Burning Men

Burning Men is the name given to Bisq contributors who choose to burn BSQ in order to receive bitcoin from Bisq trading activity: Trade fees and Delayed payout transactions. It's an evolution of the previous 'burning man' role. The change, implemented since January 2023 in this proposal aimed to increase Bisq's decentralization by distributing this role within many contributors. A single burning man could have gone missing, ran away with the BTC before trading them for BSQ and burning these BSQ, or could have been otherwise compromised.
As each burning men burns an undetermined amount of BSQ as a condition to receive a share of BTC from Trading fees and Delayed payout transactions, trust requirements and single points of failure are almost nonexistent.

Contributing as a Burningmen

Eligibility

There are two ways to contribute as a Burningmen. Since the system is not exempt of trust requirements, burningmen need to have provided value to Bisq in the past:

• Contributors who received compensation for their contributions within the last 24 cycles.
• Contributors who received a BSQ from the DAO genesis transaction.

After burning some BSQ (earned or bought in the BSQ market) they will get a share percentage in the distribution of BTC from Trading fees and Delayed payout transactions. The more value the've provided to Bisq, the more BSQ they are allowed to burn.

Considerations for Burningmen

Burningmen seek profit from burning BSQ, otherwise they would keep their BSQ or sell them for BTC at the market. But profit, coming from estimating the amount of BSQ to burn now to receive a share of future Trading fees and Delayed payout transactions, is not granted. There are many sources of uncertainty:

• Trading volume: affected by BTC trend, Bisq competitors, mining fees, etc.
• Changes to trade protocol: traders could burn more or less BSQ directly, Delayed payout transactions could be reduced considerably.
• BSQ/BTC price volatility.
• BSQ burnt by competing Burningmen.

Since the launch of the Burningmen protocol up to the moment of this writing (Cycle 61), more bitcoin has been distributed to the Burningmen than the bitcoin equivalent amount of BSQ that has been burnt. This means historically burning BSQ has been profitable for most contributors choosing to be Burningmen.
Although Bisq provides an estimation of BSQ to brun based in the past, each of the Burningmen should estimate their risk/reward scenarios based in their predictions for the future. Becoming a Burningmen is optional. Depending on how they value the BSQ they have now, the BTC they can obtain on the future, or even if they just want to help Bisq grow, they will not burn BSQ at all, burn all the BSQ from their compensation requests or even buy more BSQ to burn up to their limit.
The less competition between Burningmen there is, the more profitable it will be for each of them, and vice versa. The less profitable Burningmen role is, the better for the DAO, as more BSQ is burnt, reducing or containing BSQ supply and therefore pressuring its price up.

Current Contributors

If a contributor wants to be a burning man they should choose a bitcoin address to receive the funds to. Ideally an external wallet like, electrum or sparrow. Once they have chosen there address they should follow the instructions posted here.

The chosen bitcoin address can then be provided in their next compensation request. This is provided in the 'burningman receiver address (optional)' field.

Once their compensation request has been approved their chosen bitcoin address will also be used for any burning men payouts they receive up until they ever change it in a subsequent approved compensation request.

To burn BSQ for the BSQ burning man role the current contributor will see their assigned name 'contributor_name' in the Burning Men Protocol UI (DAO > Proof of Burn > Burning Men). They can then choose to burn an amount of BSQ and pressing burn.

Past Contributors

If a contributor wants to be a burning man they should open the Bisq application that has also been used to make a recent compensation request (at least in the last 2 years). They will see their assigned name 'contributor_name' in the Burning Men Protocol UI (DAO > Proof of Burn > Burning Men). They can then choose to burn an amount of BSQ and pressing burn.

Receivers of the genesis distribution

If a contributor has funds from the genesis output(s) in their Bisq wallet they will see their assigned name 'Bisq co founder XX' in the Burning Men Protocol UI (DAO > Proof of Burn > Burning Men).

They should then choose a bitcoin address to receive the funds to. Ideally an external wallet like, electrum or sparrow. Once they have chosen there address they should follow the instructions posted here.

Burning Men Protocol UI

All the information about the current and past state of the burning men protocol can be found in the Bisq application: DAO > Proof of Burn > Burning Men

Terminology

The burningmen section contains a number of terms that is it helpful for someone interested in the protocol to understand.

The burningmen section can be found in the Bisq application DAO > Proof of Burn > Burningmen

Contributor name

Pretty obvious, but worth noting that founder contributors are given an extra level of pseudonymity by being referred to as 'Bisq co founder XX'.

Burn target

You can click the ? to get more info. I take these numbers with a pinch of salt. Take these numbers as broad estimates. Do not make decisions based on what to burn on these numbers alone.

Receiver share

This is an important number. It gives you the following information:

- The percentage chance you have of receiving a bitcoin trade fee. - The percentage amount of any delayed payout transaction you will receive.

The receiver share percentage is updated every block. Your receiver share changes based on who burns BSQ AND the decay over time of the burns made by the burning men.

The maximum a contributors receiver share can be is 11%. This is to protect the DAO from an attack from a malicious contributor that wants to self trade and send their trades to arbitration. Limiting the receiver share to 11% mitigates this attack.

Issuance share

The issuance share is basically the amount of BSQ compensation each contributor has received over the last 24 cycles. More weight is given to compensation received recently. BSQ compensation received decays linearly over 24 cycles.

The issuance share also has a bearing to what someone's maximum receiver share can be. A contributor can get a receiver share of up to 10 times their issuance share amount, up to a maximum of 11%.

Burned amount

This is the total amount of BSQ burned by contributor over time.

Decayed burn amount

This is the total amount of BSQ burned by the contributor when taking into account the decay their burns have over time. Each time you burn it decays linearly to zero over 12 cycles. Due to this decay the decayed burn reduces changes each block. The decayed burn amount is essentially represented in percentage terms by the 'issuance share' value.

Issued amount

This is the total amount of BSQ issued to a contributor over time.

Decayed issued amount

This is the total amount of BSQ issued to a contributor when taking into account the decay over time. Each compensation request decays linearly to zero over 24 cycles. The decayed issued amount is essentially represented in percentage terms by the 'receiver share' value.

Balance for DAO

This section gives an overview of all the BSQ burning and bitcoin that has taken place.

Total amount of burned BSQ

This is the all time amount of BSQ that has been burnt by all contributors acting as burning men.

Total amount of distributed BTC/BSQ

This is the all time amount of bitcoin that has been distributed to all contributors acting as burning men. For ease of comparison this figure is also given as a BSQ amount.

Generally if the amount of BSQ being distributed is greater than the amount being burnt then the burning men are in profit from their activities.

Export to CSV

If someone wants to see the results by month rather than all time then they can choose to export to csv to get more granular data.