Initial Monetary Subsidy

Investors-funded Contributions

It's entirely unrealistic to expect that Olas become ubiquitous soon after launch. It will take some time to develop a large user base. It will also take time for blockchain payments infrastructure to become embedded in the global economy.

In the absence of advertising and subscription revenue and expected poor liquidity in public goods funding markets, Olas will therefore need to lean on investors to subsidise activity on the platform in its early years. This is no different to tech growth business models outside the blockchain sphere. Uber, Youtube and many more platforms ran at a loss for years before they moved to a sustainable economic model.

Unlike companies that directly cover these loses with investor money, Olas, like other decentralised networks will primarily do so by issuing money. This is a more indirect cost to investors as their share of the total supply is diluted. It is envisaged Olas will do this for 3-5 years and gradually switch to relying on quadratic funding and tipping markets as blockchain networks become more embedded in the global economy towards the end of the decade.

This initial monetary subsidy will not affect the integrity of the protocol in any way. Although it will fund contributors, payouts will still be determined by performance in the markets. Money not earned will be returned to the Olas pool where it will be used to fund other contributors.