The Complete Guide to TEER Tokens

TEER tokens are pivotal to Integritee’s operation as a decentralized system, serving as a means of incentivizing good behavior, funding operation and development, and bestowing governance rights. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of TEER and how it supports the operation and advancement of Integritee.

If you’re interested in a more detailed explanation of TEER, you can also read the full Integritee Tokenomics paper.

For a system to work well, participants must be motivated to perform activities that are valuable to the running of the system and refrain from behavior that damages it. In decentralized systems, where there is no central authority to arbitrate or exert control, incentive mechanisms are the primary means of ensuring network participants behave in a way that supports the system.

Therefore, the TEER token has been designed to ensure that it incentivizes the fulfillment of Integritee’s objectives as a decentralized system.

TEER Tokenomics 101 – Creating Intrinsic Value

TEER tokens are used to pay fees within the Integritee network. Users who wish to use Integritee for off-chain computation, or to leverage its sidechains will pay fees in TEER.

However, the requirement to pay fees in a potentially volatile cryptocurrency may be off-putting for enterprise or traditional web2 clients. Therefore, Integritee will denominate fees in USD to provide a stable basis for predicting costs.

There will be also the chance to provide services for firms that don’t wish to handle cryptocurrency by allowing them to pay predetermined fees in fiat.

This model ensures to appeal to a broad market of potential enterprise adopters and creates a direct relationship between the value of the Integritee network and the demand for the token. When demand fand the usage of the technology goes up, demand for the token will also rise, conferring intrinsic value on TEER.

The intrinsic value of the TEER token makes it an attractive reward for crowdloan contributors. This was demonstrated in January 2022, when Integritee secured a parachain slot by means of a crowdloan campaign. In time, we will also seek to secure a parachain slot on Polkadot.

The intrinsic value of TEER makes it attractive enough for Integritee’s supporters to bond their KSM or DOT in the crowdloan. In turn, this increases the chances of winning a slot against the competing forces of other parachain bidders vying for KSM and DOT for their own crowdloans and the rewards available from staking directly on Kusama or Polkadot.

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TEER Distribution

10 million TEER tokens were created at genesis, to be distributed as follows:
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TEER Flow

Token Flow Processes

1. Client A pays an intermediary in fiat.
2. Any token holder buys or sells TEER in exchange for FIAT or other cryptocurrencies on the open market.
3. Token holder pays the fee in TEER to access platform services.
4. The fee mechanism calculates the service fee, taking the lockdrop mechanism into account.
5. One fraction of fees is burned, and the remainder is credited to the treasury.
6. Service providers are granted tokens for their proposed work.
7. Supporters are rewarded with TEER for bonding DOT/KSM in support of an Integritee bid.

Fee Mechanism

All fees paid by users are collected in an on-chain treasury, which is dedicated to the ongoing maintenance and operation of the Integritee parachain. Treasury funds can also be used to further the development of the ecosystem and reward community activities. Treasury funds are allocated according to on-chain votes by a governance council.

The fee mechanism comprises three components:

1. Burning: A portion of each fee paid to the treasury is burned, making the TEER token supply deflationary.
2. Lockdrop: A discounted usage fee is granted if a certain amount of TEER tokens are deposited in the enclave wallet (see explanation below.)
3. USD Price Oracle: The USD price oracle keeps the usage of the platform stable in USD and is oriented by the open token market.

How the Lockdrop Incentivizes TEER Distribution

The lockdrop mechanism will be designed to ensure the broad distribution of TEER while also acting as an incentive for infrastructure providers on the network.

The Integritee parachain ecosystem requires three types of infrastructure providers:

• Collators produce parachain blocks and send them to Polkadot or Kusama Relay Chain validators for validation and finalization.
• Off-chain workers (OCWs) run a TEE to perform tasks with confidentiality and/or Integritee, such as oracle services, operations on encrypted storage, and bridges to other blockchains.
• Sidechain validators (SCVs) operate second-layer sidechains. Block production and validation happen in TEEs. Therefore, the validators can trust one another, and the consensus protocol is greatly simplified.

Collators are needed for the availability of the network, so the assumption is that operators have ample incentive to ensure that collators are running. Integritee AG will ensure sufficient availability of collators until there are enough operators to secure full availability independently of Integritee AG.

OCWs and  SCVs are dApp-specific, so Integritee doesn’t incentivize them directly, giving full freedom to dApp developers to implement their own incentive structures for these providers.

However, OCWs and SCVs can obtain fee discounts via the lockdrop mechanism if they lock their TEER tokens. As such, a project can incentivize users with its own token rewards to lock their TEER tokens, so the project benefits from the discounted fees for its use of Integritee. The lockdrop mechanism offers a way of spreading the distribution of TEER to a wide user base, slowing token velocity.

TEER in Governance

TEER holders can participate in the governance process, which is based on coin voting. Holders lock their TEER to be able to cast their vote on matters such as fee adjustments or the election of governance council members, which will determine how treasury funds are spent.‍

Where to Buy and Trade TEER Tokens

Currently, TEER is available to buy with Tether (USDT) for example on Gate.io or MEXC Global . You will need to create an exchange account, undergo any required KYC checks, and fund your account with USDT to be able to buy or trade TEER tokens. If you already have USDT available to fund your account, then you can simply open your exchange account and deposit your chosen amount to make a purchase. You can also purchase USDT with a credit card through Gate.io (please refer to this guide) or through MEXC Global (using this guide.)

Please note that credit card purchases may not be supported in all locations. If you can’t pay by credit card or prefer to fund your purchase with a bank transfer, then you’ll need to open an account at a larger exchange that offers fiat onboarding, such as Coinbase or Crypto.com. Once you’ve opened an account, you can link your bank account and initiate a transfer to fund your account. After the funds have arrived, you can purchase USDT and then transfer it e.g. to your Gate.io account to make a TEER purchase.

Tracking TEER Performance

If you’d like to track the financial performance of TEER or add your holdings to a portfolio aggregator, you can find it listed on the following price trackers:

CoinMarketCap

CoinGecko

Binance

Coinbase

Crypto.com

TradingView

If you want to keep up with all the latest developments related to the TEER token and the broader Integritee ecosystem, then make sure you’re following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other social medium.