Civil

Announcing the CVL Token Sale

Key Details

• Civil, the decentralized platform for independent, sustainable journalism, has announced the date and details for the forthcoming public sale of CVL tokens.
• The CVL token launch will begin on Tuesday, September 18 at 10:00 AM ET. It will conclude by either Tuesday, October 2 at 5 PM ET or when it reaches its hard cap of U.S. $24 million (whichever occurs first).
• Interested participants can learn more about CVL tokens and the registration process at https://www.civil.co/cvl.

The Civil Media Company, which developed Civil, the decentralized platform for independent, sustainable journalism, has announced the pending launch of the CVL token. CVL tokens will be available for purchase beginning Tuesday, September 18. Interested individuals should visit https://www.civil.co/cvl to learn more about how the CVL token works, and how to register for purchase ahead of the general sale on September 18.

CVL tokens will only be sold to registered purchasers that intend to use them to contribute to and regulate ethical journalism on the Civil protocol. The specific details of the CVL token sale will be contained in the terms of sale available to registered purchasers prior to purchase.

Upon completion of the token sale, the Civil protocol, which powers activity across the Civil platform, will be controlled by a decentralized, global network that’s committed to supporting a free and sustainable press. By applying blockchain and cryptoeconomics to its platform, Civil seeks to introduce a radically new operating model for journalism. Journalists who launch Newsrooms on Civil will be beholden to their readers alone. This marks a stark contrast to the current, programmatic advertising model in which publishers are incentivized to satisfy the demands of centralized platforms like Google and Facebook, advertisers and shareholders, irrespective of whether those decisions allow them to produce quality, ethical journalism.

The CVL token is not intended to be an investment. Every participant in the CVL token sale will pay the same price so that people who want to contribute to the development of sustainable journalism have the opportunity to do so. As part of this design, registered purchasers must answer and pass a questionnaire, be otherwise approved, and finally, demonstrate ‘Proof of Use’ to ensure CVL tokens are used as intended.

The specific details of the CVL token sale will be contained in the terms of sale available to registered purchasers prior to purchase.

Key Upcoming Events

Mandatory Registration begins July 18

CVL token sale begins (late registration still available): September 18

Purchasers will have access to their CVL tokens shortly thereafter

To transfer their CVL tokens, purchasers must satisfy an Initial Use Period and the Proof of Use requirement on the MainNet

The above dates, requirements and other details are subject to change without notice at The Civil Media Company’s discretion. To learn more about the technical aspects of the Civil protocol and the role of the CVL token within the Civil protocol and network, see our whitepaper.

CVL Token Use

The Civil Media Company will be implementing Proof of Use requirements designed to ensure that purchasers are and will be actual users of the network. CVL holders will not be able to transfer any CVL tokens until they have “proved use” of a portion of the tokens they purchase.

The initial applications for the CVL token are:

1) Starting a Newsroom on Civil

The Civil Registry allows journalists to start Newsrooms on Civil by staking CVL tokens along with a mission statement, newsroom roster and a pledge to abide by the Civil Constitution. The Civil Registry unlocks publishing in an authenticated and verifiable fashion and allows Citizens to discover, support and even vet their work as a community-approved Newsroom on Civil.

2) Challenging a Newsroom on Civil

A further potential use of the CVL token by Citizens is to stake CVL tokens to challenge Newsrooms. Challenging is a mechanism designed to allow and incentivize Citizens to expose Newsrooms for wrongdoing according to the Civil Constitution. To challenge, a Citizen stakes CVL tokens to a Challenge smart contract by reference to a particular Newsroom along with a specific description of the violation and any supporting evidence. These staked tokens initiate a community review of the matter, and all Citizens are encouraged and incentivized to vote for who’s best upholding the Civil Constitution and serving the Civil network.

3) Appealing to the Civil Council

One more use of the CVL token by Citizens is to stake their CVL tokens to appeal community decisions. In the event of a malicious attack or mob rule, any Citizen may bring an appeal to the Civil Council, an independent third-party arbiter comprised of luminary journalists, academics and free press experts from around the world. After further research and review, the Civil Council will publish its opinion and potentially enact a full reversal of the community decision, thus creating a form of precedence or case law to help stabilize the network over time and protect it from redundant disputes.

4) Vetoing the Civil Council

Finally, as part of its initial MainNet launch, the CVL token can also be used to veto the Civil Council through another form of staking. The veto mechanism allows any Citizen to stake CVL tokens and call for a community vote on whether to veto the Council’s decisions. In this way, the Council is ultimately beholden to the community, and Citizens are incentivized to propose challenges, appeals and vetoes that are likely to withstand close scrutiny.

Of note, CVL tokens are also the mechanism by which the community will vote for / against each of the above use cases.

Disclaimer: Although the Civil protocol will be deployed in complete and decentralized form, only the Civil Registry and its associated actions listed above will be initially available for Newsrooms and Citizens through the Civil protocol and network. Further potential use cases may emerge over time as Civil evolves, since this governance mechanism is meant to serve as the foundation for the entire Civil ecosystem. These additional utilities (direct or indirect) depend on a variety of factors, including the pace of Civil Newsroom adoption, the organic community-driven expansion of the network, and the requisite addition of new technologies as yet unknown built on the Civil protocol. As such, if or when new utilities emerge for the CVL token is not fully within the control of The Civil Media Company and cannot be stated with any certainty.

CVL Token Metrics

The CVL token is the native software utility token of the Civil protocol. There will be a total of 100 million CVL tokens. 34% of total CVL supply will be available for purchase during the public token sale. The Civil Media Company will retain 33% of the CVL token supply for compensatory and reserve purposes. The remaining 33% of the CVL token supply will be sold or granted to mission-aligned third parties.

Disclaimer: All Newsrooms and Citizens should be mindful that the CVL token exists to provide functionality with respect to the Civil Registry only at this time.

About Civil

Civil is the decentralized marketplace for sustainable journalism. Newsrooms focused on local, international, investigative and/or policy journalism are independently run on Civil. Civil is applying blockchain and cryptoeconomics to promote a reader-supported journalism model that isn’t reliant on advertisers or other third parties. This enables a more direct, transparent connection between citizens and journalists, and strengthens protections for journalists against censorship and intellectual property disputes.

Civil has raised $5 million from ConsenSys, the world’s leading Ethereum venture studio, and has partnered with a growing roster of mission-aligned journalism and nonprofit organizations around the world.

To learn more, visit www.civil.co.

Visit Civil’s website to learn more about CVL and to sign up for a webinar.