Designed by Dr. Mantis of Defi Labs, PRIA is a perpetually deflating and inflating instrument, into which you can strategically enter—and later exit—to realize monetary profit. PRIA was fairly launched in October 2020 on Uniswap.
While its use case is simple, PRIA’s tokenomics were meticulously designed for two main objectives: 1) to ensure the movement of money from its maximum to minimum supply, and 2) to pack volume into low supply, thereby preventing the monopolization of the currency by larger holders and allowing for democratized and sustainable profit making.
The tokenomics are like no other in the history of cryptocurrencies. Supply starts at 100,000 tokens, and through burns on buys and transfers, decreases to just 1.25 tokens (before going back up again). This extraordinary deflation places PRIA in a viable position to become certainly one of the market’s highest-valued cryptocurrency. Imagine a marketcap of $1 million at 100,000 supply. Token price would be $10. With the same marketcap at 1.25 supply, price would be $800,000. At even a modest marketcap of 100M, price would be $80,000,000.
PRIA is not your typical deflationary token, however, destined to die off after a hype cycle because supply is already dominated by early holders, and prices become too high for new market participants. During the massive supply reduction, PRIA alternates between deflationary and inflationary turns, with the inflationary turns providing a sort of release valve for any negative dynamics accrued through deflation.
Specifically, PRIA works as follows. First, supply decreases from 100,000 to 10,000. At 10,000 supply, the contract essentially flips a switch, and PRIA mints back up to 50,000. At 50,000, it begins deflating to 5,000, and so on, with each peak and valley becoming lower. An ultra cycle consists of all turns leading to minimum supply and back up again, as depicted in the chart below. At 1.25 supply, PRIA heads back to 100,000 supply in reverse order, and the system continues perpetually.
It’s important to note that the protocol includes mechanisms to ensure that it reaches its minimum supply. Every wallet must make a buy or transfer every 35 days, otherwise, anyone can call a function to burn 25% of that wallet. After 60 days of inactivity, the entire wallet can be burned. There is also an airdrop mechanism, distributing airdrops of varying value on every buy to encourage strategic trading and contribute further to token burns and velocity toward minimum supply.
You may have heard that PRIA is a token based on game theory. How is that so, and is PRIA just a game? Given the unique progression of the token model, users of the system can only guess how others will capitalize on it, and how they themselves should maximize their position. One could speculate on significant profit taking toward the end of each deflationary cycle, when supply is at its local minimum, and one could also presume a mad rush to buy and mint tokens during each inflationary phase. Many envision the inflationary periods lasting only hours. Still, many participants may want to hold their tokens for a later turn, when supply decreases even more. And of course not all participants can hold, or that local minimum would never be reached. Baked into the protocol is a psychological certainty that everyone has a price at which they will sell. What that price is, and the price swings that could occur along the way, are anyone’s guess.
So is it a game? The excitement surrounding PRIA’s performance through the various turns rivals that of any game, and will continue to do so, particularly through Turn 3, when we have finally had a chance to play through at least one deflationary and inflationary turn. But calling it a game sells its engineering short.
Ultimately, it is a tool for inflation arbitrage: a complex, experimental, hybrid monetary policy designed to lay a foundation for the development of future currencies—currencies that allow all users to benefit in perpetuity. Dr. Mantis has referred to PRIA as a ferris wheel. You get on, ride up and down as many times as you wish, get off, and maybe ride again. In this case, though, you aim to get off with a lot more tickets than when you started.
It may be interesting to note that at the time of this writing, volume is particularly low trading PRIA. Gas fees on the Ethereum network are currently high, and PRIA transactions require more gas than average. Still, the protocol is moving forward as programmed. With any substantial volume, prices will likely skyrocket.
