Stakeholder-Approved Project Funding

Income

The network’s ultimate goal is to collect more from transaction fees than it spends through paying witnesses and workers. Committee Members can adjust the transaction fees and referral commission rates to ensure that the network remains sustainable. By charging appropriate fees and distributing the income in an effective manner, the BitShares blockchain can grow, even while others struggle. Members pay fees similar to Bitcoin ($0.04 per transaction), while users pay fees similar to Dwolla ($0.20 per transaction) or centralized exchanges (0.2% of trade volume).

Workers

A worker is an elected position that is paid to fund new blockchain infrastructure. Their employment “smart contract” specifies a start date, an end date, a daily pay rate, and a vesting period for pay received. Each day, a budget totaling 432,000 BTS is allocated to be paid to all workers. The workers are automatically sorted by net shareholder approval and paid in turn until the daily budget runs out.

Each worker can specify a vesting period for funds received. This optional vesting period reassures stakeholders that a proposed worker has a long-term commitment, because it prevents the received funds from being sold immediately.

Refund Workers

Refund workers are a special worker type that return their pay to the reserve pool. These workers can be elected to prevent spending on other workers, which saves more funds in the reserve pool for future projects.