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#257 Kevin Owocki: Gitcoin – Aligning Incentives in Open-Source Development

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#257 kevin owocki: gitcoin - aligning incentives in open-source development

#257 Kevin Owocki: Gitcoin – Aligning Incentives in Open-Source Development

Building open source software is a collaborative process which relies on good faith and willingness of volunteers. While most of the software we use daily relies heavily on open-source libraries, incentive models are broken. Repo maintainers are eager to see their projects evolve, but have little leverage to encourage developers to contribue. And projects contributors create enormous value by dedicating their time and expertise while getting little in return. Both open and closed-source projects utilize bountied to source engineering talent. Combined with blockchain technologies, there is a potential to create efficient, two-sided markets which align incentives for all participants.

We’re joined by Kevin Owocki, who is the Founder of Gitcoin. The Ethereum-based platform leverages the open source community to incentivize and monetize work, remunerating developers for pull requests made to projects. Gitcoin was itself built using Gitcoin and is today facilitating bug bounty payments for dozens of blockchain projects. At the time of writing, over 200 projects have used the platform to distribute over $340,000 in bounties to developers. As Gitcoin continues to grow, the goal is to expand its reach to the broader open-source ecosystem.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Kevin’s background as a software engineerThe fundamental challenges in open-source development and fundingWhat is Gitcoin and how it addresses incentive alignmentHow Gitcoin works from the perspective of both project funders and contributorsThe platforms usage statistics (projects funded, contributors, bounties paid, etc.)How Gitcoin may be used to fund closed-source bountied and public goodsKevin’s proposal for recurring payments in Ethereum (EIP1337/ERC948)How Gitcoin is funded and the project’s business modelGitcoin’s roadmap moving forward

Links mentioned in this episode:

Gitcoin websiteGitcoin leaderboard and top earnersGitcoin stats1337 AllianceEIP 1337 – Subscriptions on the blockchainERC948 – Recurring Subscription Models on EthereumDelphi Systems

Sponsors:

DutchX: The open, decentralized trading protocol for ERC20 tokens using the Dutch auction mechanismAzure: Deploy enterprise-ready consortium blockchain networks that scale in just a few clicks

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Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sƒbastien Couture, Meher Roy & Sunny Aggarwal.

#257 kevin owocki: gitcoin - aligning incentives in open-source development

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Tokenized Equities Will Boost Market Confidence For Both Issuers and Investors

Small to medium-sized businesses play an important role in the economic development of a country. Their role in terms of production, employment generation, contribution to exports and facilitating equitable distribution of income is very critical. They also supply essential products for mass consumption and exports.

Banks hardly give loans

Despite the importance of this sector to the economic life of any given nation, the universal norm remains that it is difficult for them to have access to much-needed funds for proper development and establishment. Most banks are reluctant to issue loans to small businesses due to the high-risk level associated with emerging businesses. This might be because of the absence of collateral, or as a result of the fact that such businesses hold no proven track records in most cases in order to meet up with the standards set by the banks.

The ICO escape

The advent of the decentralized and unregulated crowdfunding system known as Initial Coin Offering (ICO) happens to provide a huge bailout opportunity for both emerging and existing businesses who may find it difficult to meet up with the standards of the banks and other financial institutions. This ICO model enables a crowdfunding process that cuts through geographical boundaries on a global level. This system makes it possible for different classes of individuals from across the globe to be able to contribute towards a project without much difficulties.

Apparently, the ICO model spreads the risk across numerous contributors who are left with independent tokens that do not necessarily retain any equity from the parent business or company. The token’s values are only determined by general economic forces in the token marketplace. This phenomenon largely exempts the token vendors from any responsibility and is suspected to be one of the major reasons why inconsistencies exist in the ICO ecosystem, and why examples of fraud and dishonesty are rampant.

In essence, traditional pathways leave the entire business environment shortchanged with inefficient and unsustainable financing procedures, while implementing the ICO model opens up a huge potential for the market, but comes with associated loopholes that form a setback to the entire ICO ecosystem.

The balance point

Finding the balance by introducing a system where the shackles of difficulty in fundraising are broken, while investors are protected by retaining tokenized equities of their businesses of interest is the ultimate objective of Stamps Platform.

The Stamps platform is an alternative to the traditional ICO model; Stamps will provide a safe, inexpensive and transparent path for businesses to issue equity in the form of tradable tokens that represent an ownership share of their company. This medium allows businesses to reach a growing community of STAMP enthusiasts interested in emerging technologies and innovative business ideas.

When a business chooses to issue equity tokens through the Stamps platform, they will retain a portion of them, while the rest are gifted to STAMP coin holders, similar to the ever so popular “AirDrop” model. Once a market has formed, the business can then liquidate a portion of their retained equity tokens on the open market to fund their operations as needed. If the market fails to form in an agreed timeframe, the equity will be returned to the issuer.

As you can see there is a very little risk to the issuing business, but this is not a one-sided affair, there are also many benefits for the equity token holders. Just by holding the equity tokens one will be receiving legal ownership rights of the issuing business. There are also bitcoin Dividend Payments, Voting Privileges, Merger/Acquisition Payouts, and all of the legal privileges that come along with holding equity shares.

The STAMP Coin distribution is planned in an ICO with a Soft Cap Raise of $1 mln and a Hard Cap Raise of $89 mln.

The Stamps Platform is designed to achieve the ultimate balance where every participant will be adequately protected, be it the equity token issuer or the holder. A confidence filled market is indeed a potentially robust market.

The post Tokenized Equities Will Boost Market Confidence For Both Issuers and Investors appeared first on NEWSBTC.

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