Introducing BeeDance

Encointer has made it possible for any community to create and distribute its own local currency. With its highly secure and decentralized Sybil-defense protocol, it lays the foundation for community-issued income. The current version of the protocol, known as Encointer LoCo, has proven its capabilities in pilots such as the Leu community in Zurich.

However, we understand that launching new communities and defining the economics of a currency can be demanding, slowing down widespread adoption. This is where BeeDance comes in.

BeeDance enables event organizers to create their own, flexible Encointer community for a single event or a series of regular gatherings. With BeeDance, organizers have the freedom to choose the event location and determine the timing of key-signing gatherings that suits them best. The beauty of BeeDance lies in its simplicity and flexibility, making it far easier to launch compared to Encointer LoCo. While it can serve as an excellent user acquisition tool for LoCo, it also serves as a standalone proof-of-attendance (PoA) protocol.

BeeDance: A new more secure and flexible way to prove attendance

PoA is commonly understood as evidence that you participated in a physical or virtual event, typically issued by the event organizer. Traditionally, using a protocol such as POAP.xyz on Ethereum, attendees scan a QR code to claim an NFT, creating a fun experience for collectors. However, such protocols can be easily manipulated, allowing participants to claim multiple times or share the QR code with others who are not in attendance. It takes just one person to leak the QR code for the system to become ineffective and the event organizer acts as the single trusted authority for PoA issuance. These vulnerabilities pose a significant problem in any situation where the PoA and its associated benefits have real value.   

Building upon the robust foundations of Encointer LoCo, BeeDance enhances the security and reduces the centralization of PoA, while injecting an element of fun. Event attendees are randomly grouped into clusters of a dozen people, who gather in specific areas of the venue to scan each other’s QR codes in the BeeDance app. We call this a BeeDance because, from a bird’s-eye view, it resembles a bustling beehive, with participants buzzing about, exchanging information, and forging connections. Besides enhancing security, these randomized gatherings can also be leveraged for speed networking, thereby integrating the key-signing gatherings more organically into the overall event.

Although the event host holds a privileged role in being able to grant or deny access to the BeeDance, their actions are publicly observable, and any attempts to mint illegitimate rewards or PoA can be detected and addressed by attendees.

As a host, BeeDance offers you a large degree of freedom and flexibility in determining rewards. Whether you issue commemorative NFTs or an event-specific currency that can be used to obtain drinks, food, or merch, it’s up to you. Moreover, event organizers who host a series of events can use the same event currency across gatherings, creating a token ecosystem around their meetups.

As BeeDance events gain momentum and foster a sense of community, they may eventually decide to launch their own Encointer LoCo community. By this point, they will have reached a critical mass and gained valuable insights into how their community currency can hold substantial value.

Composability is another essential aspect of Encointer BeeDance. The PoA rewards earned will be standard assets that can be issued on other chains and are compatible with XCM and every Polkadot wallet.

Looking ahead, Encointer plans to deliver the BeeDance MVP in Q4 2023, with the first events scheduled before the year’s end. Overall, BeeDance offers a more secure, flexible and engaging approach to PoA and we look forward to seeing it in operation later this year.

 Table: Differences between Encointer LoCo and Encointer BeeDance