Introducing The Farmers Market

Today, Beanstalk Farms is pleased to announce the passage and commitment of BIP-11, which creates the Farmers Market, a trustless and decentralized marketplace for Pods, the Beanstalk-native debt asset.

The Farmers Market is part of a broader effort by Beanstalk Farms to increase the utility of Beans, make the Beanstalk ecosystem more liquid, and improve user experience.

Anyone can participate in the Farmers Market here.

The Field

The Field is Beanstalk’s decentralized credit facility. It offers yield opportunities to creditors for participating in peg maintenance. Anyone can become a Bean Farmer by sowing Beans (lending Beans to Beanstalk). Sown Beans are burned and exchanged for Pods based on the Weather (the Beanstalk-native interest rate), which become Harvestable (redeemable for Beans 1:1) on a FIFO basis when the Bean supply expands in response to excess demand for Beans.

Prior to the launch of the Farmers Market, Pods were relatively illiquid assets and could only be traded OTC. These peer-to-peer transactions typically relied on a trusted third party to act as an intermediary, which is not decentralized. The lack of a liquid marketplace for Pods also inhibited robust price discovery. Rather than buying and selling Pods OTC, users can now buy and sell Pods directly through Beanstalk on the Farmers Market.

Farmers Market Overview

The Farmers Market is the Beanstalk-native marketplace for exchanging Pods.

There are two basic primitives within the Farmers Market: Pod Orders and Pod Listings.

Pod Orders

A Pod Order is a request to buy Pods in exchange for Beans. Each Pod Order has three inputs:

1. The maximum number of Pods you want to buy;
2. The maximum price you are willing pay per Pod, denominated in Beans; and
3. The maximum place in the Pod Line from which you are willing to buy Pods.

Example: Farmer Joe wants to buy up to 100 Pods anywhere before 100,000 in the Pod Line for 0.50 Beans / Pod.

To create a Pod Order, you must lock the Beans necessary to complete the purchase in the contract.

Instead of waiting for a Pod Order to be Filled, users can also buy Pods directly from an outstanding Pod Listing.

Pod Listings

A Pod Listing is an offer to sell Pods in exchange for Beans. By default, Pods are listed from the back of a Plot. Each Pod Listing takes four inputs:

1. The Plot from which you are willing to sell Pods;
2. The range of Pods to be Listed from the selected Plot;
3. The minimum price you are willing to receive per Pod, denominated in Beans; and
4. The maximum number of Pods that can become Harvestable before the Listing automatically Expires.

Example: Farmer Joe wants to sell 100 Pods for 0.50 Beans / Pod from the back of their plot at 50,000 in the Pod Line_. If the_ Pod Line moves forward by 10,000 (such that the new place in the Pod Line of Farmer Joe’s Pods would be 40,000), the Pod Listing will automatically Expire.

Instead of waiting for a Pod Listing to be Filled, Pod owners can also sell Pods directly into an outstanding Pod Order.

For a more in-depth guide on using the Farmers Market, please refer to the Farmers Market section of the How-To Guide.

For more detailed information on the Farmers Market, please refer to the Farmers Market section of the Appendix in the latest Beanstalk whitepaper.

More information

The Farmers Market is a community-led initiative developed by Beanstalk Farms.

Bean Sprout is a new Beanstalk accelerator that is actively funding new projects built on top of Beanstalk. If you have ideas for projects, join the community discussion on Discord!

To learn more about Beanstalk you can visit bean.money.