What this is
A collateralised token whose creation price rises and never falls.
Assetrix is a protocol for issuing a collateralised token whose creation price rises monotonically and never falls. External assets are placed into a wrapper, entry into which becomes more expensive with every token issued.
The founders regard this as a distinct class of crypto asset, which may be termed a ratchet — a coin with a rising issuance price. The definition refers solely to the price of creating new tokens, which is set by the protocol and does not decline. The market price of ASTRX has no bearing on the definition: it is determined by demand, sits within a corridor between backing and the cost of entry, and may fall.
The class is conceived as a complement to the stablecoin. A stablecoin holds its face value and with it loses purchasing power; here the entry price is tied to a rising quantity, while the collateral remains real and reclaimable at any time.
How it behaves
A participant places collateral — a stablecoin first, volatile currencies later by vote — into the contract. Nothing has been issued yet.
Schematic. Drawn for this page; not a screenshot.
Two things follow. The first is that no one has to sell anything to a new entrant: the contract mints, at a price it computes for itself, for anyone who deposits. The second is that the count driving the price includes every token ever created and is not reduced by redemption, so an outflow of participants does not make entry cheaper for those who come later.
What this page does not say is that the token’s market price rises. It says that the cost of entry does. The two are different figures, and the difference is the subject of the page on the price corridor.