The Role RAIL Plays Within the RAILGUN Ecosystem

Any properly decentralized project needs a method by which decisions are made. After all, a project must progress toward its original vision and goal. RAILGUN has a governance token called RAIL for its Ethereum deployment that allows holders to vote on proposals that determine the future of the project. The launching and distribution of RAIL was a critical step for the governance of RAILGUN, the most advanced privacy and anonymity system in cryptocurrency.

What Role does RAIL Play?

RAIL decentralizes the decisions that influence the direction and operation of the RAILGUN project. No centralized governing body controls RAILGUN. This means that in order to have a high degree of certainty that RAILGUN can remain functional and operational for a long period of time, the core operations have to be outsourced to the community.

A common way of outsourcing governance within the cryptocurrency world is to issue a governance token. This governance token can be used to vote on proposals such as changing the fees RAILGUN uses, or by adjusting the incentive model for staking RAIL. Each blockchain RAILGUN has deployed on has its own governance token, so decisions can be made that benefit each unique chain. 

RAIL Staking

In order to participate in governance, RAIL must be owned and staked. Users have incentives for staking RAIL, such as receiving airdrops of governance tokens for new deployments. In future, fees generated by the RAILGUN system will also be received by stakers.

Although RAILGUN started on Ethereum, it can easily be deployed on any blockchain running an EVM, as well as on other smart contract-capable chains. As RAILGUN expands to other blockchains, airdrops mean users who are staking RAIL are rewarded.

Users who stake RAIL have also been entitled to receive RAILGUN NFTs in future airdrops. Since NFTs are an aspect of cryptocurrency that are here to stay, this is also a powerful incentive for staking beyond participation in governance.

In a future update, RAILGUN will be able facilitate the anonymous transfer and sale of NFTs. This is yet another use case of the configurability of RAILGUN as a system that enables privacy within cryptocurrency platforms.

Governing RAILGUN with RAIL

RAILGUN is ultimately run by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) made up of holders of RAIL. The developers of RAILGUN have no special privileges that can overrule the governance decisions of the DAO. This is in line with the principles of decentralization and helps to ensure the soundness of the incentive structure behind RAILGUN.

It is in the best interest of the DAO to promote the use and proliferation of the RAILGUN privacy system itself. For example, the DAO might issue grants for the development of key features that will enhance the system as a whole. Alternatively, they may decide to decrease fees to use the system in hopes of making the service more accessible to users. The DAO has the reins.

The Future of RAILGUN

The RAILGUN project seems likely to become the go-to on-chain privacy preserving service. Any transaction that can be made on-chain can leverage RAILGUN to preserve the privacy of the parties involved. As more use cases, transaction types, and applications get developed across the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the usefulness of RAILGUN naturally expands alongside it.

Similarly, as privacy, censorship, and user security continue to make mainstream headlines, demand for the RAILGUN privacy system will only increase. Needless to say, privacy is core to the usefulness of the internet, and RAILGUN is the most advance system providing it today.

Find out more on the RAILGUN Twitter, Medium and dedicated Telegram Channels:

https://mobile.twitter.com/railgun_project

https://medium.com/@Railgun_Project

https://t.me/railgun_privacy