🍷VIN Tokenomics Guide

dVIN introduces “VIN Coin”

Token Utility

“VIN Coin” ($VIN) is the native utility and governance token unifying the $1T wine asset class through data, DePIN and Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization.

The dVIN Protocol's tokenomics aim to ensure $VIN's availability. It will be a loyalty token for on-chain bottles of wine, among other uses. But, it will be scarce with a fixed supply limit. Accordingly, $VIN has seven main purposes:

• Incentivizing growth of the dVIN protocol: 63% of the $VIN token's supply is for incentives. These will increase the number of on-chain bottles (RWAs). We will do this by onboarding more winemakers and users who consume their bottles. We will also use tech from grants and partnerships.

• Rewarding loyalty: $VIN rewards wine lovers for sharing data and connecting with winemakers. Like airline miles, $VIN can be earned through various actions. These include buying wine, drinking it, sharing it with friends and family, and joining community activities. It serves as a universal loyalty token for the luxury and investment-grade wine industry. It connects winemakers with consumers and enables direct sales.

• Priority access: Token holders will gain status with exclusive wineries. They will get priority access to exclusive events and wine collections.

• Onboarding new users by triggering virality: the protocol rewards the consumer for recruiting new users whenever a bottle of wine is opened. Opening and sharing a bottle of wine is a social and cultural activity. Through dVIN protocol, a wine lover (consumer) gets $VIN. They earn it for opening the bottle and for sharing it with friends and family. The full amount of $VIN embedded in a bottle is distributed when the bottle is shared.

• Trading on the dVIN marketplace: $VIN can be used to trade on-chain bottles of wine and winemaker experiences.

• Adding wine on-chain: Initial Custodians (winemakers) need to have a surplus $VIN balance in order to add wine on-chain by minting a Digital Cork for each bottle.

• Governance: $VIN governs the dVIN protocol. In time, it will let token holders propose, discuss, and vote on the protocol's future.

Token Distribution

Token Distribution
Token Allocation	% of Allocation	Number of Tokens	Total Unlock Period (months)	Initial Unlock	Cliff (months)
Ecosystem Growth	63%
Real World Asset Adoption Incentives	48% [1]	480,000,000	300	0%	0
Grants and Partnerships	15%	150,000,000	36	%0	6
Community	7%
Cellar Challenge	1.4%	14,000,000	0	100%	0
Mad Lads Community	2% [2]	20,000,000	0	100%	0
Jupiter Community	2.5%	25,000,000	0	100%	0
Breakpoint attendees	0.75% [3]	7,500,000	0	100%	0
Superteam Community	0.35% [4]	3,500,000	0	100%	0
Token Launch	11%
Launchpad	4.1%	41,000,000	0	100%	0
Token Liquidity	6.9%	69,000,000	0	100%	0
Contributors	10%	100,000,000	48	0%	12
Capital Partners	3.9%	39,000,000	36	0%	12
Strategic Reserve	5.1%	51,000,000	12	0%	0
TOTAL	100%	1,000,000,000

[1] $VIN can only be claimed when the bottles are opened. Luxury and investment-grade wines are typically aged 3-30 years before consumption. When those bottles are opened with other people, embedded $VIN is also shared with them. This makes the supply highly atomized.

[2] $VIN attached to champagne bottles due to start shipping October 21st - tokens locked until then. See below for details.

[3] $VIN attached to champagne bottles distributed to Breakpoint attendees. See below for details.

[4] $VIN will be distributed over a period of 12 months to the Superteam Community, mostly through Superteam EARN (Bounties and Projects). See below for details.

[5] 5% of the supply is destined for Market Makers, namely Wintermute (3pp) and GSR (2pp), which will only be distributed if and when there is a Centralized Exchange listing, whereas the remaining 1.9pp are reserved for providing liquidity on Liquidity Pools via Meteora.

Token Distribution Details

$VIN has a fixed total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens. 74.1% of the $VIN supply is for our community of wineries, wine lovers, and collectors. 12% is for token liquidity. The remaining 13.9% is for contributors and capital partners, with extended cliffs and unlock periods. This aligns their interests with the protocol's long-term success, as detailed below.

Ecosystem Growth

63% — 630,000,000 $VIN

The “Ecosystem Growth” allocation is a strategic portion of tokens that can be subdivided in two categories:

• RWA Adoption Incentives (attached to physical bottles) - (48%); and

• Grants and Partnerships (15%).

Ecosystem Growth — RWA Adoption Incentives (attached to physical bottles)

48% — 480,000,000 $VIN

The cornerstone for the success of this protocol is the demand for bringing wine on-chain. It is measured by the number of winemakers that attach Digital Corks and $VIN to bottles. $VIN is how winemakers buy valuable data from wine lovers. It has business intelligence, consumption data, and customer acquisition data. Each bottle contains a claimable $VIN, redeemable after opening. A correlation exists between on-chain bottles and demand for $VIN.

Real demand for the Token

To add wine on-chain through the protocol, winemakers need to buy $VIN tokens. In the long run, winemakers should cover the cost of adding wine on-chain by buying 100% of the required $VIN. However, until then, the protocol will offer subsidies. It will provide extra $VIN tokens each time a bottle is added on-chain.

This means that $VIN tokens will only be an incentive if winemakers buy them first. This means the Token supply is set in motion by Token demand. This can be seen as a discount on Tokens for winemakers. It makes it more attractive for them to engage with the protocol while the transition to $VIN, purchased by winemakers, is still underway.

On average, each bottle may have 100 $VIN. This is to incentivize wine consumers to share usage and customer data. With just five million bottles of wine tokenized over a period of twenty five years this token allocation will be fully distributed. The average subsidy will likely be 10%. So, at least 90% of the tokens (~$VIN 5B) in each bottle will be bought by winemakers. To attach this entire token allocation to bottles, 50 million bottles must be tokenized. This also means winemakers must buy nearly $VIN 5 billion worth of tokens.

This element sets the dVIN token model apart from similar ones. Those models incentivize token adoption. But, their incentives only work if there is real demand for on-chain bottles.

Also worth noting is that two important factors are expected to result in a steep demand curve:

• Growth rate of the number of winemakers joining the protocol; and

• Those institutions (winemakers) will buy $VIN. It will be in proportion to the large amounts of $VIN attached to bottles. They want to reward consumers and buy valuable data on customers and business intelligence.

$VIN is slowly released into circulation

The second element worth expanding on is the speed and amount of $VIN claimed and unlocked from each bottle.

The $VIN allocated to "RWA Adoption Incentives (attached to physical bottles)" are embedded on the bottles. As a result, they are going directly to wine lovers and collectors, and those with whom the bottles are shared with - typically close friends and family. We are also ensuring that $VIN does not go to the winemakers. So, there will be no selling pressure as these tokens unlock.

The unique factor of luxury and investment-grade wines is their long storage. Bottles are kept for 3 to 30 years before consumption. Accordingly, it is unlikely that these on-chain bottles will be opened in the same year as $VIN is granted. Also, since $VIN can only be claimed when wine is consumed, it means that consumption patterns will determine how quickly the Tokens are released into circulation. This will be very slow and atomized, as they will be distributed to many small holders. This will help to decentralize the $VIN ecosystem.

The third element worth noting embeds a “virality effect”. $VIN is embedded in unique bottles bought by many wine enthusiasts. This will atomize the number of $VIN owners. The $VIN per bottle allocation will also be divided between the bottle owners and those with whom the bottle is shared. This will also bring many non-web3 users into the Solana Ecosystem. They are likely to use their $VIN tokens to buy more wine and access wine experiences.

In short, we designed a robust tokenomics system. It has institutional demand and a highly atomized supply.

No $VIN from this allocation will be unlocked at the Token Generation Event (TGE). This supply will unlock non-linearly over 25 years (300 months) to reflect the demand to bring wine on-chain. The tech setup ensures that these allocations can only be attached to bottles added on-chain. Unused allocations will always accrue in the same category.

Ecosystem Growth — Grants and Partnerships

15% — 150,000,000 $VIN

This allocation is key to dVIN becoming a decentralized protocol. It will incentivize a global DePIN. It will allow the community to build on the dVIN protocol within the $VIN ecosystem. It is for grants, loans, and investment in software developers, hardware manufacturers, and systems integrators building in the ecosystem. It will let the $VIN ecosystem respond to market changes. It will fund improvements and support community projects. This will ensure the ecosystem's growth and success.

No $VIN from this allocation will be unlocked at TGE and this entire supply will be locked up for 6 months, after which it will unlock linearly over 3 years (36 months). Unused allocations will always accrue in the same category.

Community

7% — 70,000,000 $VIN

The dVIN community, made up of wine lovers, is vital to $VIN and dVIN's success. This portion of $VIN Tokens is for bootstrapping our community and onboarding new users to the Solana ecosystem. It consists of the following:

• Community airdrop (7%):

  • Cellar Challenge (1.4%): this part is to be distributed to users based on the future snapshot of the “Uncork to Earn” initiative/points program, and includes activations leading up to Solana Breakpoint with communities including MonkeDAO, Wormhole, Photo Finish LIVE, SharkyFi, Dead King Society, Real Housewives of Solana, Boogle, Mad Skulls, and key individual contributors in the Solana Ecosystem;

  • Mad Lads Community (2% embedded in 9,968 champagne bottles);

  • Allocation for initiatives with the Jupiter community (2.5%);

  • Solana Breakpoint 2024 attendees (0.75% embedded in 2,500 champagne bottles);

  • Superteam Community (0.35%) - distributed through Superteam EARN (Bounties and Projects) and local community event activations over 12 months.

The above activations, by design, incentivize an increase in new users. To claim the full airdrop, each eligible user must invite five new users to the platform. This incentivizes bottle holders to share $VIN with friends and family. This means the airdrop allocation will be widely dispersed by token holders, not only the original airdrop recipients. This boosts adoption and onboards non-Web3 users to Solana.

Also, for the airdrop from bottle owners, there's a 72-hour limit to distribute $VIN to new holders after burning the Digital Corks.

The entire supply of Tokens from “Community” (7% of total $VIN supply) unlocks on day one. However, a large part of those tokens will not be in circulation at TGE. For example, Mad Lads can claim $VIN after their bottle is delivered (bottle shipping starts on 21-October-2024 and requires each owner to activate shipping details). As for the Jupiter Community allocation, it will also follow a specific unlock schedule.

Any unclaimed Tokens within a period of 12 months, and the proceeds of any unsold tokens, will go to the Strategic Reserve.

Token Launch

11% — 110,000,000 $VIN

$VIN Tokens set aside for the initial launch phase consist of token liquidity requirements associated with the launch itself.

• Token Launch (11%):

  • Launchpad (4.1%): The first part of this allocation is reserved to seed liquidity in Jupiter’s LFG v2 launch pool;

  • Token Liquidity (6.9%): The second part of this allocation will be used by the VIN Foundation for foreseen token liquidity requirements, namely loans to market makers, centralized exchanges token listing, on-chain liquidity, and so on.

Programmatically, the entire supply of Tokens from “Token Launch” (11% of total $VIN supply) will be unlocked from day one.

Any unclaimed Tokens within a period of 12 months, and the proceeds of any unsold or unused tokens, will go to the Strategic Reserve and the same will happen with the proceeds of any unsold tokens.

Contributors

10% — 100,000,000 $VIN

A portion of the Token supply has been allocated to core contributors who have been focused on building the dVIN protocol (across technology, business development, marketing) since its founding in 2021.

No $VIN from this allocation will be unlocked at TGE and this entire supply will be locked for 12 months, after which it will unlock linearly over 3 years (36 months). This brings the total unlock period to 4 years (48 months).

Capital Partners

3.9% — 39,000,000 $VIN

This category represents two funding rounds by Capital Partners. They add value to the protocol through their financial support. These funding rounds are closed and the allocation is final.

We committed to onboard long-term holders. So, most are Angel Investors who supported dVIN Labs from the start. The single exception is a pre-seed Angel investment fund (Sarson Funds) who is aligned with our ethos and has been instrumental in their role as strategic advisors.

No $VIN from this allocation will be unlocked at TGE and this entire supply will be locked up for 12 months. Thereafter, 25% will be unlocked immediately, and the remaining allocation (75%) will unlock linearly over 2 years (24 months). This brings the total unlock period to 3 years (36 months).

Strategic Reserve

5.1% — 51,000,000 $VIN

5.1% of the supply has been allocated to the Strategic Reserve, which will be used by the dVIN Foundation for unforeseen token liquidity requirements.

No $VIN from this allocation will be unlocked at TGE. These tokens (51M) are unlocked linearly over 12 months.

Final remarks

The entire allocation for Contributors unlocks linearly over 3 years (36 months) after a 1-year cliff. This means that the allocation will be locked for one year after TGE. Accordingly, the allocation will be fully unlocked 4 years (48 months) after TGE.

As for Capital Partners, the entire allocation will be on a 12-months cliff, after which 25% of the allocation will unlock. Thereafter, the remaining allocation (75%) will unlock linearly over 2 years (24 months). This brings the total unlock period to 3 years (36 months).

For the overall Token supply, there will be complete transparency regarding the distribution and utilization of tokens. The Foundation’s objective is to ultimately transfer full control of the protocol to the DAO and this is a key step in ensuring that transition.

The Importance of Our Token Generation Event

We expect to launch $VIN from the main stage at Breakpoint 2024. We have the support of Jupiter, the Solana Foundation, and their core teams. It’s also our desire to have at least one centralized exchange launch shortly thereafter. We wanted to highlight this event and explain why it is so important for dVIN protocol and its community.

The upcoming Token Generation Event (TGE) is a key milestone in our protocol's journey. It's more than a financial milestone. It's a testament to our community of wineries and wine lovers. It reflects our vision for the future.

From the start, we have prioritized our protocol's long-term health and sustainability over short-term gains. This philosophy showed in our initial fundraising efforts. We chose to raise capital directly and only from angel investors. By atomizing the raise with smaller ticket sizes, and keeping the total allocation under 4% of the token supply (3.9% to be precise), we can ensure that our protocol remains focused on long-term growth and is decentralized. In fact, the average ticket size in our $1.5M token raise amounts to less than $24,000. We think this and the 3-year unlock period for Capital Partners will mitigate selling pressure risk before protocol maturity by curbing early sales.

Continuing Our Ethos

The TGE is a continuation of this ethos. It represents more than just a fundraising event; it is a stepping stone toward realizing our on-chain vision and accruing value for those that decide to participate on-chain in this alternative asset class. By opening this opportunity to the broader community, we are democratizing access to our protocol. We are also reinforcing our commitment to decentralization and community ownership. This event allows our community members to become active participants in our journey.

Onboarding the Next Wave of Web3 Enthusiasts

A key part of our mission is to onboard non-crypto natives into Web3, and the Solana ecosystem. The TGE is a key step in this process. With our Strategic Partners' support, this event is user-friendly. It ensures that newcomers can participate with confidence and ease.

Our community initiatives before TGE, and those planned after, give us confidence we will achieve this mission. In particular, we’re excited about the expression of the female audience of wine lovers and enthusiasts that our community has on-boarded and that will continue to onboard on and after this milestone.

Delivering on Web3 Partnerships

Our protocol's success depends on our community and our partnerships. Our Web3 partners have chosen to join us on this journey. They see the potential in what we are building. The TGE enables us to deliver on these partnerships, providing the resources needed to execute our shared vision. It also serves as a validation of their decision to align with our protocol.