What is the Boson Protocol?

Source: Boson Website

The Boson Protocol is a decentralized actuator oracle for decentralized commerce focused on tokenizing, transferring, and trading redeemable NFTs.

An actuator is a device that can trigger real-world actions based on digital events. An oracle is a service that feeds data into a blockchain network. The Boson Protocol doesn’t just provide data to the blockchain. It can also trigger actions in the real world based on the data provided.

The protocol’s actuator feature was initially designed to connect real-world assets to redeemable NFTs and guarantee the payment and receipt of these assets in a commercial transaction. This would drive the Boson Protocol’s desire to be the digital marketplace for physical items and goods.

To achieve this, the protocol solves three main problems: trust, fair exchange, and representation. To solve the trust problem, the protocol doesn’t tokenize the physical item itself but the commitment from both parties. This commitment to ensuring the transaction is conducted is locked up in a forward contract and tokenized as a redeemable nonfungible token (rNFT).

The protocol assumes that all transactions are fair until a dispute is raised. A detailed, efficient dispute resolution framework has been designed to assess the agreement, evidence, and claims before deciding on an outcome. This, combined with the tokenized commitment, solves the representation problem, allowing the paying party to redeem their NFT in case of malicious happenings.

The Boson Protocol uses the Boson Protocol stack, the XMTP protocol, and the Graph network to provide the above features.

History of The Boson Protocol

The Boson protocol was launched in 2021 by Justin Banon and Gregor Borosa. Justin Banon, the CEO of Boson, is a serial entrepreneur responsible for creating crypto projects like Meltfactory and Redeemeum. Gregor Borosa, the CTO of the protocol, is an engineer who worked with the Central Bank of Slovenia as a lead software engineer.

The Boson Protocol underwent three versions from inception: the Core protocol contracts, Metaverse Commerce, and Generic Exchange Mechanism.

The first version was a very minimal version deployed on an Ethereum testnet. This allowed the developers and users to learn the functionalities and bugs in the protocol’s design. The next version is geared towards conducting commercial activities in the metaverse. This was designed based on data obtained from the Boson testnet.

The Metaverse commerce phase added features like multi-coin support, conditional commit, deposit optimization, and In-store commerce. These features allowed users to buy in-game or in the application and redeem such purchases in a physical store.

The third version was launched as a fully functional protocol that can achieve mass adoption. The features and changes are geared towards facilitating the exchange of any physical or digital item, termed “Project Multiverse.”

Core Components

The Boson Protocol Stack

The Boson protocol stack is the whole architectural infrastructure of the Boson Protocol. It consists of the interface layer, core visual components, core SDK component, contract layer, and public infrastructure layer. These layers are required to facilitate the core system of the protocol called the exchange mechanism.

The core function of the Boson Protocol is to facilitate exchanging items, and the Exchange mechanism handles the exchange of on-chain and off-chain value between two parties. It is segmented into three events: offer, exchange, and dispute.

It starts with the offer creation phase, where a seller offers a product to a buyer. The aim is to ensure there is intent to transact, and the seller can void this offer if the redeemable NFT has not been created or redeemed.

The buyer then accepts the offer by committing or paying for the protocol. The protocol acts as an escrow, securing the funds and minting the rNFT as a token of the buyer’s commitment. This rNFT can be redeemed for the amount committed in a faulty exchange.

If after the buyer asserts that the seller has not met the obligations agreed upon, the buyer can file a dispute. This pushes the transaction state into three possible paths: mutual resolution, escalated dispute resolution, and retraction, allowing the buyer to retract their dispute and conclude the transaction.

The XMTP Protocol

The XMTP, or Extensible Message Transport Protocol, is a secure open-source standard for sending private messages between users. The protocol allows users to send and receive encrypted messages using any platform or application with an integrated XMTP client. The client is tasked with authenticating wallet signatures.

The protocol is designed to be compatible with EVM-compatible blockchains, wallets, and applications. The XMTP protocol doesn’t use EVMs to operate. Instead, it works with web3 identity projects like ENS, Lens profiles, and UNS names.

The XMTP protocol allows buyers and sellers to communicate and resolve disputes in a private, decentralized way.

The Graph Network

The Graph network is a protocol designed to index and query data on blockchains. It makes it easier to access information that would have been difficult to attain.

The project is used by popular NFT projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) to read data beyond the basic information on the NFT. It allows for more complicated queries like aggregation, search, relationships, and filtering of unimportant data.

The integration with the Graph network provides an interface for accessing the state of transactions along with the data stored off-chain or on IPFS.

Features of the Boson Protocol: Boson Marketplace and Boson Widget

Boson Marketplace

Source: Boson Website

The Boson marketplace is a digital platform that allows users to buy physical items.

The Boson Protocol’s settlement later handles the exchange of on-chain and off-chain value, ensuring the user gets their item or a refund. The application is built on the Polygon network to list and purchase items.

To utilize the platform, users are expected to commit their interest to purchase an item, transfer the item’s value to the platform’s escrow, and redeem their rNFTs when they are ready to take possession of the physical item.

The XMTP protocol also allows users to discuss terms of the exchange and share information on their location in a trustless way.

Boson Widget

The Boson widget is a set of tools that allow developers to build a branded dApp store on the Boson Protocol. The Boson widgets consist of the Commit widget, Redeem widget, and Metaverse tool kit.

The Boson commit widget lets sellers integrate Bison’s commit features on their domains. The seller can either use a personalized commit button or a Boson-branded button.

The redemption widget allows sellers to offer redemption of rNFTs on their platform, game, or website. Users can purchase items on Boson or the customized marketplace and then proceed to the designated platform to redeem their rNFT. The default design ensures the widget displays all the users’ redeemable rNFTs, but the developer is allowed to configure the platform to display specific rNFTs for redemption.

The metaverse toolkit, or Decentraland (DCL) widget, allows developers to conduct transactions within the metaverse. The DCL SDK is not supported by any backend feature on the Boson Protocol. Instead, the project would send the transactions to Polygon through the Biconomy project through an RPC endpoint so the Widget can read the state from Polygon.

What is the BOSON Token?

Source: Boson Medium

The BOSON Token is the native token of the Boson Protocol. The taken is an ERC-20 token to incentivize ecosystem participants and charge transaction fees. These fees are activated by the Boson DAO and gathered in the DAO treasury to assist in evolving the ecosystem.

The BOSON token has a maximum supply of 200 million tokens, which has been issued entirely, making it the total supply in circulation.

The distribution of the BOSON Token is 43% allocated to the Boston Foundation, 5% to advisors, and 25% allocated to the Boson team. For early investors, 7% of the token is reserved to reward them, 11.5% for safe sales, 5.1% for pre-sale, and 3% for public sales.

Is BOSON a Good Investment?

The BOSON token is the core of all economic activities in the Boson ecosystem. Holders of the token participate in determining the activities of the protocol. As the Boson DAO treasury amasses BOSON tokens paid as fees for conducting transactions, holders govern how these funds are used.

The Boson protocol uses a milestone-based approach to developing its technology, and Holders benefit from this. As early investors in the project, holders of the BOSON token benefit from all future innovations and developments.

The features above, combined with the underdeveloped decentralized Commerce space and governance rights, allow users to determine the future viability of the protocol.

Risk Analysis

Advantages

The project acts as an escrow using smart contracts, which allows it to conduct trustless transactions. The framework will also enable it to resolve disputes between parties amicably while presenting an appropriate representation of physical assets in the digital space.

The platform allows users to access data quickly, which can be customized to suit the right project. This is possible because of the tools and widgets enabling developers to deploy dApps efficiently.

The protocol also allows users to send and receive messages in a decentralized manner without the intervention of centralized entities.

Disadvantages

A significant disadvantage is the new technology powering the Boson Protocol. As a recent protocol, the features and functionalities of the project are still undergoing development and enhancement. This limits the project’s experience and capacity to deal with unforeseen occurrences like malicious actions and hack attempts.

The decentralized commerce space is not a popular feature of the crypto space, which has limited the adoption capacity of the project.

Challenges

The project requires a large amount of transactions to scale without compromising speed. Since the project is not yet mainstream, the project is yet to achieve high user adoption.

Another issue is community building. As the project encourages buyers and sellers to interact with the protocol, it’s necessary yet challenging to be unique compared to the competitors offering similar decentralized commerce features.

Competitive Analysis

The Boson Protocol and the Origin Protocol aim to disrupt traditional e-commerce space by reducing reliance on centralized intermediaries and allowing participants to share the value they create. However, their approaches and offerings to achieve the above goal differ.

Boson Protocol focuses on tokenizing transactions and commitments into NFTs, while Origin Protocol offers a wider range of decentralized market features and solutions.

Another difference is Origin’s focus on peer-to-peer transacting, while Boson executes trustless transactions.

While both projects utilize DAOs, the Boson Protocol had a more established framework to achieve community governance.

How Can You Own BOSON?

Users can follow a simple process to own BOSON tokens and become a part of the Boson ecosystem.

Setup a Wallet

One way to own BOSON tokens is to purchase them through an exchange. For this, the user must create a Gate.io account, complete the KYC process, and add funds to the account to buy the token.

Utilize the BOSON Tokens

Once users have acquired BOSON tokens, they can explore the Boson ecosystem by making offers, committing to minting rNFTs, and participating in governance activities.

Take action on BOSON

Users can trade the BOSON token here.