The ABC Protocol pays out ABC Tokens for two types of work:

• Researchers (Doing Work):
  When you complete a bounty, the funds held in the smart contract are released to your wallet immediately after Verifiers approve your work.
• Verifiers (Checking Work):
  Verifiers earn a Verification Fee (typically 1-5% of the bounty size) for reviewing code/results. This fee is automatically deducted from the bounty budget or protocol treasury.

Getting Funded

1. Propose: Scholar-tier members can create a grant proposal. A stake of 1,000 ABC is required to prevent spam. Don’t have 1,000 ABC? You can apply for a Stake Waiver see below.
2. Claim: Fellow-tier and above can apply for active grants to work on.
3. Submit: Upload your evidence (PDF/code) to IPFS directly from the grants platform.

Stake Waiver

If you don’t yet hold 1,000 ABC, you can request a stake waiver when submitting a proposal. The ASIP team will review your proposal details and, if approved, transfer the required ABC from the reserve pool to your smart account. The review typically takes 3-5 business days and you will be notified by email.

Strategic Proposal Tiers

To help voters balance risk and reward, all proposals are categorized into three strategic tiers:

• Seed (Micro-Grant):
  Budget: < 1,000 ABC. For feasibility studies, lit reviews, or experimental ideas. High risk, low cost.
• Growth (Standard):
  Budget: 1k – 10k ABC. For prototypes, MVPs, and replicating papers. Requires a proof-of-concept.
• Moonshot (Major Grant):
  Budget: > 10k ABC. For large-scale infrastructure, auditing suites, or SOTA research. Requires a roadmap and milestones.

Voting & Verification

Voting: Scholar ABC holders (if approved by the Governance Board) can vote on active grant proposals via the Grant Board Verifier (GBV) dashboard. Votes are cast as Approve or Reject. Abstentions are excluded from the final count. A simple majority of cast votes (50%+1) determines the outcome.

Verification Access: Only Scholar+ members are eligible to serve as verifiers for submitted work. Verifiers are selected by the ASIP team to audit research submissions.

• Review: Inspect code and results from submitted bounties via the GBV dashboard.
• Consensus: A majority of assigned verifiers must vote “Approve” to release funds.

The “Talent Pipeline”

High-performing contributors don’t just earn money; they earn influence.

• Grant Committee: Reaching Scholar Tier makes you eligible to join the ASIP Grant Committee, directing millions in funding.
• Strategic Prioritization: Aggregate data from ABC (e.g., “High quality but low funding in Agent Foundations”) guides ASIP’s $50M strategy.

Strategic Oversight

Use the Analytics tab in the GBV to view the “Funds Distributed by Category” and “Impact Efficiency” charts, helping the community identify neglected research areas.

The “Adversarial Robustness” Lifecycle

Here is how a real research project moves through the protocol:

1. Proposal: Dr. Aris proposes a “Red Teaming Suite” and stakes 1,000 ABC. (No ABC yet? She submits a stake waiver request instead.)
2. Voting: ABC holders vote via the GBV dashboard. Abstentions are excluded; the proposal passes with a majority Approve.
3. Activation: The ASIP admin activates the grant on-chain, opening it for researcher applications.
4. Researcher Selected: ASIP selects a qualified Fellow/Scholar-tier applicant and confirms on-chain.
5. Submission: After 3 weeks, the researcher uploads code and test results to IPFS via the grants platform.
6. Verification: ASIP selects Scholar-tier verifiers to review the submission. A majority vote “Approve”.
7. Payout: The smart contract releases the bounty funds to the researcher’s smart account.