On Ethfinex’s first birthday we reflect on our journey to date, and open voting on our Mission Statement
When Ethfinex was fully launched back in February 2018, it was born out of a desire to create a high functioning, fully decentralised exchange. This ethos extends not only to on-chain trading on the Ethereum blockchain, but also to the ownership and governance of Ethfinex itself.
It’s why we created our Nectar token (NEC), the first round of which was also issued a year ago this week. NEC distributes ownership of Ethfinex proportionally across holders, rewards market-makers for their trading activity, and serves as a way to earn, share and benefit in the growth and prosperity of the exchange.
Critically, our 2,000+ NEC holders also have a significant impact on the governance of Ethfinex, by proposing ideas and voting on the future direction that Ethfinex takes.
Complete decentralisation coupled with advanced functionality was never going to happen overnight, and we know that the past couple of months have been tough for the industry as a whole. But as we turn one, we reflect on the significant strides we have made in our journey together, laying the groundwork to achieve our goal within 2019:
We are what we say
As we rapidly approach our decentralisation destination, you may have noticed some updates to our visual branding that reflect the fluid, evolving nature of Ethfinex (we strongly recommend you read our Creative Director’s blog post here).
And whilst as an organisation, we have all been operating under a common goal, and Ethfinex ‘purpose’, until now we have not put pen to paper to articulate what this means.
In short – we need a Mission Statement.
To truly embody our vision as a decentralised entity with distributed governance, we believe the Ethfinex Mission Statement is not ours to choose. It should be chosen by those who have a stake in its future – you.
Our Mission Statement, your choice
As a team we have whittled the mission statement down to two options we think reflect the Ethfinex spirit and journey, but the final choice is in the hands of our Nectar holders with voting open to the community from today.
Empowering you to lead the financial evolution
Empowering you – in a world where much of our assets and data is held by others, our founding purpose is to place control in the hands of the user. We want everyone who trades with Ethfinex to feel empowered. Empowered by freedom of choice, empowered by knowledge to make informed decisions, and empowered by control of their own assets.
To Lead – part of our promise to you, is that we will continue to trail-blaze with first in market products, giving access to innovation that isn’t developed for innovation’s sake, but with the purpose of putting you in control. Leading also applies to our Nectar token which distributes governance and leadership of Ethfinex to the Nectar community.
The Financial Evolution – we do not claim to be creating the future of finance. We believe cryptocurrencies and blockchain are both necessary and inevitable. It is therefore an evolution, not a revolution. We are proud and excited to be a significant part of this pivotal moment where financial power is transferring to the user, and are doing everything we can to give you the tools to make sure it happens.
We’re here to accelerate the future of finance, putting you in control.
We’re here – much like the dot com boom, in the crypto landscape, exchanges, currencies, tokens and other digital assets come and go. Our commitment to you is that we’re in it for the long haul. In fact, our model of distributed ownership and governance guarantees it.
To accelerate the future of finance – whilst we believe the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital assets is inevitable, we’re here to put a rocket under it. In the past two years we have launched three major contributions (Nectar Token Distribution model; Ethfinex voting token system; Ethfinex Trustless) that have each generated significant momentum to bring us ever closer to a decentralised future. Through our relentless drive for meaningful innovation, we will continue to be a catalyst for financial evolution.
Putting you in control – this isn’t just something that’s important to us ideologically, it’s our business model. There are two main ways in which Ethfinex puts traders in control:
i) Our tools give users the power to make real choices – the choice between advanced order types; the choice between on-chain and off-chain settlement; the choice of which tokens are listed on the platform.
ii) Our business model hands over control to our traders – from day one we haven’t just talked about distributed governance, we’ve acted on it; our Nectar token, will one day completely decentralise ownership of Ethfinex.
A mission statement might seem trivial, but this is an important decision. Clearly articulating our core gives us a yardstick to help measure decisions against (“does this bring us closer to our mission?”), and unites us with a shared set of values as we grow as a team and as a community.
So which Mission Statement will you choose?
Head over to the Nectar Community page to vote now. Voting closes on 22.02.2019 at 12:00 pm UTC, and the result will be revealed on the same day. Anyone who owns a Nectar token or has made a trade on Ethfinex Trustless (before 15.02.19) will be eligible to cast one vote.
We’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for your active participation in Ethfinex over the past year. As is the nature of our business model, we literally couldn’t have done it without you, and can’t wait to see what the next year has in store.
