Introduction
What is Topl?
Topl believes in a better world. A world where economic growth lives in harmony with a flourishing environment. A world of positive-sum economics where systems of self-reinforcing inequity no longer undermine societies.
Topl is the infrastructure to power this new world.
To achieve this radical transformation, Topl has developed innovative web3 technology (a modular blockchain protocol) that enables the creation of new economic systems that are more sustainable and inclusive.
As a technology, Topl is a layer 0 (L0) blockchain network—designed to be highly modular and composable, supporting not only interoperability with other web3 networks but also powering multiple ledgers via a singular, secure consensus layer. The development of the Topl protocol placed two questions at the center of every decision made. How can we align our technology with Topl’s vision for the next economic transformation? How can we provide the easiest experience for builders developing their applications, tools, and platforms atop our infrastructure and for their end-users?
As an infrastructure for economic innovation, Topl solves two key challenges: 1) aligning activities that are best for society and the environment with those that are most profitable and 2) working to increase access to economic opportunity. Topl has developed its technology to empower a community of builders and changemakers to disrupt the current exploitative economic systems and replace them with economies that #buildgood in the world.
We can only achieve our shared vision for a new economic reality through a community-forward approach. Not only does Topl seek to power a community of builders, but it is also designed to be guided and advanced as a cooperative of changemakers. The ideals of decentralization are easy to profess, while the reality remains elusive for the vast majority of projects in the space.
As we will explore, Topl has invested considerable resources and thought into stepping outside of conventional governance and tokenomic design to solve this challenge.
This whitepaper will introduce Topl’s vision for building good in the world, our technical design philosophy, our protocol architecture, and the tokenomics and governance mechanisms designed to drive adoption and continued progress. We aim to make our whitepaper as accessible as possible, serving as a launching point for developers, token holders, and community members to dive deeper into Topl through documentation, blog posts, and technical papers.
While this whitepaper reflects the latest state of the Topl protocol and cooperative, the project is constantly growing and evolving. We strive for open and agile iteration among all those contributing to the Topl vision. In order to maintain transparency, you can view the complete history of the Topl whitepaper on our GitHub.