To help bring decentralization to the masses, a big network of several distinct programmable services must exist, but it is very difficult to include too many functionalities into only one chain since some kind of trade-offs between security and network clogging are faced constantly (this is why we believe in a multi-chain future btw).

Because of these trade-offs, most Application-Specific Blockchains (ASBC’s) become powerful for some things but lack security or solvency to escalate a lot. In fact we believe that this is the case for most of the CosmosSDK-based chains except for THORChain.

This happens because, whereas most of the Cosmos-based chains rely on weakly-bonded, doxxed nodes that work with delegated funds, THORChain only relies on anonymous nodes that bond huge amounts of their own capital.

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How do Security Nodes work?

By sharing Maya nodes’ capacities with other projects and chains, Maya can export its security and allow for more specific blockchains and applications (e.g trading, NFT’s, stablecoins, metaverse, …) to seamlessly integrate into our ecosystem in the form of “Sidechains”.

These Sidechains would function under the Maya node’s umbrella, which is secured by a solid Proof of Bond consensus mechanism.

New chains would also need to bring utility and growth to the ecosystem of course, since running them and exporting $CACAO to them would have economic implications. In this regard, they can be thought of as economic ventures, which may or may not succeed.
There would be a max limit of $CACAO token withdrawals for each one of these side chains as well, which we call “Max Debt” and which can be modulated by the Maya nodes’ consensus. 

During growth cycles, if $CACAO’s price rises too much, the Max Debt variable could be reduced slowly by our nodes, to repatriate the tokens in preparation for any potential ensuing contraction cycle. Conversely, after economic headwinds, Max Debt could be slowly increased to leverage the sidechain through lower prices, to boost its economic activity and to prepare for potential future growth.

Seeing it through an example

Let’s see an example of how one of these Application-Specific Blockchains (ASBC’s) could connect into Maya and what the economic implications would look like. What we describe here also holds for other, consequent, chains, although an effort has to be made as to not have too many of them just doing the same things and being redundant.

Let’s call Maya’s chain “Chain A” and a new, arbitrary, Cosmos-based utility chain,  “Chain B”.

Nodes in Chain A can choose if they want to become nodes for Chain B or not, mainly based on their interest in the $CACAO fees being generated by the economic activity happening there (via Smart Contracts, NFT’s or any other functionality attainable in the Cosmos SDK framework). Becoming a node in Chain B would require them to post a second bond, denominated in $CACAO and, since we do not support delegation, this bond would be their own skin in the game.

We require that all nodes in Chain B already be active validators in Chain A; if you are kicked out of the node count in Chain A, you are also kicked out of Chain B’s.

These parameters would be taken care of via the “Degrees of Freedom” of the system, modifiable by nodes in Chain A and Chain B.

Example of some Degrees of Freedom:

1. Max Debt = 10%
2. Treasury Cut = 20%
3. Pool Tax = 10%
4. Sidechain Fee Tax = 10%
5. Marginal Wealth Tax = ON (this parameter is on or off).

Those would mean, for Chain A and Chain B, that:

1. Only 10,000,000 $CACAO (out of the 100 million total supply) could leave Chain A into Chain B.
2. 20% of any newly minted $CACAO would go to Chain A’s treasury, the rest into Pools.
3. Maya treasury would collect 10% of all yield generated by any $CACAO_Chain_A / $CACAO_Chain_B or $CACAO_Chain_A / $TOKEN_Chain_B pools.
4. A 10% of the fees generated in Chain B will be redirected to its own treasury. These fees can include gas fees, transaction fees, swap fees and all others.
5. Whenever the Max Debt threshold is reached, arbitraging between Chain A and Chain B becomes impossible, which would lead to a fragmented market. Marginal Wealth Tax gives Chain A’s treasury exclusivity over this arbitrage trade by allowing it to surpass the Max Debt Limit.

When the price of $CACAO inside Chain B normalizes these tokens are then exchanged for external assets inside Chain A and the treasury nets positive returns.

Chain B’s treasury can use the newly input $CACAO to buy assets, such as Maya Synths and sends them back to the Chain A’s treasury, which then proceeds to sell the Synths for Chain A $CACAO, closing the loop. Chain A’s profits some external assets and in $CACAO.

Stress-testing Simulation

In Part 4 of our Whitepaper we exemplify the robustness of our Security Node mechanism with four simulated scenarios 

1. Chain A grows relative to Chain B.
2. Chain B grows relative to Chain A.
3. Chain A contracts relative to Chain B.
4. Chain B contracts relative to Chain A.

Take a look at those and let us know what you think, we love feedback and would like to hear from you in our Discord channels or frequent Twitter Spaces!