Steak Pool: a deflationary store-of-value token on Algorand

Most "deflationary" tokens have a flaw: their burns come from a finite treasury, which means deflation stops the day the treasury runs out. Most "store of value" tokens have a different flaw: the value claim is purely narrative, with nothing intrinsic backing the price floor. Steak Pool combines a perpetual burn mechanism with a growing redeemable reserve to address both.

STEAK is an Algorand Standard Asset (ASA 2595619475). Total supply was minted at genesis and is fixed at 17,000,000 tokens with 6 decimals. The clawback, freeze, and reserve-redirect authorities are all set to the Algorand zero address — meaning supply can only ever decrease, no party can freeze your balance, and no party can confiscate your tokens.

Steak Pool operates Réti validator #13. Réti is the Algorand Foundation's open-pooling protocol that lets any holder delegate ALGO to a validator without giving up custody. The validator earns block rewards (currently ~10 ALGO/block decaying 1% per million blocks, plus a share of network transaction fees), keeps a small commission, and distributes the rest to delegators. Our commission has exactly one destination: the buyback wallet.

On a regular cadence, the buyback wallet swaps accumulated ALGO for STEAK on Tinyman and forwards the bought STEAK to the canonical Algorand burn address BNFIREKGRXEHCFOEQLTX3PU5SUCMRKDU7WHNBGZA4SXPW42OAHZBP7BPHY. This is a vanity-prefixed address whose private key was never created by any party and cannot exist — funds sent here are provably unspendable. The burn is therefore permanent in the strongest cryptographic sense, not the social-convention sense. The live burn total can be verified in a single indexer query against the burn wallet's balance; the /burn page on this site renders that query for you, refreshed every 60 seconds.

Delegators to Réti validator #13 receive two streams. The first is the standard Algorand consensus reward, paid in ALGO and distributed automatically by the Réti contract. The second is a STEAK reward, paid out of a dedicated rewards wallet operated by Steak Pool and visible on-chain. Net effect: a delegator earns ALGO yield, accumulates STEAK exposure directly, and watches additional STEAK get burned by the validator commission. The same act of delegation activates three different value streams. The exact reward rate is published on Réti and updated on /stake.

Buybacks alone create downward pressure on supply but cannot guarantee a price floor. Phase 2 introduces a treasury-backing layer: a separate, transparently-audited wallet accumulates productive assets (ALGO, gALGO from Folks Finance, perhaps a small position in USDC for stability). Once the treasury reaches a threshold, holders gain the right to burn STEAK in exchange for a pro-rata share of treasury assets. This makes the store-of-value claim mathematical rather than aspirational: each STEAK becomes redeemable for a known minimum quantity of underlying ALGO. The redemption mechanism is still being designed; this page will update before it ships.

A separate ASA — distinct from STEAK — will represent membership tiers (working names: Brisket, Wagyu, Dry-Aged). Tier eligibility is determined by verified STEAK held in wallet over a snapshot window. Members get role-gated access to community features, priority allocation in any future releases, and (eventually) physical perks via partner programs. Membership NFTs do not change STEAK supply or affect price directly — they are a separate utility layer.

STEAK is a small-cap cryptocurrency. The price can go to zero. Validator rewards depend on the Algorand network continuing to operate and on the Foundation's bonus schedule. Smart contract risk is minimized (the auto-buyback contract, when shipped, will be audited and immutable) but cannot be eliminated. Regulatory treatment of utility tokens is uncertain. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose.