ReSource hits Mainnet!

It’s on!

Hey ReSource Community,

We’re thrilled to announce that after successfully concluding our pilot phase, the ReSource project has finally hit mainnet and is now ready to expand.

Here’s what that means:

The ReSource mainnet release will be rolled out over three consecutive versions. ReSource V1 (dubbed “Bennu”) has hit the blockchain in June 2022. For a full roadmap with all planned releases, their features and release dates, visit us here.

SOURCE staking is live!You can stake SOURCE now and earn rewards here. If you want to learn how to stake, click here.

Key features of the protocol, such as underwriting, risk management and monetary stabilization are now being progressively decentralized.

A series of new features will expedite network growth and the adoption of RSD as a means of credit and payment.

The “Pay with ReSource” integration, planned for Q4/2022, will allow RSD to exceed the confines of the pilot marketplace, and enable millions of merchants on Web2 marketplaces, such as shopify, etsy and the like, to access RSD credit lines, trade with other merchants on all platforms and accept RSD as a means of payment on their online stores.

With the release of ReSource V3 “Caladrius” in 2023, ReSource will be ready to serve DAOs and Web3 protocols as an inter-protocol financial layer, as brought forward in this vision.

How it all Started

When an idea’s time has come, weird things tend to happen.

Weird, as in the same project, with the same name and goals, being developed by two completely different teams, located continents apart, utterly unaware of each other. This is how the ReSource project was outlined simultaneously in Upstate New York by Ashley Taylor, and in the Central American jungle by David Casey. If that’s not serendipity, what is?

Ashley came up with an early prototype of ReSource, shortly after joining Joe Lubin as Consensys’ first employee. Turing-complete smart contract ledgers were a new thing back then, and it wasn't entirely clear what can and can’t be done with them. While Ashley envisioned barter-based currencies designed for community empowerment, the industry in-large and Consensys in particular, seemed to develop into different directions.

Coming to the conclusion that the space wasn’t ready yet - technologically as well as ideologically, Ashley decided to focus her efforts on the community side of things and turn her early ReSource prototype into a web2 project, while waiting for the right partners to emerge.

Little did she know that in the meantime, somewhere in the Central American jungle, David Casey had just established Numundo - a network of tropical retreat centers, with over 800 locations across 100 countries. Just like Ashley, David was a very early adopter of blockchain technology and looked for ways to embed Numundo within a regenerative economic model built on blockchain technology. The idea was to find a way for Numundo members to establish an internal value-exchange system that would lessen its dependence on fiat and financial institutions in general.

This turned out to be more complicated than anticipated. Despite the Cambrian explosion of various crypto projects, assets and coins, there seemed to be no viable way to create an independent, stable monetary system that would allow the network to do everything normal money does (such as extending liquidity, price goods and services, transfer and store value), without either leaning on fiat products such as stablecoins or involving external capital or creditors.

The somewhat counterintuitive conclusion of Ashley’s and David’s early experiment was and has been ever since, that despite crypto’s favorite party line - there actually is no money on the blockchain.

Speculative investment opportunities? More than you could ever ask for. Stablecoins? Sure, but then again, they’re just fiat with extra steps. Credit? Kind of; you can rent someone else’s money, but not capital-efficiently bootstrap liquidity, the way sovereign currencies pull off their financial black magic.

Something was missing. What this something is became clear when David and Ashely finally met and joined with Ofir Avigad and Duke Jones - all of them Crypto veterans that have seen this industry blow up from a harmless nerd circle excited about the double spending problem having been solved, to whatever you want to call it today.

Quickly the four realized that in order to really reinvent money, and turn it into something that solves more problems than it creates, a return to the drawing board was necessary.

The goal was to create a new monetary system - self-sovereign, stable, and endogenous to the internet. Not a get-rich-quick scheme, a revolutionary battle cry, or a means to hide your dark web shopinglist - but actual money for actual people that want to create actual value, make a living, access liquidity and save securely without having their souls being crushed by the weary giants of flesh and steel of this world.

The blueprint chosen for this new monetary system was what’s known as Mutual Credit clearing - a centuries old method to facilitate multilateral trade without relying on pre-existing forms of currencies.

Mutual Credit is ingeniously simple and effective, and you can read all about it in the link above, however, it doesn’t come without its drawbacks - addressing which exactly is the purpose of the ReSource Protocol. You can read here how we’re approaching this.

Where we’re now and where we’re headed

ReSource started off, as many Mutual Credit systems do, as a closed marketplace on which prosumers - people and businesses that both consume and produce goods and services - can access credit and trade their products and skills without relying on regular forms of money.

The Marketplace was a success, but we knew from the get-go that this was only the beginning.

After demonstrating a 30% MoM average user acquisition growth rate and a 200% MoM average network transactions growth rate, with more than one million RSD extended in credit, and 280 every-day businesses partly payrolling more than 260 employees in RSD, it is time to take the next step.

We have proven that we can create, maintain and manage our own stable money supply, while making SMB credit more accessible and fairer than ever. Now it is time to have this monetary system hit the internet and integrate it into existing Web2 ecommerce platforms as well as into Web3 and the DeFi space.

This will be the first time for actual independent money to exist on the blockchain. And more importantly - it will be the first global, community owned financial system, powerful enough to fund and sustain the regenerative and equitable growth our planet so dearly needs.

Go to Market

Mutual Credit, as a social network of liquidity of sorts, thrives on network effects. The greater and the more diverse its user base, the more utility it amasses. This is why our Go-to-Market strategy is focused on rapid expansion through the following channels:

Hybrid Credit Products with Industry Partners

ReSource has far-reaching synergistic potential with existing credit products on the market. ReSource credit lines can extend the liquidity of credit consumers without inflicting additional costs on consumers and/or their credit providers.

There are already tens of thousands of SMBs accessing credit via DeFi providers such as Goldfinch, Truefi and the like. As part of our Go-to-Market strategy, we plan on partnering with these existing providers, to offer their customers additional ReSource credit lines as an add-on product to their already existing loans.

This is a perfect win-win scenario for all involved: Credit providers can offer their consumers an extended array of services without this costing them anything; consumers gain more liquidity while ReSource expands its trading network significantly.

On the other side of this deal, existing credit providers can offer fiat/crypto/stablecoin loans to existing consumers of ReSource credit lines. ReSource users are already underwritten, with an assessed risk score, and available on- and off-chain data aggregated by ReSource. This data will allow credit providers to offer ReSource merchants competitive credit products, while minimizing risk.

For more information on these partnerships, stay tuned here on our blog and on Discord.

Web2 e-commerce integration

As we’ve already mentioned above, “Pay with ReSource” will enable millions of merchants on Web2 marketplaces, such as shopify, etsy and the like, to access RSD credit lines, trade with other merchants on all platforms and accept RSD as a means of payment on their online stores.

The ReSource Marketplace will still be functional, but access to RSD liquidity and payments will be available directly through the Pay with ReSource SDK and not require merchants to switch platforms or to entertain an additional online store. The ReSource Marketplace itself will transition into a “Google Shopping” format, which will autonomously scrape the web and list all items that are purchasable with RSD - without requiring merchants to be actively engaged.

Beyond the Horizon

While ReSource provides a powerful tool kit for Mutual Credit applications, such as interest free liquidity, instant payments and autonomous stable units of account, the logic behind Mutual Credit Clearing can be utilized in many industrial scenarios which exceed common trading networks.

From supply chain financing, Telecommunication clearing, management of renewable energy grids to embedded finance - the possible applications are limitless. Here you can read about a few of them.

One use case that is especially dear to us is that of ReSource as Web3's Financial Interprotocol Layer, which will allow for a smooth integration of Web3 protocols, allowing for better and more complex composite Web3 applications.

How to Participate

First of all, if you're a merchant interested in accessing interest-free RSD credit lines or in joining the ReSource trading network, let us know here and we’ll reach out to you.

You can already stake, help secure the network and earn rewards! If you don’t already have SOURCE to stake, you can get it here.

If you want to become an Underwriter and earn even more rewards by utilizing your risk-assessment skills, let us know here.

If you want to join our open-source developer community, join us here!

The ReSource community is growing by the day with new active and opinionated members. Join us on Discord and be part of the conversation.

Thanks for being with us,

Your friends at ReSource.