Summary
TIP-36 outlines a proposal for TreasureDAO (āTreasureā) to select the ecosystem to build the Treasure Chain. The Treasure Chain, secured by MAGIC, will serve as a settlement layer and enable the development of an end-to-end ecosystem for Treasure as a decentralized gaming network.
Despite the core contributors not running a public request for proposal (RFP) process, Treasure DAO received its first public ecosystem proposal on January 30, 2024 beginning with Optimism and later followed by zkSync and SKALE in order. The core contributor team published a litepaper on February 5, 2024 outlining their vision for the Treasure Chain and highlighted Arbitrum as its ecosystem recommendation.
Ecosystem Proposals (in order of publishing):
This proposal will only select the ecosystem to build the Treasure Chain. A separate proposal will follow at a later date to ratify chain specifications.
*Note: No public proposal was published by the Arbitrum Foundation, but Arbitrum as a recommendation was embedded within the Treasure Infinity Chains litepaper published by the core contributing team.
Rationale
The Treasure Chain represents the next evolution of Treasure to emerge as a decentralized gaming ecosystem. The chain will unlock deeper value accrual for the $MAGIC token and enable new innovations by developers and community through blockspace solely dedicated for the gaming use case.
The chain exploration was started by the core contributing team in full force in late November and coincided with the launch of a new channel in Treasureās public Discord under ā#chain-chatā. Treasure contributors dove into research on chain development while the community engaged in lengthy discussions about the topic.
In order to progress to the next stage of development for the Treasure Chain, the DAO must consider and select an ecosystem with which to partner. Several considerations need to be factored into making an ecosystem decision, including:
- Technology capabilities
- Access to distribution and liquidity
- Reputation and influence
- Ease of migration
Here we attempt to briefly describe the key considerations listed above. We invite readers to review each of the received ecosystem proposals posted separately.
Technology Capabilities
Ethereum scaling efforts have adopted a variety of approaches. The core contributors primarily considered rollups rather than sidechains. We spent a long time deliberating between a Layer 2 (L2) chain that settles onto Ethereum or a Layer 3 (L3) chain settling on Arbitrum One. L2s and L3s are highly customizable in regards to throughput, privacy, gas tokens, governance, data availability layers, and more. However, some rollup networks permit more customization than others. Optimismās Superchain design, for example, aims to foster interoperability between chains, but this approach precludes custom design decisions by specific chains regarding data availability and gas tokens in order to maintain standardization across the Superchain. Arbitrum and zkSync, on the other hand, permit more flexibility for individual chains in the network.
Access to Distribution & Liquidity
Treasureās decision to build its own chain was contingent on having first established a strong base of liquidity and user activity on Arbitrum One. The core contributors believed that moving to our own chain should happen at a time when we began experiencing enough activity to justify our own blockspace. Since 2021, Treasure has amassed a strong, loyal community of players and developers. MAGIC has strong liquidity on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. Nevertheless, the chain decision should depend in part on the liquidity and user base across the larger rollup network. In the case of Arbitrum, a Treasure chain would maintain a strong connection to L1 liquidity, Arbitrum One, and Nova. Optimism chains enjoy connections to the OP Mainnet, Base, and Zora.
Reputation & Influence
With Treasureās long history building upon Arbitrum and serving as the single largest delegate in Arbitrum DAO at the time of writing, the community should weigh the opportunity cost of relinquishing this position by leaving the Arbitrum network. It is unknown whether Treasure can achieve similar influence elsewhere. At the same time, maintaining Treasureās position within Arbitrum DAO is not without its challenges. Remaining an active, engaged delegate is a significant time commitment and reputational responsibility. The DAO recently formed the Treasureās Arbitrum Council to help scale this function and serve Treasureās best interests within Arbitrum DAO.
Ease of Migration
Given Treasureās long history on Arbitrum One, a significant amount of smart contracts, tooling, state, and assets will need to undergo migration. The ecosystem should make it as easy as possible for users/players, developers, and other builders to migrate to the new Treasure Chain and provide meaningful support to facilitate a smooth and effortless transition. Remaining within Arbitrum as Treasureās existing underlying ecosystem from a player and developer perspective would be the least disruptive move compared to other networks.
Proposal
Select the ecosystem to build the Treasure Chain:
- Optimism
- zkSync
- SKALE
- Arbitrum
A separate proposal will follow at a later date to ratify chain specifications such as the configurable chain components, DAC membership (if built atop Arbitrum Orbit using AnyTrust), $MAGIC burn mechanics, etc.
Voting Period
Voting commences now, ending Wednesday, Feburary 21, 2024 at 16:30 UTC (unix timestamp: 1708504200 - copy and paste here to see local time).
Voting Eligibility
- Only holders of MAGIC staked in the Harvesters or the TreasureDAO Governance Staking contract, and MAGIC-ETH SLP on Arbitrum can vote.
- gMAGIC will be calculated on a 1:1 basis across all options
- gMAGIC changes via TIP-34 have not yet been implemented
