The launchpad for everyone is here!

Manifesto

We aim to become the de facto protocol for decentralised fundraising, enabling participation equality for both retail investors and projects. In simpler terms, our goal is to be the Kickstarter of the blockchain industry where we will not only support large raises for top-tier protocols but also allow for a wider audience to get access and participate in fundraising activities. In Sept. 2022, the team begun its journey towards this goal with the first iteration being Ignition v2. Over the coming months and years, we will continue down this path to ensure our tech stack matches with our ideologies and the market needs. Amidst these technological and ideological shifts, $PAID will be able to:

• Engage a Larger Audience - All market speculators including the project’s own community can now participate in $PAID launches without any entry barriers, allowing for a more fair playing field while opening up access to a wider audience. We built something that can service the native communities of projects we launch and not just our own, while all that value creation, even from other communities, trickles back down to our community.
  

• Support Larger Raises - With no barriers to entry and ability to engage larger audiences, $PAID’s business development ventures will be supported in obtaining larger, top-tier launches.
  

• Create an Open Approach Towards Access - Participants are not required to hold or stake any tokens, but doing so grants them prioritised access to fund raises. Participation requires no KYC at the basic tier, and the participation fees charged get channeled back into the ecosystem.

• Democratise Crowdfunding - Unique project entry gateways geared towards permissionless crowdfunding campaigns where the community can vote on projects to include.

• Build an Integrated Sustainable Platform - This will form part of a wider ecosystem with a circular token economy, and dynamic burn and staking reward mechanisms.

We believe market participants should have equitable participation and should only pay for what they are investing in. The current launchpad / fundraising space is broken and we aim to change that for the benefit of all.

The Problems We Want to Solve

Currently, launchpad models that gate user participations through token requirements are outdated, unsustainable and possess several glaring issues to retail, particularly in the long term.

These include but are not limited to:

High Entry Barriers

• In bull markets, it can cost several thousand USD to purchase potential allocations into project launches for insignificant allocation sizes (e.g. Mike spent $2.5K to purchase 500 of Launchpad X tokens in the hope of winning a ~$50 dollar allocation). It would be far more user friendly for the user to NOT put any capital upfront (e.g. $2.5K) for the purchase of Launchpad X tokens but rather, just pay a nominal percentage % based service fee once they have secured their allocations. This would be far more equitable to them.
  

• In the bear market, there is limited use of these tokens as launchpads have a nominal number of launches given the interest from retail becomes nonexistent, and liquidity is at all-time lows.

Low Possibilities of Winning (Sub 0.5% for every entry)

• For the average launch across any launchpad platform utilising lottery models, participants are highly unlikely to obtain a winning allocation, unless they possess a guaranteed allocation. The likely final outcome for these unlucky participants is that they are left with no winning allocations and a bunch of launchpad tokens that they probably purchased at a premium when the IDO was announced which has now dropped below their purchase price.
  

• It is even worse for the project’s community members that only purchase the launchpad’s tokens to participate in that singular launch and have no interest in purchasing other launches by the launchpad.
  

The existing launchpad/fundraising ecosystem is broken and needs to be fixed - We believe PAID Ignition v2 sets us on the right path towards that!

PAID’s New Circular Economy

A Glimpse into the Past: Old Participation Mechanics
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Let’s take a moment to look back at where we started. It’s been a wild ride full of challenges and triumphs, especially when it came to how you, our community, could jump in and grow with us.

We kicked things off with two main pools: Moon and Galaxy.

Moon Pool: This was our way of making every token count. For every 1,000 tokens you staked, you snagged a lottery ticket, a chance to strike gold in our ecosystem.Galaxy Pool: For the big players staking 75,000 x tokens or more, the Galaxy Pool was your ticket to guaranteed IDO allocations. It was our hat tip to your belief and commitment. In addition to 1 guaranteed allocation, users also received 1x lottery ticket for every 1000 $PAID staked.

There were multiple staking options available for users from no time commitment to a 5 year stake with varying rewards such as increased APY and Moon ticket multipliers.

But as the industry evolves, so must we.

Recognising the need for a more inclusive and sustainable model, we’ve been hard at work crafting a new participation paradigm. Before we took a glimpse into the future, it was essential to appreciate our roots, to understand where we began and why change became not just desirable but essential.

$PAID v2's New Circular Economy

‍The updated $PAID v2 token economics and additional token utility aims to establish a self-sustaining economic cycle, continuously generating value for the protocol as well as its users.

Dissimilar to many other protocols present, $PAID v2’s profits derived from its operations, including transaction fees and investment returns, will be reinvested into the system, providing rewards to its devoted user base.

The sources of value for PAID are:

• 2% transaction tax on staking and unstaking activities.
  

• Participation fees collected from crowdfunding activities. They are tentatively designed to collect 10% of your total investment amount only from crowdfund participants. The use of the collected participation fee will be used for $PAID token buybacks for burning, dual-sided liquidity provisioning, marketing and lastly, to fill the PAID Community Fund for future investments.

Example #1 - The Detailed Example of $PAID’s New Circular Economy

The above diagram (Example #1) depicts the complete circular economy of Ignition v2.

Let’s break it down from the perspective of start-to-end money flow.

$PAID’s Circular Economy Explained: Examining The Money Flow Based On Example #1 Above.

The $PAID team is supporting Project A’s fundraising activities with the intention to raise $1M USD.

Participants are NOT required to hold any $PAID tokens to participate in the fundraise. Instead, they will just need to pay a percentage-based service fee on their investment amount, similar to how you would when you go to a restaurant or any service-based organisation.

$PAID whales will have guaranteed allocations via the Early Pool where they will also get a head-start in participating in their own Early Pool as well as the Open Pool. The rest of the participants will participate in the Open Pool, a first-come-first-serve (FCFS) format.

The participation fee collected from the participants are then split into four activities, aimed at decreasing $PAID’s circulating supply, providing additional utility to the $PAID token and providing value for $PAID token holders. The four activities are:

1. Token Burn: Aimed at decreasing $PAID’s circulating supply and will involve $PAID buybacks to help facilitate this activity, thereby improving $PAID’s price action.

2. Liquidity Provisioning: Having deep liquidity is a strong signal for any project, it allows more trade volume with less slippage and provides a more desirable environment for traders.

3. Community Growth & Marketing: To build a marketing treasury to help with $PAID’s business development activities and community building efforts. The larger the community grows, the greater the demand for $PAID will be.

4. $PAID Community Fund: The Community Fund will be used to invest in early-stage projects (e.g. Seed / Pre-Seed) that would typically not be available to launchpads at all. The rewards of the Community Fund will be sold and converted to $PAID tokens and provided to $PAID stakers as incentives. The Community Fund is not only filled via the aforementioned participation fees but also the 2% on-chain tax applied to all staking related transactions.
   

Self-Sustaining Token Economic Model Via On-Chain Taxation

Platform-related interactions such as staking and unstaking will have a 2% fee that will be used to fill up the PAID Community Fund. These transaction fees will enable the platform to become more sustainable.

‍Real Yield APYs With the shift to Ignition v2, $PAID will adopt Real Yield APYs and no longer provide linear APY’s as it did in the past. The core reason for the transition can be summarised into two primary points:

- Blockchain’s industry shift to more sustainable token economic models: The blockchain industry is relatively young, and given its high innovation cycle, there are constantly new ideas & strategies to explore and employ. Thus, it is highly beneficial for companies operating within the space to constantly evaluate their approach, and new approaches presented to path the best way forward.Ever since the discovery of Real Yield Strategies & APYs, we’ve seen several well-known protocols adopting it with immense success (e.g. GMX, SNX, IMX etc). Real Yield is not based on unsustainable token emissions, unlike other manipulative and outdated strategies.

- Shifting towards a more sustainable future for $PAID: The linear $PAID staking emissions previously established were unsustainable with the high APYs (15% to 60%) causing significant token emissions. As such, this shift to more sustainable APYs based on token revenue will increase the longevity of $PAID as an entity.

- Commitment to providing real value: This shift puts the onus on us to ensure we deliver in providing real value to the users as we won’t be able to rely on ponzinomics or high APYs.

Real Yield APYs

With the shift to Ignition v2, $PAID will adopt Real Yield APYs and no longer provide linear APY’s as it did in the past. The core reason for the transition can be summarised into two primary points:

• Blockchain’s industry shift to more sustainable token economic models:

• The blockchain industry is relatively young, and given its high innovation cycle, there are constantly new ideas & strategies to explore and employ. Thus, it is highly beneficial for companies operating within the space to constantly evaluate their approach, and new approaches presented to path the best way forward.

• Ever since the discovery of Real Yield Strategies & APYs, we’ve seen several well-known protocols adopting it with immense success (e.g. GMX, SNX, IMX etc). Real Yield is not based on unsustainable token emissions, unlike other manipulative and outdated strategies.

• Shifting towards a more sustainable future for $PAID:

• The linear $PAID staking emissions previously established were unsustainable with the high APYs (15% to 60%) causing significant token emissions. As such, this shift to more sustainable APYs based on token revenue will increase the longevity of $PAID as an entity.

• Commitment to providing real value:

• This shift puts the onus on us to ensure we deliver in providing real value to the users as we won’t be able to rely on ponzinomics or high APYs.
  

PAID’s Previous Token Utility

When the $PAID token was first created, it was primarily used as a means to participate in IDOs as well as staking, specifically linear staking. However, as we’ve seen time and time again, the Blockchain industry continues to mature, to ideate and push new ideas to test the boundaries in the hopes of creating something long lasting and truly revolutionizing.

With that in mind, we at PAID ideated to create improvements on the existing launchpad/fundraising model. The new model addresses the existing issues such as limited token utility and unsustainable staking model that resulted in significant token emission and sell pressure that suppressed positive price performance.

$PAID’s new token utilities

Moving forward, the $PAID token will have several new utilities in line with our goal of providing long-term value to the community.

The participation fees generated from crowdfunding activites will be utilised for $PAID buybacks which, in turn, will be configured for the following:

• Token Burn

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  This will involve conducting $PAID buybacks for burn thereby removing it completely from circulating supply which will support $PAID in becoming deflationary!
  

• Liquidity Provisioning

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  Dual-sided liquidity ($PAID & $ETH/$BNB). Having deep liquidity is a strong signal for any project, it allows for more trade volume with less slippage ensuring a more desirable environment for traders.
  

• Staking Rewards

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  Protocol revenue will be the primary means to reward $PAID stakers. Stakers will receive tokens via Real Yield APYs via returns from the $PAID Community Fund. This will create a more sustainable and circular token economy for the long term.
  

• Partner Airdrops

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  Token holders that have their tokens staked will also be eligible for token airdrops from some of our Partner Projects launching on Ignition. Participating projects will allocate a percentage of their supply for this and anyone who has $PAID staked on ignition will get an airdrop proportionate to their stake.
  

• The $PAID Community Fund

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  The $PAID Community Fund will be used for future allocations into the most promising projects as decided by our community. This innovative platform will play a crucial part of the $PAID ecosystem and token economy and is set to redefine how our community collaborates and invests. The purpose of having a Community Fund built into the ecosystem is to:
  

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  Create a sustainable way to reward $PAID stakers.
  

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  Attract new community members into the $PAID ecosystem via a unique offering unseen at other launchpads
  

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  Provide $PAID token stakers with additional indirect exposure to allocations.
  

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  Provide an additional closed loop in the token economy, boosting $PAID token burn rate.
  

• Others

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  Team is currently working on it and will be integrated into this Gitbook once public announcements have been completed.
  

Introducing $PAID’s new participation mechanics

Imagine a platform where all barriers to entry are removed, and opportunities are democratised—a Kickstarter for Web3, where everyone, whether a seasoned $PAID token holder or a newcomer, can capitalise on the next unicorn destined for greatness.

But what does this mean for you?

Note: raise amounts in Early Pool and Open Pool are customizable per the needs of the project.

• Open Access:

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  Participation in $PAID Ignition launches will no longer be exclusive to $PAID token holders. Everyone gets a seat at the table, embodying our vision of a truly open and inclusive ecosystem.
  

• The Open Pool

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  is on a first-come, first-served basis, there will be no limit to the number of tokens a user can buy.
  

• KYC requirements:

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  The KYC procedure is only mandatory when buying over $1000 worth of tokens. If you choose to leave out the KYC procedure, the contribution amount to Early and Open Pool fundraises needs to be below $1000 USDC. When the KYC procedure has been completed, there is no maximum contribution amount for Early and Open Pool fundraises.
  

• Participation Fees

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  Engaging in both the Early and Open Pools comes with a fee - 10% for regular sales and 15% for private ones. While this might raise eyebrows, understand that this fee is the lifeblood of a circular token economy, ensuring sustainability and growth.
  

  

• The Early Pool:

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  For our loyal Galaxy Pool members, while the Open Pool introduces a new avenue, your allegiance to the $PAID ecosystem remains invaluable which is why we have created the ‘Early Pool’ for users who have at least 75,000 PAID tokens staked. This pool will open 24H before the Open Pool and provide early access to uncapped allocations. The participation fee for Early pool is 10% applicable only to your desired allocation amount.
  

• KYC requirements:

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  Any purchase above $1000, however, will require the user to be KYC’d at least 25 hours before the opening of the pools.