Liminal Commons: QF Strategy
This isn't for spectators. It's for the doers. The ones who get their hands dirty, wrestling ideas into reality. Liminal Commons is your ground. Your support structure. We make sure the act of building is sustainable. The old ways of getting funded? Clunky. Political. Built for gatekeepers, not creators. We torch that model. Our engine is Quadratic Funding. Forget chasing whales. The power is with the crowd. Your funding isn't just about how much money comes in, but how many people believe in what you're building. It's community conviction, weaponized into fuel. More backers, more power. Simple math for a complex world. This system isn't accidental. It's forged from two fundamental forces. A necessary tension.
The Yang (陽): The Edge. Merit. Popularity. This is the fire. Output. Effectiveness. The raw talent that cuts through the noise. Projects that hit, that resonate, that satisfy many – they earn power. This is the positive charge. What gets seen, gets rewarded. The Yin (陰): The Foundation. Community. Diversity. This is the root system. The unseen structure. Not everything vital is popular or immediately "efficient.” True strength comes from interdependence. From the diverse, sometimes quiet, pieces that keep the whole ecosystem alive. Competition is a tool, not the master. It must synergize. How do we balance these forces? With a two-stroke engine:
Stroke 1: The Citizen Pulse Everyone in the Commons throws their weight behind projects they value. This is the raw signal. The popular vote. Projects that capture this energy earn Builder Strength. This isn't just vanity metrics; it's earned influence. Stroke 2: The Builder Ignition Builders, armed with the strength they've earned, become stewards. They direct a portion of the funding pool. Not just to the loudest projects, but to the essential ones. The critical infrastructure. The weird experiments. The vital work overlooked by the mainstream. This is the Yin in action. Builders investing in the health of the soil they grow from. Using their earned power to cultivate the entire garden, even if it costs them a piece of their own harvest. See how it works? Popularity earns you influence (Yang). That influence is then used to ensure the vital, diverse parts of the ecosystem are funded (Yin).
Here's the fuel flow:
Getting that first ~$500? We make it low friction. It starts with community signal, but a nod from other builders provides an easy, significant boost. Their signal is amplified more strongly for lower-funded work. Build something that clicks, and the community's small contributions stack up fast, pushing you towards ~$1500. The builder boost still helps, but its proportional impact decreases as your community support grows. Hitting the ~$3000 cap? That's the benchmark for significant impact. It means a large number of people are backing your vision. At this level, the raw community signal is the primary driver. The monthly cap keeps the energy circulating. No single project drains the pool.
And the Builder Ignition layer? It ensures the foundational, non-viral, but necessary work gets done. Funded by the very people who understand its importance.
Crucially, this system funds individual builders. Not abstract projects or opaque organizations. The resources go directly to the hands doing the work. This creates transparency and direct accountability. Clean system. Direct. Community-powered. Fueling the individual creator.
Verify you're real. Build value. Get the fuel. Now. Build.
