Proof of Value (PoV)

Facilitating High-Quality Value Transfer from many-to-many

Proof of Value (PoV) rewards value creators as recognition for their time and effort.

This smart contract can be applied in various scenarios:

• A person writes an article,

• An employee contributes value to the company or a community and receives a reward for it,

• A student publishes in the Q&A manager displays and propagates acts of leadership,

• An expert delivers a keynote speech to an audience,

• A salesperson achieves high-value results and meets targets.

Proof of Value aims to show that the contribution will solve the consumer’s use case (or problem). It connects value transfer from end-to-end points (revenue with users), allowing the entity to determine the criteria for reward.

Once the PoV criteria are established by the deploying platform, the person delivering the value gets the incentive or monetary reward paid from the advertising on the page, other sources of revenue provided by donors, scholarships, incentive schemes, etc.

A platform collecting donations can use it as the reward wallet in addition to the advertising revenue or other revenues their business model provides. The rewards are distributed based on the proof of value framework, which is the value placed on the creator’s output. This figure is based on the demand and interaction of the end-users. It is usually a product of importance to the audience and can be measured by the number of upvotes received, readership stats, number of times shared, amount of times saved, etc.

For example, through the Proof-of-Value mechanism in Forward Protocol, a free reply post by an expert to a user's question can turn out to be an ongoing source of profits for the expert.

An example from the Decentralized Education (DeEd) sector: The ad revenue (or the reward wallet set by the entity requesting the content creation or the platform wanting more content created) is then distributed to all parties involved based on parameters such as the value of their contribution, upvotes and viewership. The entity distributing the reward determines the percentage of revenue to distribute back to users. Their impact is judged based on personal experience, validated credentials and community response. The POV smart contract will be useful in platforms like Quora, which would use advertising revenue to reward engagement. A user like Wikipedia can also use income from donations to reward engagement.

Rewards can also be given to a user based on their efforts to help others on the platform. An example of this could be a user on Quora sharing an answer written by another user. The author of the original post can announce a reward to other users that amplify their posts.​​

An example from the Decentralized Organization (DeOrg) sector: A tourism startup wants to motivate its team to increase revenue and commit to the company for five years. They create a static proof of value contract that tracks commissions and is vested over a five-year period. This innovation allows the company to pay lower salaries upfront and reward employees for performance while retaining trained employees for a longer period (five years) until the payout of the smart contract. This enables the company to give employees a sense of ownership without diluting the equity of the company.

An example from the Decentralized Humanitarian (DeHum) sector: An aid organization distributing funds can use it as a reward wallet to incentivize good behavior in refugee camps or settlements (picking up litter, education and camp governance, conflict resolution, etc.). The rewards are distributed based on the proof of value framework, which is the value placed on a person's contribution to society and how they improve the environment for their community. This figure is based on the need and interaction with the relevant end-users. It is usually a product of importance to the audience and can be measured by the number of upvotes received, if acts of leadership are shown, contribution to community structures, etc.

This smart contract can also be used to reward community engagement and behavior in a social or community token environment.

It can also be integrated into free content-sharing social media platforms to focus on quality rather than clout and activity. Eg: A detailed analysis post about ‘how to get your next job,’ posted on LinkedIn which receives traffic, upvotes, and social engagement.