3.5. Rules And Conditions For The Use And Functioning Of The Tokens

3.5.1. USE OF TOKENS

The Subscribers will be responsible for the use of the 4IR Tokens, whether it is purchased, sold or used on the Digital Platform. Blockchain Valley SAS is not responsible for any wrong usage by the Subscribers.

Transactions with the 4IR Token on the "BlockchainValley.me" utility will initially be performed the same way as any digital assets transaction. The selling party will provide their wallet address for the buyer to execute the transaction. This transaction can then be verified on the blockchain through a blockchain explorer. Future developments on the Digital Platform to make the transaction process easier and more user-friendly are planned but these are subject to further legal and technical analysis before they are deployed.

3.5.2. UTILITY OF 4IR TOKENS

The 4IR Token serves a variety of functions within the BlockchainValley ecosystem.

3.5.2.1. Ecommerce and Dynamic Pricing

The primary function of 4IR Tokens is to facilitate all eCommerce transactions on the Digital Platform and is the only means of payment on the BlockchainValley Digital Platform, effectively serving as the network’s internal payment processor. However, seamless pricing stability is required for the proper functioning of the eCommerce utility. Digital assets and other cryptoassets have many advantages such as programmability, borderlessness, censorship resistance, transparency in both monetary and fiscal policies and the inherent valuable attribute of scarcity, however, purchasing power stability is not possible for these assets until network maturity is reached, while volatility is a strong deterrent for healthy markets. Hence, we will implement a dynamic pricing mechanism that will show ecosystem prices in stable currencies and dynamic pricing in 4IR.

Next to the pricing in the chosen fiat currency, a dynamic pricing will appear, displaying the current exchange value and total cost in 4IR Tokens at the time of purchase. This is due to volatility of digital assets globally, which could translate into volatility of our native 4IR Tokens, especially in its initial years.

The dynamic pricing feature on the Digital Platform will make the experience for eCitizens and especially eCompanies easier to understand and use initially. This feature makes pricing of the services and products offered clearer and makes the accounting process easier. The dynamic pricing value in 4IR Tokens will be an average calculated from different exchanges to reach the most accurate value. At first, the price of the 4IR Token will be decided on a Decentralized Exchange (such as Uniswap). Blockchain Valley SAS intends to pursue listing on various exchanges on a multi chain approach. The price average will be calculated with the data from the participating centralized and decentralized exchanges.

3.5.2.2. Additional Ecosystem Features

As 4IR Tokens is the ecosystem’s native currency, all additional ecosystem features that might be included over time such as our 4IR Blockchain Protocol, job postings, cloud storage, marketing, educational materials, research requests, product test panels and all other features that strengthen the Fourth Industrial Revolution ecosystem can also only be accessed by using the 4IR Token. This creates the effect that each new feature introduced increases the intrinsic demand for 4IR Tokens based on the utilities it provides access to. Whether these new features incorporate the above described dynamic pricing mechanism or will be denominated in 4IR Tokens only is to be determined upon their respective launch.

3.5.2.3. Reward mechanisms

As described in Section 2.1.9 “Options Pool”, eCitizens can also receive rewards in 4IR Tokens for positive behavior towards aiding the growth of BlockchainValley, effectively benefitting the User, the ecosystem and the 4IR Token itself. These rewards will be distributed for participating in value-contributing activities and value-adding behaviors such as data sharing, product reviews, creation of educational materials, active participation, ecommerce engagement, referrals and promotional campaigns. In turn, such rewards allow the network to actively reward contributions and finance its own growth and can be spent by Users of products, services and features on the BlockchainValley Digital Platform. In order to prevent malicious bots gathering tokens, Blockchain Valley will invest heavily in cybersecurity measures.

3.5.2.4. Staking

Another feature made possible by blockchain technology is the construct of staking. Staking entails depositing a portion of tokens into a trusted account as a form of collateral, which can be used to facilitate trusted collaboration among unknown parties by requesting some expression of intent before cooperating. In the context of the future development of the project, BlockchainValley intends to provide a variety of smart contract tools for staking mechanisms.

The purpose of these staking mechanisms will be to improve the governance of the 4IR Blockchain Technology and to boost the use of the Digital Platform for example for reviews, dispute settlement mechanisms, product testing and job requests among others. We see this feature becoming increasingly important as member organizations start to actively work together with eCitizens. Another way BV intends to employ staking is to enable eCitizens to stake 4IR Tokens on their favorite product and service categories and vendors for discounts, perks, special deals and new product priority listing.

3.5.2.5. Decentralized applications

Blockchain technology allows for the creation of decentralized applications (dapps), which are applications that are community-controlled instead of centrally managed. The potential use of 4IR Tokens as a digital asset in dapps, developed by companies or even operating within BlockchainValley, is one of the most exciting utilities of the token within our smart community. The 4IR Blockchain Protocol will allow participating companies in our ecosystem to launch tokens, tokenize parts of their organization design and deploy smart contracts on top of 4IR Blockchain Protocol.

New tokenized dapps have the potential to compete with today’s popular apps in areas such as social media, content sharing and news channels by creating unique incentive models. Dapp developers can potentially integrate token transfer capabilities and are encouraged to use 4IR Tokens for in-dapp transactions. Global adoption use-cases of BlockchainValley dapps and its distributed ledger protocol with 4IR Tokens as its native digital asset can strongly boost both demand for and usage of the token.

3.5.2.6. Use of 4IR Tokens in the consensus mechanism once the 4IR Blockchain Protocol has been developed

Once the 4IR Blockchain Protocol has been developed and launched, token holders will also participate in the process of securing the blockchain. This means that they will be able to determine which Users or organizations get to become the validators of the blocks. For actively participating in this process through staking, Users are rewarded with tokens. This utility will be more explicitly described in the next segment that describes the BlockchainValley technology layer. This mechanism will only apply when the 4IR Blockchain Protocol is operative and the switch has been finalized. More information on the 4IR Blockchain Protocol can be found in the section 3.6.2 “Blockchain Technology of the 4IR Blockchain Protocol”.

3.5.2.7. Geophysical usage

As BlockchainValley’s physical component in Stellenbosch progresses, the 4IR Token is expected to function as a means of payment for products and services provided by partnering local organizations and global startups expanding to this highly desirable region in Africa, including co-working and co-living facilities, lifestyle consumption and access to events, workshops and an environment for all kinds of research.