The VIZ blockchain is unique, having no 'team', 'creator', 'management system' and other attributes of a project, company or organization of any type. This means it has no ideology, fundamental principles, social rules, 'correct' interpretations, or any other 'ambiguous aspects'.
Any owner of an account and token of the VIZ blockchain can have their own point of view on the goals and methods of using this blockchain and related tools. The only existing limitation is the blockchain code: everything that corresponds to the code is legitimate.
Therefore, this document is the author's personal opinion, so one is free to agree or not, nothing more. This opinion is also the basis for all activities on VIZPLUS.
VIZ is a decentralized digital ecosystem of services built around a social capital (see below) of its participants. The ecosystem includes VIZ blockchain and solutions for end users (participants): websites, mobile and desktop applications, browser extensions, bots for social networks and messengers, etc.
There is no organization, management, 'team', official developers, or any official authorities backing VIZ. There is no concise certainty about who actually launched the VIZ blockchain. Each participant of VIZ has the right and opportunity to do anything in accordance with their share in the capital of VIZ, as far as the blockchain and application code allows.
The word VIZ does not have a specific translation or interpretation, it derives from the term 'vision'.
VIZPLUS is a private non-profit project in the VIZ ecosystem created by one of its participants for the development of the ecosystem. It includes a certain number of VIZ accounts, substantial social capital, as well as a growing number of services and applications.
Participants of the VIZ ecosystem can reward each other with the VIZ crypto asset from the total issuance supply. The amount of rewards received and saved by the participant turns into their 'social capital' that determines its significance within the VIZ community.
The Reward is a key concept of the ecosystem. The reward is an equivalent of 'gratitude' or a 'like', that is, voluntary gratitude for a benefit or pleasure one participant of the ecosystem delivers to another. Anyone can reward anyone and for anything for any number of viz within the capabilities of the rewarding account. At the same time, 'benefit' or 'pleasure' is exclusively subjective and is determined only by the rewarding person.
The VIZ reward is not a predetermined salary, but a voluntary remuneration made after a certain decision. The amount depends on the desire and capabilities of the rewarding person. This makes the reward look like a tip or donation. However, the key difference of VIZ is that the reward is not transferred from the account of the rewarding person to the account of the rewarded individual, but is competitively distributed by the rewarding users from the constantly ongoing issuance of the viz crypto asset.
Each participant of VIZ has the right and opportunity to distribute a part of the issuance in accordance with their share in the total social capital. The greater the amount of rewards a participant has received and retained (the higher their social capital), the greater is the share of issuance a participant is able to distribute, if all other relevant factors remain unaltered while rewarding other participants. This encourages participants to bring more benefits to holders of high social capital by competing for their rewards. So, it is advantageous to maintain high capital in the VIZ ecosystem, constantly injecting numerous benefits to other participants and continuing to receive the rewards.
Users can also increase their social capital in VIZ by buying the viz crypto asset in liquid form and converting it into a form of capital. The purchase of viz benefits not only the buyer, but also the entire community, as such transactions provide all participants of VIZ with information about the value of social capital and provide a guideline for determining a decent amount of rewards in viz tokens. The transfer of viz from social capital to a liquid form reduces the participant's capital, but allows them to 'monetize' their former status by selling viz to those who want to raise their capital quickly.
The VIZ ecosystem consists of the VIZ blockchain and the applications using the blockchain as a distributed immutable repository of an account and transaction data.
The VIZ blockchain belongs to the family of Graphene blockchains, it is based on the Golos blockchain code (v.18), but contains significant changes if compared. The VIZ blockchain uses DPoS consensus, 21 delegates participate in the block signing cycle (in other DPoS blockchains they are called 'validators', 'block producers', etc.), 11 of them are top delegates and 10 are automatically selected according to a certain algorithm from all the others. There is a consensus if 17 from 21 delegates have signed the block in one cycle.
The VIZ blockchain uses one crypto asset - the viz token, which has two forms - capital and liquid. The amount of viz in the capital determines the influence of the account on issuance distribution, voting for delegates, etc. Viz tokens in social capital are 'frozen' on the participant's account: their transfer to liquid form can only be carried out for 28 days in equal portions once a day. Liquid viz are used for transfer between accounts. The transfer of viz from liquid form to capital is made instantly.
The viz crypto asset is not placed as a cryptocurrency or a 'coin', it is a unit of social capital. However, since the viz token has a certain market value, if desired, participants can use it to pay for goods and services, just like with any other crypto asset.
The issuance of viz occurs continuously. Its pace is defined in the blockchain code and can only be changed by a consensus vote of delegates as part of the blockchain software update. At start, the issuance rate was 10% per year and has not changed since then.
The issuance of viz is distributed in three venues: the Rewards Fund, the Development Fund (also called the Committee) and the Delegates Fund. Rewards are paid from the Rewards Fund; the Development Fund is designed to award participants for specific actions useful for the ecosystem; the Delegates Fund automatically rewards delegates for the maintenance of blockchain nodes (servers) and delegate activities. The shares of issuance in those directions are determined not by consensus, but based on delegate nodes parameters median value.
There are no smart contracts in the VIZ blockchain, all the logic of account interaction is brought to the application level.
The applications serve to simplify the interaction between participants of VIZ with the blockchain. Their main task is to broadcast various scenarios in which participants reward each other into the blockchain in the form of a standard transaction. Applications are created by individual developers and teams, they are centralized (i.e. they work outside the blockchain) and use the VIZ blockchain as a single distributed immutable database.
Applications examples - existing and possible:
- Telegram bot for rewarding participants of discussions in chat rooms. The bot monitors chat messages and responds to certain commands. For example, the '+' sign at the beginning of the response to the message means an order to reward the author of the original message;
- A browser plugin that adds a 'Reward' button to some social networks, services, forums, etc. If the participant of VIZ who has installed this plugin clicks the button under the message of the social network user, the latter will receive a reward;
- A mobile application that allows users to reward any person by a particular digital identifier (QR code, recognized face, NFC tag on the phone, etc.);
- A 'basket' of an online store that rewards customers for purchases (VIZ-based loyalty system);
- An online quest, as the player completes it, they receive VIZ rewards;
- 'Reward consultant' button in technical support system for users of any service;
- A mobile application for voting in polls, for example, 'The best player of a football match', 'The winner of a song contest', etc. Voting takes place in the form of rewarding the organizers account with a comment saying for whom the vote has been given, and those reward the winner with the corresponding amount of viz;
- Others.
In addition, the applications of the VIZ ecosystem include various services, such as internet wallets for managing accounts and crypto assets for the VIZ blockchain, software for signing transactions on the participant's side without transferring passwords to insecure applications, etc.
Users have VIZ accounts in the blockchain, not in the applications. This means one user runs one account in any number of applications without additional registration. The application only translates standard user instructions, 'packing' them in one form or another in accordance with the scenario used by this application.
For example, an order to 'reward' can be used as gratitude for a useful or funny comment in a Telegram chat, as an offer to 'friend ' in a dating service, or as a vote for the best player of a football match.
1 - The simplest application of the 'wallet' type: shows the status of the user's account and recent transactions, and also transmits signed user orders to the blockchain;
HUB is a regular Internet application (game, social network, messenger, forum, store, etc.) to which VIZ application is connected. The hub provides information about user actions;
2 - 'Social' application: provides interaction between users according to a certain scenario, connecting to external sources (for example, helps to reward each other in Telegram chats), and broadcasts signed user orders to the blockchain;
3 - An application users do not trust: provides interaction between users according to a certain scenario (for example, unknown forum), but does not sign user orders, directs them to another - trusted application, where users may sign;
4 - A 'technical' application that interacts with other applications, not with users: provides a trusted environment, where users can sign orders generated by other (not trusted) applications.
The community of participants of VIZ is organized in the form of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). There is no single 'team', 'management', 'corporation', 'organization', etc. In VIZ, DAO participants act independently, using their social capital. It is assumed that the owners of the capital in VIZ benefit from its long-term value growth, which means, based on their selfish interest, they will contribute to the development of the entire ecosystem.
The only group of DAO participants of VIZ who have more rights than others are the delegates of the VIZ blockchain. Delegates maintain and support the operation of blockchain nodes (servers with special software that form blockchain blocks), make decisions on software updates and set technical and economic parameters of VIZ.
The delegates of the VIZ blockchain are elected by a general continuous vote according to the Fair DPoS principle. The number of shared viz on the voting account becomes the number of its votes and is divided equally among all the delegates he has voted for.
Any participant of VIZ can start a blockchain node and declare oneself a delegate, inviting other participants to vote for one. All delegates participate in signing blocks and broadcasting parameters, but 11 delegates who received the maximum number of participant votes do it constantly, as the others do it with a decreasing frequency (the lower the position of the delegate, the less often).
The activity of the delegates is rewarded from the total issuance in the form of a fee for each signed block.
Each DAO participant can influence other participants in the following ways:
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Distribute part of the total issuance of viz in favor of other participants in the form of rewards;
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Vote for VIZ blockchain delegates;
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Vote (positively or negatively) for applications for refund from the Development Fund. If the application receives the minimum votes set by the community, the applicant receives a refund from the Fund.
Accordingly, each participant of VIZ can also be a recipient of a reward, an applicant to the Development Fund or a delegate. In addition, participants can develop commercial and non-commercial applications and build activities (including business) within the community, developing the VIZ ecosystem. The unofficial slogans of DAO VIZ are: 'No one owes anyone anything' and ' users need to do it (or pay the one who does).'
In addition to the reward system, more features are built into the VIZ ecosystem at the blockchain code level that can be used by applications and participants for more effective interaction: checks, subscriptions and three-way transactions.
A check is a pair of keys (public and private). The use of said keys entitles their owner to receive a certain number of liquid viz tokens from the person who has generated the check. Checks can be used for non-directional transfers of viz tokens (similar to a 'bearer check'). Users can also use their check to register an account in VIZ.
A multi-level paid subscription is a system of configurable recurrent payments by liquid viz tokens to a specific account without an intermediary (via blockchain). It can be used for media subscriptions, regular charitable contributions, remuneration, etc.
A transaction with an agent is a method of transferring liquid viz tokens between two accounts only with the consent of the third account (an agent ). At the same time, an agent cannot take the transfer for himself, one can only transfer it to the recipient or return it to the sender.
Application
In the pre-industrial and industrial economies, the average person was forced to work hard and a lot to satisfy their basic material needs - a roof over their heads, food, clothing. Labor (in this case, it means paid work or actions necessary for survival) took up a vast amount of time, the rest was allocated to sleep and other tasks. That is, labor was practically the only 'activity' or, at least, the main one.
In the post-industrial economy, the role of labor is limited, but still considerable. However, the appearance of free human resources - time, money and effort - led to the emergence of a new activity - optional consumption. It includes both material consumption beyond the necessary, and non-material consumption, including reading books and magazines, watching movies and TV series, listening to popular music, following sports, playing video games, engaging tourism, engaging in entertainment on the internet or entertainment socialization, involvement in political, environmental and other activism, etc. In a developed society, this type of activity is no less important for a person and society, than work. A person can define themselves first as a 'fan of Barcelona football club' and 'Japanimation lover' and only then as a 'middle manager in an insurance company.'
In the emerging post-labor economy, basic human needs are met at the expense of unconditional basic income and other income not directly related to work (for example, the sale of personal data), as well as (if necessary) a certain amount of paid labor. The role of labor will be reduced to a minimum, but consumption will not take up its place in life. Already now it is possible to observe the emergence and development of the third type activity, at least partially, replacing labor.
A new type of activity in a post-labor society is a voluntary activity useful for others, which does not imply mandatory and full-fledged payment from the recipients of benefits (the concept of 'benefit' in this case is subjective and is determined only by its recipient).
As examples of such activities, we can cite:
- Creating and editing Wikipedia articles;
- Creating and distributing torrents;
- Maintaining a non-commercial blog, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media channel, etc.;
- Involvement in a fan movement;
- Acting in amateur theater performances;
- Writing FAQs for users of various services;
- Engaging in discussions on forums, etc.;
- Following or engaging in sports and other contests and competitions;
- Streaming a video game walkthrough;
- Streaming live pornography;
- Commenting on publications in online media;
- Translating subtitles for a series into another language;
- Creating an appearance that brings pleasure to others;
- Offering or rating an especially good degree of service in a restaurant;
- Etc.
In the future, there will be new types of voluntary activities that bring benefit or pleasure to other people. They will be associated mainly with intangible consumption, will serve it or be its source.
Voluntary useful activity usually deserves praise and gratitude, expressed in various kinds of 'likes' or 'thanks'. While this activity is a small and not very significant part of a person's life, oral or virtual remuneration is oftentimes sufficient. But with 'third activity' progression, its economy will inevitably arise, intersecting with the economy of intangible consumption.
This economy cannot be based on money, since money is a tool for subjectively fair exchange of work results. In this case, there is no work, as people bring benefits and pleasure for free, simply because they want to do it and want to receive approval from others in the form of gratitude.
VIZ tries to make the received gratitude useful in the long term, not to reduce this process to payment or donation. Within the framework of the VIZ ecosystem, participants can reward each other with the viz crypto asset, and the amount of rewards becomes a kind of universal 'social capital' for the participant, determining the significance within the community.
The key difference between VIZ and classic donation services is that the reward is not transferred from the one who rewards to the one rewarded , but is distributed to the recipient from the constantly ongoing issuance of the viz crypto asset.
Each participant of VIZ has the right and the opportunity to distribute part of the issue in accordance with their share in the total number of viz shares. The greater the amount of rewards a participant received earlier (the larger is their social capital), the greater the share of issuance distributed by rewarding other participants. This means the larger the social capital of a participant, the more benefit a person can get from other participants.
Users can also increase their social capital in VIZ by buying the viz crypto asset. Buying viz benefits not only the seller, but also the entire community, as such transactions generate data about the value of social capital and provide a guideline for determining the amount of rewards in viz.
The issuance of the viz crypto asset gradually 'erodes' the capitals of the participants, so no one will be able to exert influence in the community for a long time at the expense of late merits. The VIZ economy encourages participants to constantly create benefits in order to maintain influence. In addition, the accumulation of social capital (a share in VIZ) above a certain level is impossible without external financial injections, as inflation will erode more than the rewards yield. Therefore, owners of large social capital are forced to buy the viz crypto asset from other participants in order to preserve it, thus increasing the value of the entire ecosystem.
As a result, the VIZ ecosystem is used as an intermediary in a community of people who benefit or enjoy each other beyond labor relations. Social capital plays the same role as money in a conventional economy, but unlike money, it does not determine the relative value of services, but only further encourages people to do what they are willing to for free by increasing their social capital and gaining recognition in society.