Power to the Creators: Freeos

This article is part of an ongoing series highlighting the movers and shakers; individuals who are making extraordinary contributions to the growth of the Proton blockchain–whether by adding tokens to the chain, creating products, or just offering their stalwart support. This installment features Jerome Kelsey, the Founder of Freeos on the Proton blockchain.

Freeos is a project intended to supplement the income of individuals through a system that rewards responsible stewardship. The $Freeos token is earned by completing various tasks: such as online surveys; voting concerning matters such as governance; determining percentage rates of inflation; and token burn fees. To kick start the Freeos economy, they launched a series of airdrops or AirClaim(s) (as Freeos calls it), which is being sent to the Proton account of anyone who joins AirClaim on their website.

Dan: Hello, Jerome! I’m really excited to have you here on Proton MT to feature your company and project Freeos. How did you come up with the idea for Freeos?

Jerome K: Hi Dan! It’s fantastic to be here, and I have to say I’m impressed with the support you are providing to the ecosystem. The concept of a democratically-run economic system originated from an idea that simply popped into my mind in March 2018. [This was] not long after I had done some early development tutorials for Ethereum. My subconscious seemed to be mulling over ideas that would fit the unique characteristics of blockchain. Around this time, I was also thinking about the upcoming EOS platform and the advantages that it could bring [to Freeos]. The democratic aspects of DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) and the early focus on governance made EOS seem like a perfect fit [for us].

Since this new concept was providing access to tokens for governance, it seemed like a new take on Universal Basic Income. But [this] income was conditioned upon some economic stewardship. The financial freedom aspect of this project also made us think of “free” (as in freedom + EOS). Thus the name “Freeos” was born.

Dan: What made your Freeos group decide to use the Proton blockchain instead of the EOS blockchain?

Jerome: We decided against EOS + Liquidapps because we didn’t want to add additional layers of complexity that might break down or require support: including auditing complexity, points of failure, and any bugs. We liked WAX’s ecosystem and Cloud Wallet, but we felt [WAX] didn’t have enough security for countering Sybil Attacks.

This led us to focus more on Proton. We were very impressed by the way the Proton wallet improved upon the Anchor wallet experience for DApp integration; provided free accounts for users; and [it] has KYC built-in (for some jurisdictions).  The [Proton] team is also extremely strong technically and fast in their development progress. The connection with Metal Pay [also] helped assure us that exchanges and access to stablecoins and wrapped tokens would be well underway.

Dan: I noticed Freeos also has a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) component called “FreeDAO.” What is the tokenomics behind it?

Jerome K: Freeos is a project of FreeDAO that is intended to be one of many projects centered around digital commons and tools of cooperation and freedom.  We decided to focus on the economic tool first to help fund future projects and provide economic freedom. FreeDAO [also] receives an additional 7% of the mint after the AirClaim [airdrop is] completed.

Dan: How critical is the crowdsourcing model of governance for UBI (Universal Basic Income) in your Freeos model?

Jerome K: The wisdom-of-the-crowd aspect of Freeos is the core idea of the entire [Freeos] economic system. We liken Freeos to a UBI simply because we intend Freeos to have fairly light conditions [or little requirements] to receive an equitable income. People are becoming familiar with what is a UBI. So, it is an easier way to help explain what Freeos can do for people; [which is to] provide an ongoing, sustainable stream that can supplement people’s income.

Dan: I really like the notion of rewarding online user participation via surveys. But you’ve taken it a step further with Freeos and built a live survey model (into the Freeos governance structure) as a means to get participants’ opinions and for stakeholders to vote. What controls, if any, are in place to prevent people from voting multiple times with different accounts and skewing the results?

Jerome K: We do see this model as being a way to help prevent game-theory style “Prisoner Dilemma” dynamics from playing out [here]. The surveys and dashboard results can help align the community towards a relevant and consensual economic goal–each and every week. We rely on the KYC aspect of the Proton chain to ensure there aren’t any Sybil Attacks on the network by members using multiple accounts.

We are also looking into more decentralized methods of verifying uniqueness and have already created hooks for a potential solution. This can be useful for countries where Proton is unable to verify users via their KYC solutions.

Dan: Please talk a bit about the concept of using a self-managed economy to self-regulate towards a healthy equilibrium. What does this mean?

Jerome K: Once the Governance Phase begins (after the AirClaim), the participants are fully running the economic parameters. They are on the frontlines earning income through their economic stewardship. Of course, each person is motivated by their own self-interest to varying degrees. But the system has been designed around incentives that are intended to keep the price stable, consistent, and regular.

Dan: It has been a great pleasure having you here on this blog. Do you have something you would like to add that was not covered here or any closing comments you would like to give us?

Jerome K: The pleasure is all mine. I really appreciate you taking the time to give our [Freeos] project a moment in the sun, and we appreciate your efforts in serving the Proton ecosystem. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our growing community and subscribers for their patience and support. We had intended and hoped to launch the AirClaim [by now]. [But] extra engineering [was necessary] to help make the system modular [in order] to support future features in the Governance Phase. Extra attention has also been put into security [to ensure] this system starts on a strong foundation. We’re excited and a bit impatient ourselves to have this launched, and so we fully appreciate [everyones’] patience.

If you are curious to see how the AirClaim airdrop Phase initiates the Freeos system, please join www.freeos.io. You can also check out some articles on Medium to dig deeper into Freeos’ philosophies and history.

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