# Comparison

This chapter sits after the thesis is named. MicroTape tries to hold two jobs that are usually split: discover a price on an inner curve, then turn tax BNB into exogenous yield. The comparables are live designs, not hypothetical books.

`$TAPE` has no NAV and cannot redeem treasury BNB at book. Reading the dividend as a reserve token mis-states the risk. Bounds: [Overview](/) and [Dividends](/dividends).

```mermaid
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flowchart LR
  TaxMeme["Tax meme"] -->|keeps: tax as inflow| M["MicroTape"]
  Reflection["Reflection"] -->|keeps: per-share ledger, pays external BEM| M
  Curve["Inner curve"] -->|keeps: virtual reserve curve| M
  POL["Protocol-owned liquidity"] -->|keeps: owned depth, then burns LP| M
  Staking["Staked dividends"] -->|keeps: accumulator, drops the lock| M
  classDef hot fill:#f46622,stroke:#f46622,color:#120d09
  class M hot
```

Each edge names what MicroTape keeps from the neighbor. What it drops is in the sections below and in the table at the end.

## Tax memes

A taxed transfer turns a fill into a spread. Tax usually lands in a marketing wallet, a buyback contract, or a team address that can withdraw. Holders pay the spread. The production function is still "someone decides how to spend it."

MicroTape writes the payee as the treasury, and writes the treasury's authorized uses as parts and tape-out. The deployer has no BNB-withdraw function. The difference is not the tax rate. It is what the tax is still allowed to do. Table: [Control Surface](/control).

A tax is still a spread. A 5% take makes fills worse than an untaxed pool. That is not a feature. It only says where the tax base comes from.

## Reflection tokens

Reflection redistributes the tax to current holders in the same token. Price, liquidity, and "yield" share one risk. Transfer taxes also warp routing, quotes, and arb. Many AMM routers do not quote the amount a taxed token actually delivers.

MicroTape's dividend asset is BEM. Claims do not happen inside a `$TAPE` transfer. A transfer only settles already-accrued BEM, then re-syncs debt against the new balance. See [Dividends](/dividends).

Reflection's hold incentive is endogenous. MicroTape's hold incentive depends on external miners still emitting BEM. Exogenous is an advantage and a dependency. See [Risks](/risks).

## Inner-curve launches

Four.meme / Pons-style inner books use constant product plus a virtual reserve for price discovery, then migrate leftover assets to an outer pool. That path solves open depth and sniping. It does not, by itself, write a use for tax, and it does not lock LP.

MicroTape's curve is the same family: virtual quote 4.5 BNB, graduate at 18 BNB real quote. The two added commitments are tax into the treasury and LP to `0xdead`. Math: [Token & Curve](/token).

The launch surcharge hits buys only, lasts 5 seconds, and enters the treasury. It is not a team tax. Sells do not pay it.

## Protocol-owned liquidity

After Olympus, protocol-owned liquidity means the protocol holds LP, earns fees, and keeps the right to rebalance. Designs such as HOLI go further and write POL as both a routing hub and a NAV reserve.

MicroTape sends graduation LP to `0xdead`. The pool remains. Ownership leaves everyone. That is permanent depth, not managed POL. The protocol cannot market-make with that LP, cannot skim its fees, and cannot rebalance when price drifts.

What it buys is a narrower rug surface: there is no withdraw-LP function. What it pays is flexibility. Later depth comes only from the market. See [Risks](/risks).

## Staked dividends

MasterChef and Synthetix `StakingRewards` pay an exogenous reward through an accumulator per share. The usual premise is that the meme is locked in a staking contract, and the reward is inflated or injected from elsewhere.

MicroTape uses the same accumulator and does not add a lock. Eligibility is a balance of at least 1,000 `$TAPE`, and the address is not the inner contract, the pair, or `0xdead`. The reward is PodMining BEM, not `$TAPE` inflation.

No lock means selling ends further accrual. A transfer first tries to pay already-accrued BEM to the sender. This is a dividend on liquid inventory, not a coupon on locked principal.

## One table

| | Tax meme | Reflection | Inner curve | POL | MicroTape |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Tax as opex or skim | Tax as same-token redistribute | Curve as price discovery | Protocol holds and manages LP | Tax buys irreversible miners |
| Tax destination | Wallet or buyback | Holders, same token | Usually none | Design-dependent | Treasury, parts and tape-out only |
| Yield asset | None, or same token | Same token | None | Fees, reserve yield | BEM, exogenous to TAPE |
| Depth commitment | Team LP or unlocked | Same | Depends on LP recipient | Protocol can rebalance | LP burned to `0xdead` |
| Supply identity | Often reserved | Often reserved | Varies | Varies | 1e9 all on the curve |
| Redemption | None | None | None | Some have a NAV print | None. No redeem-at-book |

Tax memes have a tax base and no production function. Reflection has a hold incentive and no exogenous asset. Inner curves have price discovery and do not write tax as capital goods. POL has ownership of depth, and ownership still sits with the protocol.

MicroTape takes a narrower line: tax → parts → miners → BEM. It does not also try to be a reserve token, a routing hub, or a managed market maker. The loop is a design goal. See [Flywheel](/loop).