Presenting the District Registry

A curated list for decentralized marketplaces and communities

More than two years ago, we published a blog post introducing our plans for the core design for The District Registry. At the time, token curated registries (TCR) were still a new and untested concept, with many open unanswered questions about their operation. Fast forward to current time, and both within the district0x project and certainly in the cryptocurrency space at large, we’ve seen a number of examples of TCRs working in a variety of schemes. Today, we are thrilled to add to that history with the launch of our newest dApp, the District Registry, which will house all future districts on the district0x network, and serve as the hub through which all governance processes surrounding the operation of those districts is conducted.

https://registry.district0x.io/

What is it?

The District Registry is a TCR utilizing the district0x Network Token (DNT) in an incentivized community voting game, determining which marketplaces are in the district0x network, and which aren’t. Voters risk nothing, but are incentivized to be right, while district creators and challengers are putting their DNT at risk of loss to the winning side. On the registry voting side, it’s similar to the DANK registry from Meme Factory.

Submissions for new districts are permissionless, requiring only some relevant identifying information (a website, logo, twitter handle, etc.) and a bit of DNT to get started. However, unlike Meme Factory, a submission to the District Registry is open to challenge at any time.

When districts enter the registry, an Aragon entity is automatically spun up according to the name provided. This entity acts as the surrogate for all governance activity. Through the District Registry interface, DNT holders can stake DNT to any active district, and in doing so, receive voting rights to participate in polls conducted on that particular district’s Aragon entity. These voting rights are minted in proportion to a mathematical “curve”, which the district’s creator selects during the submission process. In the future, the app will support more complex curves to enable even more unique organizational structures.

In short, the District Registry allows DNT holders to put their tokens to work in both policing and governing the network of marketplaces being built in the district0x ecosystem.

How do I use it?

The District Registry is like any other web3 dApp. You’ll need a metamask account, or an equivalent web3 compatible wallet. You’ll also need some DNT to get started, and a small amount of ETH to cover any network transaction fees.

The application is really simple. The home page is a searchable list of districts that were submitted to the registry, in one of three states — “In Registry”, “Challenged”, and “Blacklisted”. Users can scroll through any of the non-blacklisted districts, and commit to staking them from this main page.

However, by clicking on a particular district of interest, a user arrives on the district details page. Here, they can get a far more complete picture of the what the district’s purpose is, as well as a full history of staking and unstaking within that district. This is also the place where users access the challenge function, as well as the subsequent vote, reveal, and claim reward functions after a challenge is made.

The complete staking history for a district utilizing the “flat” staking curve. The chart on the top shows the total amount staked to the district over time.

As stated above, submissions are as simple as clicking the “submit” button at the top of any page, filling out all fields, providing a district description, and selecting a couple of options. Once complete, click the submit button at the bottom of the page, and provide the required DNT. When your transaction completes, your new district will now appear live in the “In Registry” filter on the homepage. Congratulations, your district is now live as an Aragon entity!

Additional usability functionality can be found with the “My Account” button. Here, you can see all transaction history associated with the active address. You can also sign up for email updates, which will provide notifications of various activity on the platform such as reminders to return to the site to reveal a vote. You can also download or upload vote secrets, which will allow you to reveal votes on a separate browser or device.

So What’s Next?

Since the inception of the project, all districts brought onto the network have been the creation of an orchestrated effort of service providers according to the original whitepaper. With the launch of the District Registry, we take the first step towards allowing *anyone* with an idea for a marketplace to test the district0x network for what it deems viable.

The District Registry enables a new layer of governance over the marketplaces already on the network. As DNT holders find their way onto the registry and begin staking, new opportunities for these districts to host votes at the Aragon entity level will occur. Furthermore, each district has access to the full range of Aragon-powered apps, enabling a much broader range of organizational management for stakeholders within the district.

A preview of some of the apps and features available to district stakeholders on Aragon

In the future we hope to demonstrate some of the powerful features available to districts in the Registry by running a few initial polls on our existing Districts and their resultant Aragon entities. Disclaimer: entity-level polling serves as a loosely coupled signal, not a binding guarantee of proposed changes. The District Registry helps facilitate this polling, but it’s up to each community of stakeholders to follow any poll results through.

The District Registry avoids rigorous standards around what defines a marketplace currently, but today only marks the beginning. In the future we will use the District Registry as the backdrop for our district creation tool, allowing users to spin up modular marketplaces before submitting them to the registry. This will enable a new wave of users with no software development skills to begin launching and governing marketplaces hand-in-hand with the community. As the ecosystem develops with more supporting services for entries in the Registry, and more mature organizational structures form around established districts, the defining characteristics of what makes a district will take their final form.