DAO & Contribution Economy

The project is a DAO-project with an operational/commercial layer — not a company that has a community. There are two economies: that of the product/network (associations, hosting, compliance, economic ledger) and that of building the project (contributors, roles, circles, governance). Work and contribution become tokenized positions from day 1 — without ever becoming a public investment promise.

What this solves: fairness among early contributors, economic memory of effort, clear governance, and a transparent basis for future compensation. What this is not: a promise of getting rich, a speculative token, plutocratic governance, invisible volunteering, or informal chaos.

Constitutional Principles

A short, public, versioned Operational Constitution:

1.  Transparência radical por padrão
2.  Tensão gera evolução
3.  Consentimento > consenso
4.  Autoridade vem de papel e domínio, não de cargo informal
5.  Círculos governam domínios claros
6.  Double-linking entre círculos
7.  Contribuição registrada publicamente
8.  Token registra esforço, não promete liquidez imediata
9.  Caixa real remunera pessoas reais
10. O core é open source; o valor vem da execução
11. Quem assume responsabilidade deve ter autonomia compatível
12. Todo poder deve deixar trilha auditável

The token is accounting memory of effort; governance is sociocratic; future compensation is a consequence of real cash, not narrative.

Sociocratic Structure

The root circle (Stewardship) holds purpose, principles, macro allocation, and the creation/dissolution of circles. Six initial circles, with explicit roles even with few people — 1 person may hold 3-4 roles; what matters is clarity of hats:

General/Stewardship
├── Product & OSS Core ......... Core Maintainer, Release Steward, MCP Architect
├── Economic Infra ............. Ledger Steward, Risk Steward, Pricing Steward
├── Community & Growth ......... Onboarding Steward, Community Facilitator, Partnership Steward
├── Compliance & Trust ......... Privacy Steward, Audit Trail Steward, Policy Steward
└── Treasury & Operations ...... Treasury Steward, Compensation Steward, Vendor Steward

Double-linking: each circle has a Lead Link (carries the parent circle’s priorities down to the child) and a Rep Link (carries the child’s tensions up to the parent). Prevents centralization.

These are roles, not job titles. Each role declares a name, purpose, domain, accountabilities, circle, current holder, and review mandate. Authority comes from the role and the domain — never from an informal title.

Tension → Action Flow

Tensão percebida → registro → triage no círculo →
  operacional? → resolve no papel existente
  governança?  → proposta → esclarecimento → reação → consentimento
    objeção válida? → integra → repete consentimento
    sem objeção    → adota → atualiza papéis/políticas → executa → revisão

The question is never “does everyone agree?”. It is: “is there a reasoned objection showing harm or regression?” It speeds things up dramatically.

Contribution Ledger

Every relevant contribution becomes a public, auditable record: who, circle/role, deliverable, evidence, reference value, reviewer, status.

CONTRIB = 1 unit = US$ 1 of accounting reference.

CONTRIB is a unit of recognized effort — like an hour or a story point. The USD reference exists only for accounting comparability. Conversion into payment is discretionary: it depends on real cash and current policy — never automatic, never an enforceable liability, never a stablecoin.

Means	Does NOT mean
Auditable economic memory	A clear-cut right to immediate withdrawal
Basis for future compensation when cash exists	Income or yield
Alignment among early contributors	An automatic security
Transparency about who built what	A public promise of return

Formula:

Valor (USD ref) = Base Rate da função × Tempo ou Escopo
                  × Mult. qualidade × Mult. prioridade × Mult. risco

Example: Product Architect, US$ 100/h × 20h × 1.0 × 1.0 × 1.0 = US$ 2,000 → 2,000 CONTRIB.

Two modes, both used: hours for ongoing/leadership roles; bounties by scope for one-off deliverables (e.g.: issue US$ 300, feature US$ 1,000, compliance policy draft US$ 500).

People-Layer Tokens

Token	Function	Transferable?	Visible?
`CONTRIB`	contribution record with USD reference	no	yes
`ROLE_BADGE`	marks role tenure	no	yes
`REPUTATION`	historical reputation and reliability	no	yes
`GOV_RIGHT`	right to participate in certain processes	restricted	yes
`COMP_CLAIM`	future compensation position (optional)	no/restricted	internal

v0.1 uses the first four. CONTRIB solves 80% of the problem on its own.

Mint Process

Never unrestricted self-minting:

Contributor registra entrega + evidência → Reviewer revisa escopo/qualidade
→ propõe valor USD ref → círculo valida por consentimento leve
→ mint CONTRIB → publica no dashboard auditável

Anti-abuse rules:

1.  ninguém aprova sozinho a própria contribuição acima de threshold
2.  toda contribuição precisa de evidência
3.  vínculo obrigatório com tensão, tarefa, bounty ou papel
4.  rate card público
5.  mudanças no rate card exigem governança
6.  disputa aberta por janela curta
7.  auditoria periódica do ledger
8.  contribuições fundadoras separadas das operacionais
9.  governança não é só token-weighted
10. contribuição passada não substitui responsabilidade presente

Radical Transparency

The public dashboard is the most important cultural piece. It shows people and roles (who, which role, circle, since when), governance (open tensions, proposals, integrated objections, decisions), contributions (who, how much recognized in USD ref, evidence, reviewer), and the internal economy (total CONTRIB issued, distribution by circle and person, real cash, compensations paid and pending). Anyone who wants to audit, audits — without asking permission.

Contributor Lifecycle

Observador → Contribuidor ocasional → Contribuidor reconhecido
→ Role holder → Circle member → Steward / Lead / Rep

Advancement comes from demonstrated contribution with evidence, aligned behavior, reliability, and the capacity to take on accountabilities — not from seniority or proximity.

Disputes have 3 tracks: contribution (“I was undervalued” → reviewer → circle → compensation steward), role/domain (“who decides this?” → circle governance → general circle), and relational (trust steward → restorative process).

Anti-Plutocracy

Do NOT make “1 token = 1 vote” the primary rule. Too early, that becomes accounting plutocracy.

Governance comes from 3 sources: current role (operational authority over the domain), circle (decisions by consent), and contribution ledger (reputation, legitimacy, track record).

The token weighs in: eligibility for roles, priority in retro-compensation, legitimacy score, auxiliary weight in budget decisions. To avoid: buying political power, purely financial governance, internal whales, unrestricted voting through historical accumulation.

Decision Types

A. Operacionais    → papel responsável (ferramenta, bug, aprovar PR no domínio)
B. Táticas         → círculo (prioridades do mês, backlog, divisão de papéis)
C. Governança      → consentimento formal (papel, política, rate card, regra de mint)
D. Constitucionais → processo mais forte (princípios, compensação, relação InfraCo↔DAO)

Compensation

Three stages, according to real cash:

Stage	State	What happens
1	No cash	Public record; small expenses reimbursed; no automatic promise
2	Initial cash	Active compensation for critical roles + partial retro-compensation via ledger
3	Healthy cash	Salary/retainer for key roles + recurring retro-compensation + bounty/contributor pool

People waterfall — nothing skips a stage:

Receita real → Caixa →
1. Custos operacionais mínimos
2. Infra / cloud / ferramentas
3. Compliance / jurídico / contábil
4. Reserva prudencial
5. Compensação ativa de papéis críticos
6. Retrocompensação de contribuições históricas
7. Bounty / contributor pool
8. Crescimento / reinvestimento
9. Token treasury / mecanismos futuros

Retro-compensation proportional to eligible accumulated CONTRIB. Example: pool of US$ 10,000; total eligible 50,000 CONTRIB; whoever holds 8,000 CONTRIB receives 16% → US$ 1,600.

Safe Language

Always “USD accounting reference value” — never “the token is worth a dollar” nor “automatically convertible”. The CVM (Brazilian securities regulator) looks at the economic substance of the asset, not its name — and CONTRIB’s substance is a record of effort, not a promise of return.

- o projeto reconhece contribuição em unidades internas
- cada unidade = US$ 1 de referência contábil
- a referência serve para memória econômica, comparação e eventual compensação futura
- o registro não implica resgate imediato nem garantido
- compensação depende de política vigente e caixa real

DAO vs Legal Wrapper

Socially and operationally, the project is a DAO. Legally, an LTDA (Brazilian limited liability company) executes: it signs, pays, receives, keeps the books, and applies retro-compensation according to the policy the DAO decided.

Reference Technologies

Technology	What it is	Use here
Hats Protocol	Roles/credentials as ERC-1155 tokens in a tree; each “hat” grants permissions revocable by the parent role	Maps almost literally to nested circles + double-linking. v0.1 mirrors the logic off-chain, as data inside the system itself
Safe	Battle-tested multisig, the market standard for DAO treasuries	Future on-chain treasury, when it exists
Coordinape / SourceCred	Allocation-circle mechanics for contribution recognition	Mechanics inspiration only — Coordinape was discontinued (2021–2025); do not build on top of it

On-chain migration (Hats + Safe) only when it makes sense. The Token-Ledger abstraction layer (NATS JetStream + ledger engine + SurrealDB, ADR-003) allows swapping the internal ledger for a blockchain without changing the experience.

People-Layer Roadmap

Independent tracks — the product roadmap (v0.1 → v0.8) and the people-layer roadmap (v0.1 → v0.5) evolve in parallel, with no version synchronization.

No race to v1.0: minors only — each minor ships real value and compounds on the previous one.

Version	Deliverable
v0.1	Constitution + initial circles + roles + public rate card + tensions + CONTRIB mint + basic dashboard
v0.2	Formal governance: consent, elections, double-linking, objection policy
v0.3	REPUTATION, eligibility, role rotation, reliability score
v0.4	Compensation with cash: compensation pool, retro-compensation, retainer, per-circle budget
v0.5	Full integration: circles manage real budgets; unified product+governance+treasury dashboard

Core Recommendation

The people-layer token is a moral-economic ledger of contribution, not a speculative asset. Governance is role-based, circle-based, and consent-based — the token comes in as memory and legitimacy, never as numerical tyranny.

Tokenomics — product/network economy
Token-Ledger v0.1 — internal economic positions with no promise of return
Token-Ledger (architecture) — NATS JetStream + ledger engine + SurrealDB

Machine-translated v1 — English version generated by LLM, human polish in progress. Report translation errors to gabriel@devmagic.com.br.