Photo by Paul Jarvis on Unsplash

Every time I send a transaction on a blockchain, I can’t help being amazed. I am sending value over the internet, instantly, with no intermediaries. With Ethereum this can even happen with certain conditions, all governed by a piece of code that every computer on the network can verify.

Being in the early stage of this incredible new tech ecosystem, there’s a lot of open source work and infrastructure that needs to be built. Thanks to companies like Consensys, a lot of these projects have a place to call home, and more importantly have access to funding.

Another avenue of funding which is quite popular is an ICO (Initial Coin Offering).

Although I have my doubts about the sustainability of this trend, at times it feels like it misaligns capital with long term effectiveness. A lot of value is tied up into very very early stage apps which have not yet proven their success. The capital could be used more effectively by giving a diverse range of teams & creators enough funding to test their ideas. This spreads opportunity more evenly & helps weed out failed ideas quickly. Especially in a new tokenized world, this new economics need fast feedback loops for testing. We are entering a completely new world here.

With the power of blockchains, being able to transfer value so easily, we should be able to fund projects with more ease & closer alignment: create many pockets of teams and creators around the world building ecosystems to help build this bootstrapped network.

With StakeTree, I hope to help build an ecosystem of many creators, teams & projects that are funded by individuals. This would eventually be completely decentralized with no intermediaries, creating a market of ideas where funders can contribute to the world they want to see.

For the MVP, I’ve deployed an Ethereum smart contract that allows anyone to stake ether to me and the StakeTree project. I can then withdraw 10% of the pooled funding every week. The funders can top up or withdraw what’s left of their funding at any time, making sure I’m held accountable to them. This allows me to generate a sustainable income for building this project while also giving funders control over where their funding goes.

In this way capital can be more evenly spread over many different projects & creators. At first, a funder who chooses to back a creator or project is incentivized to see the idea come to fruition. Much like how Patreon allows creators to make a living. In many ways this is a donation combined with a long-term promise.

In the future, I would like to incentivize backers by allowing contracts to tokenize their stake in the project. Eventually providing further reason, other than using or consuming the creator’s project, to help fund the creator. The more & longer you stake to a project, the more you should be rewarded.

Initially StakeTree will focus on finding creators that help grow the blockchain ecosystem, but these smart contracts can be used for anything. Some ideas:

Musicians giving backstage passes to their backers.

Apps using proof of funding as access to their apps/features.

Game developers giving access to the latest builds for backers who stake more than 2 ether.

I’m excited to keep this high level for now to see emergent use cases come about.

There’s a lot more planned for StakeTree beyond the initial MVP contract.

Creating a simple UI for funders & creators to fund & withdraw from contracts.

for funders & creators to fund & withdraw from contracts. Develop funding tiers . This is where creators can reward dedicated backers with special rewards/access. Think tiers like Kickstarter & Patreon.

. This is where creators can reward dedicated backers with special rewards/access. Think tiers like Kickstarter & Patreon. Fund contracts with any ERC-20 token.

Tokenization for funders & creators. When the creator withdraws ether, it mints tokens for all parties. These tokens can then be used for many things: voting, curation, special access, discounts and more. The creativity of the creator is the limit here.

When the creator withdraws ether, it mints tokens for all parties. These tokens can then be used for many things: voting, curation, special access, discounts and more. The creativity of the creator is the limit here. Create funding buckets . For example fund many Ethereum dev related projects using a single payment.

. For example fund many Ethereum dev related projects using a single payment. Build a platform. Make it easy for creators to communicate with and build their communities.

Make it easy for creators to communicate with and build their communities. ENS Integration . Setup contracts that point to ENS sub-domains on staketree.eth

. Setup contracts that point to ENS sub-domains on staketree.eth And many more!

In true dogfooding fashion I need your help to build out this idea and ecosystem. Visit StakeTree.com to see how you can help!

Excited to hear from the community! Follow @StakeTree for updates.

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P.S. — Why the name StakeTree?

There’s a few things here when you break it up & bring it together.

Stake: Besides the actual act of staking value to someone, Ethereum will be moving to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism in the future.

Tree: Nature is an inspiration for me. Growing something organically is very much aligned with how I see StakeTree should evolve and also contribute to the ecosystem.

Staking a tree: This is a method used to prop up a tree to help it grow. This aligns cleanly with what StakeTree is trying to achieve.