The ET.DIFF assets are a construct of 3 securities to speculate on the next change in bitcoin mining difficulty.
ET.DIFF.FUTURE: Is an asset that only exists to be converted into ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT
ET.DIFF.LONG: Is a bet that the next difficulty change will increase
more than current market prices suggest
ET.DIFF.SHORT: Is a bet that the next difficulty change will increase
less than current market prices suggest
As you may realize, the construct of ET.DIFF resembles the superb DMS assets by Deprived. It's an opportunity to offer investors an easy way to short a security without the issuer having to bet against his own investors.
I appreciate your feedback on ET.DIFF!
ContractThe ET.DIFF assets are a construct of 3 securities to speculate on the next change in bitcoin mining difficulty.
The contract for the 3 securities ET.DIFF.FUTURE, ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT is the same.
ET.DIFF.FUTURE is a security that only exists to be converted into ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT. After a difficulty change, ET.DIFF.FUTURE will be put up to sell at a price of 0.0204 BTC, 0.02 plus 0.0004 BTC management fee (2%). After buying ET.DIFF.FUTURE, Investors have to send their shares to the account ETOPS and will get back the same number of shares of ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT. The NAV/U (Net Asset Value per Unit) of ET.DIFF.FUTURE is always 0.02 and is the same as the combined book value of ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT.
While trading, ET.DIFF.FUTURE can be sold back to the issuer at a price of 0.02. After a difficulty change, every outstanding ET.DIFF.FUTURE (that was not converted to ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT) gets a dividend of 0.02, followed by a force-buyback at a price of 0.00.
ET.DIFF.LONG is a security that speculates on the next difficulty change. ‘LONG’ in this case means, that the buyers estimation about the next difficulty change is
higher than the current market prices of ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT suggest. ET.DIFF.LONG can be bought directly or by buying ET.DIFF.FUTURE and selling ET.DIFF.SHORT.
After a difficulty change, ET.DIFF.LONG gets a dividend calculated in the following way:
((current difficulty - last difficulty) / last difficulty) / 100 * 4
- The current difficulty is the new difficulty after the change
- The last difficulty is the difficulty before the change
- 4 is a factor to quadruple the dividend, reducing the profit needed by the investor to break even, but it also introduces a cap on dividends at 0% difficulty increase at the bottom and 50% difficulty increase at the top
If difficulty increases by more than 50%, the dividend will be capped at 0.02 for ET.DIFF.LONG. In this case the dividend for ET.DIFF.SHORT will be 0.00.
If difficulty does not increase or decrease, the dividend will be 0.00 for ET.DIFF.LONG. In this case the dividend for ET.DIFF.SHORT will be 0.02.
The dividend is rounded to 8 decimal places.
After the dividend has been paid, there will be a force-buyback of all outstanding ET.DIFF.LONG at a price of 0.00.
ET.DIFF.SHORT also speculates on the next difficulty change. ‘SHORT’ in this case means, that the buyers estimation about the next difficulty change is
lower than the current market prices of ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT suggest. ET.DIFF.SHORT can be bought directly or by buying ET.DIFF.FUTURE and selling ET.DIFF.LONG.
ET.DIFF.SHORT is the direct opposite to ET.DIFF.LONG, as it gets all dividends that are not paid out to ET.DIFF.LONG.
After a difficulty change, ET.DIFF.SHORT gets a dividend calculated in the following way:
0.02 - dividend paid to ET.DIFF.LONG
- 0.02 is the NAV/U of ET.DIFF.FUTURE and the sum of all dividends to be paid out
- Dividend paid to ET.DIFF.LONG is the dividend paid to ET.DIFF.LONG
The dividend is rounded to 8 decimal places.
After the dividend has been paid, there will be a force-buyback of all outstanding ET.DIFF.SHORT at a price of 0.00.
Conversion of ET.DIFF.FUTURETo converte ET.DIFF.FUTURE into ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT, transfer ET.DIFF.FUTURE to the account ETOPS on BTC-TC. As fast as possible, the same amount of ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT will be sent back to the sender (the process will be automated if possible).
The process after a difficulty changeIn the 24 hours after the difficulty has changed, trading on all 3 securities will be halted, followed by the dividend payment to all outstanding shares (0.02 to ET.DIFF.FUTURE, and the corresponding dividends to ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT according to the result of the dividend calculations). After the dividend payment is finished, all outstanding shares of the 3 securities will be bought back at a price of 0.00. After the force-buyback is finished, the trading of all 3 securities will be resumed and new shares of ET.DIFF.FUTURE will be put up at a price of 0.0204.
Important: The securities cannot be halted automatically. So after a difficulty change, the dividend payment to the securities will be known, but the trading will continue several hours until it will be halted manually. Every security bought at a price above the known dividend will result in a loss.
RisksThird party risk: Investors have to trust BTC-TC and the issuer. Any malfunction or hack at BTC-TC or the possibility that the issuer might not be trustworthy and embezzle investors deposits could result in a total loss of the investment.
Caps on dividend payout: In the possible case, that difficulty increases more than 50%, the dividend for ET.DIFF.LONG will be capped at 0.02. Dividend for ET.DIFF.SHORT will be 0.00 and ET.DIFF.FUTURE will get 0.02. If difficulty does not increase or decrease, the dividend will be 0.00 for ET.DIFF.LONG. In this case the dividend for ET.DIFF.SHORT will be 0.02 and ET.DIFF.FUTURE will get 0.02.
All proceeds from the sales of ET.DIFF.FUTURE are held in the account ETOPS for the benefit of the holders of the ET.DIFF securities. The assets of the account can be seen at any time by going to
https://btct.co/portfolio/frc5DKI= . The proceeds are held until a difficulty change, at which time they are used to pay the ET.DIFF.LONG, ET.DIFF.SHORT, and ET.DIFF.FUTURE dividends, and the remainder (the management fee) is paid to the fund manager. Any fees associated with maintaining or operating ET.DIFF are paid by the manager, and are not paid from the proceeds of sales.
To impede account hacks, the issuer account at BTC-TC uses 2FA.
Contract changesThe contract can be changed one-sided by the issuer every time after a force-buyback is done. The changes have to be announced on BTC-TC and bitcointalk forums at least 3 days before they take effect.
Blockchain errors or other unforeseen circumstancesIf there are any problems to calculate dividends (like a broken blockchain), the issuer will do his best to calculate fair dividends, based on last market prices or the average of the last 3 difficult changes. The decision about the calculation is up to the issuer.
ExamplesDifficulty changes from 86,933,018 to 111,111,111:
Dividend for ET.DIFF.LONG:
((111,111,111 - 86,933,018) / 86,933,018) / 100 * 4 = 0.01112493
Every outstanding ET.DIFF.LONG would get a dividend of 0.01112493.
Dividend for ET.DIFF.SHORT:
0.02 - 0.01112493 = 0.00887507
Every outstanding ET.DIFF.SHORT would get a dividend of 0.00887507.
The combined dividend payout for ET.DIFF.LONG and ET.DIFF.SHORT is always 0.02.
End Contract