AirSwap is a decentralized exchange platform that implements the Swap protocol, a peer-to-peer protocol for trading Ethereum-based (ERC20) tokens. The AirSwap Token (AST) will be a fundamental part of the AirSwap Platform.

The overarching goal of AirSwap is to reduce friction and increase efficiency in the token trading process through the services provided by the AirSwap Index and Oracle. The AirSwap Index enables traders to discover each other by either announcing “intent to trade” or by searching for others who have already made themselves discoverable. The AirSwap Oracle provides pricing data and makes it easier to price and check the prices of trades.

Going forward, we aim to develop the Index into a premiere asset listing service for peer-to-peer traders, and to enable third-party Oracles to provide data services to the trading environment.

For more information on Indexers and Oracles, please see the Swap whitepaper.

AST

AST is intended to provide two utilities. First, holding AST will give traders the ability to add their “intent to trade” to the Index. This effectively signals to peers their intent to buy or sell specific Ethereum-based tokens. Second, AST gives traders voting power to manage the roles of Oracles within the platform.

Index Utility

In order for a trader to add intent to the Index, he or she must have “locked” a specific balance of AST (the “Lock Amount”) for a specified amount of time (the “Lock Period”) on the AST smart contract. Initially, the Lock Amount will be set at 100 AST. This will allow a trader to make 10 additions to the Index during each Lock Period, which we plan to set at 7 days. After those 7 days, the 10 additions obtained by locking AST will expire and the tokens can then be unlocked by the owner.

On October 10, 2017, the date of the AST token sale, 100 AST will be equal to 0.1 ETH (1 AST = 0.001 ETH). To lock a balance of AST, a trader will execute an Ethereum transaction utilizing the AST smart contract.

As specified in the Swap whitepaper, each addition to the Index includes information about the tokens a trader would like to trade. Additions to the Index expire after 7 days. The Lock Amount is subject to change at the discretion of AirSwap, though, ultimately we aim for the Lock Amount to be managed by an Oracle voting mechanism, described in detail below.

Important considerations

AST will not be burned. AST is simply locked and unlocked as defined above. Note that searching the Index is free. This allows anyone, including people who do not hold AST, to find and trade with counterparties who are listed on the Index.

For example, if the Index and its listings are publicly available–such as on a third-party website–anyone, regardless of their AST holdings, can search those listings and subsequently connect to trade with a selected counterparty.

Oracle Voting Utility

AirSwap plans to support one or more “Oracles” to provide information to help trading parties to make educated pricing decisions. When presenting at Ethereum meetups around the world and through our community channels, we received consistent feedback that these Oracles need to be deployed in a fair and transparent way.

We are incorporating this feedback, and we are implementing functionality where AST holders will be able to vote on the roles of each Oracle. Precise roles are still in development, voting mechanisms and processes of such Oracles, so details are not yet final. We expect to weigh voting, at least in part, based on each voter’s total AST holdings.

Oracle Examples

Our initial plan is to deploy the following AST-based voting mechanisms for our Oracles:

Lock Amount: We plan to implement an Oracle to manage the number of tokens that constitute the Lock Amount, and to allow AST holders to vote on changes to the Lock Amount. At a time interval matching the Lock Period, AST holders will be able to vote on changes to the Lock Amount (the “Lock Amount Change”).

At the outset, we plan to cap the magnitude of any Lock Amount Change at + or — 10 AST during any Lock Period. For example, on day 1, if the Lock Amount is 100 AST, then AST holders could vote to set the Lock Amount for the next Lock Period at between 90 and 110 AST.

We may implement a mechanism to allow a supermajority vote (>80%) to change the Lock Amount in either direction by more than 10.

Pricing Data: AST may be used to vote on which primary Oracle is being used within the AirSwap Platform to make price suggestions for a given token pair.

AST may be used to vote on which primary Oracle is being used within the AirSwap Platform to make price suggestions for a given token pair. Whitelist: AST may be used to vote on which tokens we will whitelist for trading within the AirSwap Platform.

A Path Forward

We believe that the Index will become a key component of the forthcoming token economy and that Oracle voting will bring the best pricing data and rules to the forefront. The AST is essential to the success of the AirSwap platform both through utility and governance. We look forward to building this new ecosystem with you. Stay in touch with AirSwap by joining our official channel on Telegram at https://t.me/airswapofficial and following us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/airswap.

Disclaimer

We will test these AST utilities as described above. As with many others in the ecosystem, our aim is decentralization and we will attempt to get there with the above methods. However, we may have to iterate and change our design and the above descriptions are subject to change by the team and community.

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