The Launch "Ages" of STORE

How STORE evolves from zero-fee, p2p payments to a zero-fee, p2p cloud computing platform

This piece is the first in our four part series on Storecoin’s Path to Decentralization. In future pieces, we’ll explore treasury commitments, soft governance through peer review, and how governance is formally established. In this piece, we begin our path to decentralization journey with the overview of phases by which Storecoin moves from a high-aspiration project to a global p2p cloud that is truly decentralized in terms of infrastructure and decision making.

History has been marked by advancements in technology. These shifts remade the possibilities of human creativity, and separated the world into distinct befores and afters.

For Storecoin, the opportunities that are represented by cryptocurrencies represent a seismic shift. We believe that creating a secure, zero-fee base layer payment and settlement layer brings with it the opportunity to design a new type of tokenized p2p cloud infrastructure.

To honor the technological and social history we’re descended from, we’ve organized our planned evolution from p2p payments to a tokenized cloud as a set of “Ages,” named after the technology transformations that shaped our history.

Initially, we are laser-focused on securing a zero-fee settlement layer. As security with scalability is proven, Storecoin will open up miner (dWorker) participation to anyone in the world. From there, the secure settlement layer can evolve into a p2p cloud platform for the decentralization of data and the creation of new, zero-fee tokenized apps, powered by data-backed tokens or datacoins. Throughout this evolution, Storecoin’s governance moves from informal (but present), to semi-formal with voting, to fully ratified and formal.

The ultimate goal and the completed vision of Storecoin is a truly decentralized, p2p cloud platform that can compete with today’s centralized infrastructure (i.e. AWS). Review this vision and then scroll to see the “Ages” that get us there.

Genesis Age

Network type: Pre-testnet; R&D with public peer review
Est. Dates: May 2017-Q42019

At the beginning, things began. “Genesis” Age plays homage both to the Bitcoin Genesis block, as well as to the broader idea of everything starting somewhere. From the earliest moments in our ancestors history, they were explorers set to pushing their own boundaries and forging new paths.

Genesis Age is also Storecoin’s origin phase. During this phase, the project will focus on the initial commitments that orient it from a philosophical and economic standpoint for the rest of its journey. During Genesis Age, Storecoin has and will take its first governance steps on a path to decentralization, including:

• Commitment to 8-year founder vesting
• First stages of 6-month public peer review on governance
• Joining Messari registry for public Treasury disclosures
• Long-term Treasury schedule released for predictable maximum yearly emissions.

Decision making resides with Storecoin, Inc. with public peer review acting as soft-power checks-and-balances.

Stone Age

Network type: Test network/Settlement layer
Est Dates: Q1 2020

The Stone Age saw early human ancestors forge the first tools to interact with the world around them. First simple rocks and later more intricate tools, which in turn enabled significant advances in culture and civilization.

During Storecoin’s Stone Age, our test network will go live, giving our community the chance to start experimenting, building, and advancing. Additionally, Storecoin, Inc. will transfer all assets and IP over to the Storecoin nonprofit foundation & spin down entirely.

Bronze Age

Network type: Alpha network/Settlement layer
Est Dates: Q2 2020

The transition from Stone Age to Bronze brought with it significant advances in what people were able to build and through advances enabled in things like ship building technology, how far they were able to roam.

With Storecoin’s Bronze Age comes public launch, in which our community too is able to spread its wings and take off for farther lands. During Bronze Age, founding miners (aka dWorkers) win auctions to stake the limited number of seats in Storecoin’s consensus. Backup workers are also introduced to fill in seamlessly when necessary. Winning and backup dWorkers privately Know-Your-Voter (KYV) accreditate with one another in order to prevent Sybil attacks and enable Storecoin’s planned one-entity-one-vote governance model, which is designed to limit cartels and vote buying.

Iron Age

Network type: Beta network/Settlement layer
Estimated dates: Q4 2020

The Iron Age brought with it increases in the size of civilizations, and consequently, new advances in learning and the beginnings of written language.

During Storecoin’s Iron Age, so too does the size of the immediate community around the project expands. Specifically, the blockchain expands the number of miners securing it. What’s more, just as political structures evolved in the first Iron Age, during this period for Storecoin, a Github-based voting infrastructure enables miners to vote on relevant issues that arise before governance is formally ratified - a process we’re calling, “Open Voting.”

Discovery Age

Network type: Production network/settlement layer
Estimated dates: Q2 2021

Advances in tools, technology, and civilization are self reinforcing. With the written word and eventually the printing press, came the ability to share information more widely than ever before. This propelled a new era of discovery.

During Storecoin’s Discovery Age, the give-and-take between members of the community also grows as the number of validators is allowed to nearly double. Open Vote continues to operate, advancing new ideas and allowing the community to help shape the direction of the profit. During this time, the Storecoin nonprofit moves to formally ratify the governance proposal developed through a public peer review process.

Revolution Age

Network type: Production network/settlement layer
Estimated Dates: Q1 2022

Ages of discovery tend to be followed by ages of revolution, in which new ideas exert themselves and worlds advance and change rapidly. The global age of revolution created the path for, among other things, the modern democratic nation-state system that has dominated ever since.

During Storecoin’s Revolution Age, we transition from informal to formal governance. The blockchain now supports an unlimited number of validators. Importantly, at this stage, a vote to ratify the proposed governance has occurred. If ratified, all decisions from this stage on are made through the formalized one-entity, one-vote governance of checks and balances. At this point, Open Vote that takes place via GitHub moves to a decentralized vote carried out via a fully decentralized and independent infrastructure.

Industrial Age

Network type: Production network/cloud computing platform
Estimated dates: Q4 2022

Around the world, the Industrial Age represented an unbelievable new explosion of commerce and creative activity, in which previously unfathomable machines were invented and entire economic systems were reimagined.

Storecoin’s Industrial Age will bring with it a similarly transformative change, in which Storecoin moves from settlement layer alone to a global p2p cloud computing platform. In this context, data-backed tokenized apps will allow for a truly decentralized approach to data hosting and use that to compete against today’s data monopolies.

One note on governance: If, by this time, the dWorkers have not ratified a formal governance model, Storecoin will become an organization similar to the Ethereum Foundation which has control over commit-access to the code base and over treasury for funding engineers, operations, and ecosystem.

Imagination Age

Type: Production network/cloud computing platform
Estimate dates: 2023

The Imagination Age is a name for the age we live in today, in which technology is transforming our world at an ever growing rate; where innovation can come from anywhere; in which the only thing that’s sure is that we will barely be able to wrap our heads around what the world will look like in a generation.

Storecoin’s Imagine Age is imagined as the culmination of the early years of the Storecoin project, as the ratified decentralized governance approves the global p2p cloud computing platform for deployment to the world! What this Age presents as opportunity and all the ways the community will build on top of the foundations to design a new future are something we can’t wait to see!

Complete Visual Overview of Storecoin Ages

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