward the shared and continually-evolving vision. Fiat injections going to purchase milestone Seeds support the broad development efforts. Fiat injections buying Seeds from a local community that received Campaign Seeds supports the project they are doing on the ground. If their project is genuinely able to build growing circular economies using SEEDS, then that fiat is well spent from the perspective of building SEEDS. But, if all the Seeds were sold from a project, then the Seeds are no longer there, and clearly they aren’t able to build a growing local circular economy using Seeds.
Injecting fiat and buying Seeds from someone who bought them at a lower price is a grey area in my mind. I love the idea that people can buy Seeds at some point (which helps the ecosystem, kind of like a loan) and then sell them at some point in the future when they need the fiat back. This is both an investment idea mixed with support for SEEDS for a period of time, and the SEEDS ecosystem benefits from the injection of fiat during that period of time. The issue during this bootstrap phase is that when they want to sell their Seeds, they are basically in competition with the rest of the SEEDS ecosystem that is needing to receive new injections of fiat for development and projects. This is what is currently causing the exchange rate on Uniswap to be so much lower than the current Hypha Benchmark Exchange Rate (used on Passport, Light Wallet, SEEDS :: Buy Seeds, and other places).
People will want or need to sell Seeds for various reasons at various times, and we are a complex ecosystem. We are in this together (not only during the bootstrap phase, but forever).
To grow in a healthy and cooperative manner, we need new people joining and bringing their resources. This needs to continue to get SEEDS up to a critical mass of people and economic activity to demonstrate the capacity for this experiment to bring people together and generate true and meaningful impact. So, we need LOTS of people joining, and many of them will be bringing their fiat as part of their resources. This new fiat will flow through the ecosystem as they buy Seeds from different places, and that new person will then use Seeds, which increases the velocity of economic activity, and the Harvest Protocol will create new Seeds and distribute them widely for increasingly positive effect. That’s where we are all going. That’s why SEEDS is being created.
So, there are three big questions:
[A] How to best deploy the “working capital” coming from the sale of the Milestone Seeds?
[B] How to best deploy Campaign Seeds to grow the Seeds circular economic activity?
[C] How to best inspire new people to join SEEDS and bring fiat and other resources?
There are lots of good explorations related to [A] already taking place. And, lots of amazing work by the whole community on [C], including MBC and Ambassador Academy, Samara, Renaissance Explorers, Communications & Design, dStudio and many more!
So, let me take a stab at what I would suggest is healthy for [B]. Let’s suppose there was a local community that had a positive project they wanted to do that would create wonderful regenerative impact. Naturally they would look for funding sources and tools to put it into action. Along the way, let’s say they learned about SEEDS. They would say WOW! If we could have SEEDS wallets for everyone in our community, then our project would really be much more effective and joyful (and we could avoid all sorts of transaction fees too). Our community and our project would thrive and prosper.
Our ability to succeed would really be improved if we all used Seeds! So, let’s decide to implement our project using the SEEDS tools. They may want to reach out to the SEEDS ecosystem and write a story about how amazing their project is going, and how they’ve been able to build a thriving local economy using the SEEDS tools. Everyone would realize that their project was an ideal pilot success story for how to use SEEDS, and this could become a template for lots of other successful projects around the world. Lovely picture.
You probably noticed that I didn’t say anything about how they got the Seeds into their wallets, which is needed for their circular economy using Seeds. The answer is it doesn’t really matter. They might have gotten them as a Campaign gift, or they may have bought them, or someone might have donated them. The key point is that the Seeds are critically important to stay in their local economy for the system to be able to be sustainable and work.
So, for me, the ideal Campaign at this point is one that has already secured sufficient funding resources to implement their project. They know what they want to do, they have the resources, and they are ready to go, looking for the right implementation tools. The SEEDS ecosystem then gives them the gift of all the technology and support, as well as a Campaign pool of Seeds so their local economy has enough to circulate successfully.
I realize that most Campaigns do not meet my “ideal” outline above. Many are a hybrid with an element of Movement Building, and Ambassadors, and Pilots, etc. These have some expectation that there will be a need to sell Seeds (either sooner or later) for fiat. Thus, this portion of Seeds needing to be sold are serving a similar purpose as the Milestone Seeds, i.e. for “working capital”. But, there is a completely different governance and management process. And thus Campaign Seeds are competing with the sale of Milestone Seeds.
So, back to the core question in this thread. Any process that brings more injections of fiat into the whole ecosystem is good, and it’s even more important during the bootstrap phase. Having a SEEDS Charitable Foundation may be a good model for fiat deployment. Lots of possibilities and lots more to think about as we grow together.
One idea I can throw into the mix is this:
Campaigns could directly ask for two different types of Seeds: [1] those that are going to be shared widely in their community as part of the direct project purpose, and [2] Seeds for “working capital” funding for operations to run the project. These category [2] Seeds could be required to be combined with the aggregate Milestone selling pool, and proceeds would be made available as the Seeds are globally sold. This way the selling of these Seeds is a cooperative process among the whole ecosystem, not competitive. There would be a need for an element of patience while these Seeds are sold. Many details to think about further with this idea.
