- Overview
- Thesis
- Context
- Problem
- Big bet
- Revnet Research Group (RRG)
- $REV
- Legal
- Examples of revnets
- Investor FAQ
Technological breakthroughs push entrepreneurs, capital providers, and regulators to create and use new financial structures that fit the contours of progress. It isn't a coincidence that joint-stock companies were the defining structure of the mercantile era, that limited liability corporations played the same role during the Industrial Revolution, or that today's Silicon Valley startups are defined by the use of broad-based equity compensation like Y-Combinator's Safe financing documents.1
This decade has seen major progress across many technological domains. Some of these domains, like genomics, are well-served by traditional corporate-stock models. But for many internet-native businesses, especially crypto projects who champion open source and are innovating on internet-based contracts, traditional models have clear shortcomings for entrepreneurs, consumers, and capital providers. Several major players, like Uniswap, ENS, Maker, Arbitrum, and Compound have tried to address these shortcomings by combining standard for-profit companies with tradable tokens and experimental govrenance structures like DAOs. In practice, governance and capital allocation is hard, and often leads to vulnerabilities and power struggles.2
We needed a better financial structure to use for our own upcoming revenue-forward projects we will be fundraising for. We think we've come across a structure that can be broadly productive. We call it a revnet.
Revnets are a fully pre-configured financial structure – although they can evolve over time, they do so according to rules which are set in place at the time of their creation. Think of it like a fancy Bitcoin halvening rule. This means:
- Governance-free: Governance inefficiencies and takeovers of funds – among the most common failure modes for DAOs – are impossible.
- Management-free: Revnets operate autonomously, according to their pre-configured rules.
- Deterministic: Investors, builders, community, and customers know that each revnet's rules will be enforced programmatically from start to finish.
- Familiar: Transparency and diligence are simple. Once one revnet's workings makes sense, all revnets make sense.
In the same way that standardized traditional legal agreements allow investors to fund offchain startups without adding unnecessary risk each time, a standardized (but configurable) onchain financial structure like revnets, encoded through smart contracts, allows capital providers to confidently fund a wide variety of cryptocurrency projects without the need to separately audit each one's scheme and code.
Revnets also inherit the best properties of smart contracts:
- Immediacy: They encode sophisticated financial relationships between global participants which would be impractical to manage with traditional contracts.
- Clarity: They allow for ownership and access rules that can't be subjectively misinterpretted.
- Certainty: They express clear rules which cannot be broken, as opposed to the soft guarantees of legal agreements (which can be difficult to enforce).
- Auditability: They are impossible to hide, simplifying diligence for all participants.
We're doubling down on revnets as a vision of how wealth will be most productively created and distributed in our future characterized by digital networks and cryptographic identities. We're open to partners who can help propel this thesis forward.
The team behind revnets comes from building Juicebox.
In July 2021 Jango and Peri launched Juicebox – a programmable financial model which allows anyone to accept and manage funds, issue tokens and NFTs to supporters, and offer hard guarantees, without third parties, secured by its smart contracts. Juicebox exposes a handful of tunable levers that allow for open ended expression of financial relationships – commonly used for fundraisers and indy projects. Revnets are one such expression of the Juicebox language.
As of June 2024, Juicebox has facilitated $185,539,642 in ETH payments to 1,331 projects. Importantly, Juicebox has been built and maintained by a group of sudo-anonymous people on internet organized under JuiceboxDAO, which is itself organized using the Juicebox model. At its core, the experiment has been to create tools that facilitate business models of the future, starting with $JBX – the protocol's fee-collecting token.
We've witnessed the demand for tokenized fundraising and revenue first hand, we know the tradeoffs of the tools at our disposal intimately well, and we understand the legal barriers to growing onchain organizations using status quo agreements.
Over the last 4 years building Juicebox, we've seen compelling consumer crypto offerings emerge around us, but few have struck onchain sustainability. Despite their audience, many organizations continue relying only on traditional cap tables, term sheets, payrolls, and rent-seeking fee structures because productive and safe onchain alternatives haven't been well-demonstrated. Others stick to a public goods narrative that sidesteps conversations about risks and incentives altogether.
As we considered how we'd set up a juicebox today to manage fundraises and incoming revnues for upcoming projects of ours, we felt certain one governed by a group of people – however tokenized and democratic – wasn't ideal.
Even the best onchain organizational expirements still suffer from governance and management risks that take dedicated attention to make worthwhile. A few meaningful governance processes can be great, but at scale we need more sustainable and regenerative value-capture that doesn't introduce more and more governance. We need a structure that unlocks the value of capitalizing fundraises and revenues onchain, but doesn't create new fragilities that require perpetual attention.
We think revnets can power millions of startups to become global movements, high net-worth interconnected economies, and retail-owned brands that outcompete traditional private alternatives.
If we're right, the open internet will win because it best serves creatives, builders, investors, and consumers alike. The future econonics of cryptocurrency economies, social media platforms, and AI models – who each benefit from mass consumer interaction as much as consumers benefit from being a part of them – is bright.
We'd like to begin a dedicated Revnet Research Group (RRG) corporation to support the revnet ecosystem and help it interface with conventional tech and finance sectors.
We think it's important for RRG to set an example of how a corporate entity can be successful as a scoped subcomponent of a public onchain revnet structure, in this case $REV (see below).
Bet on revnets to encourage the growth and sustainability of open internet economies.
RRG accumulates $REV and adds value to it in three ways: making web tools like revnet.app that let anyone browse and participate in revnets, building dev tools that make revnets easier to integrate, and accelerating new revnets.
The $REV revnet receives a 2.5% network fee whenever someone cashes out from any revnet. The fee is used to either issue new $REV from its revnet or buyback $REV from the market, depending on which is a better deal. RRG receives a portion of both $REV issuance and buybacks as the fees come in.
RRG will also charge fees to help facilitate access to revnets by traditional finance and tech organizations.
We're raising $5m by selling 10% of the company Revnet Research Group at a $50m valuation.
We will use the bulk of this money to support the launch and marketing of revnet.app and associated revnets over the next 3 years. We will use some of the money to staff jango (project/tech lead), filip (ops/tech lead), aeolian (consumer/tech lead), kmac (marketing/tech lead).
We will use a SAFE.
RRG is a Delaware C corporation – 51% owned by Jango, 39% reserved for staff, 10% sold to investors.
Onchain, RRG will manage its $REV with a 3/6 multisig at rrg.rev.eth. The multisig is controlled by:
breadfruit.eth(jango)filipv.eth(Filip)codalabs.eth(Aeolian)kmac.eth(Kmac)dao.jbx.eth(JuiceboxDAO)openesquire.eth(Robert Leonhard)
Offchain management of the corporation will be led by Jango, Filip, Aeolian, KMac, Robert, and other members of the Juicebox community:
Jango founded and has developed the Juicebox protocol to support organizational money experiments on the public internet.
Filip has been working on Juicebox since November 2021, focusing on documentation, off-chain tools and services, and frontend development, as well as directly supporting many Juicebox project creators.
Aeolian has been working on Juicebox since November 2021, and leading the development of juicebox.money since 2022. Aeolian also makes essential tools to support the Juicebox ecosystem: juicescan.io, the Juicebox SDK, and the in-progress revnet.app.
KMac is an experienced entrepreneur who has been contributing to multiple DAOs including Solace, Purple, Juicebox and Defifa.
Robert Leonhard is the co-founder of Open Esquire, a group of legal engineers serving Ethereum projects and many Juicebox projects.
We're open to partners who want to help with growth strategies. We (folks from around the Juicebox community) are about to deploy Juicebox v4 and the first cohort of production revnets. We're looking for partners who believe in the mission, believe in the team, and can help make this launch chapter successful.
- Grow by facilitating growth. Help revnets accept more money by building great products like revnet.app and offering services to offchain institutions which allow them to participate in revnets.
- In 8 years, once there are hundreds of billion dollar networks running as revnets, IPO to give conventional financial markets exposure to $REV.
- In 15 years, consider cashing out of $REV positions and offering buybacks – doing so will consolidate the $REV network's value towards remaining holders.
$REV runs on its own as a revnet according to the rules below – there is no governance. RRG is a token holder alongside other token holders and has no special powers. Anyone can participate in $REV at any time.
Each revnet has a token and is defined in stages. Each stage specifies five rules which dictate how the revent operates:
- Duration: How long does the stage last? A revnet’s final stage lasts forever.
- Price:
- Starting price: How much does it cost to buy a single token when the stage begins? The payment's value stays within the revnet and can only be accessed by token holders who cash out.
- Price increase: How frequently, and by how much, does the token's price increase within the stage?
- Split: What percentage of token issuance (and buybacks) are set aside for a list of recipients, and which address is the split operator? The split operator can add, remove, or modify recipients from that list, changing how the split is allocated within the fixed percent set for the stage.
- Automint: How many tokens get minted to a list of recipients at the start of the stage? This functions like a "pre-mint" only accessible once the stage has started.
- Cash out tax: How much does the revnet's next potential cash out value increase each time a token holder cashes out?
If token holders add liquidity to an AMM and it offers a better price than the revnet, the revnet will route incoming payments to that market instead of issuing new tokens. The revnet's split is applied to these buybacks as well.
Built using Juicebox v4, revnets can grow to accept money on new EVM-compatible networks as they emerge, and also offer cash outs on those networks. Holders can move their tokens between chains, and when they do, the revnet automatically moves funds to back those tokens to maintain those tokens' value.
Inaugural 77 day $REV sale ⏩. Your payments are worth 2.5x what they'll be worth in stage 2. Mint the first of two batches of tokens to honor pre-launch work.
- Duration: 77 days.
- Initial price: 1 $REV costs 0.001 ETH.
- Price increase: None.
- Split: 20% split of issuance and buybacks operated by
rrg.rev.eth. 10% routed torrg.rev.eth(RRG), and 10% todao.jbx.eth(JuiceboxDAO). - Automint: 70_000 $REV to
rrg.rev.ethfor pre-launch work. Of this $REV, 25_000 will be sent todao.jbx.eth(JuiceboxDAO), 10_000 tobreadfruit.eth, 10_000 tofilipv.eth, 10_000 tocodalabs.eth, 4_000 toopenesquire.eth, 2_000 tokmacb.eth, 2_000 to0xba5ed.eth, 2_000 tonoobwonder.eth, 2_000 to Peel, 1_000 todrgorilla.eth, 1_000 to Juicecast, 1_000 topeacenode.eth, and 1_000 to LJ. - Cash out tax: Medium-high (0.6). The network consolidates when holders cash out.
The price of issuing new $REV is doubled every 77 days for 770 days.
- Duration: 770 days (~2 years).
- Initial price: 1 $REV costs 0.002 ETH, double the price of stage 1.
- Price increase: 100% (double) every 77 days, “halving”.
- Split: 38% of issuance and buybacks operated by
rrg.rev.eth. 19% routed torrg.rev.eth, 19% todao.jbx.eth. - Automint: none.
- Cash out tax: No change. Medium-high (0.6).
Vest last $REV for pre-net work.
- Duration: 7777 days. (~22 years)
- Initial price: Where stage 2 left off.
- Price increase: Continue doubling every 77 days.
- Split: No change. 38% of issuance and buybacks operated by
rrg.rev.eth. 19% routed torrg.rev.eth, 19% todao.jbx.eth. - Automint: 128_000 $REV to
rrg.rev.ethfor pre-net work. Of this $REV, 35_000 will be sent todao.jbx.eth, 20_000 tobreadfruit.eth, 20_000 tofilipv.eth, 20_000 tocodalabs.eth, 10_000 toopenesquire.eth, 5_000 tokmacb.eth, 5_000 to0xba5ed.eth, 5_000 tonoobwonder.eth, 5_000 to Peel, 1_000 todrgorilla.eth, 1_000 to Juicecast, 1_000 topeacenode.eth, and 1_000 to LJ. - Cash out tax: No change. Medium-high (0.6).
End issuance and splits.
- Duration: Forever.
- Initial price: 0. No more issuance.
- Price increase: None, since there's no more issuance.
- Split: None.
- Cash out tax: No change. Medium-high (0.6).
Each revnet’s rules are defined up front, and all transactions are public. Once a revnet is deployed, no manager has the power to change how it works, no supervisor has special backdoor access, and no authority can stop it. There is no managerial effort attached to an expectation of profit.
Now is the time to learn from the legal outcomes of the past few years and bet on deterministic mechanisms where no entity can change or control the rules once deployed, and where all information is publicly auditable.
RRG has it's own managerial efforts and is therefore selling structured access to a C corporation through a SAFE, but only engages with the $REV economy as a token holder.
- $NANA: Captures revenues from the omnichain Juicebox v4's 2.5% fee. (very soon)
- $BANNY: Captures revenues from Bannyverse mints. (very soon)
- $REV: Captures revenue by betting on the productivity of the revnet-based projects it builds tools for. (very soon)
- $NANCE: Builds the open-source Nance governance platform for tokenized communities. (soon)
- $SUCKS: Captures memetic energy from the distribution of
.eth.suckswebsites. (soon) - $DEFIFA: Captures revenues from Defifa prediction games. (soon)
- $CROPTOP: Collects a 2.5% fee on mints from Croptop templates. Croptop is a simple IPFS-based peer-to-peer website template with content feeds and revenue streams baked in.
- $SPHINX: Builds the open-source multichain devops platform Sphinx. JuiceboxDAO uses Sphinx to manage contract deployments. (soon)
Learn more and reach us from RRG at rev.eth.sucks.
There are three core entities in play: $REV, RRG Corporation, and JuiceboxDAO ($JBX). According to the $REV specs above, RRG and JuiceboxDAO are both expected to receive a split of $REV issuance and buybacks, making them great proxies to build ongoing exposure to $REV's revenue growth – albeit subject to the risks associated with each entities' governance process.
- RRG Corporation is the only way to access the ecosystem for participants who don't want to access tokens directly onchain.
- For those comfortable accessing tokens onchain, $JBX is a fixed-supply governance token which has been on the market for several years, now utilizing its treasury to build out the Juicebox ecosystem – the revnet project and several others were informally incubated from within JuiceboxDAO. You can learn more here.
- Also for those onchain, it may be advantageous to build direct exposure to $REV to bet on revenue growth without proxies.
Smart contract risk: Revnets are built using the Juicebox V4 protocol which can exists across multiple EVM blockchains. Though it is a fork and iteration of Juicebox V3 that has secures tens of millions of dollars in locked value on Ethereum mainnet, there is the possibility of smart contract bugs that cause the system to collapse. JuiceboxDAO has spent the better part of the last year's time and budget on testing, documentation, and hiring third party auditors, though is always encouraging more eyes on the open source code base. Ultimately, smart contract security comes from production lindiness while managing funds at risk.
Organizational risk: $REV runs on its own and has no organizational risk. RRG and $JBX on the other hand, do have organizational risks exposed through the same governance means that affords them certain flexibilities to persue emergent opportunities. Engaging in either RRG or $JBX should warrent due diligence to understand how decisions have been made and how they'll likely continue to be made within those organizations.
Market risk: RRG is a for-profit organization that will look to build its $REV exposure and harness its specialization in revnets to bet on their success. We believe revnets are marketable and can outcompete alternative organizational structures, but this is an unproven thesis with projects outside of our own. Choosing an organizational token structure is a big decisions that each project tends to make only once and stick to forever afterward. It's hard to become the standard structure, but once the standard is set it tends to stick. At first, the revnet sales cycle will likely be long, we'll want to observe how the structure provides value both as a supportive component of already-existing organizations, and as the core piece of new orgs starting up. We'll lead the way with great examples of successful revnets folks can look up to, and will lean on $REV energy to help us reach critical mass.
Immutability risk: Though a revnet's immutability is its core value prop, some might also view this as a risk. A revnet is impossible to course correct once deployed and legitimacy has been established. Mainly, the $REV specification that determines issuance policy could turn out to not motivate activity as much as intended. A perfect revnet configuration is hard to know ahead of time, and there aren't many levers that expose control within its ruleset – like bitcoin, the hardcoded rules can only teleologically be deemed productive if the network proves itself in competition with forked alternatives. The two variables that do offer control and flexibility within the $REV revnet specs are the 38% split that rrg.rev.eth will operate, and the autominted tokens. RRG can play a part in reorienting priorities using the split in order to stimulate some desired behavior, and can reasonably expect the autominted token holders to act in the best interest of the network's growth.
Footnotes
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Other recent examples: the gig economy, DAOs, and remote work. ↩
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Uniswap raises funds and employs developers under the for-profit Uniswap Labs, but the Uniswap protocol is governed by $UNI token voting. The competing interests of token holders and Uniswap Labs have led to a number of controversial decisions over Uniswap's fee switch, source code licensing, and cross-chain deployments. Other projects have faced similar controversies when the interests of token holders and developers have diverged. ↩