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Flare Launch Process#

The Flare launch included a rather large airdrop, a community vote, and the deployment of a novel meritocratic consensus system. Because of its complexity, it was divided into a series of sequential phases with clearly-defined triggers that signaled each transition.

The following information was intended to remove any confusion around the launch process by clearly describing the purpose of each phase and what happened in them.

Click on a phase to navigate to its description.

Definitions#

The following definitions make the rest of this page clear and unambiguous.

  • FIP.01: A governance proposal that, among other things, changed the initial token distributions as explained below. This proposal needed to be voted on according to the schedule described in this page.

  • Flare Airdrop for XRP Holders: Certain holders of XRP tokens on Dec 12, 2020, were eligible to register for the FLR token distribution (then called Spark tokens) once the Flare network launched.

    The FIP.01 proposal modified the way in which the airdrop worked.

  • Original Airdrop: 28.53B FLR tokens, which in the original distribution plan went to those who registered for the distribution.

  • New Airdrop: 4.28B FLR tokens destined for those that registered for the distribution.

  • Delegation Incentive Pool (DIP): 24.25B FLR tokens destined for any Flare holder that participated in the network over 36 months as per the FIP.01 distribution plan.

    Note that the New Airdrop plus the DIP match the Original Airdrop.

  • Token Distribution Event (TDE): The moment when the initial $FLR tokens were distributed to those who registered for the $FLR token distribution. These tokens were minted and locked when the network was created, and they were released when it was sufficiently decentralized.

Token Distribution Plans#

The following distribution plans were offered. The FIP.01 Distribution Plan was implemented after FIP.01 was approved.

  • Original Distribution Plan:

    • 15% of the original airdrop would have been sent to those who registered for the $FLR distribution upon the TDE, and the rest would have been delivered monthly over the subsequent 36 months.
    • Inflation would have been 10% of the fully diluted supply, per annum.

  • FIP.01 Distribution Plan:

    • The new airdrop was sent to those who registered for the $FLR distribution upon the TDE, and the DIP was distributed to all $FLR token holders (actually, wrapped $FLR holders) over 36 months. Flare employees and companies were excluded.
    • Inflation is 10% of available supply in the first year, then 7% the following year, 5% the year after and in perpetuity, except that from year 3 onwards inflation is capped at 5bn $FLR per year.
    • Inflation distribution: 70% to FTSO rewards, 20% to validator rewards and 10% to the default Attestation Provider Set of the state connector.

Launch Phases#

Private Observation Mode#

Trigger: The Flare network launches

On July 14, 2022, the network started centralized, with only 21 validators, run by the Flare Foundation.

Flare validator source code was not available yet.

FTSO data providers:

Public Observation Mode#

Trigger: The Flare validator source code becomes publicly available

During this mode, professional validators started onboarding, so the network started to become decentralized.

FTSO data providers:

Initial Distribution Period#

Trigger: 66% of validator power is independent of Flare,
AND
Exchanges agree to distribute the $FLR token to their customers within a few days of the TDE

Token Distribution Event (TDE) happens

The new airdrop was sent to the Flare addresses provided by $XRP token holders when they claimed.

Part of the airdrop went to Exchange accounts, which distributed it to the users that originally claimed (the intended recipients).

During this period, Flare monitored how many of the airdrop tokens reached the intended recipients, by following the Exchange's communication channels.

FTSO data providers:

FTSO and validator rewards were enabled. Inflation was not burned anymore.

FIP.01 Notice Period#

Trigger: 66% of the new airdrop reaches its intended recipients

FIP.01 proposed to modify how the rest of the tokens (after the TDE) would be distributed, so it required the community to vote. Users voted with their $FLR token stake, so voting could not start until enough tokens had reached the intended recipients.

After 66% of the FLR tokens distributed during the TDE reached these users, a 1-week notice period began.

Flare announced to the community that enough tokens were distributed and the notice period had started.

FIP.01 Voting Period#

Trigger: 1 week after Notice Period starts

All $FLR token holders (obtained either from the new airdrop or bought at Exchanges) could vote on FIP.01 using a voting front-end.

Flare announced to the community that the Voting Period had started and relayed instructions about how to vote.

Voting Period lasted 1 week.

Regular Operation (Beta)#

Trigger: FIP.01 is approved after 1 week of voting

The changes proposed in FIP.01 were implemented. The DIP will be distributed to ALL holders of FLR during 37 months.

Flare Beta is still in operation, but community-run validators are gradually gaining more power.

Regular Operation#

Trigger: Community-run FTSO validators are deemed reliable enough

Flare Beta will end.

FTSO validators' validation power is not artificially reduced anymore and validator rewards (20% of inflation) will be distributed equally among all validators according to their performance and stake.