Have you had this thought?

How can I empower myself financially and yet make valuable contributions to projects that provide resources that are accessible to everyone?

Is it possible to do good in the world and not sacrifice my well-being?

Can there be a balance between personal gain and doing good in society?

Let me introduce you to the Octant ecosystem,

where these questions are answered.

With Octant,

you do not have to choose between doing well financially and contributing back to society.

You can do both seamlessly.

But how does this work?

How does Octant work?

Ethereum's switch from Proof-of-Work(PoW) to Proof-of-Stake(PoS) in 2022 marked a significant shift,

It helped the environment by reducing the carbon footprint from mining Ethereum and allowing users to earn.

You may be wondering,

How do I earn from the Ethereum ecosystem?

In the PoS consensus mechanism,

Ethereum allows validators to stake a certain amount of ETH to be eligible to validate new blocks and process transactions.

For participating in this consensus mechanism,

validators are rewarded ETH for securing the Ethereum blockchain.

It was a win-win for everyone including for the environment.

But what if this reward system could do more than just benefit validators?

This is where Octant comes in.

Octant is an innovative ecosystem that not only rewards you for participating in the Ethereum PoS consensus mechanism but also creates a platform to enable you to support public good projects at the same time.

It is powered by the Golem Foundation a validator in the Ethereum consensus system that staked 100,000 ETH.

The rewards generated from staking this ETH are transferred to the Octant community currently every 90 days.

Here's the real magic,

Octant allows their community members to either keep their earnings or donate them to community-selected public good projects.

Guess what,

if a community member decides to donate,

Octant matches their contribution, thereby doubling the impact.

Octant helps to fulfil your childhood dream of becoming a superhero.

How?

You join a community that helps secure the Ethereum network and earn ETH in the process.

You can also contribute to a better world - empowering yourself financially while making valuable contributions to global public goods.

Look at the diagram below to see how Octant seamlessly integrates staking rewards with community-driven contributions to public goods.(image credits)

But,

how can one become a member of the Octant community?

How to become an Octant community member

Joining the Octant community is very simple.

All you have to do is hold GLM tokens, which is the native ERC-20 token of the Golem Network.

By locking a certain amount of your GLM tokens into the Octant smart contract, as little as 1 GLM, you become a member.

However,

to qualify for user rewards and fully participate in the ecosystem, a minimum of 100 GLM is required.

This ensures that your involvement in the Octant ecosystem is both meaningful and rewarding.

How to get GLM tokens

GLM tokens are available on numerous centralized and decentralized exchanges, making it easy for you to obtain them.

You can get GLM from Uniswap, Coinbase, Binance and any ERC-20 compatible Ethereum wallet such as MetaMask, Taho, Rainbow.me and Ledger can manage your tokens.

Remember to research your options thoroughly and always keep your private keys secure.

What About Control?

One of the standout features of Octant is community members maintain complete ownership of their GLM tokens as the GLM-locking mechanism is non-custodial.

What does this mean?

You can unlock your GLM tokens at any time as it is not pooled with other community members' funds.

This gives you flexibility and peace of mind.

You can track all GLM-locking and unlocking transactions directly on Etherscan.

Although you can unlock your tokens at any time,

doing this reduces your ETH rewards.

As the ETH rewards are earned based on a weighted average,

that is to say,

the more GLM tokens you lock and the longer you lock it for, the more you earn.

Also, you should note,

Octant is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain and therefore the ETH rewards are not calculated per day but per block.

Currently, a new block is included in the Ethereum blockchain on average around every 12 seconds.

For a detailed explanation of how rewards are calculated, please refer to Octant’s Technical Outline

You can also calculate rewards on the earn section of the Octant app as shown below

Image credit - Octant App Docs

Alright, it's time to talk about,

How projects are selected and how to vote for them.

How Do You Shape the Future of Public Good Projects with Octant?

Octant Community is designed to empower every community member who holds and locks their GLM token to not only be a participant but also a decision-maker.

Community members with GLM tokens locked into the Octant ecosystem can submit proposals. These proposals can include the following:

new projects to be added to the eligible list for funding
changes to eligibility criteria for adding projects for funding
suggestions for specific theme for the upcoming epoch

At the moment of writing this article, the current criteria for projects to be eligible for potential donation are:

Commitment to Open Source: the project should share its results publicly and embrace open source principles.
Transparency of how Funds are utilized: it's essential that the project share clear and detailed information on funds usage.
Advancement of Freedom and Privacy: the project must uphold the values of avoiding surveillance and mishandling of personal data.
Support Decentralization: the project should promote decentralization across various fields and encourage the development of Web3 projects.
Social Proof: the project should be well recognized and have credibility within its area of development

Projects that are profit-driven, function as financial projects(such as lending, investing, or trading) or are involved in grant rounds that distribute funds based on user voting are not considered.

Another thing great about the community is they accept output from outsiders.

How?

If you have a project that meets the above criteria and you are interested in running funding rounds, you can read their detailed guide of how to apply to know how to apply to the Octant Community Fund's Community category. This fund is dedicated to supporting community rounds and voting-led grant rounds.

Voting for donation recipients in each epoch takes place on Octant's Snapshot platform.

Only users who have locked GLM tokens in Octant are eligible to participate in the voting process.

To learn more about Octant you can read their docs and you can use their platform here.

Conclusion

Wow!

You have come to the end of this article.

You have learnt about the new opportunity to both earn and contribute to global public good projects.

By staking GLM tokens, you earn ETH rewards and can donate to community-selected initiatives all with the added benefit of Octant matching your contribution.

And you do not give up control of your GLM tokens.

Everything is transparent with the help of blockchain technology.

Do Good Without Sacrifice: How Octant Lets You Have It All