Collateral Staking of PUBLIC
Collateral Staking
What is Collateral Staking?
Collateral staking is a quality assurance mechanism built into every PublicAI data collection campaign. When you participate as a data contributor, you stake $PUBLIC tokens as a guarantee that your submissions will meet quality standards. When the campaign ends and your data passes review, your full collateral is returned.
This isn't a fee — it's a trust signal. It aligns incentives so that honest, high-quality contribution is always the most profitable strategy on the platform.
Why Collateral Matters
PublicAI delivers data to enterprise clients including Google, Adobe, and AWS. These clients have strict quality thresholds, and when datasets fail review, entire language batches can be rejected. In Season 5, six languages were rejected by clients due to quality issues — resulting in direct financial losses for PublicAI and reduced campaign funding for the contributor community.
Collateral staking exists to protect the contributors who do quality work. By requiring skin in the game, the system makes it economically irrational to submit low-quality or manipulated data and exit — which means more client trust, more campaigns, and bigger reward pools for everyone.
How Progressive Collateral Works
PublicAI uses a progressive collateral model designed to keep onboarding easy while scaling accountability as contributors earn more.
Days 1–3: Low barrier to start
New contributors stake a minimum of 100 $PUBLIC to join a campaign. This keeps participation accessible and matches the previous staking requirement. You contribute and earn normally during this period.
Day 4 onward: Collateral scales with earnings
Starting on Day 4, your required collateral adjusts daily based on a simple formula:
Required Collateral = 2 × Daily Average Earnings
Where:
Daily Average Earnings = Total Rewards Earned ÷ Number of Days Since Registration
The required collateral will never drop below the 100 $PUBLIC minimum. If your calculated requirement is less than 100, you simply maintain your original stake.
If your current stake doesn't meet the required collateral, uploads are paused until you top up. No data is lost — you just can't submit new contributions until your stake is sufficient.
Worked Examples
Example 1: Casual contributor earning ~50 $PUBLIC/day
1
50
—
100
Stake 100 to join
3
150
—
100
No change
4
200
50
100
Already covered ✅
10
500
50
100
Already covered ✅
20
1,000
50
100
Already covered ✅
For moderate earners, the original 100 $PUBLIC stake covers the entire campaign. Nothing changes from the previous system.
Example 2: Power contributor earning ~200 $PUBLIC/day
1
200
—
100
Stake 100 to join
3
600
—
100
No change
4
800
200
400
Top up by 300
10
2,000
200
400
Already covered ✅
20
4,000
200
400
Already covered ✅
Higher earners are asked to stake proportionally more. Once topped up, the collateral stabilizes as long as daily earnings stay consistent.
Example 3: Contributor with growing earnings
1
30
—
100
Stake 100 to join
4
120
30
100
Already covered ✅
10
800
80
160
Top up by 60
15
1,500
100
200
Top up by 40
20
2,400
120
240
Top up by 40
If your productivity increases over the campaign, collateral adjusts gradually — not in sudden jumps.
What Happens to Your Collateral
If your data passes review: Your full collateral is returned at the end of the campaign. You lose nothing.
If your data is flagged for quality issues: A portion or all of your staked tokens may be slashed depending on the severity. This applies to cases of manipulated, plagiarized, or deliberately low-quality submissions.
If you stop contributing mid-campaign: Your collateral remains locked until the campaign review period ends. Once complete, remaining collateral is returned provided no violations are found.
Quick Reference
~50 $PUBLIC/day
100 $PUBLIC
None
~100 $PUBLIC/day
200 $PUBLIC
+100
~150 $PUBLIC/day
300 $PUBLIC
+200
~200 $PUBLIC/day
400 $PUBLIC
+300
~500 $PUBLIC/day
1,000 $PUBLIC
+900
Coming Soon: Reputation-Based Collateral Reduction
We're building a reputation system where proven contributors with consistent quality track records will be able to stake less over time. If you already benefit from auto-pass review status based on your reputation score, you'll be first in line for reduced collateral requirements.
The principle is simple: the more trust you've earned, the less the network needs to ask of you.
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