Pay $100k to SourceCred Contributors

Status


In Progress


Champion


@decentralion


Initiative Description


During the "Radio show" kickoff notes, @ajbouh asked an interesting question: what if we were to pay $100k to SourceCred contributors? What impact would it have on the project, and what would we need in place before we’d feel confident doing it?

I like this as a goal to aim for. Let’s put aside the issue of raising $100k for an airdrop (nontrivial but achievable) and just focus on what we would need to confidently launch a $100k airdrop.

I would want:

  • A more robust system for minting cred than purely based on node types. Ideally, we will incorporate the nascent initiatives and artifacts system, and make these important sources of cred.
  • A more thorough community review of the cred distribution and weight choices, to make sure we have solid confidence in them.
  • A comms strategy so that we can roll out the airdrop in a way that brings good press and awareness to the project.
  • Ongoing financial backing to continue funding SourceCred at a higher level, so the airdrop isn’t a pure one-off, but more of a “catch up” payment as we switch to a generally higher level of CredSperiment funding.

Benefits


  • It will be nice to have a big “catch up” payment so that the people who have been working on this project (more-or-less) for free get a reward.
  • It may move SourceCred above the “financial significance” threshold for some contributors, who will then devote more time and attention to the project.
  • If communicated well, it could bring a lot of positive attention to the project, and create a great opportunity to put the SourceCred vision in front of more folks.

Implementation Plan


Follow through on creating dependencies.

Then do this stuff:

  • A more robust system for minting cred than purely based on node types. Ideally, we will incorporate the nascent initiatives and artifacts system, and make these important sources of cred.
  • A more thorough community review of the cred distribution and weight choices, to make sure we have solid confidence in them.
  • A comms strategy so that we can roll out the airdrop in a way that brings good press and awareness to the project.
  • Ongoing financial backing to continue funding SourceCred at a higher level, so the airdrop isn’t a pure one-off, but more of a “catch up” payment as we switch to a generally higher level of CredSperiment funding.

Then make it rain.


Estimated Work (hours)


Many


Dependencies



References



Contributions



2 Likes
  • (optional): better tools for introspecting where cred came from

Wouldn’t consider this quite so optional. Distributing $100k while leaving the attribution opaque to anyone not able to write scripts to dissect the output graph is a no-go I think, it’s like offering your financial situation up to some oracle in the cloud.

Similarly I “would want” a more robust ledger with cryptographic authentication and proven reproducibility.

2 Likes

You’re right. It makes a sense to consider both of those required deps. Would you please update the initiative (it’s a wiki) to include your updated requirements.

We should also start writing initiatives for the dependencies, so we can scope out the full work we’ll need to do to enable such a large cred payout.

Agree that those are both things that are super important!

Not sure if they are entirely necessary for this airdrop. It really depends on what the goal is.

  • If the goal is just to reward contributors, then it’s always a good time to say thank you.
  • If the rewards will be ongoing, then we can start with a beta system and improve as we go.
  • If it’s a one time thing, then yeah it needs to be verifiable.
  • If the goal is positive PR and to encourage/attract new contributors, then it also needs to be verifiable and easy to use.

In the context of a “catch-up payment” for people who are already here, I think it’s fine. This is because people here are already (more or less) ok with the system and it’s ongoing evolution. They’re trusting the “cred executiver” (are we not calling @decentralion a dictator anymore?), so using the current system to say thank you to those who built the current system seems ok.

1 Like

Question:

  • The CredSperiment through the end of the year is giving away 5k right?
  • This “catch-up payment” proposal is for 100k
  • Those seem like they’re not even on the same scale.

Why not put more money into the CredSperiment and do a smaller catch up payment?

Great point, @burrrata. Based on your comment, I’m leaning towards securing $100k as a “catch up payment”, and then a larger amount as a “milestone distribution” once we accomplish all of the dependencies we’ve laid out in this thread.

Yeah, the amounts for the CredSperiment are too small (especially when two of the people with the highest cred are not cashing out). I do plan to increase this, starting by doubling next week’s release from 50k¤ to 100k¤ (aka $1000 redeemable). However, I like the idea of a $100k release (10m¤) as a oneoff because I think it will make a bigger splash. That said, we can still consider the $100k release to be part of the CredSperiment. Maybe splitting it up across the time period is better, I’m open to being persuaded, but I think a 1-off $100k distribution will get a lot more attention and interest.

1 Like

This would be amazing if it comes together!

While long-term, higher, more consistent payouts are more interesting, as they’re more sustainable for contributors, I like the $100k airdrop idea. I think it’s just big enough a number to make a splash. Especially in the open source world. I also think airdrops could be a very interesting application of SourceCred. How to distribute coins to properly seed a network is actually a big problem many crypto projects face. Particularly Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks whose security relies on that distribution.

Yes, it will make a bigger splash. Is splashing the goal?

If we think of money as energy, then we can assume that energy will find a way to equilibrium. Injecting a lot of energy into a system will invigorate it, but unless that energy is captured and guided towards productive means it will quickly dissipate.

Circling back to the splashing metaphor, let’s think of SourceCred as a garden. First there’s a few plants (ideas), then they get watered (work), then they grow, and then more people come and planted ideas, trimmed bushes, etc… If you dump a huge bucket of water on the garden it will make a big splash, but it might not help the plants grow. If you water them every week, make sure the water gets to the roots, pull the weeds, and create spaces for new things, etc… then things might work out. The key is determining the right amount of water for the garden and making sure it gets to the roots and does not just drain out.

If SourceCred is ready to take in, process, and put to work that much energy then it’s probably a great idea. If not, however, then a more tempered approach might be better

1 Like

Would definitely give me a little more runway, which I would use to work more on SourceCred. I think if it were bigger, it might be problematic, in the way you describe. But $100k seems like an absorbable energy burst.