Let's Talk About JUP as a Currency [Draft]

Hey, this is a first draft, please ignore the AI-ness of it for now, I am focusing on sharing the ideas instead of how they “sound”.

Intro
Forget speculation. Forget pump-and-dump games. What if a token wasn’t just a bet, but a tool? What if a token like $JUP could evolve into a functioning micro-economy—complete with its own internal credit system, actual exports, and cultural cohesion? This isn’t about building hype. It’s about building something that lasts.

Imagine a currency where the people who hold it aren’t just bystanders—they’re participants. Citizens of an ecosystem that generates value, circulates capital, and supports each other in practical, meaningful ways. That vision for $JUP isn’t abstract. It’s something worth exploring.


1. Economic Utility: Building on Staking, Credit, and Use
People won’t switch to a community token without real incentives. So what might those be?

One idea: a staked-JUP-backed physical credit card.

A credit system built on staked $JUP. Users stake their tokens—already part of JUP’s DAO governance—and unlock a limited credit line, backed by the DAO’s USDC treasury. As long as they repay within a defined period, their collateral is untouched. If not, their stake is partially liquidated and a portion could be burned. This adds a productive layer to staking and encourages responsible use.

This structure is additive—it builds on the existing DAO and staking systems without replacing them. A user-friendly interface, merchant partnerships, and real rebates could turn this into a self-contained spend/save system. It’s a way of building more practical financial tools atop what already exists.


2. Belief and Identity: The Culture of Holding
Speculation might explain why someone gets curious. But what keeps people engaged is identity and alignment.

A token with lore, shared history, and symbolism becomes more than a digital asset. It can become a reference point for people to connect over shared values or culture. The community around $JUP already has its memes, narratives, and a culture of contribution. These elements give the token emotional gravity and continuity.

That kind of alignment creates resilience during periods of low activity or interest. It lays the foundation for collaborative growth, rather than individual extraction.


3. Access as a Reason to Stay
Beyond belief, what keeps people involved is access—to experiences, relationships, and opportunities to contribute.

Staking and long-term participation could unlock:

  • Invitations to events, gatherings, or collaborative workspaces
  • Entry into exclusive projects or testing environments
  • Community-based merch, recognition, or creative collaborations
  • Deeper engagement in governance and decision-making

These benefits can be transparently managed through a scoring system—based on time, activity, governance, and contribution. The score could influence access to everything from airdrops to shared projects.

These aren’t perks in the traditional sense. They’re acknowledgments of contribution and alignment—tools to deepen ties, not raise prices.


4. Output and Spending: The Missing Metric
Right now, $JUP has limited internal demand. That’s normal—most community tokens begin with narrative before utility. But sustainable systems rely on economic activity. One way to move forward? Focus on exports.

What can the Jupiverse contribute?

  • Services like PPP Hour and LFG launch support
  • A community of testers, collaborators, and organizers
  • Media, memes, music, and independent research
  • Events, products, and tools developed within the ecosystem

If these things are priced in $JUP, they create a circular economy. To track that, we need to measure the amount of value being created and exchanged in $JUP. Think of this as on-chain GDP—not based on volume, but on meaningful interaction.

A dashboard that transparently tracks this spending can help guide future resource allocation. It also allows the community to see its own progress, rooted in use and output.

And of course, the most impactful export on the horizon may come from the team itself: JupNet. If it adopts $JUP as its native gas token, the implications for ecosystem-level utility are significant. While this lies primarily with the core team, the community can play a critical supporting role—testing, building services around it, and helping onboard projects or users.


5. Thinking Ahead: Currency as Infrastructure
Currencies gain legitimacy through consistent use and shared trust—not price appreciation.

If the Jupiverse creates enough internally circulating demand, and if what it produces is valuable enough to others, $JUP could become a preferred medium within its ecosystem. Over time, a modest issuance policy could support healthy liquidity and coordination—designed for stability, not speculation.

This isn’t about creating an investment vehicle. It’s about maintaining a system where people can transact, collaborate, and build in shared terms. Careful adjustments to supply, if ever needed, should be governed with transparency and linked to the needs of the economy.


Conclusion: What Comes After the Speculation?
A real token economy doesn’t emerge from hype. It comes from useful systems, consistent contributions, and a willingness to treat a token like a tool—not a product.

$JUP already has the pieces: a DAO, a staking mechanism, a treasury, and a values-aligned culture. The challenge now is to expand the kinds of value it supports.

That means building more access layers. That means enabling spending. That means supporting creators, contributors, and experiments that deepen the ecosystem’s economy.

Next steps that could help push this forward include:

  • Collaborating with Jupiter Portfolio and Catalytics to develop and publish a transparent “access score” based on staking, participation, and governance
  • Expanding and supporting exports across the Jupiverse—from services and events to creative projects and research
  • Exploring the technical feasibility and operational viability of a staked-JUP credit system, possibly including a physical card or virtual payment interface
  • Supporting the adoption and integration of JupNet by creating complementary tools, educational resources, and community infrastructure that make use of JUP

This isn’t about creating demand through hype. It’s about building systems that make long-term participation meaningful.

Let’s build tools that reward contribution.
Let’s build exports, not emissions.
Let’s build the Jupiverse.

19 Likes

Hmmmm…this is interesting…
J did you speak to legal about these idea’s…and if so will we have issues with something like this in the future

2 Likes

Lot of interesting ideas here that if played out would be huge for JUP and everyone involved

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should be fine! open to addressing concerns.

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thanks! great convo earlier. lol

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Okay now if we have a credit card system, then can we then become a web3 option of Visa, Master, Chase, Discovery, Amex…

If we can do this …and then if projects can then use our services to issue they own personal/cooperate cards…then that would be cool AF

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Hi Julz.

This is indeed an interesting and unique concpet. However, I have a few questions.

  • JUP has a set supply, would this be an issue? I ask because you mention those who can repay, would be partially liquidated and probably burn some of it.
  • Also, having the “loan” on USDC. Would this trigger a tax event, if sent to ones CEX to cash out of needed? Or perhaps I may have missread this part.

Overall, it really seems as a sustainable option amd hoping it would be a card that could be compatible globally (like countries regulations amd stuff).

2 Likes

thanks for checking it out!

I do not think so. Plus we can set very strict limits, maybe even 10-20% max of value can be spent etc, and strict interest penalties if USDC is not repaid on time etc, similar to how credit cards work with banks. this will obviously also generate revenue, which can potentially be used to accumulate more JUP for ASR and other use-cases.

Re: taxes, idk, has to be figured out haha, but good question.

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Awesome, then i see a great potential with a strong collateral. Taxes would be my biggest concern as of now. I can see this generating APY for ASR, perhaps a hybrid of Jup and/or USDC to not deplete the Jup supply if stakers grows rapidly as more adoption comes.

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Julian, your proposal is comprehensive and intriguing. I am excited about the potential impacts on the community and the broader blockchain landscape that could turn the Jupiverse into a model for sustainable token economies. I look forward to hearing more about it in the future.

1 Like

There’s a lot to consider here, wow.

  • It add some much needed functionality, in a way similar to a lst in some ways. Really thinking outside the box here.

  • Like Freeky, I think the huge legal hoops are going to a challenge. But far from the first crypto credit card, so there’s already a path to walk.

  • The loan mechanism itself with burn/liquidation will appeal to voters

  • Is this where we vote for Riot?
  • The scoring system is such a cool idea. Would be a tough call on making the number public or not. Like you could really leans into Kemos MMO perspective and gamify it. You gain levels and pick perks, max min a build, etc. Mechanisms like small deals on perps, some free ultra swaps or other trades, loads of options. Or not, lol. it could become problematic to have the score publicly known or gamifyed.

  • The meta of staying here deeply engaging with having deeper engagement on this decision making is not lost on me.

  • In order to effectively change something it first must be measured. Having metrics with the receipts to prove it could be a very valuable tool and could be used a lot of different ways.
  • The scope of this is starting to settle in for me. Really leaning into the concept of Jup as the currency of an economy.

Some big big ideas here, cool stuff man.

2 Likes

Aggregate everything
Buy everything with Jup

1 Like

You are catching the early wave here and definitely onto an innovative approach. I especially like the ‘currency as infrastructure’ idea as the recent acquisition of Drip, the call for NFTs to expand yet further their role and function as RWAs, it all starts to link together into a real and powerful Jupiverse as part of a true omnichain. Just today, I was researching Sui’s design of Kiosks (basically, owners, markets, buyers, creators, along with evolving updates and so on), Jupiter can utilize jup for a similar concept within Solana. Drip’s role in enabling this to happen is an obvious one (and powerful aswell). Both virtual and real-world powerhouses can built and the value of jup will have no identifiable ceiling once this takes off. Let’s build it!

  1. Legals are going to have a field trip with this, haha. But I can see if worked upon properly, this could be a huge thing as it could working as pseudo liquidity while still being staked. A portion of liquidation burn is probably going to make everyone happy, except for the guy who took the credit, but it will definitely induce more responsibility. Freeky is really onto something with JUP being a big name in this field for web3 as well and there’s definitely potential in this!

  2. I do creative writing and short stories of my own and as someone who also working on a idea of my own for a book, this is really appealing to me. I’d be very interested in seeing how this is approached and if there’s something to be cooked, having experience with multiple fields and researching, I’d love to help out with this so please let me know if you have any foundation idea in mind and want to explore more into this. I’d be glad to participate in it.

  3. Multiple times throughout the draft, staking and long-term participation is mentioned. Will the amount of JUP staked will also be taken into consideration, or what matters is the actual time period of staking and participation in overall DAO? I think Rusty mentioned gamification and such, but it’s going to be complicated as gamification XP system is supposed to be treated just like it’s done to tokenomics and what not cause we don’t want people misusing a loophole to farm for higher score. Access to new, promising project via airdrops or governance can be a huge incentive for people to participate more in the DAO.

  4. I’m a bit confused with the title for this. Output and spending by the DAO, or individual? Let’s say there’s a way where people are getting rewards in JUP for their work and contribution (non-WG members) and then they use that JUP for either staking or for stuff like merch, etc. from point 3, in that case there could be a possibility for circular economy.

  5. One idea which can be looked into is along the lines of what Jurek mentioned in last PPP hour, which can be that individuals who would like to do freelancing and take on commission works can put their profile on a dashboard or such, and can be restricted to have payments in either JUP or if they use JUP, they could get a discount, similar mechanism as the merch pricing and such to promote use of JUP.

There’s a whole lot of potential to this whole draft, would love to see it’s future iterations and where takes us.

staking even tho small
focus on stakers will be massive

im a jup holder 4ever jup is home

I think this proposal is visionary yet pragmatic, moving beyond speculation to real economic utility, cultural identity, and sustainable demand.

Key transformative aspects if achieved:

  1. Staked JUP credit system will add financial utility, making $JUP more than a passive asset.
  2. Access score & engagement rewards will shift incentives from mere holding to active participation.
  3. Internal spending & exports, essential for turning $JUP into a functioning micro-economy.
  4. On-chain GDP tracking - A novel transparency tool to measure actual ecosystem value.
  5. JupNet integration - If $JUP becomes the native gas, it cements long-term adoption.

If this can be explored and executed well, this could redefine a $JUP community-driven economy. Clarity in governance, phased rollout, and seamless usability will be key to success.