Introducing Epics DAO - the Developer Crowdsourcing Platform

To understand the purpose of Epics and the problem this project is solving, there is a need to understand what Open Source Software is and how these types of software have been of massive importance over the years. 

Open Source Software is computer software that can be used by anyone for any purpose. They can also be modified in ways that can extend the use of the software for those who choose to modify it. It is publicly available and free for all to use. 

Both “Big Tech” and other technology-driven companies cannot do without making use of open source software in production but they do not actively push for the advancement of these applications with incentives that enable more developers to be interested in working on these softwares. Although some of these organizations have designated teams assigned for these open source projects, active development on them is still done by the community. 

What is EpicsDAO?

Epics is a decentralized crowdsourcing platform for open source software development. Clients can set token prizes for GitHub issues tagged as Quests (Smart Contract) and software developers can receive token prizes by solving these issues (Quests) for the Clients. 

“Open Source is not a virtue”, says Armani Ferrante, the lead developer of Coral Community in a Twitter thread where he argued for engineers to be able to get compensated for the work they put into the development of Open Source Software projects.

Many Open Source foundations struggle to get funding and they are unable to retain talent due to shortage of resources (mostly money).

But with Epics, a working solution has been proposed for eliminating the lack of developer talent for maintaining software projects and building out new features through a way of incentivizing people to participate. By proposing a way for developers to get paid while working on the GitHub Quests (issues) of clients, contribution is fast, innovative and effective.

For Developers 

As highlighted from the official docs, “Developers can get token prizes by participating in and clearing their favorite quests from among the prize quests.

This means that you will be able to invest 24 hours in sharp technology.” For any developer interested in contributing to open source projects registered on Epics, they are entitled to earn a living from the pool of the token prices deposited for a project.

For Project Owners

“Clients (individuals to businesses, DAOs, open source software communities, etc.) can partially get the help of highly skilled developers around the world.” 

By sourcing for developers in this manner, Clients contribute token price for every Quest created, so that when developers resolve the problem they are compensated with the token price assigned to the project.

All the developer has to do is help the project fix the issue or develop new features for them and they get paid for it.

Using Epics 

To get started with Epics, follow the steps below:

I. Register With Your Github Account and connect your wallet: 

Since what you will be working on is code-based, github is the best platform that shows you have worked on a project. Sign in to Epics app with your Github profile.

II. Participate in Quests 

Select any Quest you are interested in working on from the home page and start working on it. (If you are interested in creating your own Quests, select the option instead.)

III. Verify Your Pull Requests

Input the link to your pull request for verification on the Quest that has been solved. 

IV. Earn your Rewards

After you have submitted the link to your pull request, it is merged if it satisfies the Quest’s requirement and you earn your EPCT token reward in your wallet. 

V. Check Status

By Checking your Profile Status, you can see the stats on your earnings and some details about the Quest rewards. 

The Epics Token

Epics makes use of an utility token called Epics Token denoted as EPCT. It has a total supply of 1,000,000 tokens. Its token economic is detailed in the next sectionl

DAO Proposals and the EPCD token

EpicsDAO is the community involved with making decisions that guides the direction of Epics. This is done through votes. The voting will be done on-chain with the governance token called EPCD.

Holding 1 EPCD means you have 1 vote. And if a member of the DAO has at least 1 EPCD, they can make a proposal that can be decided on by the community members.

Tokenomics

The Epics Token (with EPCT as the ticker) has a total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens. The tokens are allocated in the following ways:

• GENESIS Holders($0.005 / EPCT, raise $250,000): 5%
• 20% at GENESIS Presale, 60 months linear schedule with 6 months cliff
• Presale for IDO($0.01 / EPCT, raise $600,000): 6%
• 20% at Presale for IDO, 60 months linear schedule with 2 months cliff
• IEO($0.02 / EPCT, raise $1,500,000): 7.5%  100% at IEO
• Core Team: 20%
• 40% at TGE, (60 months linear schedule with 6 months cliff)
• Project Contributors: 10% (64 months linear schedule with 2 months cliff)
• Liquidity fund (Giving liquidity to the serum DEX market): 10%
• 10% at TGE, (64 months linear schedule with 2 months cliff)
• Build to Earn (Ecosystem incentive): 35% (63 months linear schedule with 3 months cliff)
• Future Stakeholders (Burn if unnecessary): 6.5% (60 months linear schedule with 6 months cliff)

The Epics DAO Governance Token EPCD has a total supply of 300,000 with the following allocation:

• 300,000 (10% at TGE, 60 months linear schedule mint with 6 months cliff)
• You can get 1 EPCD with locking 1000 EPCT. 
• You can get Epics fee discounts and participate in Epics Governance.

Team and Partners

Founded by Fumitake Kawasaki and Shota Kishi, Epics have a solid backing from people who have been in the software industry with tangible products development under their belts.

Both of the co-founders have been active in the application development space for more than a decade handling different roles ranging from backend to sales, research and development.

Some of the partners of EpicsDAO are Solana Foundation, Grape Protocol, Zebec and many more. These partners work hand-in-hand to ensure that EpicsDAO get all the support they may need to carry out their mission. 

Conclusions

Epics have created a project that helps in solving the lack of desire for building open source projects due to lack of resources (and majorly, money).

By using a token pricing system with a structured method that enables projects and organizations in outsourcing their software needs to ambitious developers, solutions are provided and these softwares are properly maintained - both for the users of these softwares in general and for the company that needs them.