💥 Boosting
Boosting is the act of staking or adding grain to an Initiative1. If someone thinks a task should get done in the project, then they could use their grain to support or boost the task. This makes the task prioritized because it is now worth more grain, so the contributors who contributed to the task will get paid more grain. If the task adds a lot of value and generates grain, then the person who boosted it, gets a portion of the grain, proportional to the amount that they boosted. However, if the task does not add a lot of value and does not generate a lot of grain, then the person who boosted the task will not get back as much grain as they used to boost the task. Cred Boosting and Boosting: a prediction market on ideas offer more detailed explanations of boosting.
Why Use Boosting?2
- Speculative boosting: Boosting an initiative because it is predicted to have a profitable investment return. Someone might think that an Initiative is undervalued and want to boost it because they think it will be be more valuable or generate more grain in the future, so by boosting it, they will get a return on the boost.
- Bounty boosting: Boosting an Initiative to support getting the work done. Someone might be interested in sponsoring certain Initiatives that they find important, so they boost the Initiative to get contributors to work on it. As a result, the Initiative that they want worked on, will likely be more attractive and prioritized.
- Threshold boosting: The person boosting can set a threshold for which contributors must meet to get the "bonus" grain. For example, the person boosting can set the threshold at 20%, which means that any contributor who contributes at least 20% to the Initiative will get a split of the boosting bonus. This incentives contributors to keep contributing pass a threshold, and can also be helpful if the person boosting intends to contribute and earn the bonus themself.
- Futarchy boosting: An Initiative is voted on, and people can stake grain to vote. The weight of their vote is proportional to the amount of grain they staked. The winners of the vote have the amount of grain staked converted into a boost. This incentives people to vote with "skin in the game".