Today, we are very happy to announce the release of a new and unprecedented community initiative as we move closer to the mainnet release of Joystream.

The Founding Member Program will grant our committed community members a considerable share of the platform's initial token issuance in return for their effective participation in our community.

The Details

We have set aside 15% of the mainnet genesis token issuance to the program, with flexibility for this to be increased considerably if the scheme is successful in motivating community engagement.

As part of the rollout of the program, we are introducing a new leaderboard system to track community contributions. To appear on this leaderboard, you must either be currently enrolled as a Founding Member or have submitted at least one community activity summary.

A community activity summary can be understood as a regular report of all of your community contributions over a given period. In it, you explain to Jsgenesis reviewers how you have contributed to the success of the project with your community activities.

Once an activity report is received, we process the information contained within to determine a point score for each of your contributions in the period covered. As soon as this summary processing has been completed, your current point tally and corresponding position will be updated on the leaderboards.

Those that make continuous high-quality contributions and report them by submitting activity summaries will be invited and formally inducted into the program.

Once the program has formally ended (approximately one month before mainnet release), points allocated to Founding Members will be passed through a formula* which will determine what percentage of the token issuance each individual member recieves based on their relative point scores.

*At the moment the provisional formula (subject to review) simply allocates a "guaranteed" 0.02% of the total token issuance to each Founding Member upon joining the program, with the rest of the 15% pool being divided up proportionally based on each participant's leaderboard score.

How To Participate

Anybody who meets the eligibility criteria (over 18 and non-US person) will be able to become a Founding Member, though to achieve this, participants must demonstrate regular and effective contributions to the platform.

We have published a list on the new founding member GitHub repo of potential activities which would qualify for leaderboard points and how many each contribution might warrant.

Some basic examples of contributions might include:

  • Running a Validator node
  • Participating in platform roles (Storage Provider, Content Curator etc.)
  • Providing support to other community members on Telegram, the platform forum, GitHub and elsewhere
  • Writing blog posts and documentation
  • Posting on the platform forum
  • Developing widgets and tools
  • Uploading your original videos to the testnet
  • Reporting bugs and security issues
  • Completing formal bounties

Members who accumulate a large number of leaderboard points by regularly offering high-quality contributions will be inducted on a regular basis (every "scoring period") after being contacted and screened by Jsgenesis. Each Founding Member will also be able to select a unique hand-drawn avatar for use on member profiles.

What Can I Do Right Now?

As of this moment, the Founding Member Program is open for the submission of activity summaries.

If you have previously contributed to Joystream but were not inducted into the initial set of founding members*, you can submit a summary of your activity up to this point and you will be granted an initial allocation of points.

*These are existing community contributors who we have already contacted and inducted into the program in advance of the official launch.

If you are new to the project or have not been active in the community, you should first join our Telegram, get set up on the testnet and then explore the list of ways you can contribute.

Learn More

We have prepared some resources which may be of use for those familiarizing themselves with the program:

  • A dedicated website page for the Founding Member Program where you can read more about the program and submit activity summaries.
  • A GitHub repo containing the rules and current status of the program as well as further instructions on how to participate.

As usual, if you have any questions about the program or want more information on how to contribute, please ask in our Telegram group!

Thank You!

Finally, we would of course like to wish all of our current and future community members the best of luck in the program and thank them for moving us closer to our ambitious vision of the user-governed video platform!


Disclaimer

All forward looking statements, estimates and commitments found in this blog post should be understood to be highly uncertain, not binding and for which no guarantees of accuracy or reliability can be provided. To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event shall Joystream, Jsgenesis or our affiliates, or any of our directors, employees, contractors,  service providers or agents have any liability whatsoever to any person  for any direct or indirect loss, liability, cost, claim, expense or  damage of any kind, whether in contract or in tort, including negligence, or otherwise, arising out of or related to the use of all or  part of this post, or any links to third party websites.