Background
In the heart of any vibrant developer ecosystem, lie the contributors – the passionate minds who drive innovation, build tools, and create the foundation for growth. The Starknet Foundation recognizes the pivotal role played by the Starknet community, and is excited to introduce the Early Community Member Program (ECMP), a structured initiative designed to empower and support the community that fuels the network’s progress.
The ECMP program is a deliberate effort to shine a spotlight on the unsung heroes who put their heart, skills, and time into shaping Starknet’s journey. This program isn’t just about lines of code; it’s about every individual who plays a part in pushing our ecosystem forward.
50 million STRK tokens have been earmarked for this initiative.
Overview of process and timeline
- Project application: 30 October 2023 to 23 November 2023 at 00:00 UTC.
- Decision by the committee: 29 December 2023
Update (Dec 28, 2023):
- Results of the ECMP program will not be announced on 29 December 2023. They will be publicly available further down the line around the day of provisions
- ECMP applicants won’t be contacted before that date
Scope and process
Who can apply
The program’s focus is on individual contributors – those who have chosen to actively contribute to the ecosystem, shaping its growth through their efforts. It aims to support not just coders, but also those who engage in community support, share knowledge, and play a role in making the Starknet ecosystem more vibrant and resourceful.
In this first phase, the program will address the following categories:
- Individual who significantly contributed to technical discourse in the community
- Individual contributors listed by key projects of the ecosystem
- Individuals who organized events around the world (meetups, conferences, workshops)
- Individuals who regularly published Starknet branded content
After completion of phase 1, the committee will take feedback into account and may process a second batch with additional criteria.
Evaluation criterias
The evaluation committee will evaluate individuals and projects for ECMP based on four essential criteria:
1. Reach / Impact: Refers to the extent to which the contributor’s work has spread throughout the community. It may encompass things like the number of people using or relying on their code, engaging with their content, or following their thought leadership.
2. Importance: Evaluates the significance of a contributor’s work within the community or a specific project. This can mean focusing on how essential a person’s work is to the success of a project or how influential they are in shaping the direction and development of the ecosystem.
3. Effort: Effort assesses the amount of time and energy a contributor has put into their contributions. This may encompass not only coding but also community support, mentoring, and engaging with others to share knowledge.
4. Originality: Look at how unique or innovative a contributor’s work is. This can include creating new algorithms, methods, or tools that haven’t been seen before, or approaching existing problems in a novel way.
Decision-making process
For projects
- Projects will submit an application via the following application link, in which they will detail every individual that contributed to their project. They can use their contributors’ pseudonyms.
- Projects who were eligible for the Early Adopter Grant (EAG) will still need to apply again. Please apply as a project and nominate all members of your team.
- Projects that are selected will receive a private message in order to submit a private application
- For all the people they listed we will need
- Their telegram ID, to identify individuals who are in core stars and avoid overlap
- An email, to guide individuals through the claiming process
- A Starknet address
- For all the people they listed we will need
- Each project will be graded by the onboarding committee
- The committee will comb through the contributors listed by those projects, and identify contributors that should be evaluated individually for their contributions (eg,somebody who contributed to various projects
- All contributors to a project will receive the same amount of token, provided they were not evaluated individually
For individuals
- Individuals can submit an application via the same application link. Applicants will have to provide:
- Their telegram ID, to identify individuals who are in core stars and avoid overlap
- An email, to guide individuals through the claiming process
- A Starknet address
- The committee will evaluate all individuals that were not evaluated as part of a project
- Recipients will be contacted by email to onboard them in the attribution process
Double dipping
Individual and project applications
Evaluations are not cumulable. An individual will be identified by their Telegram handle. The amount they will receive will be the highest between their attribution as an individual, or as part of a project.
Work covered by developer partnerships
- Projects covered by developer partnerships will not be eligible to ECMP.
- Work accomplished by individuals in the context of a developer partnership will not be taken into account for the eligibility of ECMP
- Individuals who contributed to work covered by a DP and also did other things outside the scope of the DP will be eligible for ECMP
How to apply
Note that this thread serves as an announcement post. All comments will be removed.
If you have any questions or feedback, please go to the following thread.
Projects
To apply as a project, submit an application via the following application link.
Things to consider:
- Please apply only once, and don’t send applications on behalf of other projects.
- Please make sure to specify in your applications your verified GitHub, Twitter, Telegram and/or any verified Starknet contracts.
Individuals
We intend to use this opportunity and give recognition to individuals that contributed significantly to the Starknet ecosystem in various ways.
Such contribution involves being a key member of an effort which hugely, and positively, impacts the ecosystem.
We are aware that we are bound to miss some pivotal individuals at this process, and will save some of the program tokens for people that would appeal around their exclusion
Public instructions around the appealing process will be sent in due time.
Feedback
This initiative is new and exciting. We also know it won’t be perfect. We’re doing our best!
We welcome community feedback and want to hear what we can improve for future iterations.
Please express your feedback and ask any questions as comments on this separate thread: https://community.starknet.io/t/community-feedback-on-the-early-community-member-program-ecmp/.
Disclaimers and Prohibited Persons
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No persons subject to sanctions or who are resident or nationals of a sanctioned jurisdiction will be eligible to receive tokens. Please further note that the Foundation reserves the right to impose a lock up (on terms to be determined at its sole discretion) on any tokens delivered to eligible recipients.
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No person who is a citizen of, resident (tax or otherwise) of, green card holder of, incorporated in, owned or controlled by a person or entity in, located in, or has a registered office or principal place of business in the United States (defined as a “U.S. person”); no person who is acting for the account or benefit of any U.S. person; and no persons in any jurisdiction in which such offer, sale, holding, and/or purchase of digital assets or cryptocurrencies is unlawful, prohibited, or unauthorized (together with U.S. persons, a “Restricted Person”) is eligible to receive STRK tokens.
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No person who is intending to acquire STRK tokens for the purposes of selling, granting any participation in, or otherwise distributing STRK tokens to any Restricted Person is eligible to receive STRK tokens.
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STRK tokens may not be offered, sold, or delivered within the U.S., or for the account or benefit of Restricted Persons. STRK tokens that may be offered on secondary markets and other platforms are not for distribution to any Restricted Person. No offers, sales, resales, or deliveries of STRK tokens may be made in or from any jurisdiction (including the U.S.), except in circumstances that will result in compliance with any applicable laws and regulations.