Iāve been too busy to write a follow up message since I posted the original message a week ago, but discussion in the telegram group has been ongoing and I have some time now to give an update on what has been discussed since then.
One of the earliest suggestions was to re-allocate the āSilver Fundā XEM into the āSupernode Fundā. This had a few supporters and so I decided to look into the āSupernode Fundā and found the following information:
It original contained 211,885,438.63 XEM (the same as the āSilver Fundā), using the Supernodes map location here: https://supernodes.nem.io/map we can see there are currently 527 Supernodes. The current Supernode rewards payout is 140,000 XEM per day, or about 265 XEM per day for running a supernode or around $68 per day, which is around $2000 per month or around $24,000 per year.
The point was brought up that those running Supernodes are required to have around $750,000 in XEM tied up and thus should be rewarded for this, however $24k a year was a little more than some people expected. Lon previously made the point was made that the āSilver Fundā was created when the price per XEM was very small and thus with the current valuation the āSilver Fundā is outdated. The point was then made that the same should therefore apply to the āSupernode Fundā and if the āSilver Fundā was to be re-allocated that Supernode rewards should either be reduced, Supernode requirements lowered or Supernode funds should also be re-allocated.
The original suggestion of re-allocating the āSilver Fundā to the āSupernode Fundā could possibly re-distribute $42MM from 1800 people to likely less than 500 people (of which are currently already receiving a share of $42MM, though they are taking a significant risk to do so) has since had opposition.
Back to the āSilver Fundā I personally suggested that a compromise should be made that would both please the original stakeholders and the post-stakeholder NEM community. Ensuring we have a strong, stable, together community and avoiding in-fighting is very important.
Some stakeholders contributed .03 BTC when NEM was just an idea that may never have succeeded (like many coins and tokens didnāt). That is worth $330 today and who knows what it will be worth in 10 years, others bought stakes for even more on the NXT exchange.
I would therefore suggest something like 25% or 34% of the āSilver Fundā is allocated as a reward for stakeholders and 75% or 66% is re-allocated for other purposes. It will also be an opportunity to demonstrate our voting system to the cryptosphere at the same time. This would hopefully keep our community strong, free up the majority of the āSilver Fundā for additional funding in 2018 and beyond, and it could also grab a few headlines too.
"211,000,000 XEM put aside to buy silver coins for the original participants in NEM if the value ever reached $260,000 has ballooned to over $52,000,000 before the project had chance to complete.
Using the integrated voting system, the NEM community agreed to reward the original stakeholders with 25% of the fund (around $7000 per person) while the remaining $39,000,000 has been re-allocated to fund the progress of the entire blockchain which will benefit the entire community. This adds to the $500,000,000 the NEM community has already in the sustainability fund. The future is bright for the NEM blockchain, a leader in blockchain enterprise solutions."
Regarding the āSupernode Fundā I did find that originally it was called the āNIS Node Rewards Fundā and the description was the following:
āTo incentivise and to accelerate the setup of NIS nodes, a reward program shall be established. This incentive ensures that there are sufficient NIS nodes in the network to keep check of the integrity of the NEM ecosystem. It is estimated that the above reward percentage will keep the NIS network incentivised for the next 6 years.ā
A lot of discussion in the telegram group has revolved around others wanting to set up full nodes and be rewarded for doing so. Iām sure the Supernodes were set up for good reason and those who are using over $750,000 to secure the network should be well rewarded. But at some point possibly in 2018 the community and NEM Foundation could look towards changing the āNIS Node Reward Fundā to benefit more of the community, while still rewarding those running Supernodes (again I think compromise to please all in our community is best).