Hey @nevin.freeman and everyone.
You’ve heard me throughout this proposal discourse talk about the importance of ownership. It’s a core tenant of web3, where users own the network.
Ownership can emerge in a variety of ways:
- Stage 1 - Transparency - “I can see the raw facts without spin and form my own view.”
- Stage 2 - Open collaboration - “I can coordinate with others to interpret those facts and contribute where it matters.”
- Stage 3 - Governance - “My vote shapes what we do with those facts.”
Since some of this RSR Health discussion stems from conversations about how Bitcoin emissions work, I think its helpful to clarify in Bitcoin, every user has equal access to Stages 1 and 2 because the ecosystem is decentralized onchain. Stage 3 emerges from a subgroup of miners, pools and nodes.
This RSR health proposal highlights Reserve issues across all three stages. We don’t need perfection, but can we aim higher? Should we over or under index web3 values compared to our peer set? What do we even mean when we talk about web3 values? Answers to these questions are a cultural choice determined by the current center of gravity in the Reserve ecosystem - and its self reinforcing.
When users “feel” ownership, they invest toward a project’s success. When they don’t, they might undermine it, which we see in parts of this forum post’s comments and across global politics today. This is how communities can become compounding capital, either positive or negative.
I don’t expect everyone here to care about ownership. Many just want number go up, and care about little else. But there is a strong contingent of nascent talent in the Reserve community waiting to be fully included and to bring their superpowers accordingly. The [Initiative] Decentralized Ranger Folio (DRF) is trying to incubate that energy toward action, transparency, and positive-sum coordination for the community rather than slipping into further resentment and stagnation. Strengthening Stages 1, 2, and 3 of Reserve ownership will shape whether the DRF thrives (or other external initiatives/contributors) and becomes a helpful force in the ecosystem.
Below is a comparison table unpacking differences in Stage 1, 2, and 3 ownership across Bitcoin, Circle, Aave, and Alchemix. I’m sharing it so the people who care about ownership and compounding our capital can reflect on these market examples and consider what might be appropriate upgrades in the Reserve ecosystem.
| Category | Bitcoin | Circle | Aave | Alchemix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approach | Decentralized. Emergent consensus governance by nodes and miners. | Public company, GAAP accounting. | DAO. | DAO. |
| Reporting frequency | By block, ~10 minutes. | Quarterly. | By block, ~12 seconds. | Raw data and stats by block, ~12 seconds. PDF report quarterly. |
| Revenue | n/a | GAAP accounting in 10K & S-1. | Reporting by chain, type, SVR, frontier staking. | Reporting by asset. |
| Reserves (yield) return rates | n/a | Reported in 10K & S-1. | Yes. | Yes. |
| Expenses (strategy execution / funding) | Managed independently by ecosystem contributors. | GAAP accounting in 10K & S-1. | By service provider and initiative (see governance forums). | By category (see governance forums). |
| Token emissions / inflation | Onchain, immutable 21M unless forked. Block rewards visible onchain. | n/a | DAO sets emission rewards and distribution via parameter updates; includes buybacks. | Onchain unless forked. DAO can redirect emissions. |
| Treasury management | n/a | GAAP accounting in 10K & S-1. | Treasury composition & returns; DAO-approved. | Treasury structure & returns; DAO-approved. |
| Governance proposals, turnout, vote distribution | BIPs on GitHub; mailing lists & IRC/Matrix. Emergent consensus. | n/a | Aave forums UI or BGD Labs voting UI. | Alchemix forums & Snapshot. |
| Strategy & partnerships discussion | Distributed across contributors, forums, social media, mailing lists. | Reported in 10K & S-1. | Distributed; consolidation coming via TokenLogic v2 in Q1 2026. | PDF + ecosystem contributors. |
| Link 1 | Mempool block rewards | Q3 2025 Filing | Aave - TokenLogic | Alchemix Reports |
| Link 2 | — | S1 2025 Filing | — | Alchemix Stats |
Be sure to check out the links. Thank you for considering.