Mapping Value for FVM Mainnet: Space Warp Leaderboard + Impact Evaluators

Overview

Leading up to the Filecoin Virtual Machine’s mainnet launch on March 14th, a series of Impact Evaluator rounds are empowering the community of FVM builders and experts to assess and reward the most valuable work and projects within the ecosystem. Seven rounds spread over 12+ weeks are allocating a $75k reward pool, and each round’s results populate the FVM Builders Leaderboard, showcasing leading projects to the ecosystem.

These rounds give builders, investors, and peer blockchain ecosystems a way to keep an enhanced pulse on projects at the forefront of the FVM launch that will​​ bring smart contracts and user programmability to the Filecoin blockchain, unleashing the enormous potential of an open data economy.

The Builders Leaderboard, when coupled with the Impact Evaluators, creates a market map that provides a direct insight into where the community believes valuable projects are being built today. These systems are independent and will continue beyond Spacewarp through early FVM mainnet launch.

Impact Evaluators for FVM

Impact Evaluators are a class of funding mechanisms that are growing in priority for Protocol Labs, and they can be understood as systems or mechanisms for retrospectively measuring, evaluating, and rewarding valuable work towards specific objectives (learn more here). This provides a system to reward and acknowledge the high uncertainty, high upside projects that may or may not be captured by other mechanisms (e.g. prospective grants).

For Space Warp, which is Filecoin’s program for ramping up developer activity leading up to the FVM mainnet launch, Impact Evaluators give builders and subject matter experts the ability to identify and recognize impactful projects sourced from the community. As explained in the Overview & FAQ page, builders can submit a project, sign up for Protocol Labs’ internal Impact Evaluator tool, then allocate a fixed number of “voice credits” toward the projects they believe have created the most impact in the past one month using quadratic voting. These voice credits convert into “counted votes” according to their square root, meaning that one voice credit put towards a project equals one vote; four credits equal two votes; and so on. Simply put, quadratic voting gives evaluators in a round an ability to signal a strength of conviction in the work they find most valuable, noting that evaluators are unable to vote on their own projects.

This specific Impact Evaluator implementation is also designed to further incentivize both the sourcing of projects and the participation in qualitative assessment. Builders get the opportunity to showcase their work when joining a particular round, and a project’s eligibility for the financial prizes of each round are contingent upon a builder’s participation in voting on that project’s behalf.

Builders Leaderboards

Each round’s results are displayed on a public leaderboard rich with links to learn more about the projects and initiatives being built. Beyond being a valuable marketing opportunity for projects, the leaderboard also gives builders an early insight into the communities perceived value of their work. Because of the recurring cadence of the Impact Evaluator rounds and the structure of evaluating a project’s most recent work, the leaderboard serves as a signaling tool for the ongoing sentiment of the builders and of what they find most valuable.

The Frontier of the Ecosystem Pulse Approach

The FVM Builders Leaderboard and Impact Evaluator rounds are an early pilot for a powerful, decentralized capital allocation mechanism. These systems reward high-uncertainty, high-potential projects by providing the upside for early adopters to take on ambitious projects that will help define the space. With FVM’s mainnet launch, a watershed moment is occurring in the development of decentralized storage and, with it, a new model for launching early projects is emerging.

If you are a builder working on or interested in the FVM, check out the Space Warp Impact Evaluators Overview & FAQ page. Additionally, if you are interested in Impact Evaluators & Leaderboards or would like to deploy yourself, chat with the team directly at the #pl-network-funding channel on Filecoin Slack.