[ANN] Unum - A new cryptocurrency worth $1

[johnatunum]

I've long felt that a price-stable cryptocurrency is vital to increased acceptance of cryptocurrency by businesses and the public at large. There are a few solutions to this problem out there, but, in my opinion, they are either too centralized (and require too much trust) or they're too complicated. I wanted something simple, distributed, and trustless, so I made Unum.

https://unum.one

Unum is implemented as an ERC20 token smart contract on the Ethereum Blockchain. If you send in $20 worth of Ether, you get 20 Unum. If you send in $100 worth of OMG, you get 100 Unum. Whatever you send in is held in reserve by the smart contract. I can't touch it, and you can exchange your Unum into any currency held in the reserve whenever you'd like. Both buying and selling Unum incurs a 0.05% fee, which I plan to use to pay for the Ether needed to maintain the USD price oracle contract that's used to maintain the dollar peg. For every $100 you send, $0.05 is held as a fee.

Right now Unum is deployed on the Ethereum Ropsten testnet. I'd love feedback on the contract itself, which is on Github, and on the website. You can buy and sell Unum on the Ropsten network today if you have MetaMask through the Unum website. Buying and selling is done directly on the blockchain, there is no backend to the unum website itself. If you'd prefer, you can also use Mist to interact with the Contract directly.

I plan to move to the main Ethereum network soon, baring any major bugs being found.

If you're interested more in my thinking behind Unum, you can read this blog post, or just ask any questions here. If you want to email, I'm at john@unum.one

[ytrezq]

How do you maintain the 1∕1 ratio ?
What differs your token from other pegged token like biteur outside not giving interest saving and using ethereuem ?

Also, if you don’t mind, I sent a request for listing on a decentralized exchange, they should contact you with 4 business days.

[johnatunum]

I feed a stream of crypto prices onto the Ethereum block chain. Anytime you exchange crypto for Unum, it looks up the USD equivalent and issues the corresponding # of Unum.

I think the two main points that make Unum different is 1) it's decentralized, so you don't have to trust me or some shady organization,  and 2) it's simple.  Biteur and bitusd are...complicated. 

[ytrezq]

I feed a stream of crypto prices onto the Ethereum block chain. Anytime you exchange crypto for Unum, it looks up the USD equivalent and issues the corresponding # of Unum.

Thank you, so 1 Unum is created for each $ bought. How do you handle destruction of assets ? I mean when capitalization in your token shrinks ?

Also, how are you tracking the exchange rate in a decentralized way ?

[johnatunum]

If the value of the crypto held in reserve shrinks, meaning the number of Unum issues is greater than the $ value of the reserve, then a Reserve Deficit Sell Penalty is applied for anyone who wants to sell unum for crypto in the reserve.  This is meant to encourage users to not increase the deficit until such time as the value of the crypto held in reserve raises to same amount as the number of unum issues.

Right now tracking the exchange rate is done in one place, but the Price Oracle is actually a separate contract from the Unum Token contract. In the short term I plan to make a new Price Oracle that uses something like the Ark super-delegate model. You'd stake x amount of Unum to become a delegate, and then you can "vote" on the price.  Those who are delegates would share in the fee collected by the Unum token.

[fininsider]

Very interesting project! +++

[ytrezq]

If the value of the crypto held in reserve shrinks, meaning the number of Unum issues is greater than the $ value of the reserve, then a Reserve Deficit Sell Penalty is applied for anyone who wants to sell unum for crypto in the reserve.

How does your sell penalty works ? For example what would be the penalty amount for selling 1500 unum ?

Otherwise, I’d really like seeing that method pegged to other assets. In my case I really need a 1∕1 decentralized cryto pegged to the euro because of the decreasing ᴜꜱᴅ value against euro (along my bank 1% transfer fee and 10% margin on market exchange rate, it is more and more costly to receive your wage in ᴜꜱᴅ while living in europe)

[Crypto Piece]

Get more traffic to your project's website, advertise it on https://cryptopiece.com/ 

[johnatunum]

If the value of the crypto held in reserve shrinks, meaning the number of Unum issues is greater than the $ value of the reserve, then a Reserve Deficit Sell Penalty is applied for anyone who wants to sell unum for crypto in the reserve.

How does your sell penalty works ? For example what would be the penalty amount for selling 1500 unum ?

Otherwise, I’d really like seeing that method pegged to other assets. In my case I really need a 1∕1 decentralized cryto pegged to the euro because of the decreasing ᴜꜱᴅ value against euro (along my bank 1% transfer fee and 10% margin on market exchange rate, it is more and more costly to receive your wage in ᴜꜱᴅ while living in europe)

The Reserve Deficit Penalty is 1/10th of the Reserve Deficit. So, if there the contract has issued 1,000,000 Unum, but the USD value is only $900,000, then there is a 10% deficit, and a 1% penalty would apply to anyone who wanted to sell unum for any crypto in the reserve.

[originalDavisgreen]

What is the whole purpose for it!

You can only convert your Crypto into this token, so I don't see a point for it's existence.
Please outline a few use cases for me, so I can understand where it would be useful.

Thanks

[coinporch]

your explanations is too complicated for $1 price of UNUM,,
and what is the total supply for this token will be?

[johnatunum]

What is the whole purpose for it!

You can only convert your Crypto into this token, so I don't see a point for it's existence.
Please outline a few use cases for me, so I can understand where it would be useful.

Thanks

I hope it's use is as an actual currency - a store of value.

Business are hesitant to adopt cryptocurrencies because it's hard to understand it. How much is it worth? With bitcoin, the price changes minute to minute.  It's impossible to plan for the future and use Bitcoin as a real currency in those plans, because you don't know what it's going to be worth.

People, at least in the US, understand the dollar at a gut level.  My long-term hope is that people would be more willing to use cryptocurrency if they can understand it's value at that gut level.  

To put it in perspective of another dollar-pegged coin - when markets tank, people tend to sell their alt-coins and jump into Tether, because they know that it'll still be worth $1 an hour, a day, or a week from now - after the storm has passed.

[originalDavisgreen]

What is the whole purpose for it!

You can only convert your Crypto into this token, so I don't see a point for it's existence.
Please outline a few use cases for me, so I can understand where it would be useful.

Thanks

I hope it's use is as an actual currency - a store of value.

Business are hesitant to adopt cryptocurrencies because it's hard to understand it. How much is it worth? With bitcoin, the price changes minute to minute.  It's impossible to plan for the future and use Bitcoin as a real currency in those plans, because you don't know what it's going to be worth.

People, at least in the US, understand the dollar at a gut level.  My long-term hope is that people would be more willing to use cryptocurrency if they can understand it's value at that gut level.  

To put it in perspective of another dollar-pegged coin - when markets tank, people tend to sell their alt-coins and jump into Tether, because they know that it'll still be worth $1 an hour, a day, or a week from now - after the storm has passed.

So you are basically trying to create a decentralised tether? without the facility to use fiat to get it. Only use case for it would be to use it as a hedge when alts dump.

Isn't every one on this Crypto train coz they think it's just going to go up and up , else people will just keep their $$ / exchange it to $$

What if I send say 10 XYX coin to swap it for Unum to the contract at say $10each. I get $100 worth of Unum or 100 Unum. Now XYZ coin crashes in value and is now worth $2. Now I want to buy the XYZ coin back. My 100 Unum should be able to buy 50 XYZ coins now, and what if your exchange contract doesn't have those many XYZ coins (even after I pay the penalty)

Or am i missing something

[ytrezq]

The Reserve Deficit Penalty is 1/10th of the Reserve Deficit. So, if there the contract has issued 1,000,000 Unum, but the USD value is only $900,000, then there is a 10% deficit, and a 1% penalty would apply to anyone who wanted to sell unum for any crypto in the reserve.

ok, so your penalty can be huge if in an event half of your capitalization go out in your crypto.

The main reason to peg a crypto again fiat, is to get price stability through exchange stability (avoid something like getting a crypto loosing 91% of it’s value). You aren’t fixing the problem.

[johnatunum]

The Reserve Deficit Penalty is 1/10th of the Reserve Deficit. So, if there the contract has issued 1,000,000 Unum, but the USD value is only $900,000, then there is a 10% deficit, and a 1% penalty would apply to anyone who wanted to sell unum for any crypto in the reserve.

ok, so your penalty can be huge if in an event half of your capitalization go out in your crypto.

The main reason to peg a crypto again fiat, is to get price stability through exchange stability (avoid something like getting a crypto loosing 91% of it’s value). You fixing aren’t the problem.

If the reserve fell to half the value of the number of issued Unum, the penalty would be 5% - not sure if that's huge, but hopefully enough to discourage others from increasing the deficit.

[johnatunum]

What is the whole purpose for it!

You can only convert your Crypto into this token, so I don't see a point for it's existence.
Please outline a few use cases for me, so I can understand where it would be useful.

Thanks

I hope it's use is as an actual currency - a store of value.

Business are hesitant to adopt cryptocurrencies because it's hard to understand it. How much is it worth? With bitcoin, the price changes minute to minute.  It's impossible to plan for the future and use Bitcoin as a real currency in those plans, because you don't know what it's going to be worth.

People, at least in the US, understand the dollar at a gut level.  My long-term hope is that people would be more willing to use cryptocurrency if they can understand it's value at that gut level.  

To put it in perspective of another dollar-pegged coin - when markets tank, people tend to sell their alt-coins and jump into Tether, because they know that it'll still be worth $1 an hour, a day, or a week from now - after the storm has passed.

So you are basically trying to create a decentralised tether? without the facility to use fiat to get it. Only use case for it would be to use it as a hedge when alts dump.

Isn't every one on this Crypto train coz they think it's just going to go up and up , else people will just keep their $$ / exchange it to $$

What if I send say 10 XYX coin to swap it for Unum to the contract at say $10each. I get $100 worth of Unum or 100 Unum. Now XYZ coin crashes in value and is now worth $2. Now I want to buy the XYZ coin back. My 100 Unum should be able to buy 50 XYZ coins now, and what if your exchange contract doesn't have those many XYZ coins (even after I pay the penalty)

Or am i missing something

A lot of people are definitely into crypto as a speculation.  I think most forget that it's supposed to be a currency.

Your explanation using XYZ coin is correct, but as Unum is backed my many different crypto currencies, you could always exchange it for one of those, or just wait until the reserve gets filled again.

Shortly after launch on the main Ethereum blockchain I plan to hold a Bonus sale, which is where you get a small % bonus for buying Unum.  In this manner I hope to fill the reserve against the sort of scenario you describe (unless a whale gobbles it all up).

[ytrezq]

If the reserve fell to half the value of the number of issued Unum, the penalty would be 5% - not sure if that's huge, but hopefully enough to discourage others from increasing the deficit.

such cost is rather approaching what a bank can do.
It’s more a fine than a fee.