STORE Community Update - April 2022

Web3 requires systems thinking. This can be a challenge for those used to Web2. In Web2, the focus is heavily on the product, the system comes later. By contrast, in Web3, system design has to start at inception.

This means developing research and tooling in parallel. While deployment will happen at different times, research and design must occur at the same time across multiple initiatives, otherwise, the system will be too balkanized to work.

For STORE, this work has drilled down into several areas: API infrastructure, Dynamic Proof of Stake, and Governance (Economics and Constitution). Failure to sufficiently advance each piece of the system in harmony will break the system or, at minimum, cause friction in the system down the road. In the month of April, STORE has made advances in each of these areas.

A Look at Engineering

This includes building and writing the API infrastructure, which provides the technical tools for STORE to operate. More than just software code, STORE’s APIs serve as the basis for the STORE Constitution and we’re now writing for the Security Budget, STORE Auctions, and STORE Commerce Laws.

Advancing the Dynamic Proof of Stake design to algorithmic stability for network security so that it is now fully programmatic, which relies on the technical platform and secures the platform. In an upcoming STORE Economics paper, additional details about this design will be included.

Research Drives STORE

Building on the foundation work completed in Q1, STORE’s research in Committed Supply has improved four-year Real Yields for all network operators by 2 to 3.6x. STORE is very excited about Committed Supply and what it will mean for those that value the STORE protocol and are looking to build.

Our second quarter milestones will focus heavily on advancing engineering through internal testing and expanding the engineering team, while research publications will provide more nuanced design details.

Economics and Governance

Finally, our team has been busy defining STORE Economics and the STORE Constitution, two seemingly non-technical projects that, in fact, also dictate how the platform can be used not just now, but also in the future. It’s critical that off-chain restrictions don’t obstruct STORE’s governance or allow single individuals to become chokepoints for STORE’s governance. We will be sharing more of our thinking about this issue in the future. But the challenge of governance in decentralization is a defining issue for the industry… and one that many entities are tackling.

Systems thinking is also time-focused: the present and the future. Because the system has to be able to evolve according to the demands and needs of the ultimate authority. Voters like you.

Entering May, more of STORE’s work will start to emerge and be made public. The team is excited for this work to be more accessible and to receive feedback from the community to help the platform develop.

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