BBS Coin - about

BBS-Coin

1. Overview

What is BBS-Coin?

BBS-Coin is an ERC-20 token system designed to incentivize participation in Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes). It is explicitly not marketed as a financial instrument or investment. Tokens represent points, reputation, participation, or governance weight depending on how a community chooses to use them.

Key properties:

ERC-20 compliant token (OpenZeppelin-based)
Minting controlled by a Treasury contract
Treasury is intended to be owned by a Safe (multisig)
Multiple independent BBSes supported via per-BBS distributor contracts
No single BBS controls the supply

ELI5

Think of BBS-Coin like arcade tickets:

You earn tickets for doing stuff on a BBS
Tickets can later be redeemed for prizes, votes, or bragging rights
A neutral foundation prints the tickets
Each arcade (BBS) hands them out independently

Architecture

BbsToken (ERC-20)


     ↑ mint (mintToTreasury)

BbsTreasury (Safe-owned)


     ↓ fund (fundDistributor)

BbsMerkleDistributor (per BBS)


     ↓ claim (claim / claimFor)

Users

Core Contracts

Contract Purpose

BbsToken ERC-20 token

BbsTreasury Minting + distributor funding

DistributorRegistry Discovery + metadata

BbsMerkleDistributor Per-BBS reward distribution

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2. Sysop Guide (How to Integrate a BBS)

What a Sysop Controls

A sysop:

Owns a single BbsMerkleDistributor
Decides how users earn points (posts, games, logins, etc.)
Tracks those points off-chain
Periodically converts points into Merkle epochs

A sysop does not:

Mint tokens
Control total supply
Modify other BBSes

Distributor Lifecycle (with code references)


    1.    Distributor is deployed by the Foundation

→ BbsTreasury.deployDistributor(sysopOwner, bbsId, metadataURI)


    2.    Distributor is registered for discovery

→ DistributorRegistry.register(...) (called internally by Treasury)


    3.    Distributor is funded with tokens

→ BbsTreasury.fundDistributor(distributor, amount)


    4.    Sysop publishes an epoch

→ BbsMerkleDistributor.publishEpoch(bytes32 root, string uri)


    5.    Users claim tokens

→ BbsMerkleDistributor.claim(epoch, amount, proof)

→ or gas-sponsored: claimFor(account, epoch, amount, proof)

Epoch Model

Epochs are sequential: 0, 1, 2, ...
Each epoch is independent
One claim per user per epoch
Enforced on-chain via _claimed[epoch][account]

Merkle Leaf Definition (authoritative)

keccak256(abi.encodePacked(account, amount))

Ethers v6 equivalent:

keccak256(solidityPacked(["address","uint256"],[account, amountWei]))

Required Epoch Artifacts (must be preserved)

For each epoch, sysop tooling must persist:

epoch.json – input snapshot (addresses + amounts)
root.json – Merkle root published on-chain
proofs.json – per-address { amount, leaf, proof[] }

If these artifacts are lost, users may be unable to claim even though the root exists on-chain.

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3. Foundation / Treasury Operations

What the Foundation Controls

The Foundation (via Safe) is the only authority that:

Mints new tokens

→ BbsTreasury.mintToTreasury(amount)

Funds distributors

→ BbsTreasury.fundDistributor(distributor, amount)

Registers distributors

→ DistributorRegistry.register(...)

Enables / disables distributors

→ BbsTreasury.setDistributorEnabled(distributor, enabled)

Recovers funds in emergencies

→ BbsTreasury.revokeFromDistributor(...)

Token Setup

Token is deployed first: BbsToken
Treasury address is granted MINTER_ROLE
Token address is set once via:

BbsTreasury.setToken(tokenAddress)

Safe Ownership

Recommended:

Polygon Safe
2-of-3 or 3-of-5 signers
Safe is owner of:
BbsTreasury
DistributorRegistry

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4. Long-Term Vision

Design Principles

Minimal trust
Clear separation of concerns
No forced token value
No DAO theater

Possible Future Extensions

claimMany() helper for UX
Voting / governance using token balances
Cross-BBS events
Additional distributor tooling

Guiding Rule

BBS-Coin exists to make BBSes more fun — not to turn them into casinos.

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