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Terms and Rules for Drips Wave

Last Updated: January 21st, 2025

These Terms and Rules ("Terms") constitute a binding agreement between you ("the Participant") and the Public Goods Association ("Drips"). To ensure Drips Wave remains a fair, sustainable, and high-quality environment for open-source development, all Drips Wave participants (Contributors, Maintainers, and Organizations) must follow these ground rules.

Our goal is to reward genuine impact. To do that, Drips and Wave Program Organizers need the ability to moderate the system and step in when things go wrong.

1. Fairness and Rewards

Points are earned by 1) applying to an issue as part of an active Wave, 2) being accepted and assigned to work on the issue by a repo maintainer, and 3) resolving the issue before the Wave ends. Issues are considered "Resolved" when a repo maintainer closes the issue as completed. Please note:

  • Only issues added to a Wave Program by the repo's maintainers are eligible. Before a repo maintainer can add issues to a Wave Program, their repo has to be explicitly approved for that Wave Program. Once it has, they can selectively pick which issues to add. Issues added to a Wave Program are tagged on GitHub with the Wave Program's name, and visible on the Drips Wave app by navigating to the Wave Program and selecting "Issues". Issues not added to a Wave Program, or resolved outside an active Wave, are not eligible for Points or rewards.
  • Applications must be made through the Drips Wave platform. Only contributors who apply to an issue via the Drips Wave platform are eligible to earn Points and rewards.
  • Maintainers have final say. Repo maintainers have the final say on whether your work resolves the issue. If they determine that your contribution does not meet the issue requirements and don't mark your issue as completed before the Wave ends, you will not earn Points for that issue.

We automate as much as possible, but open source is complex. To prevent abuse and ensure fairness, we reserve the right to intervene in the reward process.

Adjusting Points

While points are usually calculated automatically based on issue complexity, Drips and Wave Program Organizers reserve the right to:

  • Manually adjust Points: We may add or deduct points if we find errors, manipulation, or exceptional circumstances regarding specific contributions.
  • Update the Formula: We may tweak the reward formula or the total budget if necessary. Significant formula changes will generally apply prospectively to future work; however, we reserve the right to adjust calculations retrospectively in cases of detected system abuse, calculation errors, or other exceptional circumstances.
  • Cap Rewards: We may set maximum reward limits per Contributor, issue, or Wave to ensure fair distribution.
  • Distribute Bonuses: We may use parts of the reward pool to incentivize work that isn't captured by standard Points (like rewarding Maintainers for their participation).

Our Promise: We strive to use these powers sparingly. If we make significant manual adjustments, we aim to be transparent and explain our reasoning to those affected.

Withholding Rewards

We reserve the right to withhold, freeze, reduce, or revoke rewards in specific cases, including:

  • Unverified Identity: You cannot receive funds if you fail to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) / Know Your Business (KYB) checks. Your data will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
  • Compliance Issues: We cannot reward individuals or entities in sanctioned jurisdictions.
  • Rule Violations: If you break the Code of Conduct (see below).
  • Gaming the System: If we detect suspicious activity, such as using multiple accounts or colluding to inflate Points.
  • Unclaimed Rewards: If rewards remain unclaimed for a prolonged period, Drips or Wave Program Organizers may,with due notice, reclaim them to redistribute in future Waves.

Nature of Points (No Fixed Value)

Points are a measurement unit used solely to calculate your proportional share of each Wave's reward pool. They are not a currency and have no fixed monetary value.

  • Variable Value: The dollar (or token) value of a single Point is not guaranteed. It fluctuates based on the total reward pool size divided by the total Points earned by all participants in that Wave.
  • No Rollover: Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Points do not roll over to future Waves and expire once the Wave's rewards are distributed.

2. Wave Program-Specific Rules

Certain Wave Programs have additional rules set by the program's organizers. These are:

Stellar Wave Program

  1. Reward cap: Every individual contributor can earn a maximum reward of USD $10k equivalent (paid in the Program's designated token, e.g., XLM or USDC) per Wave. Exchange rates are determined at the time of calculation or payout, at the sole discretion of Drips.

3. Repository Eligibility

Applying your repository to a Wave Program does not guarantee acceptance. We curate programs carefully to ensure high-quality options for contributors.

  • Selection Process: Drips works directly with Wave Program Organizers (e.g., the Stellar Development Foundation) to review and select repositories.
  • Relevance is Key: We prioritize repositories that are clearly relevant and provide direct value to the specific ecosystem. Projects that are only tangentially related or do not have a clear connection to the Program's goals may be rejected.
  • Removal: We reserve the right to remove repositories from a Wave Program at any time if they no longer meet the criteria, become stale, or if the repository contents or maintainers violate any rules.
  • Appeals: If you believe your repository was rejected in error, please explain your project's relevance and reach out to us via Drips Wave Support.

4. Code of Conduct

We expect professional, respectful behavior. The following actions are considered "Misbehavior" and are strictly prohibited.

🚫 Spam & Low-Quality Work

  • Typos & Noise: Don't submit "typo-hunting" PRs just to farm Points.
  • AI Spam: Do not use Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate low-quality, untested code, issues, or documentation that you don't understand. Drips utilizes automated tools to detect AI-generated content; determinations made by these tools are final.
  • Begging for Assignment: Don't repeatedly ask "Can I work on this?" without reading the issue scope or checking if others are already assigned.

🚫 Harassment & Abuse

  • Respect Maintainers: Maintainers are often volunteers. Do not harass them to merge your PRs or demand payment.
  • Be Kind: Offensive, discriminatory, or threatening language will not be tolerated.

🚫 Gaming & Cheating

  • Multiple Accounts: Using multiple accounts (Sybil attacks) to generate issues, apply for issues, or influence the leaderboard is banned.
  • Collusion: Conspiring with others to approve bad work or inflate point values is cheating.
  • Plagiarism: Submitting work that isn't yours without proper attribution is prohibited.

🚫 Security Violations

  • Intentionally introducing vulnerabilities or malicious code into a repository or the Drips Wave platform is a severe offense.

Consequences

If you violate these rules, we may take the following actions:

  1. Deduct Points: We may remove Points earned in the current or past Waves.
  2. Withhold Funds: We may cancel pending reward withdrawals.
  3. Remove repos from the Wave: Repos and issues whose maintainers are found to violate rules may be removed from a Wave Program.
  4. Platform Ban: We may permanently ban your account from accessing Drips Wave.

5. Resolving Disputes

We know that mistakes happen. If you believe a decision regarding your Points or rewards was unfair, or if you want to report someone else for breaking the rules, please let us know.

How to get help:
  1. Go to Drips Wave Support and log in with the GitHub account related to your concern.
  2. Clearly describe the situation.
  3. Include links to relevant Pull Requests, Issues, or evidence.

Our support team will review your case. Please note that for the health of the ecosystem, decisions made by Drips Wave Support regarding these rules are final.

6. Liability, Indemnification & Experimental Nature

Drips Wave is an experimental platform. By using it, you acknowledge:

  • Expect Change: Because this is an evolving experiment, the rules, reward structures, platform mechanics, and availability may change suddenly and drastically as we iterate. Join the Drips Discord to stay updated.
  • Code Quality: We are not responsible for the code merged into repositories. That is up to the maintainers.
  • Technical Risk: Using blockchain technology involves risk, and Drips is not liable for funds lost due to exploits, technical failures, faulty addresses, or other blockchain-related issues.
  • No Guarantees: We do not guarantee any specific rewards, outcomes, or results from participating in Drips Wave.
  • Indemnification: You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Drips, its affiliates, and Wave Program Organizers from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, or expenses (including legal fees) arising from your participation, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any third-party rights (including Intellectual Property rights).

7. Relationship of Parties

No Employment Relationship: Nothing in these Terms shall be construed as creating an employer-employee, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you, Drips, or any Wave Program Organizer. You are an independent contractor.

  • Taxes: You are solely responsible for all taxes, withholdings, and insurance related to any rewards you receive.
  • No Benefits: You are not entitled to any employee benefits, including but not limited to health insurance, vacation pay, or retirement benefits.

8. Intellectual Property & Platform Role

Drips Wave acts solely as a platform to connect Contributors with Open Source Project Maintainers. Drips does not own, manage, or control the repositories participating in Wave Programs.

Standard Open Source Practice:
  • License Governance: Any contribution you make is governed exclusively by the open-source license of the target repository (e.g., MIT, Apache 2.0).
  • No Transfer to Drips: You do not transfer any copyright or intellectual property rights to Drips. The relationship regarding code ownership and usage is strictly between you (the Contributor) and the Project/Maintainer, consistent with standard GitHub contribution workflows.

Contributor Warranties: By submitting any contribution (code, documentation, or other materials) to a Wave Program, you represent and warrant that:

  1. Ownership: You own the rights to the contribution or have sufficient authority to submit it.
  2. No Plagiarism: Your contribution is original and does not violate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

9. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Switzerland.

By using Drips Wave, you agree to abide by these Terms and Rules. Thank you for helping us build a fair and thriving open-source ecosystem!