Whitepaper

Abstract

This whitepaper is an introduction to the $00 token, the governance token behind the zerozero DAO project: the leading decentralized community for creator social tokens. This document will introduce the philosophy and context underlying the zerozero ecosystem, expand upon some key concepts at the core of the ecosystem and outline the protocol itself and how it works.

Introduction:

Traditional spheres of influence—from Hollywood to Wall Street to Silicon Valley—are converging more now than ever before, forming a new marketplace with creators, brands and their communities at the center. Social tokens are not just the latest Web3 trend. Social tokens have experienced a meteoric rise over the past year with interest from crypto-natives and Web3 novices alike, breaking through into the mainstream discourse to the point where the power of tokenized communities is now undeniable. This signals a deeper paradigm shift in the culture all around us.

To consider a historical analogy, creators are the new Rockefellers. Not because they are the richest or because they have the largest companies (though some of them do), but rather, because they are the ones mining today’s oil: attention. They have been monetizing and refining attention, transforming it into money, often to extremely lucrative ends.

Today, however, they are not using the optimal tools, often relying on imperfect and antiquated proxies: royalties, merch sales, side businesses and brand endorsements. This is basically the equivalent of using a backhoe and a bucket to mine oil.

By using social tokens, creators, no matter the size of their following, can directly and authentically reward their fans and grow their community. This is why we have built the zerozero ecosystem — to meet this cultural shift head-on and put creators and their communities at the center.

Our Mission & Values:

The zerozero Mission: We empower creators to build and strengthen their communities by providing the Web3 tools needed to unlock value in perpetuity.

Our values are integral to the success of the zerozero DAO. They include:

1. We believe in communities: Communities are the heart of the creator economy. All communities are welcome, no matter their size, provided that they operate respectfully, fairly and equitably. 
2. We believe in culture: We believe in the priceless value of connection, relationships and people, in culture in all of its forms across the world. 
3. We believe in transparency: The zerozero DAO will be building its ecosystem publicly, documenting every decision and discussion. Everything will be openly shared with the community.‍
4. We believe in world-building: The zerozero DAO allows for creators to build their world in Web3 alongside their community. We strive for natural, organic and sustainable growth for all ecosystems we enable. We also value community members that bring long-lasting value to all creator ecosystems as well as our own.

Part I - Key concepts

What is the zerozero Ecosystem?

We believe that social tokens represent the future of the creator economy. By using social tokens, creators, no matter the size of their following, can directly and authentically reward their fans and grow their community. 

The zerozero ecosystem is a network of Web3 organizations that work to empower creators and brands to build tokenized communities, in order to grow them, expand their influence and reach new audiences. Taken together, the constituent elements of the zerozero ecosystem provide creators and brands with the tools to help them achieve meaningful relationships with their communities through their own creator tokens. Creators and brands do not need to launch tokens with P00LS  to participate in the zerozero ecosystem. The primary constituent elements of the zerozero ecosystem are:

• The zerozero Foundation
• The zerozero DAO
• The w4t3r Foundation
• Creators
• Creator tokens
• Creator DAOs
• Creator Communities

What is a creator?

We take creators to mean artists, musicians, athletes, influencers, curators, tastemakers and brands. The rise of technology and distributed networks has enabled anyone to become a creator and share their passion with a devoted community. Today, creators have eclipsed big tech as the cultural leaders of this digital age. The problem they face is the lack of the optimal tools to harness their power, build their communities and create lasting value for their followings.

What is a creator token?

A core tenet of the zerozero ecosystem is that there is an inherent value in connection, relationships, community, culture, time, attention, energy and identity. Creator tokens, also called social tokens, are units of value associated with a given creator that can be used to reflect and grow that creator’s influence.  

Creator tokens are the primary tool for accessing a creator’s universe, bringing communities closer together through unique content and experiences. From backstage access to shows, exclusive content, discounts on merchandise, invitations to events, newsletters or private Discord servers. The access afforded by creator tokens for each creator or brand will look different according to what resonates most powerfully with their community. All creator tokens in the zerozero DAO ecosystem are ERC-20 tokens, the standard token type for Ethereum-based tokens. This means every creator token is fully integrated into the Ethereum ecosystem and its decentralized applications.

What is P00LS? 

P00LS is the leading community-first platform for creator tokens and a key player within the zerozero ecosystem. P00LS partners with creators and brands to help them launch tokenized communities, while providing them with the tools for building and strengthening these communities. From the earning launchpad, which distributes tokens to consumers through custom content, to creator worlds, a centralized hub where token holders can interact more deeply with creators, authenticity is at the core of each and every community built on P00LS. 

Its key place in the zerozero ecosystem means that P00LS exposes creators on the platform to the zerozero DAO, which enables decentralized governance for creator tokens in the zerozero ecosystem.

P00LS was the initial developer of the $00 token and contributed the related code for the $00 token to the zerozero Foundation.  

What is a DAO?

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is a crypto protocol whose governance is managed by its members. In the case of the zerozero ecosystem, all of the protocol token holders (which is to say holders of $00) have a say in its governance. In practice, this means that all token holders can both submit proposals to the community and vote on any submitted proposal. The protocol’s governance is decentralized, meaning no one entity calls the shots and decisions are made by a collective rather than a single entity.

This is critical to building and managing a globally dispersed community—and therefore critical to the success of the zerozero DAO. The zerozero DAO protocol fosters a rich and active ecosystem of projects around creators and their communities in several key ways (discussed in part II).

What is $00?

The $00 token ($00) is the governance token of the zerozero ecosystem. It is an ERC-20 token that is central to the zerozero ecosystem. It serves as a governance token on the zerozero DAO. 

Please refer to Part III for more information about the $00 token. 

Part II - The zerozero DAO

What is the zerozero DAO?

Think of the zerozero DAO as the cornerstone for all creator communities. Through the zerozero DAO, creator currencies are brought to life and sustained by their members. The zerozero DAO underpins our entire ecosystem, granting members a key into every creator world. The DAO is made up of all $00 token holders and has authority over the Ecosystem Fund, a treasury of $00 tokens and protocol fees generated by P00LS.

What is the Ecosystem Fund?

The zerozero DAO controls an Ecosystem Fund, which is composed of:

• A treasury of $00 tokens (15% of the total supply)
• A share of all creator coins in the zerozero ecosystem
• All protocol fees generated by P00LS

This Ecosystem Fund is managed by the zerozero DAO and $00 token holders, who will decide on disbursements at their discretion; for instance, to grant tokens to projects that could potentially benefit the ecosystem, or to creators to incentivize them to join the zerozero ecosystem.

The zerozero Foundation

The zerozero Foundation is the steward of the zerozero DAO. Its sole purpose is to execute the $00 tokenholder community’s decisions. 

The goal of the zerozero Foundation is to steward the growth and development of the zerozero ecosystem in a fair and inclusive way. It utilizes the Ecosystem Fund, and directs funds as instructed by the zerozero DAO. It also provides an infrastructure for zerozero holders to collaborate through open and permissionless governance processes.

The Foundation facilitates decentralized and community-led governance. It is tasked with administering the decisions of the zerozero DAO, and is responsible for day-to-day administration, bookkeeping, project management and other tasks that ensure the DAO community’s ideas have the support they need.

Part III - The $00 token

The $00 token is an ERC-20 token minted on the Ethereum blockchain that works as a governance and access token for the zerozero DAO and its ecosystem. 

As the open-source protocol layer of the ecosystem, the $00 token serves several purposes:

Governance

$00 token holders have voting power in the zerozero DAO, and by extension authority over the p00ls protocol.

Ecosystem Fund

$00 token holders decide how to use the Ecosystem Fund through token-weighted votes.

Access

The $00 token is the underlying token of the zerozero Ecosystem giving access to a series of relevant tools and content for creators and their communities.

The total supply for zerozero is permanently fixed at 1,000,000,000 tokens.

In line with standard practice, a portion of the tokens for contributors to the zerozero ecosystem will be initially locked and will be released over time, as long as the contributor continues to provide services to the ecosystem. Locked tokens provide contributors with an incentive to keep contributing to the zerozero ecosystem.

$00 tokens will be distributed among five main groups, as detailed in the graph below.

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1. Users: 20% of the supply will be distributed to users of the P00LS platform 
2. Creators: 20% of the supply will be allocated to creators to incentivize them to join the zerozero ecosystem. These tokens will be subject to lockup and vesting restrictions.
3. Investors: 25% of the supply will be allocated to the P00LS investors that allowed the project to start and P00LS to build the zerozero DAO. These tokens will be locked up for one year following token launch, and then will become freely tradeable over the next three years.
4. Team: 20% of the supply will be allocated to the P00LS team that has been working on setting up the zerozero DAO and will help manage the zerozero ecosystem. These tokens will be subject to lockup and vesting restrictions.

Ecosystem Fund: 15% of the total supply will be allocated to the DAO for the community to manage as they see fit.

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Conclusion

The launch of the $00 token and the zerozero DAO marks the inception of the zerozero ecosystem, comprising P00LS, all creator tokens, the Foundation and DAO and as time goes on, many more products, protocols and communities.

*The zerozero DEX has been deprecated in 2023

The zerozero ecosystem is built on the same shared belief among all participants, creators, contributors and community members. This is the conviction that the power of tokenized communities is undeniable. This power will be the primary engine to drive the burgeoning creator economy to reach its full potential. Together, we are building the tools for anyone with the desire to construct an autonomous economy around their creativity— to engage, reward, build and create better together.