How to Support a Decentralized Network Launch

What began as Celo’s RC1 has graduated into the Celo mainnet. After years of building and testing, a group of more than 70 validators stood up a decentralized network that now effectively runs on its own, governed by a distributed community spread across the globe. Against a backdrop of central banks issuing a flood of new fiat currency effectively by decree, network launches of this kind show the power inherent in decentralized community governance — in aligning incentives around value creation, storage, and transfer, now and in the future.

But what does it take to get here — to a healthy, functioning, decentralized network, supported by a variety of stakeholders, in a variety of countries, from a variety of different backgrounds?

As an early supporter of the Celo protocol, we’re proud to have been a part of the Celo project from very early on. In our journey from start to mainnet, we have learned a few things about what it takes to support a truly decentralized network launch — to support the chain, the team, and the ethos.

Support the Chain

At the very bottom of the stack, to support a decentralized network launch, any custody or staking provider needs to support the underlying protocol as it was intended to be used. For a complex asset like Celo, this means supporting a native governance token that also functions as reserve currency, supporting unlocking contracts, and supporting multiple assets at launch — as well as an unknown number of potential assets with their origins in community governance proposals.

Of course, what it means to support the chain varies with the chain in question, and not everyone approaches this challenge in the same way. At Anchorage, we have designed our product to adapt to any blockchain use case. For us, supporting Celo means supporting the various means of on-chain participation, from running our own validator, to delegating to external validators, to supporting voting on governance proposals.

Support the Team

As varied as the tech can be, teams are even more so. In a sense, each blockchain project is like its own unique community — with its own rules, its own origin story, its own goals and values. And that’s part of what makes this space so exhilarating to be a part of: from a set of general tools and principles can arise innumerable systems of governance and consensus-building. It also means there’s really no room for one-size-fits-all solutions.

For Celo, supporting the team meant interfacing with a range of stakeholders — from employees, to the foundation, to early purchasers of the asset. It meant building out bespoke solutions for their particular use cases, developing custom account structures, and making sure the groundwork was laid for cGLD (now CELO) holders to participate in the network from day 1.

Support the Ethos

Perhaps the most important part of supporting a decentralized network at launch is to truly support the ethos of decentralization in the first place.

Token projects sometimes fear that custodians will force institutional holders to stake or delegate as a giant bloc, which could have the effect of centralizing governance in networks intended to be distributed. At the same time, would-be network participants worry about custodians eating their lunch in the form of staking rewards.

At Anchorage, we believe clients should be able to participate in networks as they wish. That’s why we facilitate decentralization, and put it to the clients to decide where to delegate — with us, on their own, or with some other external staking nodes of their choosing. In practice, this has meant working closely with launch platforms like CoinList to make sure users around the world can participate in the network, as well as working extensively with Celo validator partners to ensure network security.

Find the Right Partners

At the end of the day, without decentralization, as an industry, we risk developing just another flavor of the existing financial system. To realize the promise of decentralization will take putting the right partners in place — to make sure the chains, the teams, and the ethos are all held in the highest regard.If you’re part of an emerging token project, looking for the right partner to support you, please get in touch.