This article explains how a programmable framework of impact evaluators can be built on top of Ceramic in order to distribute rewards to a wide range of community contributors. Essentially allowing DAOs to distribute funds more effectively to the people that create meaningful value for them.
Impact evaluators (IE) are not new. The Bitcoin block reward is likely the simplest, and oldest, example of an impact evaluator. It’s an objective function that takes a measure of the world and distributes rewards based on that measure. Juan Benet defines an impact evaluator as follows:
ImpactEvaluator {
foreach round {
m := measure(world)
w := evaluate(m)
r := reward(w)
}
}
The IE runs iteratively in rounds, with each round distributing a reward. There isn’t really a limit as to what the IE can measure and reward. However, it’s important that the measure is fairly objective and as non-gameable as possible. The more objective and immutable the IE is the more powerful it can generally become since actors interacting with it can reason about rewards long into the future.
minerHashRate/totalHashRateGovrn stands out, from other projects tracking contributions in a social graph, since it allows projects to create an ontology of various types of contributions, which lets the IE of the DAO dynamically evolve over time.
There are thee main methods of distributing the rewards of an IE.
The r of the IE comes directly from the DAO treasury that is operating the IE. This can be seen as a way to reward the community of the DAO more effectively than running a grant program, or as a more fair continuous airdrop.