In order to fund the Upland pool, as per the white paper an equal amount of UPX is to be minted on a monthly basis to both the Upland pool and the community pool. As players buy UPX from the store, Uplandme Inc. will receive the fiat money to fund its development and operations, and in return this Upland pool will pay the player the equivalent UPX. As the economy continues to grow, this increase in the Upland pool will ensure that there will always be UPX for you when you wish to purchase from the store. To learn more about these two pools and how they interact between each other, go back to the page explaining the two financial pools.
As of August 2022, Upland has not minted any new UPX to either the Upland pool or the community pool. They have indicated that with the health of the economy, and the wealth of the Upland pool there hasn’t been any need to fund the Upland pool. They are proposing a change to the method by which the Upland pool is to be funded. Beyond that, in the economic update they indicated that they have been monitoring the economy and delaying the need to add additional funds to the Upland pool. Upland’s reasoning behind the proposed change is that this proposed method provides the community the correct foundation needed if Upland is to shift to a more decentralized platform. In addition, Upland has identified that the existing funding method could lead to excess inflation.
Upland’s proposal is that instead of minting UPX to both pools on a monthly basis, to mint UPX only to the community pool. The monthly funding of the Upland pool will be done by payments directly from the community pool. This amendment to the white paper will be put to a community vote.
Upland envisions a future when the community pool will be owned by the community itself. With the future ability to vote on important matters – such as what to do with the community pool itself, this level of decentralization can even enable the community to decide who will operate the platform in the future. As the community, we would need a way to pay that operator. How can we, the community, ensure that further development and features will be added to this platform? This proposed change to how the operator will be compensated will lay the future economic foundation for this type of scenario.
Not only does this proposal address the question – how does the Upland pool get funded, but it also helps to address a second question – is there a need for monetary expansion? With the existing method, every month new UPX is to be minted to both pools, period. If there isn’t any need to inject new UPX into the economy, it will still be done. With the proposed change, since the community pool will directly pay the Upland pool on a monthly basis, if that payment can be made without unnecessarily adding new UPX into the economy, it’s possible to do so. See the flowchart below.
Upland will be putting this proposal to a vote for players to have their say as to how they wish the economy to function. It is important to note that the vote is not about if the Upland pool will be funded, but how it will be funded. Upland will be receiving payment retroactively back to January 2021.
Every month, the Upland pool will receive UPX based on the following factors:
- Number of NFTs minted x 500
- Number of blockchain transactions x 100
- Monthly active users x 2,000
- New users (players who created an account) x 1,000
Upland is under no obligation to put this to a vote for the community to decide. They could have announced unilaterally that changes will be made to the white paper, and that the funding method is to be changed. It’s exciting to see that Upland is democratically involving the community in these types of decisions, and how it views us as stakeholders in the metaverse. At the moment, Uplandme Inc. assumes responsibility for the central bank, yet it is not a position that they wish to hold in the long term. Decisions that they are able to delegate to the community can create a better partnership and strengthen the trust between Uplandme Inc. and the community. We can expect that Upland will continue to assume this responsibility as the central bank to ensure that the game and the economy continues to grow. They have indicated their long term vision is decentralisation, and are currently taking the initial steps to point the metaverse in that direction.
There is no scheduled date regarding a vote on this amendment.