Fund the Commons
One People is open source. The software is free forever. But servers cost money, GPUs cost money, and the people who build this deserve to be paid. One People currently operates under Expansas, LLC; support is platform funding, not a tax-deductible charitable donation.
The 70 / 20 / 10 Split
After infrastructure costs are covered, all remaining revenue is split transparently. This applies to SuperNova subscriptions, Commons Fund contributions, and any future revenue source.
Builders
Flows directly to the people who build One People. Developers, compute providers, content creators, community moderators. Weighted by tracked contribution: merged pull requests, compute hours shared, Commons participation, documentation, and community support.
Commons Treasury
A community-directed fund. The Commons votes on how to allocate it: bounties for high-priority features, grants for new contributors, emergency reserves, community events, and initiatives the community decides matter most.
Operations
Keeps One People running. Legal, coordination, DNS and domains, CI/CD pipelines, security audits, and the humans and AI who steward the platform day to day. Capped at 10% — if we don't need it all, the remainder rolls into the Commons Treasury.
What it costs to run One People
Infrastructure costs come off the top before the 70/20/10 split. These are the hard costs of running the network. Published monthly, fully auditable.
| Line Item | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Kubernetes cluster (compute nodes) | TBD |
| GPU compute (BrainAI inference) | TBD |
| Bandwidth and CDN | TBD |
| Object storage (GCS / S3) | TBD |
| Domains, DNS, TLS certificates | TBD |
| Third-party APIs (auth, email, monitoring) | TBD |
| Total infrastructure | TBD |
These numbers will be filled in and published monthly as we go live. The goal is radical honesty: you should know exactly what it costs to keep the lights on, and you should be able to verify it.
How contributions are tracked
The 70% builder pool is distributed based on real, verifiable contributions. No politics, no favoritism — the work speaks for itself.
Pull requests merged
Tracked via GitHub. Every merged PR to a One People repository counts. Weighted by scope, complexity, and review quality. AI-assisted contributions count — the person who directs the work gets credit.
Hardware contributed
Run a node, share GPU cycles, provide bandwidth. Measured in compute-hours and verified by the network. Your hardware earns OP and a share of the builder pool.
Commons participation
Proposals written, votes cast, discussions that shape direction, documentation improved, newcomers helped. Community health is infrastructure too.
Testing and review
Bug reports, code review, QA testing, security audits. The people who make the work better deserve the same recognition as the people who write it.
Three revenue streams
All revenue enters the same transparent pipeline. Same split, same rules, same visibility.
SuperNova subscriptions
$13–$129/month for managed cloud AI. You're not paying for the software — you're paying for the convenience of hosted infrastructure. The software is always free to self-host.
Commons Fund contributions
Direct support from people and organizations who believe in the mission. One-time or recurring. Every dollar visible in the public ledger.
Expansas commercial add-ons
Enterprise features, managed hosting, and financial tools from the commercial arm. Expansas revenue also flows through the 70/20/10 split after its own operational costs.
This model is a proposal, not a decree
CP-001: Adopt the 70/20/10 Revenue Model
Status: Open for discussion
Proposed by: One People founding team
Summary: All net revenue (after infrastructure costs) is split 70% to builders, 20% to the Commons Treasury, and 10% to One People operations. Infrastructure costs are published monthly. The operations cap of 10% is a hard ceiling — any surplus rolls into the Commons Treasury.
Open questions for the community:
- Is 70/20/10 the right split? Should builders get more? Should the Commons Treasury be larger?
- How should contribution weight be calculated? Equal per-PR, or scaled by complexity?
- Should there be a vesting period for new contributors, or immediate payouts?
- What should the Commons Treasury prioritize first: bounties, grants, or reserves?
- Should the model be reviewed quarterly, annually, or on a different cadence?
This is your project. The funding model should reflect what the community values. Come tell us what you think.
Help us keep the lights on
Every subscription, every contribution, every compute hour shared makes the network stronger for everyone.