COMMITTABLE: Towards a sustainable open-source ecosystem with verifiable contribution tokens
An introduction to Committable as the first decentralized open-source protocol
At Committable, we focus on helping developers with the monetization of their contribution to open-source software (OSS), with the core goal of growing and sustaining the OSS ecosystem.
Sustaining Open-Source Software Today
Since the late 90s, it has been difficult for most open-source software (OSS) projects to sustain themselves, as well as participating developers effectively and efficiently. The sustainability process is fairly not consistent, as over 99% of OSS projects are inactive, while a very limited number of OSS projects are well supported by enterprises, e.g., Google, Facebook, Amazon etc.
On one hand, research has shown that the lack of developers’ remuneration is a core factor in projects becoming inactive over time. Without fair incentives, an unproductive life cycle is developed (Calefato et. Al, 2022), where prolonged and often unnecessary breaks are taken, leading to an overall disengagement towards the OSS project.
Furthermore, disengagement, more often than not, leads to an ineffective project “hand-off” to new owners (Khondhu et. Al, 2013), disrupting growth and long-term success.
“The process of acting knowledgeably and purposefully in the world” is known as situated learning, while “the process of being identified within the community” is known as identity construction, which are both positively linked to sustained participation, a fundamental aspect lacking in most inactive projects.
On another hand, why do OSS projects supported by tech giants have an easier way to success? A key aspect is ecosystem support provided through targeted activities towards a common goal, motivating its developers and its sponsors — e.g., tech conferences, symposiums, seminars, workshops, competitions etc. — (Kuwata et al., 2015). Without said supporting activities, project stakeholders easily lose their motivation and engagement, resulting in an inactive status.
These limitations and irregularities threaten the entire OSS ecosystem in the long run.
Showcasing Open-Source Contribution
Open-source developers use platforms such as GitHub or GitLab, to develop or contribute to various community projects, host their work in public repositories and showcase their skills to the world. Used as a portfolio, a public repository is often promoted via a personal website URL, a Twitter handle, an IRC channel, an industry forum and more.
Although these channels are effective to an extent, developers still face the scrutiny of employers — or other stakeholders — regarding the authenticity of their personal profile and the validity of their work, which can be a tedious process (e.g., large projects with numerous contributors), often resulting into an underrepresented demonstration of skills and expertise. As the global industry is becoming more competitive, developers flock to open-source projects for the benefit of “having contributed to open-source projects — in the job market. They sometimes sacrifice quality for quantity when pursuing more commits to be merged in an open-source project.
Nevertheless, developers are now presented with Committable, a tool which will revolutionize the validation and compensation of their work, while addressing the industry problems mentioned above.
Built on a trusted software analysis
Committable is the next-generation decentralized open-source protocol for developers and related projects, which systematically transforms full-lifecycle commits on software artefacts — e.g., specification, makefile, code, test cases etc. — into COMMIT assets.
Committable redefines the basic functionality of a commit hash by capturing the fundamental knowledge of every bit in the commit, generating a contribution’s meta-commit score, which allows owners to be rewarded every time a block is confirmed in the network.
Differentiating itself from related solutions as it is strategically built on a trusted software analysis technology — e.g., automated and algorithmic workflow, verifiability with computational proof etc. — Committable ensures (a) a secure, unbiased, and accountable tokenization process and (b) a certified developer’s identity, showcasing their past development contribution.
Furthermore, with trusted software analysis as a core technology, Committable is able to trace and securely record all stages of the life cycle of a project — from a developer’s contribution perspective. Said record is stored in a COMMIT, which can later be traded between stakeholders, showcasing all aspects of a project’s evolution, and facilitating a seamless and effective work hand-off.
Committable’s core technology is embedded into its novel economic design (see section “How to become part of a novel open-source economy” below), which ensures proper compensation of contributors and incentives for all stakeholders. This design is implemented to ensure continuous motivation and engagement of all parties for successful project development.
Lastly, Committable is collaborating with initiatives such as the Digital Civilization Conference, as well as with leading industry contributors — e.g., University College Oxford Blockchain Research Institute, ACSAC and more — to ensure the establishment of a strong and active community with industry leaders. Jointly with its partners, Committable will ensure continuous community activities to educate, exchange, engage and motivate all its participants, sustaining the OSS ecosystem in the process.
From commit hash to COMMIT
Various developers have found it confusing how one would use a basic function such as commit hash to revolutionize the open-source ecosystem.
However, every commit hash corresponds to a variety of key information about the contribution of individual developers, which can be analyzed in the previously mentioned trusted environment. Once analyzed, Committable generates a meta commit, a computational proof, and a permanent digital signature of all the data collected.
As such, any interested party can review the summary of the meta commit — without having to review the code itself — allowing for a fair valuation of any contribution made to a project by a specific developer. Any developer can decide to embed their project-specific metadata into a COMMIT NFT and list it on the marketplace for future trade.
Listing COMMIT on Marketplaces (i.e., Open Sea)
COMMIT is a non-fungible token, native to Committable, which reliably stores contributions made by a developer, via linking to a piece of metadata.
Developers use COMMIT as their personal digital identity asset, as Committable relates all COMMITs, traded or not, to a developer, via their connected wallet and linked GitHub account. As such, developers can autonomously showcase their professional experience and skillsets, while independently managing their own identities.
Committable differentiates itself in the industry as its attributes are to dig out the value of a developer in the context of software development while developing an identity system within the open-source ecosystem.
How to become part of a novel open-source economy
COMMIT is fundamentally designed as Committable’s financial vehicle to claim open-source incentives, as it comes with pre-specified financial capabilities in the open-source ecosystem.
Our key vision is to establish a self-sustained decentralized open-source economy, where all stakeholders — e.g., developers, project managers, sponsors — contribute to projects for a valuable return — e.g., ownership, earning, credibility, etc.
Committable manages a blockchain-specific mining pool, as well as a project-specific fund pool, which collects royalties from COMMIT’s trades and automatically distributes them to COMMIT’s owners in the project.
This concept ensures that COMMIT owners will have greater rewards over time as more COMMITs are minted and traded, therefore resulting in a progressively growing fund pool.
a) Sell a COMMIT: Earn the developer’s royalty
At the basis of Committable’s ecosystem, a developer mints a COMMIT to strengthen their identity, while creating a financial tool, which helps them earn potential royalties. As minting COMMIT requires the payment of a mint fee, it is expected that developers will only mint valuable non-trivial COMMIT, which will secure an economic return, once traded.
Becoming a COMMIT seller ensures the fair representation of the project as well as the fair remuneration of the developer-seller, maintaining engagement and motivation to the project in question.
b) Purchase a COMMIT: Claim community rewards
On the other end of each trade, a buyer purchases a COMMIT to gain ownership of contributions made to a specific project, which allows them to
earn development bounties,
earn royalty from the fund pool,
claim community rewards from the mining pool, and
become part of an innovative, disruptive, and trendy community.
Becoming a COMMIT buyer triggers the financial mechanism of Committable, ensuring fair incentives allocation as well as an incentivized work hand-off and project continuation in the greater ecosystem community.
c) Support a project: Sustain the ecosystem’s growth
At the core of each ecosystem lies sponsors, who donate to the project as a believer in its expected growth and/or an industry enthusiast. A Committable sponsor donates to projects that seem promising and fundamental to the whole ecosystem, via sponsoring key events in developments (pull requests), while maintaining a vote in the governance of said ecosystem — upon donation, a Committable governance token is awarded.
Becoming a Committable sponsor guarantees a voice and a vote in the consensus governance of the ecosystem, ensuring community engagement and motivation as well as ecosystem growth through tailored community activities.
Conclusion
Committable prides itself on being a user-friendly, secure and transparent platform which will revolutionize the open-source industry, as well as the Web3 ecosystem as a whole. Becoming part of the next-generation decentralized open-source protocol will allow COMMIT buyers, sellers and sponsors to jointly design an evolving novel economy in a growing digital era. Committable promotes a secure and private analysis of any and all contributions to open-source software, while fairly and generously remunerating stakeholders for their participation in the ecosystem.
What more is possible with Committable?
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