DESK Updates

DESK is CoinDesk’s social token, launched in May 2022 and designed to reward active members of the CoinDesk community. DESK’s initial use case is as the social token at the 2022 Consensus festival. CoinDesk plans to use DESK beyond Consensus, and is currently preparing systems where DESK can act as a feedback loop between the company and its audience.

This blog is intended to serve as a ledger for transparency, recording DESK’s key milestones.

Learn more about DESK in the following CoinDesk articles:

• DESK Is Back: CoinDesk Relaunches Social Token Into the Wild
• What Is DESK? CoinDesk’s Social Token, Explained
• Get Started With DESK: How to Set Up Your Wallet

Tokenomics

DESK is a non-monetized social token: Its goal is to activate community value and social utility - not to increase or even stabilize value beyond its own closed ecosystem.

DESK’s initial goal is to be the social fuel of Consensus 2022, but CoinDesk plans to broaden the token experience after the event. Because of this, DESK’s tokenomics are designed to be flexible with room to grow.

We have minted 5 billion DESK and plan to use these tokens to establish DESK’s foundation. That said, we’re able to burn and mint at will, allowing us to refine the tokenomics as we build out the full ecosystem.

We’ve used airline miles as a mental model for developing our engagement-centric distribution model, i.e. each audience member earns rewards proportional to the depth of their engagement.

Similar to the promotional strategy used by airlines, we’re able to inject additional value into parts of our ecosystem where engagement has elevated requirements such as buying a ticket to Consensus.

Consensus 2022 is the first step of the DESK project, and our approach to its tokenomics will evolve as we continue to explore and experiment with this element of building in Web 3.

DESK Dashboard

The DESK Dashboard on coindesk.com allows users to create an account that will serve as a portal to all things DESK. Users can join the DESK Dashboard to keep track of their DESK; join our Discord server; find DESK quests; shop the NFTify Marketplace; and more.

Collecting and Redeeming DESK

Initially, issuance and use of the DESK token will be limited to the 2022 Consensus festival taking place in Austin, Texas, June 9-12. Attendees were invited to participate in limited DESK airdrops in the weeks leading up to Consensus. During the festival, attendees can collect DESK by participating in festival activities, e.g., attending sessions, visiting specific locations and attending parties. Consensus attendees will have opportunities to trade their accumulated DESK for food, drinks and novelty items.

Find more information on collecting and redeeming DESK at Consensus here.

DESK Airdrop Records

• 05/17/2022 – 100 DESK issued to 250 participants during a Consensus 2022 attendee airdrop
• 05/20/2022 – 100 DESK issued to 300 participants as a reward to new Consensus 2022 registrants
• 05/23/2022 – 25 DESK issued to 500 participants during an airdrop to Consensus alumni
• 05/25/2022 – 25 DESK issued to three participants during an airdrop to Consensus 2021 Piranha interviewees
• 05/25/2022 – 25 DESK issued to 66 participants during an airdrop to Consensus 2021 Piranha survey respondents
• 05/25/2022 – 25 DESK issued to 100 participants during an airdrop to Consensus 2021 Piranhas via Discord and Telegram
• 05/25/2022 – 25 DESK issued to 5,000 participants during an airdrop to Consensus 2022 attendees
• 05/25/2022 – 100 DESK issued to 250 participants as a reward to new Consensus 2022 registrants
• 05/25/2022 – 10 DESK issued to 250 participants during an airdrop to Crypto Unlocked webinar attendees
• 06/06/2022 – DESK Key issued to Consensus 2022 IRL attendees
• 06/06/2022 – Key to DESK community issued to Consensus 2022 virtual attendees
• 06/09/2022 - All attendees who have claimed their DESK Key NFT were sent 500 DESK.
• June 2022 - 24,939,150 DESK issued across all Consensus 2022 activations

DESK Usage During Consensus 2022

• 3,281 attendees acquired the DESK Key (16% of attendees)
• 22,697 total DESK transactions to date
• 200,000 DESK spent at Store of Value
• 19,400 DESK spent at the Food Hall
• 11,000 DESK spent at food trucks
• 307.8 is the average DESK balance
• 8,207 accounts currently hold DESK

Discord Server

For the latest updates on DESK and to interact with the community, join the CoinDesk Discord server.

DESK Help

We’ve opened a Help DESK at support.coindesk.com, which has a knowledge base of frequently asked questions. If you need further assistance, you can file a ticket or contact support at desk@coindesk.com.

Moving Forward

In the next quarter, the DESK team is actively working on Research and Development and bringing DESK to the CoinDesk website.