Flows

Flows is our "always‑on" grants system: instead of one‑off payouts, it turns a budget into a stream of money for people doing continuous grassroots work.

How it works

Each flow is a curated list of builders plus a monthly budget. Tokens stream out every second to builders on the list—no waiting for milestone reviews or batch payouts.

Eligibility

Builders apply with a short pitch and a small application fee. Once accepted, they start receiving a continuous stipend and are expected to post clear, public progress updates (usually on Farcaster) instead of filling out heavy grant reports.

We use a Token Curated Registry (TCR) to maintain who's in each flow. Anyone can challenge a builder's eligibility by staking tokens; if the challenge succeeds (decided by token-holder vote), the builder is removed and the challenger earns a portion of the builder's stake. If it fails, the challenger loses their stake to the builder.

Applying or challenging requires buying the community's token. When the flow funds impactful work, the token attracts more buyers and holders earn more, so everyone has skin in the game to curate well.

Bad actors get slashed out quickly, legitimate builders are protected by the cost of frivolous challenges, and the registry self-corrects without needing a central gatekeeper.

Baseline vs Bonus

Sponsors put capital into a flow; that capital is split into two parts: a baseline pool that gives every accepted builder an equal share, and a bonus pool tilted toward builders that are having outsized impact.

The baseline keeps things fair and predictable; the bonus lets the crowd express strong preferences without a central committee. Over time, good work gets more stream, stalled work loses it, and the money keeps moving toward people actually shipping.

Deciding Bonus Allocations

Instead of token voting deciding the bonus pool allocation, we use LLM-driven pairwise duels to weight grants against each other.

In addition, anyone that likes or comments on a builder's update micro-buys the community's token and sends it to the builder. This creates a direct link between visible contribution and compensation.

These micro-transactions are quadratically weighted when calculating bonus allocations—many small endorsements from different people count more than a few large ones. This rewards builders who earn broad community recognition over those who simply have a few wealthy supporters.

Bonus allocations update weekly based on these two signals.

Prior Success

We ran Flows already with Nouns DAO, paying over 250 builders from a $200k pot across 6 months. 94% made real impact; only 6% rugged, and because funds streamed rather than paid in lump sums, losses stayed minimal. Builders also loved getting a small stipend up front they could immediately put to work: booking a venue, buying supplies, or kicking off production.