📘 Grainlify — Grant Execution Infrastructure for Open Source

1. Problem Statement

Open-source ecosystems regularly allocate grant funding to support critical projects and contributors.

However, today’s grant execution model has major gaps:

• Grant money is often managed off-chain
• Project maintainers manually distribute rewards
• Contributor payments are delayed or subjective
• Ecosystems lack verifiable proof of how grants convert into real work
• Contributors must trust platforms or maintainers to be paid fairly

Platforms like OnlyDust solve grant discovery and coordination, but grant execution and payout automation remain largely manual.

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2. Our Core Idea (One Sentence)

Grainlify is a grant execution layer that converts ecosystem funding into automated, verifiable payments for open-source contributions.

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3. High-Level Concept

Grainlify sits between ecosystems and contributors, ensuring that:

1. Ecosystems fund programs (hackathons, grant rounds)
2. Programs fund projects
3. Projects fund contributors
4. All payouts are:
   • escrow-backed
   • rule-based
   • automated on real GitHub work
   • verifiable on-chain

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4. Two Core Execution Modes

Grainlify supports both time-boxed programs and continuous contributions.

This enables continuous OSS funding, not just events.

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5. System Roles

Ecosystem (Stellar)

• Provide grant capital
• Define program scope and duration
• Gain transparent, verifiable impact data

Grainlify Platform

• Operates grant programs and hackathons
• Tracks contributions and scoring
• Enforces execution rules
• Automates payouts
• Handles compliance off-chain

Project Maintainers

• Register projects
• Create issues and bounties
• Define point values
• Lock funds into escrow

Contributors

• Work normally on GitHub
• Submit PRs
• Earn points or rewards
• Get paid automatically after verification

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6. What Lives Where (Very Important)

Off-Chain (Backend)

Stored and processed off-chain:

• projects and repositories
• GitHub issues and PRs (via webhooks / API)
• point assignments and scoring
• contributor rankings
• KYC status
• payout calculation

This keeps the system:

• flexible
• efficient
• privacy-safe

On-Chain (Smart Contracts)

Stored on-chain only:

• program or hackathon escrow
• total funds locked
• remaining balance
• authorized payout key
• final payouts to wallets

No identities, points, or GitHub data are stored on-chain.

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7. End-to-End Flow (Hackathon Example)

Step 1 — Program Funding

• Ecosystem locks funds into an on-chain escrow
  Example: 50,000 XLM for “Stellar Q1 OSS Program”

Step 2 — Hackathon Runs

• Projects participate
• Contributors work on GitHub
• Points are awarded off-chain

Step 3 — Scoring & Eligibility

• Backend computes final scores
• Only KYC-approved contributors are eligible for payout

Step 4 — Automated Payout

• Backend triggers escrow contract
• Funds are sent directly to contributor wallets
• Backend never holds funds

Hackathon Flow (Diagram)

flowchart TB
    Ecosystem["Ecosystem / Foundation"]
    Escrow["On-chain Escrow<br/>Stellar (Soroban) Smart Contract"]
    Backend["Grainlify Backend"]
    GitHub["GitHub<br/>Issues & PRs"]
    Contributors["Contributors"]
    Wallets["Contributor Wallets"]

    Ecosystem -->|"Lock Prize Pool"| Escrow
    Contributors -->|"Work & PRs"| GitHub
    GitHub -->|"Webhooks"| Backend
    Backend -->|"Score & KYC Check"| Backend
    Backend -->|"Trigger Payout"| Escrow
    Escrow -->|"Direct Transfer"| Wallets

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Detailed Sequence Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant E as Ecosystem
    participant S as Stellar (Soroban) Escrow Contract
    participant B as Grainlify Backend
    participant G as GitHub
    participant C as Contributor
    participant W as Contributor Wallet

    E->>S: Lock Program Funds
    C->>G: Submit PRs
    G-->>B: PR Merged Webhook
    B->>B: Award Points (Off-chain)
    B->>S: Trigger Payouts
    S->>W: Transfer XLM

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8. KYC & Compliance Model

KYC is handled entirely off-chain.

• Contributor identity and status are never stored on-chain
• Only wallets linked to approved KYC records are included in payouts

This ensures:

• privacy
• regulatory flexibility
• minimal on-chain complexity

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9. Why This Model Works

For Ecosystems

• Funds locked before work begins
• Clear proof of grant usage
• Reduced misuse risk

For Maintainers

• No manual reward handling
• Budget clarity
• Lower admin overhead

For Contributors

• Predictable rewards
• Guaranteed payouts
• Merit-based scoring

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10. Key Differentiation

Feature	Traditional Grant Platforms	Grainlify
Grant discovery	✅	✅
Hackathons	✅	✅
Always-on bounties	❌	✅
On-chain escrow	❌	✅
Point-based allocation	❌	✅
Automated payouts	❌	✅
Non-custodial payments	❌	✅

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11. Design Principles

• Escrow-first: funds locked before work begins
• Automation over trust: payouts follow rules
• Minimal on-chain logic: contracts act as vaults
• Off-chain intelligence: scoring and verification stay flexible
• Ecosystem-agnostic: same execution model across chains

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12. What Grainlify Is (and Is Not)

Grainlify Is

• a grant execution infrastructure
• a payout automation layer
• a coordination system for OSS funding

Grainlify Is Not

• a DAO
• a marketplace
• a GitHub replacement
• a custodial payment platform

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13. Vision

Grainlify’s long-term vision is to become the default execution layer for open-source grants, enabling ecosystems to move from:

“We funded projects.”

to:

“We verifiably paid for real work.”

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14. One-Line Summary

Grainlify turns ecosystem grants into automatic, verifiable payments for open-source contributions.