What is UNA? Will it Save LUNA and UST Investors?

To refresh your memory, it has been a few years, but many LUNA investors lost everything in May 2022 when the UST stablecoin was suddenly depegged from USD, sending the entire blockchain into a death spiral.

It’s been a long few years, but a few masterminds in the cryptocurrency community have invented a new product called UNA. But is this new protocol really the saving grace it promises to be for LUNA investors? Keep reading to find out.

What is UNA?

UNA is a blockchain protocol that has specifically been designed to bring relief to individuals decimated by cryptocurrency crashes. It aims to revitalize and recapitalize decimated blockchains without costing downtrodden investors a cent.

While UNA is currently working on helping those affected by the LUNA and UST crash, but if everything goes well, they hope to help those affected by the BitConnect, OneCoin, SafeMoon, and SquidGames token crashes in the future.

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How Does UNA Work?

UNA functions using a unique version of tokenomics based on game theory, which offers investors an option to reclaim 50% of their LUNA investment in UNA during a timed interval following the crash. This recover comes without a fee, and is done in hopes of rebolstering interest in failed projects.

These free tokens are only available to previous investors, and a strict deflationary incentive system is in place to discourage those who hope to immediately sell their returned stake. This system requires that claimants vest their tokens in the UNA system for at least 18 months before divesting in order to receive their full 50% value and a regular slated return in gUNA, the governance token of the UNA ecosystem. Those who sell their UNA immediately forfeit any of the long-term benefits, only receiving a portion of their initial investment of the crashed token, which isn’t much, depending on the month in which they claim their stake. The longer they wait, the larger the number of UNA they can claim.

The long-term benefits of UNA are vast. Basically, when the tokens are created in place of the crashed token, 50% are immediately put into long-term treasury and liquidity in hopes of stabilizing the price. Then, 40% are burned, reducing the supply and increasing the value of the claimed tokens. The remaining 10% are distributed to those who hold on to their initial returned tokens.

Those who participate long term receive gUNA in addition to UNA to match the failed token. gUNA will hopefully grow in value and create an incentive not only for the individuals affected by the UNA crash but also incentivize them to remain vested as UNA moves on to rescue additional crashed blockchains in the future.

While this might sound a bit crazy, the team behind UNA has tested this system in several highly specialized simulations using game theory, and they have found that it creates long-term value and stability in previously crashed coins.

Who Created UNA?

UNA was created by EnigmaFund, a venture-capitalist, and Austin Seiberlich, a tokenomics expert. Prior to UNA, Seiberlich worked on Superchain, KINO, and Privesa and he is known as a Master of Game Theory.

Seiberlich is assisted by Larron Armstead who manages much of the technical side of operations. Also joining the team is John Bui, who acts as an advisor for the project.

How to Claim UNA

If you were once an investor in the LUNA blockchain and held tokens from May 6-7, 2022, then you can claim tokens through the UNA project. Of course, a couple of years have passed since the collapse of the system, and it won’t be easy to track every investor down, but the individuals behind UNA have a plan.

First, they plan to contact institutional investors, followed by known venture capitalists who invested in the project. They hope this will have a trickle-down effect, spreading the word to smaller and lesser-known investors who previously held a stake.

Additionally, the UNA team has been combing social media, looking for any investor in the token. Supposedly they have already compiled a list of over 2 million potential claimants and are planning to reach out to them via email to inform them of the UNA recovery plan.

If that weren’t enough, the marketing team is also reaching out to a variety of centralized exchanges that previously listed LUNA, hoping that they can contact individuals that the marketing team was unable to reach on social media.

After the word is out, exchanges will work with the UNA team to establish what users’ holdings were the day of the depegging. This will help them to award UNA correctly to affected users.

Can You Buy UNA?

If you were not vested in LUNA when it crashed, UNA will not immediately be available to you, though you can watch DeFi markets for individuals selling their claimed portion. As time goes on and the community bounces back, it is likely that you will someday be able to buy someone’s UNA.

Eventually, gUNA will also be available for sale, allowing you to take part in the governance of the UNA project. There is no specific timeline available currently, as much will depend on the actions of the claimants when UNA claiming begins.

Should You Invest in UNA?

UNA is an extremely interesting project and seems reasonable on paper. We are impressed at how they have tested this system of saving crashed tokens, though there isn’t much real-world proof yet that the system works.

Thus, an investment in UNA, especially if you aren’t automatically entitled to tokens via LUNA holdings, is a bit risky currently. Of course, if you held LUNA tokens, it is advised to participate in the UNA program. But if you are on the outside looking in, we recommend waiting a bit before investing to ensure that the UNA program works as they say it does.

But if it does work, we are excited at the bright future this could create for the cryptocurrency community, especially when they begin to conquer other crashed tokens in the future.

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