Agile Coretime XCM NFT price oracle and loans

Pricing Agile Coretime predictably

Today I had a more thorough read through Dr Gavin Wood’s Polkadot 2023 Roundup https://medium.com/polkadot-network/polkadot-2023-roundup-7fe77d88f022.
In the “Core Blimey!” section it highlights that with the new Agile Coretime “On-Demand Parachains (ODP)” model, chunks of Coretime resource will be “represented by XCM NFTs”, and it “is to be sold off at more predictable prices in a monthly sale just ahead of usage”, so they may be “traded, exchanged, advertised, and sold” within the Polkadot ecosystem.

It mentions an upcoming Agile Coretime marketplace https://www.lastic.xyz.

Also this post by @filippoweb3 he mentions how to calculate Agile Coretime https://polkaverse.com/@filippoweb3/polkadot-coretime-pricing-digested-55985

• Question: Would we obtain more predictable prices if prediction markets are created on Zeitgeist to predict the monthly prices of Agile Coretime?

History of loans to teams

Previously with Parachain “Lease” Slot Auctions https://polkadot.network/features/auctions, in order for parachain teams to be assigned a parachain slot, there was an incentive for them to market their product and attract crowdloan contributors to “loan” some DOT to help them win an auction and be allowed to connect to an on-chain slot on the relay chain and that they could lease it for the duration of a parachain slot lease period https://polkadot.network/blog/obtaining-a-parachain-slot-on-polkadot. There was even a Polkadot Loan Offering to help “loan” DOT tokens to parachain teams to cover their parachain bond.

Taxable events associated with loans

If crowdloan contributors “loaned” their DOT tokens to a crowdloan module associated with a parachain team directly on-chain then that may not be considered a taxable event and they would receive their DOT tokens back at an opportunity cost, which may be a preferred approach and also depend on the tax implications, however claiming any crowdloan rewards (possibly a form of interest payment) may be considered a taxable event. Alternatively, if you contributed to them to a crowdloan via the multisig of a parachain team then it may have been considered a taxable event.

Buying blockspace with NFTs instead of leasing through loans

Using Agile Coretime and the “On-Demand Parachains (ODP)” model, teams that wish to obtain chunks of the coretime resource (parathread) may need to “buy” them as XCM NFTs from an Agile Coretime marketplace instead of being able to “lease” them by simply depositing a bond that would be returned again interest-free.

• Question: If teams want to “buy” Agile Coretime XCM NFTs, but they cannot afford it, how should they obtain a “loan”?
• Question: Would it be possible to use a module similar to the crowdloan module that would allow traditional crowdloan contributors to instead “delegate” their DOT tokens as discount vouchers to teams that created proposals on OpenGov, rather than those teams creating child bounty proposals requesting funding in DOT tokens to help them “buy” Agile Coretime XCM NFTs, so those teams could then use those discount vouchers to obtain a discount when they “buy” those Agile Coretime XCM NFTs?

Investing in blockspace using retirement savings

Previously, if you had a team and needed DOT tokens to bond (that would be returned again) to lease a parachain slot it would have been possible to contribute DOT tokens to your crowdloan using your retirement savings that you manager yourself through a self-managed super fund (SMSF). There is a plethora of other tax implications that I mentioned in my reply to this post by Cienias https://polkaverse.com/12595/what-is-the-best-way-to-sell-polkadot-and-transfer-the-money-54300.

But now if you need DOT tokens to “buy” Agile Coretime XCM NFTs from a marketplace for your team, it does not appear possible anymore to use an SMSF to “loan” your DOT tokens to obtain a consideration (e.g. token rewards, discount voucher), and it does not appear possible to “buy” them using a SMSF, since they are NFTs and possibly only available on decentralised platforms.

Restrictions on buying blockspace and NFTs since accountants say there are no NFT price oracles available to confirm their value

Unfortunately some SMSF accountants may not permit NFTs, as they say that unlike with cryptocurrencies, “there are no NFT price checkers available online to confirm their value”, and that the market value of SMSF assets held at the end of a financial year is a requirement, but that “they are unable to determine the value of NFTs to the satisfaction of the auditor’s requirements at present”, and since all assets that an SMSF holds must meet an auditors professional obligations under R8.02B of the SIS Act.

On that basis, some SMSF accountants say that if you hold assets that cannot be valued to the auditor’s requirements then that may result in a Part A qualification of the audit report and may also result in a breach of R8.02B SISR.

• Question: If each Agile Coretime XCM NFT “is to be sold off at more predictable prices in a monthly sale just ahead of usage” (quote from blogpost by Dr Gavin Wood mentioned earlier), then where are those more predictable prices going to be made available online?
• Question: Is there going to be a decentralised NFT price oracle (NFT price checkers) to accurately determine and confirm the value of each Agile Coretime XCM NFT?
• Question: Is it currently a true statement for SMSF accountants to say “there are no NFT price checkers available online to confirm their value”?
• Question: Will it still be a true statement for SMSF accountants to say “there are no NFT price checkers available online to confirm their value” if a decentralised NFT price oracle existed that accurately determined and confirmed the value of each Agile Coretime XCM NFT?
• Question: If not, then would Agile Coretime XCM NFTs meet an auditors professional obligations under R8.02B of the SIS Act, such that it should not result in a Part A qualification of the audit report, and should not result in a breach of R8.02B SISR?

Aside from the above issues, it is still possible to stake the DOT tokens in your SMSF and “delegate” or use your voting power and conviction to support that team to help them with any OpenGov proposals if you are not eligible for the “Decentralized Voices Program” https://medium.com/web3foundation/decentralized-voices-program-93623c27ae43.

Credits: Cover image from here