How Rewards Work
Last updated: 16 August 2026
The Founding Contributor Pool is not yet funded and no payout has been made. Everything below describes how rewards are designed to work, not something that has happened. See Payout path for what currently runs.
Grainlify has two reward tracks, and they do different jobs:
Your rank is earned by contributing and is purely reputational — a badge and a leaderboard position, nothing more. Shares in the Founding Contributor Pool are the money track. Shares are earned overwhelmingly by getting pull requests merged, and the pool is shared out once, at the end of the first GrainHack.
Points can no longer be earned or redeemed. Nothing was taken from anyone — no points were ever awarded and no redemption was ever paid. See What changed.
Track 1: Rank — earned by contributing
Every issue and pull request you complete on a project listed on Grainlify counts toward your leaderboard position, which places you into a tier:
| Tier | Leaderboard position |
|---|---|
| 🏆 Conqueror | 1–5 |
| ⚔️ Ace | 6–10 |
| 👑 Crown | 11–20 |
| 💎 Diamond | 21–50 |
| 🥇 Gold | 51–100 |
| 🥈 Silver | 101–500 |
| 🥉 Bronze | 500+ |
Your tier badge shows on your public profile and the leaderboard. It's a trust signal, not currency — it doesn't convert to USDC on its own.
Track 2: The Founding Contributor Pool
One fixed amount of USDC, set aside and announced up front, divided once at the end of the first GrainHack.
How the maths works
share value = the pool ÷ every share everyone earned
your payout = your shares × share value
That's the same arithmetic a GrainHack prize pool uses, and it has the same three consequences — all of which are worth understanding before you start:
- The total can never grow. However many people join, the pool is what was announced. It cannot run up an open-ended bill.
- Nobody can know what a share is worth in advance — including us. It depends on everyone else's shares, and those don't exist yet.
- More participants means a smaller share each. This is stated plainly because it's the fact people would most reasonably feel misled by if they learned it on payout day. It isn't a catch; it's what dividing a fixed pool means.
How shares are earned
| What you do | Shares |
|---|---|
| Get a pull request merged during the first GrainHack | 5 each, uncapped |
| Someone you referred gets a pull request merged | 5 each, uncapped |
| Verify your account before the first GrainHack opens | 0.1 |
| Someone you referred verifies their account | 0.5, lifetime cap of 10 |
Shares for a merged pull request are recorded once the GrainHack's appeal window has closed — not when the pull request merges, and not when your result is first published.
That gap is deliberate. An appeal can change a result, so a share granted earlier could later have to be taken back — and a share you were shown and then lost is worse than one that arrived a few days later. Two things both have to be true before it counts: the pull request is merged, and the final result, after any appeals, accepted it.
So if you merged something and see no shares for it yet, nothing is wrong. Check back after the appeal window closes.
Notice how lopsided that is — deliberately. Verifying is worth a fortieth of a merged pull request. If signing up paid meaningfully, most of the pool would go to people who did nothing but create an account, and there'd be little left for the people the programme exists to attract. Signing up gets you registered and gets you your wave multiplier. Merged code gets you paid.
Waves — join early, earn more
Everyone who verifies is placed in a wave, permanently, in the order they verify:
| Wave | Slots | Multiplier | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founding | first 100 | ×1.5 on all your shares | Permanent "Founding Member" |
| Wave 2 | next 400 | ×1.25 | Permanent "Early Member" |
| Open | everyone after | ×1.0 | — |
Two things to be clear about:
- Nobody is turned away. Once the first 500 slots are gone you join the open wave and can still earn fully from merged pull requests. Since verifying is worth almost nothing, extra people barely dilute anyone.
- Each wave closes for good. When the Founding wave fills, it's finished — it won't be widened later. All three waves are announced up front so what you're missing is clear before you miss it, and a wave that closes stays closed.
Your multiplier applies to your whole share total. It's also worth nothing on its own: 1.5 × nothing is nothing. It rewards joining early and showing up.
You must follow our social accounts
Following Grainlify on LinkedIn and X is an eligibility requirement worth zero shares — see Social Follow. Both screenshots are submitted together and approved as one.
An approval can also be withdrawn later, in which case you'll see that it happened and why. Eligibility is confirmed when the pool is shared out: the check confirms your approved follow hasn't been revoked, which is not the same as a live re-check that you're still following. That page explains exactly what is and isn't verified.
Putting it together
- Verify your account. You get your wave and its permanent multiplier.
- Follow the social accounts, so you're eligible.
- Get pull requests merged during the first GrainHack. This is where nearly all shares come from.
- Invite people who'll do the same — you earn from what they ship.
FAQ
Does merging a pull request pay me directly? During a GrainHack, yes — merged work earns shares in the Founding Contributor Pool, and separately earns a share of that event's own prize pool. Outside a GrainHack it builds your rank only.
When do I find out what my shares are worth? At the end of the first GrainHack, when the pool is divided. Before then the number doesn't exist — which is why you won't see a dollar figure anywhere in the product, only your share count.
I merged a pull request and got no shares. Is that a bug? No — merged-PR shares are recorded after the appeal window closes, because an appeal can still change a result until then. See the note above.
Can my rank tier go down? Yes — it's a live leaderboard position. Shares, once earned, don't decrease.
Is there a cap on what I can earn? Merged-PR shares are uncapped, for you and for people you refer. Only the verify-only referral shares are capped, at 10.
What if I miss the Founding wave? You join the next one. The multiplier is lower, but merged pull requests are where the money is, and those are worth the same to everybody.