BMT Series (32): The Design Principle of Withdrawal Fees for Intel Desk
Intel Desk, as the crowdsourcing survey platform of Bubblemaps, centers around community participation and resource allocation. To maintain fairness and efficiency, the design of withdrawal fees becomes a key component. This is not set arbitrarily, but is based on the logic of preventing abuse and encouraging long-term participation. Simply put, the fee starts at 20% from the first day after deposit, quickly decays over time, halves after 48 hours, drops below 1% within 10 days, and becomes almost negligible after 30 days.
Why this design? The materials mention that it mainly targets “quick in and out” behavior. For example, if someone deposits $BMT to vote on a case and immediately withdraws, it disrupts the stability of resource allocation and may create junk proposals. The fee formula is: fee(t) = fee0 / [1 + (t / τ)^2], where the initial fee0 is 20%, and τ is 48 hours. This quadratic decay curve cleverly balances punishment and flexibility—short-term withdrawal is costly, while long-term holding has almost no cost, encouraging users to genuinely invest in community governance.
In practical operation, this mechanism ensures the smooth weekly cycle of Intel Desk. After users deposit $BMT, it is allocated to cases, and the system decides the survey resources based on proportions. Without a withdrawal fee, the platform could easily be manipulated by speculators, affecting the priority of genuine investigations. On the contrary, this design encourages proposers and voters to focus on the long term; for instance, proposals require a minimum threshold of $100 BMT, and withdrawal fees prevent vote padding. The Bubblemaps team emphasizes that this is not a profit-making tool, but a barrier to maintain the ecosystem, complementing the incentives of the ecological fund (such as proposal rewards).
For example, if a user withdraws after two weeks of depositing, the fee might only be 0.4%, which has little impact. However, if they are eager to cash out, they lose one-fifth on the first day, forcing everyone to participate rationally. In the future, as cross-chain expands to BNB and Solana, the fee logic will be unified to ensure a consistent multi-chain user experience. Overall, this design reflects the essence of InfoFi: to monetize intelligence while safeguarding the purity of the community.
