Field
The Field is Beanstalk's credit facility. Beanstalk relies on a decentralized set of creditors to maintain Bean price stability.
Farmers who Sow Beans (lend Beans to Beanstalk) in exchange for Pods are known as Sowers. The Temperature is the interest rate on Bean loans.
The Morning is the first 25 blocks (5 minutes) of each Season. Beanstalk changes the Soil and Temperature at the beginning of each block of the Morning according to the peg maintenance mechanism.
For guides on interacting with the Field through the Beanstalk UI, go here.
Soil
Anytime Beanstalk is willing to issue debt, there is Soil in the Field. Soil represents the number of Beans that Beanstalk is currently willing to borrow.
When Beans are Sown, Beanstalk burns them, permanently removing the Sown Beans from the Bean supply. For example, if there's 10 Soil available and 10 Beans are Sown, the Soil supply becomes 0 and 10 Beans are removed from the Bean supply. If the market is in some sort of equilibrium, Beans are bought to be Sown, which drives the Bean price upward towards its value peg.
When P ≥ 1 (i.e., deltaB ≥ 0), the Soil supply decreases logarithmically at the beginning of each block in the Morning. When P < 1 (i.e., deltaB < 0), Beanstalk sets the Soil supply to deltaB. See the Soil Supply section.
Pods
Beans are Sown in exchange for Pods, the Beanstalk-native debt asset. Loans to Beanstalk are issued with a fixed interest rate, known as Temperature, and an unknown maturity date.
The number of Pods received from 1 Sown Bean is determined by the Temperature at the time of Sowing. Newly issued Pods accumulate in the back of the Pod Line. The front of the Pod Line receives 1/3 of new Bean mints when there are more than zero Unfertilized Sprouts (Sprouts are issued by the Barn). If there are no Unfertilized Sprouts, the front of the Pod Line receives 1/2 of new Bean mints.
Pods Ripen into Harvestable Pods that can be Harvested (redeemed) for 1 Bean each on a First In, First Out (FIFO) basis. There is no penalty for waiting to Harvest Pods.
Pods are tradeable on the Pod Market. Pods can also be Transferred to another address directly.
Temperature
The Temperature is the interest rate for Sowing Beans in the Field. At 500% Temperature, 1 Bean can be Sown in exchange for 6 Pods. Once those Pods become Harvestable, they can be Harvested in exchange for 6 Beans.
Beanstalk changes the Maximum Temperature it is willing to offer each Season at the beginning of each Season according to the peg maintenance mechanism.
During the Morning of each Season, the Temperature is the result of a Dutch auction, where the Temperature increases logarithmically from 1% in the block of a successful gm function call up to the Maximum Temperature over the course of 5 minutes. During times of short-term excess demand for Soil, the Morning results in Beanstalk paying significantly less to attract creditors.
Field Process
Beans are Sown in exchange for Pods.
Pods Ripen into Harvestable Pods on a FIFO basis when Beanstalk mints new Beans according to the peg maintenance mechanism.
Harvestable Pods can be Harvested into Beans.
Economics
Beanstalk is credit based and only fails if it can no longer attract creditors. A reasonable level of debt, a strong credit history and a competitive interest rate attract creditors.
Beanstalk never defaults on debt (although in the event of Beanstalk no longer attracting creditors, the loan maturity date would become infinitely far in the future—see Disclosures). Beanstalk is willing to issue Pods every Season.
The combination of non-expiry, the FIFO Harvest schedule and transferability encourages Farmers to Sow Beans as efficiently as possible. By maximizing the efficiency of the Soil market, Beanstalk minimizes its cost to attract creditors, the durations and magnitudes of price deviations below its value peg, and excess Bean minting.
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