Introduction
Let’s go out on a metaphorical limb for a moment and make an assumption: Most people don’t get into cryptocurrency for the technology…did that limb hold?
Of course it did! That limb was thiccc.
It’s virtually impossible to enter any crypto conversation without people openly fantasizing about making 100x gains. Even when crypto conversations online are objectively about the technology, we find ourselves hearing whispers from a little devil on our shoulder inspecting the elements for a trading signal or hot tip.
The Tellor community is no exception. 90% of you are here because you believe TRB will appreciate in value. Well, let’s try something different. Be gone, devil! (or at least be quiet)
But first…
Withdraw your Tokens from Centralized Exchanges
If you only keep your tokens on centralized exchanges like coinbase or binance, you are missing out. There is a whole world of decentralized finance that lives entirely on the blockchain, and withdrawing your crypto to a wallet that you control is step one for participating!
It can be scary at first, but I promise it will be worth it! This space is much more rewarding for those who are willing to put in a little bit of work. If you are intimidated, you can always start with very small amounts in your wallet before you dive into self-custody of your full stacks.
The metamask browser extension is the most popular ethereum wallet out there, and it works great. It’s easy, and it’s compatible with the most popular hardware wallets. Here is a nice guide on how to set it up securely:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWfZnjkhhhg
You will also need some Ether in your wallet to pay gas fees. The ethereum network is (now more than ever) pay-to-play.
Voting on Governance
The most basic and most important thing you can do as a TRB holder is voting.
UnloTellor is not exclusively controlled by the team that created it. It’s a smart contract with no admin key, which means we can’t do anything without the community weighing in. There are TRB weighted governance votes for everything from minting events to protocol updates and dispute resolution votes (more on that below). Holders can even burn 10 TRB to make their own Tellor Improvement Proposals independent from the updates proposed by the core team.
The Ethereum space is the most active and largest crypto community in the world. There are many great DAOs and governance tokens, but active participation in token weighted governance is woefully low most of the time. Voter turn-outs of just 5% of a token supply can be impressive.
Tellor has historically seen some strong community support from token holders voting on upgrades. Tellor V2, V2.5, and V3 required a 10% quorum, and these updates all got voted in successfully. It’s something we are very proud of. Lets keep it up.
Want to learn how to vote? Come talk to us in discord! https://discord.gg/Nv9j25ea
Tellor Treasuries
At this time it looks like the first treasury period will open up in January 2022. Check with us on Discord for the full deets.
TRB holders can lock up their tributes for a predetermined time period and interest rate. But there is a catch. You have to participate to get the rewards!
Holders who stake their tokens in Tellor Treasuries must use their address to vote on every event during the lock-up period to earn the full reward! This is an exciting new way to incentivize holder participation that is unique to Tellor.
There will be a delegation option also. So, if you are too cool to actually pay attention…that’s ok. If you know that you want to hold your TRB for the long haul, Tellor Treasuries is a no-brainer.
Want to learn how to stake your tokens in the Treasuries?? Come ask us in the Discord! https://discord.gg/Nv9j25ea
Reporting
In the realm of oracles on ethereum, there are competing ideas about what it actually means to be decentralized. Tellor believes that this means the oracle is open to participation by anyone from anywhere in the world with a regular computer. This is how ethereum and bitcoin (and all of crypto) was intended to work, and we believe that it’s important to mirror that openness in a decentralized oracle!
You don’t have to have a rack server in a datacenter to be a Tellor reporter. You just need 100 TRB, a computer, and some time to learn. It’s done using a program called telliot that you can find on our github. It’s not exactly easy, but it can be very rewarding with practice and patience.
The 100 TRB works like a bond, or collateral against bad data. You may request withdrawal of your reporter stake at any time. After you request withdrawal, your tokens will still be locked for 7 days.
Want to learn how to be a reporter??? Feel free to ask us in Discord 🤙 https://discord.gg/Nv9j25ea
Disputing
With such an open system, the check on the data that’s being submitted needs to be equally open. Every submission to the tellor oracle is closely scrutinized by the community, and any token holder can risk their own TRB to dispute a value that they believe to be incorrect. Holders need only connect their wallet to a simple web interface and click dispute.
The fee to dispute is variable based on how many reporters are staked. If there are fewer reporters, the dispute fee is larger. If there are more reporters the dispute fee is smaller.
When the dispute fee is paid, part of the fee is sent as a tip to the data point that was disputed. This incentivizes reporters to swoop in and place a new value quickly. The dispute fee doubles if a dispute is initiated on a query ID already has an open dispute.
There is a 48 hour voting period that begins at the moment of dispute. The community will weigh in on whether or not your dispute was valid. There are three different possible outcomes:
- The community votes “true”: This means that the majority of voters agree that the submitted data was bad. The disputer is awarded the reporter’s entire 100 TRB stake.
- The community votes “false”: This means that the majority of voters disagree with the disputer. The reporter is awarded the disputer’s dispute fee tokens (minus the tip that was paid at the moment of the dispute).
- The community votes “invalid”: This means that the majority of voters think it was not clear if the data was good or bad. The reporter keeps their 100 TRB, and the disputer gets back their dispute fee tokens (minus the tip that was paid at the moment of the dispute).
Want to learn more about disputing? 👉 https://discord.gg/Nv9j25ea
Conclusion
The tellor oracle is driven by the actions of the community and we look forward to having all of you as active participants. We believe that decentralization matters. We believe that tellor is an oracle protocol that can withstand the test of time.
If you’ve gotten this far, you might as well come talk to us! Introduce yourself and tell us your ideas. Have a great day, and thank you for reading!
