More details about each of the Design Principles:
Synergistic open primitives
The original protocol established categories of participants with embedded incentive flows between them, creating a holistic ecosystem for value creation. Graph Horizon emphasized the need for greater flexibility within these categories, focusing on local decision-making to improve efficiency.
This principle blends modularity with synergy by building synergistic open primitives that increase flexibility and foster innovation, all while maintaining a holistic balance across the ecosystem. By embedding local decision-making within the incentive structure while preserving global equilibrium, we aim to create a coherent and adaptable framework that supports a wide range of participants and use cases, enabling the network to expand and fulfill The Graph’s vision.
Consumer value alignment
Incentives have always been a core feature of both the original protocol and Graph Horizon. While Graph Horizon focused on minimizing protocol-imposed cuts and enhancing efficiency, this proposal emphasizes that incentivizing decentralized value creation and aggregation remains essential.
Our focus is on aligning incentives with the actual value delivered to consumers. Contributors will be rewarded based on the real-world consumer benefits they generate. By avoiding arbitrary fee cuts and emphasizing payment for tangible outcomes, we can encourage high-quality contributions and enhance the overall value creation process within the network.
Additionally, this approach broadens the scope of incentivized value contributions and enhances the coverage of the value creation network.
Self-balancing markets
The original protocol introduced innovative incentive mechanisms designed to balance supply and demand on a global scale, resulting in emergent equilibrium. Graph Horizon, however, prioritized consumer choice, optimizing local matches between supply and demand to improve service delivery.
Our approach merges these models by allowing participants to dynamically set local fee cuts while empowering consumers to directly select providers that best meet their needs. By combining local service flexibility with incentives for global equilibrium, these market mechanisms will naturally balance supply and demand, driving both efficiency and consumer satisfaction.