TL;DR: The Foundation is assessing market dynamics, infrastructure costs, and the tokenomics of the Moonbeam ecosystem. Third-party experts may be involved to propose recommendations for long-term success. The community will have the final say on adopting these recommendations, emphasizing the holistic consideration of all aspects. The study is expected to start in Q1 and conclude during Q2, and has been identified as a high priority initiative for 2024.
As noted above, there’s been a lot of great ideas presented here and it’s good that we have engaged community members thinking about these issues.
From the perspective of the Foundation, there’s been a lot of discussion lately around how to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Moonbeam network while still supporting initiatives to build out the ecosystem and continue to draw in more builders through various programs. Naturally, these conversations can’t occur without the topic of tokenomics coming up.
In these discussions, it has been pointed out that it probably makes sense to consider all aspects of tokenomics built into the protocol as a whole. This includes the parachain bond reserve but also staking/collator reward levels, fees, contributions to the treasury, etc. Moreover, these aspects should be looked at with a long-term view.
To this end, the Foundation has already started an initiative to evaluate the overall market dynamics of the Moonbeam ecosystem, related infrastructure costs and chain tokenomics. This initiative would likely include engaging one or more independent third parties, with a high degree of expertise in these areas, to ultimately come up with a proposed set of recommendations to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of the network. The Foundation is currently in the selection stage, seeking a vendor with a proven track record in the crypto industry.
These recommendations would then be shared with the community for consideration and discussion. Ultimately, it will be up to the community if these recommendations (or some subset) are adopted. However, it’s the Foundation’s view that it would be of great benefit to the community and overall ecosystem if the results of this exercise were considered before making any changes so all aspects are considered holistically.
It is anticipated that this study will begin in Q1 and be completed during Q2. However, timelines are still a little up in the air. Regardless, this has been identified as a high priority initiative for the Foundation in 2024.