What you see

Request is a network that allows anyone to simply create, share or fulfil a request for payment.

When creating a request for payment, the user defines to which address the payment request needs to be allocated to and what the amount due is. Optionally, the user can define terms and conditions to the payment request, upgrading the simple request for payment into an invoice. After creation the user can share this request for payment/invoice, to make sure it’s paid by the other party. All these steps are documented and stored on the Request network, allowing everyone involved to easily keep track of their invoices, receipts and payments for (personal) accounting purposes.

Seems pretty simple, right?

What is happening in the background

In the background, there is a lot more going on to make it feel this simple. First, as the Request network leverages decentralized networks like Ethereum and IPFS for increased security, privacy and data ownership for the user, minor fees are required at each step in the process. This cost is often referred to as transaction fees; a cost required to broadcast a change to the blockchain network (like Ethereum, which Request uses). Transaction fees are used to incentivize operators (miners) of the blockchain to reach consensus on the state of the network, making sure data is consistent and trustless.

When creating a payment request using Request, an additional fee is required when broadcasting the payment request to the network. Upon broadcasting, this fee is sent to a smart contract called “Burner” on Ethereum, collecting all fees paid to create requests.

By calling a function on the smart contract, these collected ETH fees are periodically swapped into REQ tokens using an on-chain liquidity protocol called Kyber Network. Simultaneous to swapping ETH into REQ, the smart contract transfers the total amount of REQ tokens towards the Ethereum genesis address. This practically deduces this amount of REQ from the total supply, as no one will ever be able to gain access to this address.

That’s cool. What does a token bring to the network?