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description: Design Philosophy
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# Introduction to Vape

As we walk through the design of the VAPE token and its surrounding token economy, there are several important things to note in order to fully understand our token economy design strategy. We are building in a bear market, not for the next bull market — but for the next 10 bear markets as well.

* Tokens used for paying the development team, securing partnerships, airdrops, or exchange listings are dilutive in nature and undermine the mechanics and value experiences built around the remaining allocations. When those value experiences are undermined, the token economy will stagnate and fail to grow long-term
* Tokens used as incentives are dependent on their value stability. If the token’s value (real or perceived) declines — it’s power to function as a meaningful incentive is greatly reduced. Compensating for reduced value requires increased emissions, which in turn — exacerbates price declines. The result is a death spiral that eliminates opportunities for incentives, stripping away a critical growth lever for a platform
* Assets easily gained are just as easily parted with. If tokens are handed out and received easily, at no cost, or don’t require any real commitment to acquire — there are low-to-no psychological or financial barriers to selling them for whatever value they can be exchanged for
* One-dimensional economies have a single point of failure and lack diversity in value experiences. This lack of diversity gives way to everyone employing the same strategy — and ultimately oversaturating an experience, causing its ultimate demise. Multi-dimensional economies, while more elaborate and complex — offer adaptability and insulate value experiences from obsolescence by unleashing game theory in full force

While other DEX’s have used their native token to pay their team, fund their journey, or secure partnerships — we have elected to remove this common practice from our design. Eliminating these dilutive and irresponsible practices is a critical step in ensuring that VAPE starts as, and always remains as… our community’s token.

VAPE’s economy is not designed to incentivize — it’s designed to reward and recognize. VAPE is a reward for taking specific and purpose-driven actions that add value back to the VaporFi ecosystem and community. You won’t earn VAPE just for showing up, but when you use our products, help grow value for the community, and participate in our curated value experiences — VAPE will be there to say thank you.

And finally, but most importantly — while other DEX tokens have distributed their token like candy on Halloween, VAPE will be very difficult to acquire. Getting it will not be easy. VAPE is not a participation trophy, it’s a medal for going above and beyond. When you earn VAPE, it means that you’ve created value for your fellow community and the community is increasing its investment back in you.

Throughout our introduction to VAPE, you’ll see the above philosophies put on full display and brought to life. When building VaporDEX, simplicity and ease of use is paramount, as seen in our UI/UX. However, when it comes to the principles and mechanics of VAPE’s token economy, we have constructed an economy that has traditional mechanics, as well as more elaborate ways to acquire value.

Simple designs will require less effort but will be less rewarding. Those who take the time to engage with our most challenging value experiences will always be rewarded disproportionately.
