Carbonstarter - the leading launchpad on Arbitrum - is preparing for its public launch. While the main primary product is a launchpad, Carbonstarter operates on fundamental principles that differentiate vastly from other launchpads in Arbitrum and the larger Web3 ecosystem. Today, we are revealing to our community our vision, and current stage, and answering some frequently asked questions.

Our Background

At the time of writing, we are a team of 10 people with extensive experience within the Web3 industry. Many of us have worked on highly successful projects, ranging from various DeFi protocols to some well-known launchpads (that shall remain anonymous due to NDA). Some of us have more traditional finance industry experience, having worked at some of the biggest financial institutions and consulting firms.

Despite our diverse backgrounds, one thing unites us - a truly transparent, crowd-sourced facilitation of capital to fund crowd-founded innovations. Imagine a world where you can invest in anyone’s ideas, and you can receive investment in your ideas. The boundaries between the investor and the entrepreneur are erased. It’s a truly decentralized world of value circulation, backed by full transparency. That is the world we wish to create.

The Reason for Carbonstarter

In both traditional finance and Web3, one of the most highly secretive and centralized areas is private investments. For a traditional company to reach an IPO (Initial Public Offering), dozens of large-scale investors and venture capitalists have shaped the company so that at the time of IPO, they can have a highly profitable exit at the cost of the retail public. Then, Web3 innovated this by introducing an IDO (Initial DEX Offering). However, centralization continues to plague IDOs.

Having worked at various launchpads, the team at Carbonstarter is highly aware of the process behind an IDO. A project makes a proposal, and the launchpad forces the project to accept its set of terms and conditions. Many times, these include fixed, up-front fees ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 along with a percentage share of the raised capital, between 5% to 10%. Moreover, some launchpads even require projects to maintain a certain price level or risk a complete refund. Projects have two choices: accept or be rejected. That is not decentralization. That is a tyrannical, hyper-centralization of power, all backed by the community.

Moreover, these launchpads do not give their community a governance model to choose which IDO is selected. They present the next IDO, and require the community to spend as little time as possible in research, and “vote” by investing in the IDO and risking capital. A voting mechanism that is driven by the risk of capital is no longer fitting the risk appetite of the increasingly more educated and experienced minds of the larger Web3 community.

All these vices and shortcomings are the reason for Carbonstarter. We believe we have a set of potential solutions that will make IDOs increasingly fair, community-governed, secure, and sustainable. In turn, we hope that Carbonstarter becomes a small yet important cornerstone in further decentralization and growth of the Web3 industry and empowerment of the Web3 community.

Our Vision

Our vision is simple: Build, and Let Build. We are creating a platform that anyone can utilize to sponsor ideas, fuel innovations, and shoot for the stars. We are empowering our community to not only invest, but build, receive investment, incentives, and even provide overwatch. Our ultimate goal is complete ownership of Carbonstarter by our community DAO, and a complete dismissal of the founding team so that Carbonstarter can be self-governed and truly decentralized even in the deepest core of its essence.

Our Product: Fair Initial DEX Offering

Carbonstarter is composed of two vertical products - launchpad, and DEX. Both have a wide array of features that work to truly incorporate community governance into the main functionalities.

The launchpad has largely two major pillars - Voting, and Pooling. When a project applies to Carbonstarter, it does not fill a Google form or an email. It fills out the application online, which is stored on-chain. The application is turned into a proposal and submitted directly to the Voting section. In the Voting area, the Carbonstarter community is eligible to vote on each proposal. Some proposals may include voting incentives - such as a fixed percentage of token airdrop in exchange for votes. Some proposals may choose to fight with merit alone. It is up to the users, on which proposal they wish to spend their limited-supply voting rights.

Proposals that have received enough votes then move on to Pooling. In Pooling, users are able to invest directly into the projects. Users who have voted in favor of the proposal will be able to participate in Pooling first, followed by all other community members.

Combined, we are calling the entire process Fair Initial DEX Offering, or FIDO.

Our Products: Carbon DEX

The DEX (decentralized exchange) is largely built to sponsor the initial growth of the newly-launched projects. Currently, many launchpads do not have a native DEX, mainly because they have not been able to figure out how to attract the initial liquidity. At Carbonstarter, we believe we have the solution.

With Carbon DEX, newly-launched projects will be able to easily commit their initial liquidity, and receive liquidity sponsorship provided by Carbonstarter, its partners, and most importantly the Carbonstarter community. With healthier liquidity pool options, liquidity providers will be able to receive significant benefits, while projects will benefit from deeper liquidity that can sponsor more trades.

Most importantly, those who have participated in the FIDO of the project will not have to use another third-party platform to trade the tokens. Users can stay on the same platform, and trade natively. We are creating a one-stop solution that ultimately benefits the projects and our community alike.

Our Current Stage

At the time of writing, we have completed all user interface design, user experience optimization, and smart contract development for the release-critical products, features, and the MVP of the Carbon DEX. We have onboarded a highly reputable audit partner, who has been meticulously testing our code for the past few weeks. We expect the entire audit to be completed within the next 1.5 to 2 weeks.

On the business side, we have finished preparing for the initial equity sale of Carbonstarter. We have reached out to a few, well-known, community-driven angel investors to join us by purchasing a small equity of Carbonstarter. The interest has been phenomenal, and we expect the equity sale to be completed very soon.

On the community front, we have been witnessing a high volume of interest from those who wish to be a core part of our community or our team. We cannot thank our early community enough for their passion, enthusiasm, and support. Soon, we plan to launch a community-wide open call for those interested in joining the early-stage Carbonstarter team. We are aiming to fulfill shortcomings in the following areas:

• Community management and moderation

• Organic marketing and growth

• Paid marketing, display advertising, and SEO

• Content creation, both visual and written

• Full stack development

• DeFi strategist

What’s Next?

We have a long road ahead, but we believe that we have a highly talented team, a fervently enthusiastic early community, and a concrete vision to make significant pace. We will gradually reveal more aspects about Carbonstarter, and share frequent updates on all sides in order to achieve full transparency. We once again thank you for joining us on this exciting journey. Let’s grow and build together!