Token Ecosystem

The SugarBlock Token serves as the governance and staking token for the SugarBlock network, an ecosystem designed for decentralized video streaming and processing. Unlike typical cryptocurrencies, SUGARBisn't used directly for transactions within the network; instead, ETH, SOL or any other cross chain implemented token is utilized for broadcasting video and compensating nodes for their services.

Roles of SUGARB:

• Bonding Mechanism: SUGARB is staked within a delegated proof of stake framework. Stakeholders delegate their SUGARB to transcoders (also known as validators) who process video streams. This staking and potential penalties for non-compliance secure the network against various malicious activities.

• Work Distribution: The amount of SUGARB staked influences how video transcoding tasks are distributed across the network, ensuring that tasks are handled by those with the most stake and thus, theoretically, the most to lose if they act dishonestly.

• Unit of Account: Within the SugarBlock ecosystem, SUGARB acts as a native unit for accounting, which could expand into additional services like video recording, captioning, advertisement insertion, and analytics, all potentially leveraging the security provided by SUGARB staking.

• Token Distribution and Issuance: An initial distribution of SUGARB will enable various stakeholders to engage with the network, followed by an ongoing, algorithmically controlled issuance of additional tokens.

SUGARB Properties:

• SUGARB follows the standard of many ERC20 tokens, being divisible to 18 decimal places. While whole units might be used for staking and other user transactions, smaller units are used for internal protocol accounting.

Protocol Roles and Systems:

Roles:

• Broadcaster: Nodes that initiate streams. They act as origin nodes and can either monetize video consumption or subsidize bandwidth costs to allow free access for all viewers.

• Transcoder: Nodes that convert streams into different formats or qualities. They provide bandwidth for distribution as long as it's financially beneficial, akin to traditional CDNs.

• Relay Node: Nodes that distribute streams and protocol messages without transcoding. They provide bandwidth for distribution as long as it's financially beneficial, akin to traditional CDNs. While bandwidth accounting makes running Relay Nodes profitable by meeting demand, their incentives are tied to content

• Consumer: Nodes that receive streams, potentially for viewing or further distribution. They might be willing to share their upstream bandwidth to distribute content to other consumers in exchange for free access to the video themselves, similar to systems like WebTorrent. With video segments as the fundamental unit of data transfer, tit-for-tat bandwidth accounting can be implemented using Ethereum, SOL or any compatible third party infrastructure for transaction settlement. We adopt the Chequebook Contract from Swarm for off-chain payment handling with on-chain resolution. The protocol's native token transfer capability also allows for direct pricing of content, where broadcasters can charge for their content, and nodes can choose to pay for access, with the payment funneling back to the broadcaster.

Systems:

• Swarm (or similar): Functions as a content-addressed storage where data availability is assured during verification processes.

• SugarBlock Smart Contract: An Ethereum-based contract managing network operations.

By delineating these roles and systems, SugarBlock creates a robust, decentralized infrastructure for video streaming where each participant has clearly defined responsibilities and incentives, all underpinned by the token's role in security and network coordination. However, equally critical is the distribution of this video across the network to ensure it's consumed with high quality and minimal latency. The distribution economics are modeled after the tit-for-tat bandwidth accounting popularized by BitTorrent and further developed in protocols like SWAP. Simply put, nodes pay to request video segments and get paid for serving them. Nodes that already possess a segment can profit by serving it to multiple requesters; these are known as Relay nodes.