Epik Protocol, as we know by now, is the world’s first decentralized data storage platform that capitalizes on the unique mechanism of artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure that only quality data are constantly being given out. In order to realize this goal and as part of its governance strategy, Epik has brought in skilled players/participants that not only contribute to its knowledge pool but also contribute to key decisions that propel the protocol in the right trajectory. These participants include Bounty hunters, Domain experts, Knowledge nodes, and Knowledge gateway. These, coupled with Epik's unique governance system, ultimately help it realize its goal of a fair and decentralized AI-based data storage protocol on blockchain.
HIGHLIGHT ON THE MAJOR BUILDING BLOCKS OF EPIK PROTOCOL
In order to build a protocol that will be accepted by users on the Blockchain industry, it was pertinent that Epik should base its structure on trusted capabilities. To this effect, the protocol came up with four trusted capabilities by which its entire structure is built upon. This will ensure that the protocol stays secure while delivering on its promise and that users will enjoy its full benefits. These capabilities are:
i. Trusted governance
ii. Trusted storage
iii. Trusted incentives, and
iv.Trusted finance.
These four factors work in collaboration to ensure that in as much as only quality data is being produced at every point in time, human knowledge is equally being protected and preserved just as the contributors to the knowledge pool are being duly rewarded. Also, the cost of running an AI mechanism is being crowd-sourced with the help of the DeFi system, making it a win-win situation for all the parties involved.
EPIK’S TRUSTED GOVERNANCE
In order to enable the protocol operate fairly, Epik has employed Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) technology in its governance. This is the body that is involved in the smooth running of any organization operating on the Blockchain industry.
HOW DOES DAO WORKS?
As the name implies, Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governance ensures that different parties are involved in the running of a community on the Blockchain industry. DAO runs on the Blockchain’s smart contract, meaning that, for every redress you seek, you will need to send in a proposal.
This proposal or vote or whatever action you need taken is being recorded and stored as when submitted so that there is no case of an unattended or neglected request. This way every member of the community gets to monitor the progress of their request and take action when needed.
So basically, DAO uses codes in ensuring that rules are adhered to and that data are not being tampered with. This leads to the seamless running of activities within the organization. In cases where issues arise, the system resolves them with the help of eligible users who have been given voting right to cast votes that determine what approach will best solve the problem. This act on its own is one that promotes a community interest as different individuals with different opinions are involved in the decision-making process. So everyone gets to have a say on what works.
One major advantage of employing DAO in the governance of Epik is that it reduces the cost on a lot of things such as cost of:
1. Monitoring/evaluation of results.
2. Appealing to a third party.
3. Manual counting.
4. Enforcement of rules which in normal circumstances, would be capital intensive.
THE GOAL OF EPIK’S TRUSTED GOVERNANCE
The main objective of the trusted governance is to ensure that the protocol runs as smoothly as possible. By this, we mean that, Epik is poised with the responsibility of ensuring that only relevant data are being given out when needed. To achieve this, the protocol builds on its vision of harnessing human knowledge in various industries at a low cost thereby facilitating a robust AI system which is not limited by poor funding. By putting the governance in place, mismatch of resources is inhibited, and for the next five decades, it can be certain that any new release of the platform’s token (EPK) is utilized at only relevant places at every given point in time.
This set up will make it easy for users to conveniently participate in key decision-making process that will enhance the knowledge graph by way of casting their votes in issues that interest them.
DOES EPIK GOVERNANCE ELIMINATE ISSUES IN ITS TOTALITY?
Any community, be it on or off the Blockchain, will most definitely encounter some issues at some point. That is why governance is put in place to curtail this. Let me quickly add here that governance resolves these potential issues indirectly by providing the community members with tools that solve the problem.
With this in mind, Epik protocol has developed two methods by which issues can be resolved internally to facilitate a smooth running of the protocol. They are:
1. Principle of information disclosure.
2. Interest relevance principle.
The principle of information disclosure is basically that of DAO governance which we have already discussed above.
The interest relevance principle ensures that you only vote on issues that are of importance to you. This means that the more a proposal is relevant to you, the greater your voting power and vice versa.
COMPONENTS OF EPIK’S DAO GOVERNANCE
The Epik’s DAO governance is composed of four parts viz:
1. Proposals
2. Votes
3. Arbitration
4. Awards
Let's discuss these in detail below
Proposals
This is the major way by which a DAO governed community brings about a change in its governance. Since Epik protocol is a decentralized community, it is therefore obvious that users may want to send in proposals at will, even when they may not be necessary. To curtail this and to also ensure that the community is not over-clogged with proposals, certain measures have been put in place to check this.
The first checkmate policy is that every proposal cost 99 EPK and this token is immediately destroyed once the transaction is activated. This alone will ensure that users tender only relevant proposals. Apart from this, the system has ensured that no two similar proposals are submitted at the same time. Furthermore, every submitted proposal stays valid for five days after which it disappears and the number of proposal that is broadcast at any given time does not go beyond five proposals.
Also, for ease of submission and as a way of addressing diverse needs, the proposals have further been divided into three sub-categories namely:
i. Referendum proposal
ii. Storage ecology proposal, and
iii. Knowledge ecology proposal
Each of these proposal has a template to guide users in airing out their opinions in a lucid manner. The referendum proposal addresses the issues below amongst others:
Set the minimum number of votes needed to activate a domain expert from the default of 100,000 votes is required.
Set the amount of EPK required for the basic deposit of the knowledge node from the default of 1,000 EPK
Set the penalty of reactivating a punished domain expert when they nominate a bad domain expert from the default 25,000 votes
Set the ratio for allocating new EPK output from the initial 75% for knowledge node, 9% for domain expert, 1% for governance vote and 15% for knowledge fun + Access fund.
Set a lockup period needed in applying for a withdrawal of access deposit form the default of three days.
The storage ecology proposal also has its templates which include:
Setting the average number of blocks a Tipset can contain from the default 5
Setting the maximum number of nodes needed by newly stored files to obtain double computing power from the default 100.
Block domain experts who make the entire data contributed invalid through illegal upload of junk data. This entry has no default setting or requirement.
For the knowledge ecology proposal, the following templates can be used:
Set weight calculation method of domain experts from the default three times
Changing the domain expert owner to prevent a situation of the domain expert forgetting the private key.
Set the standard time needed to change the domain expert owner from the three days default setting.
Block domain experts who make the entire data contributed invalid through illegal upload of junk data. This entry has no default setting or requirement.
Set the activation threshold of domain expert contribution value from the default setting of 10.
As earlier mentioned, this templates are to guide users submit proposals that are precise and easy to understand. So what basically happens during the proposal submission process is that you select the category you wish to make the proposal on. Then you choose the template that corresponds with the issue you need a redress and tick all the items that you wish to see a change. Upon completion, you will attach your transaction fee of 99 EPK for the proposal to be submitted and broadcasted for the entire network to see.
Votes
Just like in the case of proposals, participating in the voting process is sub-grouped into three:
*. Referendum proposal
**. Storage ecology proposal, and
***. Knowledge ecology proposal
The Referendum Proposal
This proposal mainly affect EPK holders because it directly affect the amount of EPK in circulation across the network. So in this case, holders of the protocol’s token will have a greater voting power than non-holders. Even among EP holders, their voting power vary and this can be determine using the formula below:
Weight(i) = LockedEPKForReferendum(ii)
By way of explanation, the voting power of token increases in direct proportion to the amount of token they have locked away for a set period of time. The higher the amount of EPK locked away, the greater the voting power.
Holders can only access these locked tokens once the set period has elapsed. The reason for locking away some tokens is to prevent the excessive amount of EPK in circulation which may influence the voting process in a wrong way. But for users who are able to lock their tokens away for the set period without applying for a withdrawal, they get to benefit from the governance rewards which comes with process.
Storage Ecology Proposal
This proposal concerns the knowledge nodes. So, depending on the computing power of the knowledge node, they get to be among the top knowledge node. In essence, the ability of a knowledge node to compute new and relevant data within a given time frame or less will earn them double computing power. This invariably means that knowledge nodes with a double computing power will earn more income than those without. In this case the distribution of voting power among them will follow the formula:
Weight(i) = RawBytePower(i)
Stemming from the above formula, it can be seen that the voting power of each knowledge node is in direct proportion to their original computing ability. The weight of the vote is equal to the original computing power of the node. However, in cases where the knowledge node gets rewarded with a double computing power for due computation new files, this additional power does not affect the original computing ability, rather it gets added to the effective computing power.
As regards to voting, the storage ecology proposal allows knowledge nodes to participate in voting at no additional cost to them. By implication, it means that they do not get to benefit from any governance rewards as is obtainable in the referendum proposal.
Knowledge Ecology Proposal
This proposal involves only the knowledge data producers. A proposal such as setting the method by which to calculate the weight of a domain expert will affect how rewards are being distributed among them based on their contribution to the knowledge graph.
You may be wondering why this proposal does not involve the bounty hunter as well since they eqally contribute to the knowledge pool. But just so you know, bounty hunters are token holders whereas the domain experts are being elected by the bounty hunters. Since the domain experts are directly involved in the computing of data into the knowledge graph, they are given the voting rights to boost efficiency of the proposal. The distribution of votes among the domain experts is given by the formula:
Weight(i) = {1 if users(i) is an active domain expert, otherwise 0
This simply means that domain experts are entitled to just one vote. And since they vote at no extra cost, they do not equally benefit from the governance reward
Arbitration
To ensure order in the governance, certain rulings are being put in place to guide every proposal, voting and subsequent implementation. Assuming a voter wishes to change their choice of vote, the arbitration policy gives a five-day period to effect the needed the change.
in order to ascertain that every proposal is duly considered before implementation, Epik DAO has put in place two conditions before any proposal is implemented:
There has to be more than 33% of valid votes on the ballot for every proposal.
There has to be more than 50% of the total vote in the ballot for proposals with the highest votes.
By this, it therefore means that for a referendum proposal, the total number of effective vote is directly proportional to the total amount of token in circulation at the time of the voting. For the storage ecology proposal, the number of effective vote is equal to the sum of all the original computing power of the network in its entirety. In the case of the knowledge ecology proposal, it will require more than 33%of the domain experts to take partake in the voting. And for the result to be implemented, more than 50% of these domain experts need to vote for the same option.
Reward
Here are some quick points you need to know about the reward system
Participants in the storage ecology and knowledge ecology proposals do not benefit from the governance reward as they vote at no additional cost.
Participants in the referendum proposal are required to lockup some EPK for a period of time to gain voting rights.
A Tipset which contains 115.2 EPK newly generated tokens will be generated every 30s.
1% of this newly generated token will be channeled to the governance bonus pool.
This bonus will be shared by both users who participate in the referendum proposal and users who were involved in voting domain experts.
Bonus will be divided into the prize pool for domain expert vote and referendum proposal vote which will further be divided based on the duration for which the EPK was locked up (for the referendum proposal vote).
Application for a withdrawal forfeits one the right to benefit from the governance reward even if you still have some token locked up.
Conclusion
The unique and trusted setup of the Epik governance is one that greatly influences the economic model of the protocol. The success of Epik governance will translate to the success of the economic model. And in the worst case scenario, if the governance fails, which it won't if all rules are being adhered to, then the economic model will collapse as well.
This being the case, it therefore means that every activity which takes place on the protocol is poised to making the governance succeed thereby achieving the mission of the protocol.
With this understanding of how Epik governance works, users are therefore encouraged to not only participate in the knowledge graph but also get involved in the voting process to ensure that they not only enjoy the rewards from the governance bonus pool, but also leave their unique identity on the governance processes.
Visit their official channels below:
Website: https://epik-protocol.io/
Discord: https://discord.gg/Tz6kZbd
Medium: https://epikprotocol.medium.com/