Meeds is a decentralized project that seeks to revolutionize working relationships. Today we’ll explain the purpose of the eponymous Ɱeeds token.

While the Meeds project founders initially outlined their vision in writing, they have been primarily focused on its implementation so far, providing little explanation until now. This article is part of a series that covers in detail all the concepts outlined in the Meeds whitepaper.

Defining Engagement at Work

Several studies over the years have indicated that workplace engagement is low, leading to dissatisfaction among workers and underperformance for employers. This is the fundamental reason behind Meeds DAO’s mission.

Before delving into the article’s main topic, it is crucial to clarify the meaning of work engagement. For us, engagement implies undertaking a task with passion and involvement, while work signifies any activity that employs a person’s skills for an organization.

As we looked for potential remedies for the worldwide disengagement crisis, we realized that engagement can have different meanings for individuals and organizations. However, to improve it, we needed a way to measure, quantify, and track it.

This led us to conceive the Ɱeeds token as a universal unit to materialize work engagement. Since then, we’ve been developing tools to acknowledge, motivate, appreciate, share, and expand engagement in the workplace.

Collecting Signals in the Workplace

Representing digitally an abstract concept like engagement is not as straightforward as representing a physical object through its dimensions, size, or material.

There is no love, there are only proofs of love.

Pierre Reverdy

However, can easily detect signals of engagement that occur on a daily basis in our professional activities and have grouped them into three categories:

• Invisible efforts refer to the daily tasks that are expected of us, such as filling out lead sheets in the CRM, conducting code reviews, making posts on community forums, and submitting timely expense and time-tracking reports. These tasks require consistency and commitment, yet often go unnoticed and unappreciated by others.

• The “extra-miles” refer to actions that go beyond what is expected of us and are not necessarily part of our mission. These actions are not mandatory but demonstrate a mindset of commitment and involvement. Examples include relaying your company’s posts on social media or proposing a correction in your client’s code when it would be easier to simply point it out in the documentation.

• Acts of kindness often go unnoticed, but they can make a significant impact. For instance, taking the time to help a colleague with an Excel formula, encouraging someone who is struggling, or mediating a heated meeting. These are just a few examples of behaviors that deserve recognition.

Meeds was designed to help you detect and tokenize such behaviors. It does this through two simple mechanisms. First, via the automated collection of signals in the organization’s digital environment (by connecting to your CRM, VCS, etc.). And for all the things that can’t be automated, via a declaration through kudos and challenges.

The Tokenization Process

Meeds allows each organization to value engagement in its unique way. Notably, actions like sharing a tweet may not hold equal importance across different communities. To account for this, Meeds implements a customizable point system that assigns varying weights to different behaviors based on the organization’s desired outcomes. This system is transparent and available to all contributors, enabling organizations to offer tailored incentives. For example, an organization could assign 500 points for sharing a post on LinkedIn and 100 points for sharing it on Twitter.

As contributors engage in activities, Meeds records their signals and adds up their points. At the end of the collecting period, after weighing the signals, Meeds determines the proportion of each person’s contributions to the organization. Tokenization follows, which involves starting with a budget in Ɱeeds, distributed proportionately to the number of points accumulated by each person. This way, Meeds can value precisely the individual engagement of each contributor over the period.

Proofs of Engagement

People often ask us why we have chosen to incorporate all of this information into a blockchain. However, for us, the decision was straightforward. As a decentralized registry of transactions, a blockchain provides an ideal platform to materialize the proofs of engagement that Ɱeeds tokens represent.

By transferring these tokens directly to individuals’ wallets, transactions are recorded on the blockchain, and these transfers of Ɱeeds become permanent and irrefutable proofs of engagement. The existence of a transfer transaction between an organization’s address and an individual’s wallet serves as a recognition of engagement, and its presence on the blockchain ensures that this recognition cannot be denied or erased.

Furthermore, the direct transfer of rewards into contributors’ wallets is crucial. As you may know, one of the main principles of #Web3 is decentralization, which aims to eliminate intermediaries. This can be illustrated by Meeds’ approach to valuing engagement. Instead of relying on a bonus system, annual performance evaluations, or the subjective judgment of a manager, Meeds distributes rewards objectively based on the value that people have contributed to the organization through their engagement. This eliminates any personal bias and prevents anyone from changing their mind. The rewards are granted automatically, making the system largely trustless and reducing the need to rely on intermediaries.

Finally, the distribution of value is instantaneous. Instead of waiting for an annual review or bonus payment, value is delivered as close to the activity as possible, when it has the most impact on motivation. Another crucial aspect of Ɱeeds is to enable direct benefit to those who engage and generate value. This is why the Ɱeeds token is fungible and tradeable like any other cryptocurrency, giving everyone the freedom to enjoy the fruits of their labor as they choose.

Transferable Value

Since the Ɱeeds token is compatible with decentralized exchange platforms, it has a public price, which makes it easy to understand its value and exchange it for goods, services, or even other digital assets. This allows those who engage to directly benefit from the value they generate.

Here are some examples of how the token can be utilized:

• Redeeming for perks: Meeds features a customizable store that allows each organization to offer unique perks that can be redeemed with Meeds tokens. Perks can include snacks, gift cards, experiences, training, or even donations to support causes. The benefit of this model for the organization is that it gets back part of the Meeds it has distributed as rewards.

• Cashing out: If nothing in the store looks interesting, you can still use your Meeds tokens to buy other things. As the Meeds token is ERC-20 compatible, it can be exchanged for any cryptocurrency. To access your funds, you can use an off-ramp platform or a crypto payment card.

• Making them grow: Rather than spending them, it is sometimes wise to invest in Meeds tokens. As a tradable token, the entire DeFi ecosystem and its numerous opportunities are available to you. Meeds DAO also has its own programs to help your Meeds capital grow, which we will discuss in detail soon.

Token Issuance & Reserves

Before setting up contribution programs and rewarding contributors, an organization needs to acquire Ɱeeds tokens. However, it’s important to know how many Ɱeeds are available, who controls their issuance, and where to acquire them.

All of the above is controlled by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. At the time of writing, the Ɱeeds token has a supply of about 10 million Ɱeeds, with its contract deployed on the Mainnet and code verified. Half of this supply was used to cover initial costs, such as the acquisition of intellectual property for the Meeds software, legal fees, and infrastructure costs during the project’s launch. It has been locked in a vesting contract over a period of 4 years.

Starting May 1st, 2022, the issuance of new Ɱeeds is exclusively controlled by another verified smart contract, which we named the TokenFactory. This contract generates new Ɱeeds at a constant rate of 10 per minute, equivalent to around 5 million per year. It’s worth noting that the TokenFactory has set the maximum limit of Ɱeeds that can exist at 100 million. At this current rate, it will take 20 years to reach that limit.

The Meeds DAO has a large number of tokens at its disposal, but what exactly will it do with them? The community has yet to determine its ultimate use, but for now, the TokenFactory automatically allocates tokens to three reserve funds that support different aspects of the ecosystem.

• users: the first fund supports individuals that are engaged in work. The flagship program sponsored by this reserve is called the “Mintium,” which we will discuss in more detail soon.

• investors: The second fund supports investors, who provide capital to the project and help with liquidity.

• builders: Finally, the third fund supports builders, which refers to the open community working on the development of protocols, promoting the project, and maintaining the systems.

At present, 40% of new tokens go to users, 30% go to builders, and 30% to investors. This proportion, as well as the issuance rate of 10 tokens per minute, are the only adjustable parameters of the TokenFactory and will be subject to votes by the Meeds DAO.

The Meeds token was recognized as a hybrid token by FINMA, meaning it’s both a utility token and a cryptocurrency. Now it’s live in the wild and is currently being traded on Polygon PoS and the Ethereum Mainnet.

For an overview of the current key metrics, check Meeds Token page.

FAQ

What does engagement at work mean?

Engagement at work means behaving with involvement and passion.

Who benefits from the Ɱeeds?

Workers earn Ɱeeds as a reward for their activities, and organizations use Meeds contribution programs to stimulate the engagement of their contributors.

How can I earn Ɱeeds?

Your organization should use the Meeds system and offer contribution programs.

Why not send Ɱeeds directly to each action? T

o weigh them according to the scale and calculate an equitable distribution among all contributors over a given period.

Where can I buy Ɱeeds?

You can buy Ɱeeds on the Sushi (Ethereum) or Cometh (Polygon) pools.

How many Ɱeeds are there?

As of March 2023, there were about 10 million Meeds already minted, and there will never be more than 100 million Meeds. The horizon for reaching the max supply is 2042.

On which blockchain do Ɱeeds tokens exist?

Meeds are issued on Ethereum Mainnet. Rewards and perk purchases happen on the Polygon PoS side chain for reduced gas fees. Tokens can be bridged back and forth between Ethereum and Polygon.

Who controls the issuance of Ɱeeds tokens?

The issuance of Ɱeeds is controlled by a smart contract called TokenFactory, which was written and published by the Meeds Association to bootstrap the protocol.

What can I do with the Ɱeeds I have earned?

You are free to exchange them for perks, cash out, or make them grow.