State and Scale of the Token Ecosystem

If we want to properly evaluate Web3 projects, safely manage portfolios, provide trusted disclosures across the ecosystem, and make the most of our dApps, then we need accurate reference data for tokens built on Ethereum. That means accurate and accessible information around token sale mechanics, token distributions, vesting schedules, lockup schedules, project team members, and more.

According to CoinMarketCap, there are currently over 1,000 active tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. However, there are no trusted, machine-readable, and institutional-grade sources for critical data about tokens. What information does exist is in disparate and largely unstructured sources such as whitepapers, websites, blog posts, exchanges, marketing collateral, and reddit threads. Finding definitive answers about the name of a project, the people involved, and where the company is from can be time-consuming. Finding more complex answers about token mechanics and the regulatory entities that a company is operating under can be near impossible.

It’s time for our ecosystem to develop a baseline of truth about our emerging token economy, if we are to realize its promise.

The Opportunity: A Crowdsourced Dataset

Here’s the irony: blockchain technology is all about creating a pristine, shared set of accurate data, yet the blockchain space still needs trusted token data that people can use. If we can build a secure data commons and align incentives in a way that mutualizes the data collecting and cleansing effort across Web3 ecosystem, then the entire community can maintain and access a single, accurate set of data around tokens.

That’s what TruSet is building. Our team of engineers has developed a token data marketplace for the Web3 ecosystem to collect, validate, publish, and commercialize critical token reference data without the intervention of vendors or service providers. The innovation around blockchain enables independent entities to come together on the TruSet platform to crowdsource and crowd-validate the data they need. The Ethereum blockchain’s native payments capabilities also creates the right financial incentives so that those who are maintaining the quality of the data get rewarded for their contributions.

From Alpha to Beta: New Data Model, Private Voting, and Real Rewards

Alpha Takeaways

This past spring, we ran an Alpha program for users to crowdsource reference data about ERC20 token projects in a test environment on the public Ethereum Rinkeby testnet. The Alpha community published information on over 50 public ERC20 tokens and collectively validated the accuracy of that data. The Alpha program was critical in helping the TruSet team prove certain hypotheses around incentives, data record completeness, and voting mechanisms.

Beta: Staged Competitions — $20,000 Worth of ETH in Prizes

In November, TruSet is launching a Beta program that addresses the key learnings from the Alpha and brings TruSet closer to the production launch of our Token Data Platform. The Beta will enable the community to generate a rich and machine-readable token dataset for all of the top tokens by market cap. The dataset will serve as an ecosystem-wide foundation for facts about tokens and token projects.

We’ve made the following enhancements to the TruSet platform for the Beta:

Real rewards. Beta participants will be competing to earn shares of prize pools worth thousands of US dollars worth of ETH. The more you publish and validate on our platform, the bigger your reward will be.

Beta participants will be competing to earn shares of prize pools worth thousands of US dollars worth of ETH. The more you publish and validate on our platform, the bigger your reward will be. Data record completeness. The token data model in the Beta is much more robust and structured into distinct sections that can be published and validated separately. The data collected in our new data model will be the foundation of the TruSet data platform once it launches in production.

The token data model in the Beta is much more robust and structured into distinct sections that can be published and validated separately. The data collected in our new data model will be the foundation of the TruSet data platform once it launches in production. Private voting. Every validation vote is private until the voting period is closed and the results are published. This ensures that every voter votes their own belief, not based on how others are voting.

For the Beta, we are onboarding institutions and individuals who are currently collecting information about tokens, who want to earn money for token research, and who care about creating a trusted, accurate data foundation to help foster the Web3 ecosystem. If this sounds like you, we’d love to have you as a member of our Token Beta Community.

Take a Stake in the Data

Accelerating token economies and getting to Web3 is a community-wide effort that will require active participation from users across the ecosystem. There is no better way to realize Web3 than to use it and contribute to it. Some of us at ConsenSys have taken the initiative to try a new dApp every week as a show of commitment to Web3.

So explore with us: download MetaMask, test-drive some live Ethereum dApps, create a project on the Bounties Network, read technical docs on Kauri. And work with others in the TruSet community to build and maintain the token dataset that our ecosystem needs.

Excitingly, the TruSet team has developed a way to use the very innovation of the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate and reward the community for establishing a single source of truth about blockchain-based token projects. By rewarding the Web3 community for establishing the facts about what’s been built, launched, traded, swapped, and so forth, we believe we can clear the way for teams to keep building, and for more innovative products to come to market.

Visit truset.com to learn more about our platform and follow us at @TruSetData to stay updated on our Beta.