[UPDATE 11/17/2022]
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The votes are in for UIP-1! With a whopping 4,272 total people casting their votes and 72.85% of voters saying “yes” to UIP-1, the proposed changes for funding the Upland Pool won the vote.
Now that the voting booth is closed, we put together some interesting data to show voting trends and outcomes. Please check out our data below for more information on voter turnout based on Upland cities, neighborhoods and total vote breakdowns.
Thank you to everyone who studied the topic, joined the conversation, and voted! We can feel the support and are loving this level of engagement.
Global Votes by Response
With this pie chart, you’ll see the turnout of all votes by a percentage. As you can see, 72.8% voted yes, 20.6% voted no, and 6.5% abstained and still participated.
Voting Results by City
This chart shows vote trends from each Upland city. As you can see, Arlington had the highest percentage of yes votes. Dallas had the closest race, with yes votes just over 50%.
Participation Rate by City
In this chart, you’ll find how many voters participated based on total eligible voters. As you can see, Porto and Queens had the best turnout rates. But, with no city falling below 40% participation rate, the overall turnout is impressive!
With the vote closed, we’ll be taking next steps on UIP-1 and will keep the community informed. Also, we’ll be doing the drawing for the 300 “I Voted” Block Explorers!
[UPDATE 11/10/2022]
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We have officially opened the polls for the first major Upland Improvement Proposal (UIP-1). Starting Thursday, November 10 at 9 AM PT through Tuesday, November 15 at 11:59 PM PT, players can vote for the proposed Upland Pool funding mechanism. As a special thank you to players who participate in the UIP-1 vote, we’ll give away 300 “I Voted” Block Explorers after voting ends (check it out below).
Since this has been a topic of conversation for months, we’ve added new details and resources below so players can vote with confidence. This is a huge milestone for Upland as players have direct involvement in major decisions for the Upland ecosystem!
Now that voting is open, players will have six days to cast their vote. Over this time, players can change their vote until the voting booth closes.
Vote starts: Thursday, November 10 at 9:00 AM PT
Vote closes: Tuesday, November 15 at 11:59 PM PT
This proposal focuses on a new funding method for the Upland Pool that improves upon the original plan outlined in the whitepaper. After years of studying Upland’s economics and ecosystem, this proposal from Co-Founders Dirk Lueth and Idan Zuckerman is designed to balance how UPX flows from player to Community Pool to Upland Pool while maximizing the current UPX supply. It’s crucial to keep in mind that the Community Pool is not UPX owned by players – as it is not UPX in player wallets. The UPX in the Community Pool is managed by Upland LLC and is currently designated for in-game activities and rewards.
Note: Before reading on, it’s highly recommended to read the full proposal in the original post below to learn more about how the Upland Pool and Community Pool work.
If community voting results in a “no” for UIP-1, the Upland team will mint new UPX to the Upland Pool as defined by the formulas below as originally described in the whitepaper.
If community voting results in a “yes” for UIP-1, the Upland team will allocate UPX from the Community Pool to the Upland Pool as defined by the formulas below; only minting new UPX as to the Community Pool when monetary expansion is needed.
The UPX allocation for UIP-1 is determined based on two factors: economic activity and player engagement. This is defined in the original proposal below.
To give players more tangible data and context for how the formula works, we ran the numbers.
If we take the average values between May 2022 to October 2022 (the last six months), 1,392,910,195 UPX per month would be allocated to the Upland Pool. This is the approximate amount that will be transferred each month moving forward, based on the ongoing activity and engagement on the platform. The following graph depicts this formula applied on a monthly basis back to 2021.
Note: UPX allocation for earlier months has been adjusted to reflect the size of the economy during those months – meaning that most of 2021 carries less weight when applied to the formula.
Totalling all of the combined months from the calculations above: 22,317,318,220 UPX would be allocated to the Upland Pool. Then, the formula would be applied every month moving forward.
For context to the calculations above, please remember that there is 100 billion UPX currently in Upland, with over 80% of UPX sitting in the Community Pool. While 22 billion UPX is a large number, this allocation would not negatively impact Upland activities, mechanics, economics, or players.
Now that you know more about voting outcomes and UPX allocation, it’s a great time to learn as much as you can about UIP-1. Check out the original post below as well as the resources linked here:
Everybody that casts a vote will be eligible to win the I Voted Block Explorer. A random drawing will be held after voting ends, and 300 players will receive this unique Block Explorer commemorating the first major Upland Improvement Proposal and vote!
Thank you to everyone who has participated in our Community Town Hall, Reddit discussion, and Discord. This is a big moment for Upland, and we’re proud to have a passionate community that truly cares about Upland. Now go vote!
[UPDATE: 11.2.2022]
Check out our recent Reddit post on the economic vote coming soon! The Reddit article is a perfect recap of the Upland Improvement Proposal (UIP) and serves as a primer to spark conversation and get the community thinking about this important vote that's coming soon!
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In this expanded edition of our quarterly economic update, we are introducing groundbreaking information that will shape the future of Upland’s economy and lead us to a more community-driven, decentralized ecosystem.
Before we get to the heart of the economic update, we want to share a milestone we’ve recently achieved: As of July 2022, Uplanders have officially exceeded $7,000,000 in the NFT-to-USD program. Congratulations! That kind of cash will buy a lot of llamas.
As you know, Upland is firing on all cylinders. And with developments such as Metaverse Motors (MV Motors), asset manufacturing in factories, our FC Porto soccer club partnership, and the first international city launch, the Upland economy is more dynamic than ever. We’re keeping our foot down on the gas, and we’re glad you picked a front-row seat with us as we race toward a revolutionary digital economy.
With that said, let’s dive into the economic update!
Toward the end of Q3, it will be time to put planned funding for the Upland Pool into motion. The original funding mechanism outlined in the Upland whitepaper was to mint additional UPX to the Upland Pool. That could work, but it comes with unnecessary risk (which we detail below). After analyzing the Upland economy and the flow of UPX from Upland Pool to user wallet to Community Pool for years, we are putting forth a simple, efficient, and more scalable way to fund the Upland Pool.
We’re excited about this new mechanism, as it optimizes the circulation of UPX within the Upland economy while opening new doors for a more decentralized, user-centric economy.
If you’ve read the Token Pools section of Upland’s whitepaper, you know that 100 billion UPX was minted and allocated equally into two pools: the Upland (operator) Pool and the Community Pool. Paraphrasing the whitepaper, the Community Pool receives funds from property sales, marketplace fees, and other mechanisms, while it pays out UPX for property earnings, rewards, etc. The primary functions of the Upland Pool are to fuel in-game activities and fund operator development. Players purchase UPX from the Upland Pool using fiat or cryptocurrency. Then, they spend UPX building their Upland empire. As the platform’s operator, the company Uplandme, Inc. uses proceeds from these transactions to grow the Upland platform in a variety of ways, including:
In short, funding the Upland Pool is funding the maintenance and growth of the Upland metaverse. However, as a credit to the tremendous growth of Upland’s player base, in-game activities, and the overall economy, the balance of UPX between the two pools has shifted heavily toward the Community Pool. This was intended and described in the whitepaper. We haven’t deployed additional Upland Pool funding methods yet for two simple reasons: there was no urgency to do so, and waiting allowed us to study the economy so we could deploy the right funding method at the right time.
As stated in the whitepaper, mechanisms to fund the Upland Pool would be needed to continue Upland’s development. The whitepaper also describes how this funding could happen: monthly UPX minting based on active user counts. Earlier, we mentioned that this method could work, but it would not contribute to our overall objective of “progressive decentralization.” We see the following downsides:
After years of growing the Upland economy, our knowledge has grown and our ideas have evolved. Rather than simply pouring more UPX into the ecosystem, we believe the UPX in circulation should reflect player activity and economic velocity. As of the publishing of this report, approximately 87.7% of the 100 billion UPX in circulation is in the Community Pool. That percentage, in relation to what is in circulation, does not warrant monetary expansion.
These details lead to this key point: We’ve found a better approach for funding the Upland Pool. First, instead of minting UPX to the Upland Pool, 100% of minted UPX goes to the Community Pool. This would occur only when monetary expansion is necessary (such as if UPX in the Community Pool reached certain thresholds over a certain amount of time). Under this methodology, the Community Pool will fund the Upland Pool directly, following the same formula that calculates user activity and in-game economics. It’s a simple, efficient, and scalable plan.
We’re endorsing this funding method because it optimizes the flow of UPX while supporting the in-game economy and the operator’s funding needs to grow Upland as a platform. Even more exciting, this path provides the foundation for the economic loops needed if Upland is to shift to a more decentralized platform.
The formula for this funding method is as follows:
Monthly Blockchain Mints / Transactions:
Monthly Active/New Users:
At the beginning of each month, the Upland team will review the blockchain records as well as user counts from the previous month, and apply the above calculation to calculate monthly UPX funding.
Additionally, we would apply the above formula retroactively to the period from January 2021 to June 2022. This was a critical 18-month period in Upland’s development. It was important to study the economy over that time rather than implement UPX funding mechanisms so we could do the right thing for players and the ecosystem.
Determining the funding method for the Upland Pool will be a major proposal in the new in-app voting system (and likely the first-ever proposal). The voting system serves as a temperature check to gauge the Upland community’s sentiment. Upland Pool funding is a great use case in these early days of this voting system because we’re suggesting a course correction from materials outlined in the whitepaper.
The nature of the voting system may become more self-governing in the future. However, future community governance voting proposals have yet to be determined. This system, expected to launch in Q3, is a milestone and stepping stone for Upland’s journey to become a more decentralized platform.
To be fully transparent, the community governance proposal will list two UPX funding options for players to vote on:
This community ballot does not cover funding formulas or other details regarding funding methodology.
We are still finalizing our in-game voting system and getting ready for launch. Right now, we are just letting the community know that a voting system is coming and that the first proposal for voting will be for Upland Pool funding. We’ll follow up with more details soon to explain how voting works.
This is a major step toward Upland’s vision of a decentralized economy, and we’re excited to bring the community closer to direct involvement with Upland’s economic planning.
MV Motors. Manufacturing. Stadiums. Structures. These big endeavors require resources to bring to life. They require Spark. Our initial 50,000 Spark minted into the ecosystem continue to fuel these features, and there’s so much more to come. Due to the increased player demand for Spark and to support the development of various core elements to the Upland metaverse, we plan to mint additional Spark every month.
The amount of Spark minted into Upland will be calculated based on current active users and new Uplanders from the prior month.
Here’s the calculation for monthly Spark minting:
Note: In addition to the monthly Spark, additional one-off batches of Spark may be minted to support the release of new features that require Spark. This is to ensure there’s enough supply to meet demand. More details will be announced prior to minting.
There will be no change to the property earnings for this quarter. The property earnings will hold at 14.7%
Upland wants to encourage activity – the economy needs to be inviting. We feel that in these times of economic hardship and headwinds due to global economic challenges, decreasing property earnings would discourage activity at a time when Upland needs to be a driving force for empowerment.
As always, we will provide the next property earning adjustment changes in subsequent quarterly economic updates.
