Update on Jur’s Decentralisation Plan

Dear Jur Community, 

Over the past six months, we have been on a roll. We’ve launched a solochain, a dApp, various use cases, token listing, onboarded communities intending to build new forms of web3 communities/startup societies with us, and brought a stellar CTO to the team. We had 53 communities and a $5B ecosystem that started to build on Jur.

This journey started a long time ago; it was 2018, at the onset of a bear market, and we had to push past one of the coldest crypto winters on record. When it comes to timing we have not been very lucky, but we pushed together to explore the boundaries of new social constructs ranging from dispute resolution, trustless agreements, and lastly on-chain social coordination.

Together with these challenges came major accomplishments like the first private car sale transaction powered by a smart contract and the recent launch of a big network as Draper Nation on our chain. This journey required the resilience of everyone involved from the core team, evangelists, oracles, $JUR token holders, and investors.

We are faced with another challenge: current macroeconomic conditions are very hard for anyone in the crypto market, and in particular the ecosystem we are building on is undergoing some profound changes as it struggles to keep momentum and be efficient in resource allocation.

Despite solid metrics on the NationX dApp, funding in the current ecosystem has been dry, with major ecosystem operators deciding to allocate capital elsewhere. This leaves us with a tough outlook due to the tech debt accumulated on Substrate and Polkadot that as you all have experienced many times is not as user-friendly as other networks (and unfortunately didn’t evolve at the pace we were expecting).

Polkadot 2.0 could represent an excellent turning point but there’s an unavoidable gap between now and its maturity. This implies that smaller cap projects like Jur are currently not supported by VCs of this ecosystem, while external VCs keep looking away from Polkadot-based projects as they wait for major improvements in the ecosystem to support adoption which has proven to be more than just a technical challenge.

The current runway will not allow Jur to achieve token-market fit despite strong use cases such as Draper Nation, NGOs, and influencers that are interested in using the platform. We did consider repositioning (yet again) Jur on an EVM compatible environment, however, after several chats with many of you, we understood that aside from bringing further friction we would still be unable to execute this strategy successfully.

Given a potential upcoming positive outlook for the overall crypto market, we are left with one important decision: accelerating the decentralisation process to empower the community to support and collectively push the project forward. We have collected various feedback from community members and this is the best way forward considering the unbearable costs of keeping up a centralised company that builds on Polkadot. Decentralising would allow community members to innovate and give new life to $JUR’s secondary market. 

What does this imply? A road to decentralisation:

  • OpenGov will be activated to enable decentralised governance of the Jur Chain runtime;
  • The sudo key will be removed from the Jur Chain;
  • Jur’s support of NationX and the token swap ends 30 Jan 2024;
  • Whitelisting will be removed from the NationX dApp; any $JUR token holder will be able to create a society (with guidelines to be determined);
  • Jur will initiate a process to activate, involve, engage, and handover to key community members the governance of the project;

Following the above, on 31 Jan 2024, Jur’s core team will be dissolved, enabling each of them to work on Jur in an individual capacity and at their will. Jur AG will be shut down.

This decentralisation process should allow $JUR token holders to bring value and contribute to positioning the project to seize the opportunities during the course of 2024.

Further detailed communications will cover operative matters regarding the above plan and to keep all $JUR token holders informed. Are you interested in supporting and contributing to the project? Reach out on the #road-to-decentralisation channel in Discord.

FAQs

Why is Jur decentralising?

  • Jur is decentralising to empower the Jur Community to collectively drive the project forward. It is essential to foster sustainability by avoiding reliance on a core company for project development, especially considering the limited availability of funding and current adverse market conditions.

What are the benefits and challenges of decentralising now?

  • This approach empowers a decentralised effort to drive the project forward, allowing various developers, stakeholders, and interested parties to collaborate and build. One challenge to consider is that the decision-making process may be slower without a core team, and the effectiveness will depend on the individuals and stakeholders who join the mission.

What steps will be taken to ensure a smooth transition to community-driven governance?

  • Jur core team will integrate on-chain governance likely based on OpenGov and related tooling (e.g. Polkassembly). This plan has been anticipated with the core of the community, and the current Jur team will be active on the community channels until the decentralisation is completed. 

How can I contribute as a community member?

  • Thanks for your interest! You are invited to participate in the official community channels mentioning the skills and expertise through which you could contribute in order to shape and manage the future direction of Jur.

Will there be a roadmap provided to the community for the decentralisation of the project?

  • Considering the limited time frame, we will have regular operational communications once each milestone is accomplished.

Which will be the communication channels post decentralisation?

  • The Jur Community will gather in the official channels, any change regarding those will be determined through decentralised governance. Account management (e.g. Jur’s official X account) will be passed over to the community once an on-chain vote regarding these will be finalised

What will be the next development of the NationX dApp?

  • NationX will be a community led project. Now that the Beta phase is close to completion, the Jur Community will take over and contribute to its success as the heart of future startup societies on the Jur Network. 

Will the team continue shipping new features during the transition?

  • Absolutely, in fact a new release will be live soon. At the same time the team is committed to completing the necessary steps to decentralise the project’s governance.

How will decentralisation impact ongoing projects like Draper Nation?

  • Every use case of NationX or potential new use case can freely determine whether they find value in the current version of the dApp and if it aligns with their objectives and needs. NationX serves as a place where new societies arise and take their first steps. Decentralisation means that the interests of those communities will be taken care of by the community in its entirety.

How will decentralisation impact the Jur Chain?

  • Jur Chain’s node source code will be open-sourced and instructions on how to run it provided. It will be in the interest of the Jur Community to keep expanding its infrastructure.

How will the community ensure the growth of the Jur ecosystem after the decentralisation process?

  • The Jur Community will be empowered with the entire treasury left after current liabilities. Through on-chain governance the community can allocate those funds to the initiative that it deems important for the success of the project.

Will this affect $JUR?

  • The Jur core team is not in a position to comment on these aspects. In the decentralisation plan envisioned great care has been taken to ensure that the $JUR has a scope for growth (e.g. transferring the entire available supply to the future Jur Community treasury)

How long after the decentralisation will the token swap be available for? 

  • The token swap dApp will remain operational until January 30th, 2024. Please make sure to swap your tokens by this date.

What will happen to the $JUR tokens dedicated to the project development?

  • The core team plans to publish a comprehensive recap along with the last market report. The project’s available $JUR (i.e., ecosystem growth fund) will be securely stored in public wallets until it can be deployed in the community treasury.

What steps will be taken to onboard and educate community members who may not be familiar with the technical aspects of Jur Chain?

  • For the core aspects a documentation will be provided with link to helpful resources to become a contributor of the decentralised Jur Community

If I have a support issue or question what should I do?

  • Jur’s Discord is the current official channel where the community gathers. Feel free to join and post in the appropriate channels.