Supercharging Community Based Investing to Elevate Humanity

The Standard Vision
The Problem
Traditional investment tools are designed with only one goal in mind - to make the rich richer - often neglecting long term effects this has on people and the environment. Examples of the negative impacts include Mortgage Backed Securities and the 2008 financial crisis, or the mining industry’s exploitation of labor and environmental harms. These result in a concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the exploitation of common resources or ‘public goods’ that communities rely on (both social and ecological). This situation leaves communities with little access to capital to enable them to improve their economic situation and enhance public goods and their natural surroundings through innovation.
The newer generations need to take control of the economy and make decisions that will have an impact on their lives, however they are deprived of efficient means to do so. We believe that providing the right tools and access to finance to the next generation of investors is vital to creating a foundation for economic growth and reducing inequality.
The Need for Innovation
New technological innovation provides us many opportunities to achieve greater efficiencies across all aspects of our society, economy and environment. Advances in sustainable construction, renewable energy and blockchain technology present a generational opportunity to solve major problems we face. However innovation is still required in the financing and scaling of such innovative efforts globally, as well as in the coordination of capital into collaborative efforts aimed at achieving this purpose.
Traditional investment models prioritize profit over everything else - often leading to unethical solutions that steer towards economic and environmental damage in the long run. Company executives working in large corporate environments in this field are forced to push profits constantly because their revenue determines their market worth. Startups are generally also shaped by this dynamic, meaning the traditional VC system incentivizes shareholder value creation above the potential social, environmental and public good impacts projects stand to create.
The opposite of a traditional profit-focused entity is a crowdfunding project. This approach allows for more freedom and choice of goals for everyone involved, but fails to provide long-term incentives for the participants and donors. The lack of long-term incentives is a serious drawback that makes it unsuitable for large-scale investment projects, such as developing new infrastructure.
We recognize that communities can create impact investment funds independently, but these efforts often end up as one-time projects and involve expenses and risk management requirements that make it infeasible for most projects. Successful investments require constant operation and reliable backing, which most community raised investments lack. Additionally, people in developing countries can take on their own investment projects to strengthen their communities, however they may lack the necessary specialists or financial infrastructure to achieve stable performance.
New technological innovation provides us many opportunities to achieve greater efficiencies across all aspects of our society, economy and environments. Advances in sustainable construction, renewable energy and blockchain technology present a generational opportunity to solve major problems. However innovation is still required in the financing and scaling of such innovative efforts globally, as well as in the coordination of capital into collaborative efforts aimed at achieving this purpose.
The Solution
What do we provide?
Standard offers accessible financial tools worldwide that allow people to invest in meaningful projects that provide a number of benefits for local communities via the assets taken in. For example projects funded to build sustainable housing, infrastructure or technology will be able to tokenize and ‘bond’ these assets in the Standard treasury so they are serving as a public good held by/and for the benefit of all Standard members.
Standard offers access to funding within a supportive DAO model that enables recipients to remain as long-term members of a thriving collaborative network of funders, other ventures and subject area experts. This brings the donor community and recipients together in a long term, mutually beneficial partnership to achieve the stated impact goals.
Value derivation?
The Standard treasury will hold real-world assets (e.g., gold, real estate, energy) and well-established digital assets (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Chainlink), in order to provide a real and tangible value backing to SDA tokens. These assets were chosen because they are proven to be resilient and fundamental to the evolving digital ecosystem. The technological backbone of the application of Standard also has advanced financial security features that leverage both financial investment expertise and AI technology to manage the assets and prevent loss of value due to intrinsic market volatility.
How do we differentiate?
What differentiates Standard from other investment-related startups is that we are incorporating as a DAO and embracing the web 3 mindset of collective effort towards common goals. This fundamentally shifts away from the traditional investment model focused solely on producing profits for shareholders. The DAO model enables communities to be integrated with the process of the proposal, decision, and investment in the overall mandate. A DAO model also means governance is on-chain and immutable, and transparent to investors and members. We believe that this creates a foundation for a more even distribution of wealth, resources, and stable economic growth as a community. Unlike traditional impact investing, which requires the contribution of a large sum of money, anyone (with any amount of money) can participate in funding an investment that makes a successful, long-term impact with Standard.
Why blockchain?
Stability and security are a cornerstone for the Standard philosophy of bringing together the best of crypto and traditional financial investment models. Standard uses a combination of decentralized networking and a diversified treasury that includes ‘blue-chip’ infrastructure-based cryptocurrency and real-world assets to offer access to participants worldwide and protect the investments from volatility.
Blockchain enables the innovative approach of Standard of ‘tokenizing’ real assets and impact goals so that their value can be incorporated into the DAO treasury. Doing this securely and efficiently is facilitated by smart contracts, whereas it would have been extremely challenging to achieve just a few years ago without this technology.
Blockchain also enables Standard to operate collectively as a collaborative funding ecosystem using web 3 technology, and enables us to reach a larger scale more efficiently without compromising on security. This enables efficient and immutable governance and transparency internally and externally. The DAO model is an effective way to tap into the collective human capacity of the network and to ensure those creating the value of Standard as users are able to share in the benefits of the growth of the network.
The Standard Purpose
We believe that innovative financial technology and web 3 collaborative coordination processes must be used to benefit and empower communities to make decisions that will impact their lives. Standard is creating a community-driven crypto investment ecosystem that aligns incentives for people, planet, and profit.
Standard is building the foundations for the project with these key features:
1.An open community led investment initiative supporting funding for initiatives that support positive ecological and social impacts and decentralized governance.
2.A community of individuals whose purpose is to identify and provide transparency and validation for Standard Assets in and out of blockchain, providing clarity for less crypto native users and stability to the space for years to come.
3.A treasury of both tokenized real world and digital ‘Standard Assets’ (e.g., Gold, Real Estate, Energy, and Technology)
Standard will utilize a policy-controlled currency system, in which the behavior of the SDA token is controlled at a high level by financial experts in the Standard team in consultation with the community of users.
In the long term, this system will be used to optimize for economic stability and function as a global store of value underscored by a purpose of investing to positively impact people's lives. In the short term, we seek to rapidly grow the Standard ecosystem and the production of real impacts. This is being done in order to sustainably increase the value of the treasury and provide stabilized yields for both crypto and non-crypto native users of the services we provide. We are targeting sustainable and organic growth rather than a ‘pump-and-dump’, and our asset backing is designed to ensure the system does not require massive exponential user growth simply in order to maintain its token price.
Standard Protocol Framework
What is Standard?
Standard is the first diversified, community driven, decentralized treasury serving a mandate towards community driven impact. Assets held in the Standard treasury are Standard Assets, built on the fundamental principles of the Standard Digital Asset framework. The key differentiator with Standard is that the assets taken in are put to work in unique ways that are largely yet to be seen in the crypto market today in that they serve the fundamental growth and development of communities and individuals driven by Standard members.
Operating principles
Standard is a decentralized treasury and financial ecosystem that allows people from around the globe to invest in projects that are meaningful and valuable to them and their families. The workflow includes the following steps:
A community of Standard members proposes and decides on what they want to fund - for instance, a local solar power plant will provide a town with electricity. At the same time, the excess may be sold to generate revenue.
The participants fund the project and receive SDA (standard digital asset) tokens that give them voting power and the ability to be a member of the organization.
Standard uses the funds to carry out the project (purchase assets, fund development, etc.).
The assets and returns from the investment are accumulated by the treasury, increasing the number of assets managed by token holders (i.e., Standard members)
Participation in Standard
There are two main strategies for market participants: staking and swapping. Stakers stake their SDA tokens in return for more SDA tokens (SDA tokens already purchased on a DEX, CEX), while swappers exchange their assets (e.g., DAI) in return for SDA tokens after a fixed vesting period (typically 5 days). The SDA tokens received after the fixed vesting period will be automatically staked for the investor.
Value to Holders
Staking
The main benefit for stakers comes from supply growth. The protocol mints new SDA tokens from the treasury which are distributed to the stakers (not all minted SDA is allocated to the stakers). Thus, the gain for stakers will come from their auto-compounding balances, though price exposure remains an important consideration. If the increase in token balance outpaces the potential drop in price (due to inflation), stakers will make a profit.
Swapping
The main benefit for swappers comes from price consistency. Swappers commit capital upfront based on a promised fixed return after a fixed vesting period in SDA tokens. Over this time, a percentage of the swap reward is released each day and automatically staked for the swapper, adding a compound factor to the initial yield received. The swapper's profit would depend on SDA price and staking APR throughout swap maturity. Swappers benefit from either a rising or static SDA price.
Membership
Standard members gain access to ecosystem rewards as well as voting and proposal of mandates to support themselves and their communities. Membership benefits increase with increased activity in the platform and community.
Technology
Why Blockchain?
An ecosystem-based on blockchain protocols allows Standard to achieve the following advantages over a traditional organization:
Shareholders are directly connected to the impact instead of only being interested in profits their shares produce.
All activities are public and transparent while a traditional corporate policy would restrict access to vital information even for shareholders.
Investment mandates are made by communities in their interests instead of decisions made by a few top-level executives.
Low operation costs compared to a traditional model.
Access for everyone who wants to participate instead of an ‘invite only’ model.
Ability to operate worldwide.
Security/Auditing
All smart contracts deployed by Standard will be audited by numerous third party companies (e.g., CertiK, Open Zepplin, Hacken or something similar). These will be listed in the documents on our website. We also will have an in-house audit practice and scanner as well as bug bounty campaigns going 24/7 to ensure maximum security for our investors.
Investment
Areas of Impact
Standard paves a way for a better tomorrow through shared prosperity and value creation. Standard's bottom-line is not to produce profit but to create an environment for sustainable growth in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals where profit becomes a long term outcome rather than a short term requirement. By providing communities with the means to invest in projects most important to them, we aim to improve worldwide standards of life. By putting people in charge through collaborative governance, we empower them to make decisions that have a meaningful impact for their communities.
Standard aims to solve global problems and elevate the standards of living for the people involved in the project and their wider communities. We provide people with the necessary tools to invest in large scale projects and to make meaningful decisions around the use of those funds and the future of the projects. We provide financial security and stability for investors and participants in these impact projects through a diversified pool of relatively stable standard-assets and an actively involved investor community.
We enable economic and societal prosperity and provide opportunities for communities by addressing the core basic needs of communities and individuals. We do this by funding impact mandates for projects that empower communities to address key challenges to achieving a thriving environment and healthy communities with opportunities for individual initiative and actualization.
Through this model, we aim to achieve impact in the following areas:
Environmental Regeneration
We will invest actively in mandates that seek to regenerate the ecology and increase resilience and adaptation of human systems. Core Environmental mandate areas we will invest in include:
Affordable and clean energy
Initiatives that develop abundant, affordable and clean energy in communities through investment in renewable energy infrastructure or community-owned energy resilience networks. (For example this could include a community-owned renewables grid running on blockchain technology.)
Climate action
Initiatives that restore the climate resilience of environments and foster deep adaptation of our built environment and our human systems to the impacts of our new climate reality.
Carbon neutral and decarbonization technologies is another key area we will focus on investing in. Many decarbonization technologies and solutions are already available commercially, but scaling them up takes a significant amount of capital input. There are also developing technologies that require early stage financing in order to commercialize, penetrate the market, and begin producing carbon reductions on a large scale to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Examples of carbon offsetting projects:
Methane gas capture in a landfill
Creation of wind farms
Forest conservation
Solar Energy
Hydropower
Algae based carbon capture and renewable fuels
Clean water
Initiatives that seek to regenerate freshwater sources and ensure resilient access to abundant clean water for drinking, sanitation and community wellbeing.
Sustainable Economic Development
We empower mandates that enable sustainable economic growth in communities in ways within the limits of the living environment and community thriving. We support mandates that meet a ‘doughnut economics’ framework by supporting the creation of shared community value through investment in public goods. Initiatives can be proposed by small businesses, community groups, or individuals - Standard will connect these innovative ideas to a wider community of support and capital to manifest them.
The core economic development mandate areas we will target include:
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Initiatives that demonstrate innovative approaches to solving community problems, or that seek to create the infrastructure for economic development, and industry within responsible social and environmental boundaries.
Sustainable cities and communities
Initiatives that enable urban and rural community development by utilizing regenerative design principles and technology to create ecologically and socially responsible, and ‘smart’ or connected cities and villages.
Responsible production
Initiatives that enable the socially and ecologically responsible production of goods through a circular economy framework.
Social Development
We empower positive social development by supporting initiatives that seek to strengthen the social fabric of communities through inclusion, capacity-building, and access to opportunities for advancement. We also support the core infrastructure of democracy by facilitating the upskilling of citizens in the process of community governance through their participation in mandates.
Core areas of social development we will target include:
Education
Initiatives that foster education and capability building in both adults and young people, particularly in our areas of expertise including blockchain fundamentals, technology, knowledge products, and community governance.
Strong and ethical institutions
Initiatives that foster strong and ethical institutions by supporting existing institutions to operate more efficiently and democratically, and/or by increasing capacity for monitoring and transparency.
Reduced Inequalities
Initiatives that reduce inequalities by addressing the systemic causes of poverty, and closing the ‘digital divide’ and the ‘wealth gap’ by building capacity and providing access to capital.
Treasury Management
Standard Asset Management House
The definition of a Standard Digital Asset will be managed by a business unit called the Standard Asset Management House. This House will lead the expansion and exploration of the definition of a Standard Asset over time to reflect macroeconomic conditions. The Asset Management House will also be responsible for research and recommendations to the DAO core team regarding the acquisition and management of the DAO treasury of new Standard Assets to be held by the protocol.
The Asset Management House will engage expertise externally, and within the Standard network including the Research, Technology and Analytics guilds as required through the bounties system. Being crypto and web 3 maxis ourselves, we think building a strong fundamental understanding of a protocol or sector is important, but also pretty darn fun.
The Asset Management house will implement cutting edge tools to mitigate downside risk and ensure a diversified, balanced portfolio which will be assessed in partnership with the Standard Technology House. This House will also oversee operational security and QA to ensure the long-term and short-term safety of our asset acquisition and storage.
Store of Value
Standard aims for the SDA token to act as a long-term stable, growth-optimized store of value. A treasury is only as good as the assets it holds, and the quality of those assets is determined by their proven ability to not only hold their value, but to also increase in value over time. The assets we are choosing are what we would call “recession proof assets”, as well as acting as a public good by supporting positive ecological, social, and decentralized governance impacts. We have deliberately designed the Standard treasury to include a diverse pool of assets across multiple asset classes. This limits volatility by ensuring the maximum potential for growth is tapped and provides downside security.
The treasury will include some of the most prominent digital and real world assets in the class with demonstrated and provably high utility and networked value in society. As an example it will include assets like Ethereum and Chainlink due to the utility and ‘network effect’ they both provide as vital pieces of digital infrastructure. It will also include tokenized real estate, commodities, energy, and carbon as other examples.
Ethereum is widely recognized as the leading Smart contract platform - a utility that enables digital agreements to be built on top of blockchains enabling the development of a number of different applications and services (Dapps). Ethereum is now integrated in the network of crypto investors as a historically trusted and relatively stable asset. It is also integrated into real-world utility, including NFTs, tokenization and other smart contract applications in the real world. Oracles like Chainlink, meanwhile, enable smart contracts to bring in and utilize real world data in these smart contract enabled agreements and applications.
Both of these systems work synergistically to enable the building of secure tools and applications that benefit society. Both networks use the respective asset to pay for transaction fees and incentivize security, decentralization, and validator/node development. As these networks grow, this drives increased utility for the respective assets, shrinking circulating supply and eventually driving up the price in correlation with the value secured by the network.
Utility is a nontrivial metric in the definition of Standard Assets, and we expect to bring in many more blockchain assets in other verticals over time once their respective niches mature and utility is proven.
Building a utility-focused treasury in this way not only provides security for the underlying token it is backing, but also provides stability for the entire network since the treasury holdings will not be sold off in market downturns, which is what makes the Standard treasury the most secure backing for any asset.
Revenue Streams
Standard revenue models are built through developing pipelines of consistent value for others, thus generating value for the Standard Treasury and holders of SDA tokens. Revenues that come into the protocol go to two places, Protocol Treasury and DAO treasury. Revenues from products built on the treasury and assets performing inside the treasury go back to the treasury, increasing the value of the reserve backing of each token. Revenues generated from bonds are distributed to the DAO in the form of sSDA. Other sources of revenue for the protocol include but are not limited to:
1.NFT sales: Royalties will be charged on each primary and secondary sale of Standard NFTs. As membership becomes more desirable these may be traded on the open market leading to revenue that supports the DAO and provides holders benefits.
2.Media: We will engage in research and communications consulting partnerships to produce media content for external business partners and provide discounted services to Standard ventures. These efforts will be managed by the Standard Publishing House and involve writing, research, design and other professional guild members.
3.Structured Fintech products: We will explore innovative lending, insurance, and yield generating products.These will generate revenue via commissions and will be designed to be win-win so that members and others receive fair value by utilizing these products.
4.Real World Asset Revenues: The Standard DAO will generate revenue by capturing market value from the Standard Assets held by the DAO. This could include energy sales to the grid or other users from renewable energy infrastructure, rental income from real estate owned by the DAO, and fees from equity deals.
5.Venture Arm Revenues: Standard will earn returns on investment from successful product incubation by identifying high growth, innovative early and later stage projects. The research guild and Asset management Houses will be instrumental in identifying and assessing risk benefit to achieve good yields from such investments.
6.Standard Business memberships: A membership fee will be payable by businesses or DAOs that wish to join the Standard ecosystem. This membership will provide the business with the ability to use Standard partner branding as associates as well as to access discounted services from the Standard. It will also enable businesses to leverage the DAO for potential investment in their projects.
7.Liquidity provision fees from DEXs: Fees will be earned on all asset swaps utilizing the Standard native Decentralized Exchange.
8.Real estate (equity based) transactions: Real estate has a lower ceiling and a lower floor as an asset for investment. We will utilize our expert advisory ecosystem to ensure risk-adjusted returns from real estate transactions including leverage.
9.Business services (private equity): Since 2010, the business services sector has been among private equity’s most active hunting grounds. Over that period, it has accounted for 12% of investment value and 23% of deal count globally. PE funds have averaged more than 750 business services deals worth $48 billion each year. We will leverage this market to add revenue to the DAO. In providing private equity investing services we can apply our collective expertise to grow the businesses invested in in order to increase the revenue earned.
10.Flash loans: Flash loans empower traders and DeFi users by enabling instant borrowing with no collateral required provided that the liquidity is returned to the pool within one transaction block. Given that the entire transaction needs to be executable in one block and will not execute if liquidity is not there on either side, flash loans are an extremely low risk mechanic to leverage treasury liquidity. Standard will issue flash loans and earn revenue from commission. This will also allow members to grow their liquidity through defi applications, strengthening the revenue base of the entire ecosystem.
11.Bond returns: Corporate bonds will be issued by Standard ranging from 1-30 years in duration. The bonds will be backed by the Standard assets, such as mortgages, land, or even other companies within the ecosystem. A commission will be earned by Standard on bond transactions.
12.Bond marketplace: Bonds are usually distributed by a trustee such as a bank, however Standard will create a decentralized bonds marketplace where other entities in the ecosystem will be able to issue and trade bonds.
Growth Flywheel
Standard Treasury and Standard DAO both benefit from bonds and ecosystem development. The DAO will work to grow liquidity for $SDA and also build and incubate new applications and protocols on top of and in synergy with Standard. The more the ecosystem grows, the more revenue the Standard Treasury and DAO will receive. As the treasury grows, this also increases the backing for each SDA token, driving value for holders. Eventually, this ecosystem will grow to swallow up all the major Standard Assets across all major verticals, providing a robust foundation for the entire ecosystem.
The ecosystem will also grow through our fostering of innovative new startup projects or protocols. These will generate more attention for the Standard and SDA token, and may add additional tokenized assets to the Standard treasury.
Partnerships
Intrinsic to the core structure of Standard is its ability to integrate with and incentivise partnerships with other projects. Given the nature and vision of Standard, we see Standard and the SDA token as the center of an entire ecosystem of development. It does this because it is a protocol that brings in the most robust assets across all major markets (eventually) solidifying security, trust, and a foundation for which to build upon for years to come. At the start we see these partnerships growing within the blockchain ecosystem but then expanding across traditional and retail markets as we build upon the public goods sectors providing robust ecosystems for humans to operate.
Venture Model
By offering swaps for projects, Standard creates a mechanism to lock that project’s asset in its treasury without the ability to sell it in the future. This creates an intrinsic floor for that asset adding confidence and liquidity, both of which decrease volatility over time. By offering swaps for Standard Assets, we have the ability to bring in some of the largest and most robust communities in the blockchain space from the start. We see this approach having a network effect, providing a bridge for communities that have traditionally been at odds with each other.
Standard Venture Partnerships
Every entity engaging with Standard in an independent business venture capacity will be required to become a Standard Venture Partner. Venture Partners will be required to submit an application assessing the idea against our criteria to determine if the partner and Standard will be a good fit to support each other's mandates. Areas of interest are based on supporting and aligning with our stated ESG impact mandates (e.g., charitable/public good ventures, asset management, energy, real estate, minerals, and technology).
Allocation of available funds to approved ventures will be determined by a community selection process open to all Standard contributors through a crowdfunding process. Funded mandates will trigger an agreement between Standard and the successful mandate which will allow them to operate as a Standard Venture and leverage the benefits this provides. These benefits will include access to internal expertise from our Houses, and potentially additional matched investment or connection to a pool of impact investors.
The Ventures Agreement sets out the financial relationship of reciprocity between a venture and Standard. This is variable depending on the nature of the venture, location, access to capital, area of operation and other factors. This ensures financial contribution requirements are not overwhelming to ventures and serve to stifle innovation, but also enables Standard to generate revenue for the treasury where ventures are thriving. The venture relationship is a mutually agreed one, and may be ended at any point by either partner, however Standard will incentivize loyalty by offering benefits to long-term partner’s.
Incubating the Newest Standard Assets
Some Standard Assets will be tokenized assets that are native to and launched first) Standard’s technology and under the Standard brand. SDA is the first example. However we will actively explore potential for other Standard Assets to be launched via the tokenization of real world assets and impact focused projects.
Plenty of asset and impact verticals are ripe for adoption of the Standard model, and use of already existing protocols, but have bottlenecks preventing greater usage (whether that be monetary, skilled labor, vision, partnerships, or a mixture of these and more.)
Standard will lead the process of supporting internal or venture partner projects to launch new assets through this process by connecting them to a growing community of experts, governance and technology to do so.
Successful incubations of Standard Ventures and assets will support not only the incubated protocol, but also SDA holders since a percentage of every venture project incubated will be allocated to the Standard treasury.
Incentivizing Development to Bring Off-chain Standard Assets On-chain
A Standard Digital Asset is defined by the number and diversity of the Standard Assets backing it, however many Standard Assets (e.g., real estate) are still not available to be integrated into Standard’s treasury to provide value to SDA holders. Standard will change this by working to bring off-chain assets like real estate, actual stocks, other precious metals, etc. on-chain to be able to hold in the treasury and potentially even earn yield from.
Standard will bring on industry leaders either into the DAO or as partners to the DAO to help form and execute plans to accomplish these goals. Over time, we expect to see Standard being a backbone for all major industries dedicated to a culture of inclusion, community, and innovation as all incentives will align through Standard.
We Love Maxis
Maximalism for a certain protocol or technology has gotten a bad rap. It starts when someone goes deep down a rabbit hole researching a technology that connects all the dots and is THE necessary thing to bring forward the fourth industrial revolution. If you’ve gotten this far in the docs, then you probably know exactly what we mean. Standard was not created to compete with other projects in the blockchain space. On the contrary we too are ‘maxis’ for the best projects with the strongest fundamentals and the greatest network effect so we plan to use these assets as a reserve basis for our treasury.
That’s why we created SDA tokenomics in a way that enables us to bring together all of the strongest communities and figure out how to accelerate the adoption of the best projects in a decentralized ecosystem where all values and economic incentives align. Blockchain is nothing without community and we believe that Standard will have the strongest community in the space.
NFT Community Partnerships
Standard members will receive a membership NFT that denotes membership in the platform and has gamified utility within the Standard ecosystem. Not only will the NFT enable holders to vote in decisions on the future DAOgovernance and development, but it will open up potential yield opportunities and discounted services in the defi and business services spaces.
We will also extend the ability to mint one of these Standard membership NFTs to strong communities outside of Standard that align with the values and mission of the organization (e.g., ENS domains). This will bring in key industry players as potential partners with vested interest in the success of the project. This collaboration will extend to collaborative mints with partner projects and shared revenues between protocols that will support all protocols and members of such communities involved.
DAO Governance
Standard will be legally incorporated as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Holders of Standard membership will be entitled to vote according to governance frameworks to be determined as a community.
Core DAO Governance
DAO Members will be able to participate in creating proposals, voting on proposals, and voting on mandates which could affect the Standard project in a considerable way. Rules for participation in certain decisions will be determined by Community Agreements, and active involvement may vary depending on the proposal type and a risk assessment. Proposals may range from simple membership rewards ideas, to a substantial change in how we are managing the treasury as a whole. Members will also contribute to community engagement on Discord and various social media platforms. DAO members are crucial to keeping SDA relevant and successful as a thriving collaborative enterprise.
DAO Scaling Model
The goal is to scale a DAO in the most efficient and cost-effective way while attracting and building the highest quality talent pool for the DAO. This is done via a sub-dao and venture model that empowers small autonomous units working within a larger strategic structure.
Standard will consist of a number of Houses, guilds, and even independent ventures operating autonomously and collaboratively within the larger Standard ecosystem.
We will build a streamlined flow to onboard contributors and upskill contributors from novice to expert and at the same time grow their commitment as a DAO member through these various groups. We will provide a clear roadmap for members to move from being a contributor to a Core Team and even creation of their own sub-DAO or venture under Standard’s ecosystem.
Each Member Journey within the DAO is underpinned by completing a large scale project that is too large to comprehend for any small group and time frame. This is the overarching framework of building a DAO that has the potential to onboard passionate community members with the ability to develop the vision of Standard for its community members and future subDAOs created.
Standard DAO Houses
Standard will curate and launch various Sub-DAO projects called ‘Houses’. These Houses are intended as permanent sub-dao business units within the DAO working on specific areas of the DAO’s core business. These houses will employ committed DAO members according to specialty fields. The Houses will also provide in-house services at discounted rates to mandates and projects being incubated within the Standard Ecosystem, as well as external consulting.
Below is the potential Member journey to join a Standard House:
Contributor → Guild Member → House Member
Houses already planned as making up the core for Standard include:
Publishing House
Development House
Asset Management House
Real Estate House
Energy House
Mineral House
Technology House
Standard Guilds
Contributor → Guild Member → House Member → Core Team Member
Standard will also found a number of guilds for members to conduct autonomous work towards core Standard goals. The guilds will form around certain work streams or practices. Guilds are less formal than Houses and members can be more casual and invest less time and energy. However, guild members will be able to bid on ‘bounties’ for work to be done as proposed by certain Houses or the core team. Guild members can make a proposal for a piece of work to be funded by Standard to a House or to the core team. Planned guilds include:
Translators Guild
Research Guild
Marketing and Communications Guild
Education Guild
Developers Guild
Design Guild
AudioVisual Guild
Analytics Guild
Operations Guild
Writers Guild
Technology Guild
Incubating Standard Ventures
There is also potential for independent external organizations to be surfaced from within the DAO ecosystem itself. The flow for an idea to become an independent venture will be to move from an idea stage, to a working group formed by the people most committed to the idea, then through to venture would be as follows:
Idea Phase → Working Group → Proto-Venture → Ventures
An informal working group can be catalyzed by any Standard member on any topic or mandate. If sufficient energy emerges from the network this group may apply to be evolved into a ‘proto-venture’ to explore potential to create a venture. If this sub-dao project appears to be successful and sustainable, it may decide to create its own legal wrapper as a separate venture within the Standard ecosystem. It can apply for funding to achieve this phase.
There are standard agreements for ventures that outline the guidelines for use of Standard branding and terms of access to resources by ventures which must be met at all times.
Regulatory Compliance
Web 3 is the biggest technological development since the internet, and arguably its impacts will be far wider reaching for our society and economic system. The nature of cryptocurrencies and web 3 technology as borderless, decentralized and open access offers amazing opportunities for greater economic inclusion and innovation. However, these features also present some very real challenges for centralized states who desire to have surveillance over markets in order to protect consumers and prevent illicit activities.
As a result, crypto and web 3 regulation is a pressing issue for us at Standard as fintech innovators, as founders of a DAO, and for our efforts to create social and environmental impact.
We believe appropriate regulation of the web 3 space can play a major role in the way this new technology develops and the impacts it has on society. We aim to add value and balance to the overall conversation around blockchain and web 3 regulation, so that progress can be made towards ensuring this potentially transformative technology furthers the shared goal of building a better future for all of humanity.
To this end the Standard publishing house is currently engaged in a research project into the regulation of the crypto and web 3 space. This report will serve the dual purpose of:
1.Informing our own approach moving forward in founding the DAO and launching crypto-based products
2.Publishing this knowledge for people in policy-making positions and those in the crypto/web 3 sector to access freely.
This regulation report exercise features over 50 research contributors with a range of backgrounds including legal, crypto industry experience, political science, economics, international development, and environmental policy.
As Standard expands we will engage in developing further research initiatives and knowledge products that support the expansion and development of the blockchain industry worldwide.
Membership Rewards / Marketplace
Members will have access to a rewards marketplace, and access will be given based on their membership level. This provides one aspect of utility for membership and opens up many possibilities for participants. This provides an aspect of utility for membership and opens up many possibilities for participants.
Obtaining Membership
Membership is obtained through the utility of one membership NFT. Memberships are received by bonding at least 1 SDA token worth of value to a mandate. This will create an NFT that provides access to the gated member sections of Standard DAO and opens up other utility for the holder such as staking and yield generating opportunities.
NFTs will be upgradeable and essentially act as a store of reputation and value for the members’ identity in the community and as their member card to participate in community voting. This will enable trust to be built in the community and incentivize members to take actions that support the Standard community and the projects associated with it.
Membership Accessibility
All people worldwide will have access to a Standard membership which will provide the ability for them to propose and vote on mandates that support their communities or others that have impact goals of interest to them.
NFT
NFTs represent a user’s participation in a particular project/mandate. The timestamp and amount contributed are encoded as attributes. The goal is to send membership NFTs to each user (either airdrop or free mint) with their first bond of at least 1 SDA value.
Different levels of NFT will correlate to certain positions in the community, so as to enable effective governance and to designate status as engaged long term community members, ‘guild’ or ‘house’ members or core team members. For example a holder that has bonded SDA for a long period and has been an active contributor to the community has demonstrated a commitment to the long term goals, so will have a different level of access to core DAO decision making than one who has not.
Roadmap
Phase 1
Strategic partnerships
Advisor onboarding
Community growth
Regulatory Playbook
Legal structure
Grant submissions
Presale
Phase 2
Protocol development
Audits
DAO creation, onboarding, and incentives
Growth funding
Marketing / Media campaign
Regulatory Playbook Launch
DAO growth to 10,000+ members
Standard business partners
Phase 3
Protocol launch (Bonds for impact)
International marketplace launch
Add Multisig signers
DAO growth to 50,000+ members
Media campaign
DeFi ecosystem partnerships
Infrastructure partnerships
Municipal partnerships
$100M TVL
Phase 4
Structured products
Institutional partnerships
US marketplace launch
Lending/Microlending
SDA Tokenomics
Token Distribution (pSDA)
Party
Token Amount
Percent of Issued Supply
Team (up to 10,000+ individual contributors)
300,000,000
30%
Advisors (≥ 40 individuals)
60,000,000
6%
Pre-seed and Seed Rounds
100,000,000
10%
Angel round
40,000,000
4%
DAO
500,000,000
50%
Vesting Schedule
Vesting Schedule pSDA tokens have 5 vesting periods: 
10% unlock after 18 months of official SDA token distribution 
22.5% unlocked @ 500M Circulating supply 
22.5% unlocked @ 1B Circulating supply 
22.5% unlocked @ 1.5B Circulating supply 
22.5% unlocked @ 2B Circulating supply
The offering is for pSDA, which is a precursor derivative of SDA; it gives the holder the option to mint SDA by burning pSDA and providing the intrinsic value of SDA (1 Dai = 1 USD). For example, a team member would provide 1 DAI and 1pSDA to mint 1 SDA.
The foregoing offering terms and distribution schedule may be altered, amended and/or supplemented by the Token Issuer at any time in our sole discretion without notice.
No token will be unlocked prior to the 18 month unlock period.
The Offering may be extended, withdrawn, or closed at any time in our sole discretion without notice.
Supply
There is an unlimited mintable supply of SDA. Supply mechanisms built into the protocol will increase and decrease the distribution of SDA. There will also be mechanics built into the protocol to burn SDA, removing it from distribution to offset inflation.
Economics
SDA is backed, not pegged
Each SDA is backed by a minimum of 1 DAI, not pegged to it. Since the treasury backs every SDA with at least 1 DAI, the protocol would buy back and burn SDA if it trades below 1 DAI. This has the effect of pushing SDA's price back up to 1 DAI. SDA could always trade above 1 DAI because the protocol imposes no upper limit. Think pegged == 1, while backed >= 1. The intrinsic value of SDA is 1 DAI based on the contract. It becomes 1 DAI + premium as the treasury grows in assets.
SDA distribution
Every time someone purchases a swap, the proceeds will go to the Standard treasury. A corresponding amount of SDA will be minted and distributed to three parties:
Swapper: The swap purchaser will receive the quoted amount of SDA in the form of sSDA linearly over the vesting term.
DAO: The DAO receives the same amount of SDA as the swapper. This represents the DAO profit.
Stakers: After accounting for the SDA distributed to the swapper and the DAO, the rest will be distributed among all stakers in the protocol.
Policy
Standard features policy constants that allow us to optimize the system. Policies on staking and swapping distributions are managed by the policy team within the Asset Management House.
Swaps (Bond Structure)
All mandates will be funded through swap mechanics to bring assets to the treasury. Bonds will be issued as the digital asset we wish to take in. These include digital and real world assets that align with the criteria of being a standard asset.
The vesting term determines how long it takes for swaps to become fully redeemable. A longer vesting term means lower inflation and lower swap demand. Automated staking provides swappers more yield over a five-day period to increase swap demand and retention.
Staking Lock Ups
Stakers will lock up their SDA for a self-selected period of time. This “lock-up” will “unlock” their rewards capability and free reign in the protocol. As long as members are staked, they will earn yields. Once the unlock period comes up, the stake will automatically be restaked and vested for a period of time. There are no variables in the staking contract. SDA and sSDA are always redeemable 1:1, and profits are distributed equally through rebase.
Autostake Swaps
During the swapping process for all assets sold to the treasury, swappers receive staked SDA or sSDA coins automatically, giving the ability to compound yield without paying fees each day, and a portion of the swap reward is released. This provides greater benefits to swappers over their term and the protocol since liquidity is automatically staked over the fixed vesting period, providing greater stability for the token price.
How Does the Treasury Grow?
The growth of the treasury is the primary drive to build the capability of Standard. As the treasury grows in reserves and LPs, it increases the floor value of every SDA. More importantly, the growth of the treasury enables the protocol to increase its revenue from treasury assets alone and eventually provide a stabilized, fully backed yield. Standard’s treasury grows in a few ways:
Liquidity Yields
POL is one of the more valuable assets held by the treasury since it is a mechanism to earn passive income through transaction fees. Owning the liquidity for SDA enables the Standard treasury to earn income for any transaction of the SDA token, whether buying or selling. Eventually, Standard will own 100% of its liquidity, earning all the fees similarly to a centralized exchange.
Staking of Reserve Assets
Reserve assets are single assets and do not earn passive yield like LPs. However, a variety of mechanisms may be employed in this case to put these assets to work as well, whether that be lending, validator staking, node staking, single asset staking, or some other form of reward generation from provisioning of assets. The benefit of building a treasury of Standard Digital Assets is that these assets typically have the most comprehensive adoption across various blockchains and good opportunities for secure yields.
Market Dynamics
There are several feedback mechanisms within the system. These are self-reinforcing behaviors; action 1 increases the rate of action 2, increasing the rate of action 1. Circular mechanics like this are the drivers of exponential expansion and boom and bust cycles. Loose policy states enable these dynamics while tight policy states suppress them. The goal of Standard is to maximize both token growth and stabilized yield for stakers to enable the greatest liquidity for the protocol.
Initial Protocol State
Our goal is to provide a robust foundation for SDA tokens by building a diverse and performing treasury of Standard Assets. This should theoretically drive the price of the SDA token correlated to the growth of the treasury assets. The growth of the treasury will be dependent upon partnerships, impact, community, marketing, and continued development of novel industry solutions with SDA at the center. The vision for SDA is to build a diverse ecosystem with incentives for bonding and staking at the center to increase treasury holdings and decrease volatility from selling.
Peak Efficiency
The initial network features a one-way treasury (money goes in, none comes out), the swapping contract (through which supply increases and profits are produced), and the staking contract (where profits are distributed). The overarching goal is to maintain a state where we have assets coming into the treasury without a supply increase on the backend.
Optimal protocol conditions
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Deployer (supply)
Treasury ($ value)
Level 0 (Staking)
+
0
Level 1 (Bonding)
+
+
Level 2 (Optimal Efficiency)
0
+
Level 3 (Peak Efficiency)
-
+
Glossary of Terms
Term
Definition
Airdrop
A free distribution of a crypto token or NFT to a wallet address.
APR
Annual Percentage Rate (yearly interest rate)
APY
Annual Percentage Yield (compounded yearly interest rate)
Asset Backed Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency backed by and transferable for a real world asset (e.g., gold, dollars, real estate)
Cryptocurrency
Any form of currency that only exists digitally, that usually has no central issuing or regulating authority but instead uses a decentralized system to record transactions and manage the issuance of new units, and that relies on cryptography to prevent counterfeiting and fraudulent transactions.
DA
Digital Asset
DCV
Deflation Control Variable, is the scaling factor at which protocol defined buy pressure changes. A higher DCV means more buy pressure from the protocol, resulting in a higher deflation. A lower DCV means less buy pressure from the protocol, resulting in a lower deflation.
Liquidity Swaps
Liquidity swaps are LP token swaps. Examples are SDA-ETH LP swaps and SDA-DAI LP swaps.
PCV
Protocol Controlled Value, is the amount of funds the treasury owns and controls. The more PCV the better for the protocol and its users.
POL
Protocol Owned Liquidity, is the amount of LP the treasury owns and controls. The more POL the better for the protocol and its users.
PoR
Proof of Reserve, is the mechanism of strengthening the reserve of Standard treasury via the sales of swaps. Swappers provide liquidity to the treasury, thereby building its reserve. In return for their service, swappers get paid in SDA.
Reserve Swaps
Reserve swaps are single asset swaps. Examples are DAI swaps and PAXG swaps.
Reward Rate
Reward rate is the configured percentage of SDA distributed to all stakers on each rebase relative to the total supply. The reward rate is precisely set by the policy team.
Reward Yield
Reward yield refers to the actual amount of SDA received by each staker on each rebase. The reward yield is a rough target from a policy point of view. It can almost never be maintained precisely due to e.g. fluctuating amounts of SDA staked.
Runway
The amount of time the protocol could sustain the current staking reward rate if no new swaps were taken in (i.e., if rewards were paid out through the value of the treasury).
SDA Backing
The amount of funds in the treasury backing SDA.
SCV
Swap Control Variable, is the scaling factor at which swap prices change. A higher SCV means a lower discount for swappers and higher inflation by the protocol. A lower SCV means a higher discount for swappers and lower inflation by the protocol.
Standard Asset
An asset in any industry that incorporates the following principles: An asset that has proven it is “Too Big to Fail” by showing staying power through bull and bear cycles. Top asset in a given vertical by utility and/or market cap. Shows consistent growth and adoption over time.
Standard Digital Asset (SDA)
A token backed by a diversified, decentralized treasury of Standard Assets.
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