Vehicle registration, land ownership, and birth certificates are examples of traditional registries used to maintain a list of records. Websites like Yelp, Google, or Trip Advisor provide a ranked list of businesses, restaurants, and more. However, these examples are maintained by a central party that can add or remove entries at their discretion.
So what is a Token-Curated Registry?
Also known as a TCR, it is an incentivized voting game that helps create trusted lists that are maintained by the very people that use them. Using the “Wisdom of the Crowds” principle, users collectively vote (using tokens) to decide which submissions are valid and should be included in the list.
Let’s look at how a TCR works…
Imagine a list called “Best Restaurants in The City.” The token holders maintaining this list must ensure only the highest quality restaurants get added. This way their list is seen as trustworthy, helpful, and valuable.
Registration Period
A new restaurant, “Tommy’s Taco’s” – thinks they’re worthy of being included; so they submit a deposit using the TCR’s token. This begins, the “registration period.” If the community agrees to include Tommy’s Tacos into the registry, everyone simply waits for a registration period to expire and the submission is added.
Challenge Period
However, if the community believes the submission should not be included, then a “challenge period” is initiated:
A challenge initiates when a user matches the submission deposit, which triggers a vote.
Now all token holders have the option vote to include or exclude “Tommy’s Tacos.”
If the token holders vote to exclude the submission, “Tommy’s Tacos” deposit is lost and redistributed to the challenger, and those who voted to exclude it from the list.
However, if the token holders vote to include Tommy’s Tacos; the challenger’s deposit is lost and then redistributed to those who voted to include it.
TCR = A Better List
Theoretically, a TCR will be held to higher standards than a traditional list or registry because a TCR is maintained by a group of people willing to stake economic value for an entry they strongly believe belong on the list.
While many TCR implementations are focused on quality control, fraud prevention, and whitelisting – the use cases are flexible and multi-purpose.
We have only just begun to see how they will be used in the future.
