CoFi
Contributions — code, design, community, infrastructure — are peer-reviewed and become voting power. No coins staked. No mining. Work becomes power.
The idea in three points
Most blockchains give power to those who already hold coins. CoFi gives power to those who build the community — and proves it.
One shared pool
Every contribution, whatever its type, lands in a single pool of contribution units. Your share of the pool is your share of governance — one measure, no privileged asset class.
Work becomes power
Units are minted by reviewed work, not bought with coins. Validator voting power equals contribution units — the people who built the community decide its future.
No stake, no mining
There is no proof-of-stake and no proof-of-work. Consensus is run by contributors, and the chain rewards its operators per block for keeping it alive.
From work to power, in five steps
Contribute
Record real work
Review
Peers verify it
Mint
Units enter the pool
Claim
Your share, firmly yours
Redeem
Exit with what you earned
Contribute
Record any real work: code, design, community, support, funding, infrastructure. Each asset type carries a weight that reflects its value to the community, and the contribution is normalized into internal value units: amount × weight.
Review
Contributions enter a commit-reveal review. Reviewers — contributors with skin in the game — first commit to a vote, then reveal it, so nobody can copy anybody else. A proportional quorum (default ⅔) approves, and nobody can approve their own work.
Mint
Approved work mints contribution units with a pro-rata formula: the pool's current size prices each unit of work. Early work mints more units per unit of work — showing up early is rewarded automatically and verifiably.
units = asset_units × total_contrib ÷ total_assetHold your claim
The pool grows only by minting units to new reviewed work. Your units are never debited and never diluted: at any moment, your claim is exactly what you earned. Community wealth grows; your title to it stays firm.
Redeem
Leaving is a signed message, not a negotiation. Redeem part or all of your units and exit with what you've earned — the door opens both ways.
What counts — and what doesn't
Power in CoFi is measured, never self-reported. What can be proven counts; what can only be claimed does not.
Counts
Work
Any weighted asset type, from code to community management. Funding is an asset type like the others — capital gets no special path.
Presence
Running a node and signing blocks is itself a contribution, credited from cryptographic proof of each signature — verified presence, not a promise.
Early commitment
The pro-rata formula prices work against the pool's current size: the same contribution mints fewer units as the community grows.
Doesn't count
Staked coins
There is nothing to stake. Holding wealth buys no power.
Claimed seniority
"I've been here forever" isn't provable — only reviewed work and signed blocks are.
Self-reported uptime
Rewards flow from verified signatures, never from what a node says about itself.
Reputation scores and richer identity are natural future directions — but only as far as they stay verifiable. CoFi measures what can be proven.
Nodes are first-class contributors
A blockchain only exists because somebody runs it. In CoFi, running it is a contribution like any other — and the chain pays for its own upkeep.
Signing is work
Each block a validator signs is registered work of type infrastructure, credited from cryptographic evidence: the validator's signature in the consensus commit. Nobody asks — the chain knows.
Power = contribution units
The consensus layer never sees coins. The app tells CometBFT one thing: each registered validator's voting power is its contribution units. No separate stake, no delegation.
Skin in the game
A key can only be registered after its contributor has earned units. You must have contributed before you can validate — and keep signing to keep earning.
Under the hood
Ed25519
Signatures authenticate reviews, redemptions, and validator key registration.
SHA-256
Commitments for blind votes; validator addresses derived from public keys.
Merkle root
The full state is hashed into a Merkle root every block — the app hash.
Commit-reveal
Votes are committed before they're revealed, so reviewers can't copy each other.
CometBFT + ABCI 2.0
BFT consensus, P2P networking and mempool; the CoFi app is a Rust ABCI application.
Pro-rata minting
units = asset_units × total_contrib ÷ total_asset — the formula that prices work against the pool.
Questions people ask
Is CoFi a proof-of-stake chain?
No. There are no coins to stake and no slashing. Governance power comes from reviewed contributions, and validator power is contribution units — not a deposit.
Can I buy voting power?
There is no shortcut. Funding is an asset type like code or design: it goes through the same review, into the same pool, with no special path.
What happens to my units when the pool grows?
Nothing. Pool growth mints units to new reviewed work; it never debits you. Your absolute claim stays firm, and you can redeem it at any time.
What if I stop contributing?
Your units remain yours and redeemable. Infrastructure rewards simply stop accruing when your node stops signing — presence is measured per block.
Who can review?
Contributors who have earned units and registered a key — skin in the game. The default quorum is two-thirds, and approving your own work is blocked.
Can I leave?
Yes. Sign a redemption message for part or all of your units and exit — the door opens both ways.
Status
Working today
- Full protocol loop verified end-to-end on a live devnet
- Contribute → review → approve → validate → redeem
- CLI client, keygen to redemption
Open work
- Multi-validator devnet
- Liveness when a dominant validator goes offline
- SDK growth and key-management polish
To be clear
- CoFi is a learning project
- Not production-ready
- No mainnet
CoFi is a learning project — an exploration of contribution-weighted governance. It is not production-ready and has no mainnet.