$ZENPAY

How it Works

zenPAY platform tokens ($ZENPAY) have three prongs of functionality within the zenPay protocol ecosystem:

• Security

• Feature Access

• Governance

zenPay is staked as collateral for a value-added service such as operating a node or participating in governance. In exchange, stakers earn ongoing issuance, governance weight, and access to exclusive features. In the future, $ZENPAY will govern a global fee pool from value transfers in the network.Offering a native token to align all actors creates a parallel incentive unique to web3, and one which allows our early adopters to share in the upside of zenPAY as we continue to grow.

The community of zenPAY through its checkoutDAO automatically issues tokens via a smart contract to contributors of the network based on defined contributions to the protocol, the network, and the community; rather than simply to those staking the most $ZENPAY. Here’s how this pans out in practice.

A merchant using zenPAY contributes its transactions to the network. zenPay is able to create financial value from aggregating transactions that result in revenue for the protocol. As this revenue goes into the protocol treasury (checkoutDAO), the smart contract issues an equivalent $ZENPAY token back to the merchant for their contribution.

A builder contributes new applications and customizations to the protocol of zenPAY or to specific merchants looking to implement their business logic requirements. The builder can then propose either an ongoing pay-per use charge access to its contribution or it can also deploy an on-chain agreement with the merchant in order to build the required application/customization for the merchant and get paid when the contribution is delivered to the merchant in our open-work board where all community members have access to.

A community member that helps the protocol grow and reach new merchants or builders into the network and protocol, receives a bounty-based reward in the form of $ZENPAY tokens from the checkouDAO. These rewards can be ongoing or one-time depending on the contribution itself or agreement with the community.

The zenPAY community looks to ensure that $ZENPAY tokens are always being funneled to the most value-added actors. This is done through ongoing issuance using onchain metrics as a measurement to better route distribution to active participants, rather than simply to those staking the most $ZENPAY.

Here’s how this pans out in practice.

SECURITY

$ZENPAY is staked by node operators to secure the network. The larger the stake, the higher the probability of their node being used by consumers and merchants. ZenPay is entirely hosted and operated by the community, creating a permissionless ecosystem of node operators securing content for the world’s unstoppable open-payment protocol.

FEATURE ACCESS

ZenPay serves as collateral to unlock additional tooling for merchants and features for consumers. Early examples incubated by the community include order NFTs, badges, and loyalty multipliers. In the future, consumers may delegate $ZENPAY to specific merchants and curators to share in their growth on the platform.

GOVERNANCE

Any $ZENPAY staked within zenPay is assigned governance weight, used to shape future iterations of the protocol. Every aspect of zenPay is governable, starting with one token staked equal to one vote. We envision governance to focus on operator incentives at inception, with the ambition for even passive consumers or merchants to voice their opinion over product updates and feature upgrades too.The choice to offer ongoing issuance aligns power with those who are continually the most active on the platform, a mechanism zenPay believes better suits future users of the protocol.

The ecosystem of zenPay works together on the mission to make commerce more accessible to anyone around the world by continuously helping grow the open commerce stack.