You can not select more than 25 topics Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
 
 

221 lines
14 KiB

{
"faqs":[
{
"question":"What is App Mining?",
"answer":"<p>Traditionally the term mining in cryptocurrency refers to the process of
contributing compute resources to the network and earning a reward. In the
Blockstack Ecosystem, instead of just mining through computation, developers
mine by building apps and the Blockstack community funds them simply for being
pioneers in the emerging Blockchain software market. </p> <p>We believe app
mining represents a revolution in app funding, allowing small teams to bootstrap
without advertising or venture capital. Each month, qualifying apps compete for
funding. Qualified apps are evaluated and ranked by expert app reviewers. The
better your app, the higher payout you earn. </p> <p>The pilot run begins
December 1st 2018, with 34 Blockstack Apps enrolled. A previous alpha run in Oct
2018 included 17 Blockstack apps. App mining is a new mining model that we
expect will evolve and improve over time. We look forward to feedback from our
community regarding the App Mining process and program. </p>"
},
{
"question":"How much can I earn and how are rewards distributed? ",
"answer":"<p>Payouts for the pilot run are $100k in total each month (the original alpha
run paid out $25K. In the pilot run, the highest-ranked app receives 20% of the
100K, the next highest-ranked app receives 20% of the remaining 80%, and so on
(this distribution is subject to change). </p><p>Rewards are paid in Bitcoin.
The payouts are administered by Blockstack PBC and facilitated by App.co.</p>"
},
{
"question":"How is App Mining different from cryptocurrency mining?",
"answer":"<p>Traditionally the term mining in cryptocurrency refers to the process of
contributing compute resources to the network and earning a distributed of new
tokens as a reward. On the Stacks blockchain, developers can “mine” by
contributing apps to the ecosystem and making applications the community wants.
</p>"
},
{
"question":"What qualifies my app to compete in App Mining?",
"answer": "<p>Your app should integrate Blockstack authentication for logging into your app.
Your finished app should be available to the public for use. In the future, App
Mining may reward apps that have taken steps to further decentralize, such as
utilizing Gaia storage or the publishing your app to the Blockstack Naming
System.</p>"
},
{
"question":"Does my app have to be listed on App.co to enter App Mining?",
"answer": "<p>Yes, it does.</p>"
},
{
"question":"How do I submit my application for App Mining?",
"answer": "<p>Complete <a href='https://app.co/submit#'>the submission form on
App.co</a>. We suggest registering several days before the ranking
deadline — our team needs to verify your details to ensure your app
qualifies. When you have met all the requirements, you should see your
app listed <a href='https://app.co/mining/apps'>on this page</a>. </p>"
},
{
"question":"How often can I submit my application for App Mining?",
"answer": "<p>You need only to submit your application once. Each month after your
submission, your app is competing in App Mining. </p>"
},
{
"question":"Does my code repository need to be public?",
"answer": "<p>Your application code can be public or private.</p>"
},
{
"question":"Is Blockstack Auth difficult to integrate?",
"answer": "<p>If you’re already building your app with JavaScript, adding Blockstack
authentication is easy! We have docs, tutorials, and thorough API references for
you to learn from. Vist the <a
href='https://docs.blockstack.org/develop/zero_to_dapp_1.html'> Zero-to-Dapp
tutorial</a> for end-to-end training. Or <a
href='https://docs.blockstack.org/develop/auth_provider.html'>use this short
example</a>.</p> <p>If you’re developing a traditional server-side application,
you can still take advantage of Blockstack authentication. For an example, check
out <a href='https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-ruby'>our Ruby on Rails gem</a>.</p>"
},
{
"question":"Who are the app reviewers?",
"answer": "<p>App reviewers are currently selected by Blockstack PBC. Reviewers are
entities that have a proprietary methodology that helps them make objective
judgements for why a certain app might be better than others. We strive to
engage a diverse coalition of app reviewers with the goal of making application
ranking objective and resilient to abuse. </p> <p>At the time of our App Mining
alpha (October 2018), the reviewers were: Product Hunt and Democracy Earth (who
uses software to collect votes by Stacks token holders). Future reviewers could
expand to community election. Please see our forum to ask questions or make
suggestions for App Mining. </p>"
},
{
"question":"How are apps ranked?",
"answer": "<p>App reviewers have a proprietary methodology that helps them make
objective judgments for why one app might be better than another. Each
app reviewers determines the data, formula, and personnel they wish to
utilize. For example, Product Hunt can tap into their community data to
determine relative app popularity. Reviewers are required to publish
their methodology to ensure transparency periodically. </p> <p>We've
published <a
href='https://blog.app.co/how-app-minings-ranking-algorithm-works'>a detailed
explanation of our ranking algorithm on our blog</a> and <a
href='https://docs.blockstack.org/develop/mining_intro.html'>our
documentation</a>, where you can learn more.</p>"
},
{
"question":"Do I have to Hunt my app on Product Hunt?",
"answer": "<p>As part of the ranking process, there is an assessment by App Reviewer
Product Hunt via their community vote and their internal team vote. More info on
the algorithm, <a
href='https://docs.blockstack.org/develop/mining_intro.html'>here</a>. The Hunt
launch will have an impact on your final ranking, as you can see in the
algorithm breakdown. Here is <a
href='https://blog.producthunt.com/how-to-launch-on-product-hunt-7c1843e06399'>more
info</a> on Product Hunt launch best practices. In general, sharing and
responsiveness to questions are encouraged and it might help your community
reception if you choose to hunt the app yourself. If not, Product Hunt can hunt
your App as well.</p><p>Apps will be hunted every 6 months, so if you hunted
your app in a past month, as long as you are in the 6 month time window you will
not have to Hunt the app. </p>"
},
{
"question":"Can developers engage with voters on Democracy Earth?",
"answer": "<p>As of this time, they cannot. In the future, a feature that could be
interesting here is allowing developers to comment only on their app and not
others. </p>"
},
{
"question":"What’s the incentive for user voting? ",
"answer": "<p>Voters in the App Mining ecosystem are currently Stacks token holders with
incentive to strategically allocate resources in the ecosystem to apps they
consider highly valuable. </p>"
},
{
"question":"What are examples of any quantitative metrics that may be shared with app reviewers?",
"answer": "<p>Qualitative meticrs are metrics
that evaluate elements such as engagement, DAU/MAU ratios
etc from the reviewed apps. Blockstack plans to incorporate metrics based
ranking. However, before we do, any mechanism must thoughtfully incorporate the
digital privacy rights of Blockstack users, and provide information in a way
that cannot be gamed.</p> "
},
{
"question":"Is App Mining Decentralized?",
"answer": "<p>Given the pioneering nature of the program, we are being careful and starting
in a centralized fashion that allows for necessary diligence. We don’t want to
bake in assumptions that have not been validated. The downside of this
protection is some level of centralization, which we are taking steps to reduce
over time. The pilot is the just the first step in creating a fair system that
can be relied upon by founders and contribute to the growth of the Blockstack
ecosystem. </p> <p>Blockstack plans to move along a path to decentralization and
App Mining will too. It is important to highlight that initially App Mining will
purposely have a few points of centralization highlighted below, which can
become decentralized over time (all plans are subject to change, legal approval,
and applicable law). </p> <h5>Electing app reviewers:</h5> <p>Currently,
Blockstack PBC elects app reviewers. In the future, we anticipate gradually
transitioning to community elections of App Reviewers. </p> <h5>Registering
apps:</h5> <p>Currently, registering apps is regulated by Blockstack PBC through
app.co/mining. In the future, we anticipate transitioning to publishing on
designated Blockstack namespaces via our public blockchain. </p> <h5>Collecting
votes:</h5> <p>Currently, votes are aggregated by Blockstack PBC and
administered via App.co. In the future, we expect that votes will be collected
through the protocol itself. </p> <h5>Issuing money:</h5> <p>Currently, payouts
are issued by Blockstack PBC. In the future, we expect that payouts will over
time be generated and deployed on an automated basis. </p>"
},
{
"question":"How is App Mining protected against bribery, collusion, or gaming?",
"answer": "<p>We are taking potential threats very seriously and hope to create a fair
system that continuously reinforces trust within our community for the long
term. </p> <p>We are currently consulting with a team of 3 Ph.D. Game Theorist
professors from Princeton University and New York University to determine
thoughtful methods to protect App Mining from being attacked and/or abused. Our
goal is to be as transparent as possible, but App Reviewers may reserve the
right to keep some secrets in their formula to avoid bribes and gaming, and the
algorithm that combines all of these score may be tuned in the future to account
for new learnings. </p> <p>The Game Theorists are working with us to create a
technical paper and broader documents like blogs explaining the overall
mechanism </p>"
},
{
"question":"What is the Blockstack Ecosystem?",
"answer":"<p>The Blockstack Ecosystem has a mission to bring a new internet where users
control the access to, and use of, their own identity and data. With this
mission in mind, three independent entities were formed: </p> <ul><li>Blockstack
Public Benefit Corp (PBC)</li> <li>Blockstack Signature Fund</li> <li>Blockstack
Token LLC</li></ul> <p>These three affiliated entities drive the advancement of
the Blockstack mission. All three entities are committed to building a new
internet where users fundamental digital rights, such as security, privacy,
anti-censorship, are always respected.</p>"
},
{
"question":"What is Blockstack PBC and the Blockstack Platform?",
"answer": "<p>Blockstack Public Benefit Corp. (PBC) started development of the Blockstack
Platform in 2014 and launched an alpha of the platform in early 2017. The
Blockstack Platform is the easiest way to start building decentralized,
blockchain-based apps. It provides a complete decentralized application stack,
powered by the Stacks blockchain, and maintained by a community of 7000
developers. </p>"
},
{
"question":"Disclaimer",
"answer":"<p><i>This FAQ contains forward-looking statements, including statements
regarding Blockstack PBC’s plans for its App Mining program. Forward-looking
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially, and reported results should not be considered as
an indication of future performance. Potential risks and uncertainties that
could change our actual results include, but are not limited to, risks
associated with: the failure of App Mining Program to successfully incentivize
the development of applications for the Blockstack network; risks associated
with attacks designed to influence the App Reviewers or game their
methodologies; technical difficulties in the transition from a centralized to a
decentralized administration of the program. These forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date hereof. Blockstack PBC disclaims any obligation to
update these forward-looking statements. </i></p> <p><i>Any decisions that may
be made through the App Mining Program regarding rewards provided to app
developers are not recommendations as to the quality of any investments that
individuals may make in a company that receives rewards. If you are considering
an investment in any of these companies, you should make your own decision
regarding that investment and not rely in any way on the results of the App
Mining program. </i></p>"
}
]
}