Guides

Collective Rewards: How to Become a Backer

By Alamira
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December 3, 2024

In Collective Rewards, everyone gets a share by contributing. Even if you don’t build projects yourself – it is your chance to participate in the ecosystem development by supporting a Builder. This collaborative approach fosters a thriving ecosystem where every member contributes to shared success and growth.

In this article, we are exploring the step-by-step process to becoming a backer, supporting impactful projects and earning a share of rewards for driving the network’s growth.

Explore the Collective Rewards and choose your role today!

What is a “Backer” and why should you become one?

Backers are RIF stakers who allocate their backing power (stRIF tokens) to support specific builders. 

The key advantage of becoming a backer is that backers earn rewards from activated builders who choose to share a percentage of their earnings. The backers’ power is derived from their stRIF token balance, which can be allocated to one or multiple builders in proportions, chosen by the backer.

For example:

  • A builder earns 20% of the total rewards for a cycle.
  • If the builder sets a Backer-Reward Percentage of 25%, 5% of the total rewards for that cycle go to their backers, with individual shares based on each backer’s allocated votes.

Moreover, the Collective Rewards offer backers the opportunity to:

  • Earn rewards for supporting innovative projects.
  • Actively contribute to the growth of the Rootstock ecosystem.
  • Flexibly adjust backing allocations based on builder performance and strategy creating a fully decentralized democratic experience.

Step-by-step guide to becoming a backer

Step 1: Stake your RIF 

If you haven’t already, stake your RIF into stRIF.

Step 2: Explore activated builders

Go to the Collective Rewards screen where you can see all the Builders who are already Active or on the way of getting activated – they appear as cards. 

Step 3: Explore the rewards in the rewards leaderboard

Explore the Active Builders in the ecosystem. All the Active Builders, eligible for your backing, will be in the Rewards Leaderboard.

In the Leaderboard, you can see the “Backer Rewards Percentage” each Builder has chosen to share with their backers under “Backer Rewards %” column. You can also see an estimation of the rewards the backers for each builder will receive for the Cycle, in “Est. Backers Rewards”.

Step 4: Choose the builders you want to back

Choose your builders. You can choose as many builders you want to back as you want from the table by pressing on Select.

Step 5: Manage your allocations

Press the Manage Allocations button at the top of the table. This will open a new screen where you can decide on the amounts to allocate to each Builder. 

In the Manage Allocations screen, you will see your total stRIF Balance, which you can allocate for backing. 

Note: When you allocate the amount you don’t lose ownership of your stRIF, you simply put it to work in the Collective Rewards. If you want to increase this amount, you can stake more RIF.  

You will be able to see the portion of your stRIF Balance allocated as backing in the Allocated amount metric. The portion of your stRIF Balance that is not allocated as backing, you will be able to see in the Unallocated amount metric. 

Those metrics will get updated once you save your allocations. 

Step 6: Set the amount you want to allocate

Once you’ve decided how to distribute your allocation, you can cap the amount to allocate by using Set amount to allocate. The dApp will automatically show this amount distributed equally to the Active Builders you have selected.

For example, if you have 2000 stRIF but you only want to allocate 1000 of it, you can type 1000 in the Set amount to allocate, and you will automatically see the amount split equally between your selected Builders. 

Step 7: Adjust your allocations

From the Builder cards, you can also set or readjust the amount to allocate for each builder. You can use the input field, sliders, or %s to do so. 

Step 8: Save your allocations

Once you are ready with your backing choice, you can save your allocations, they will be reflected on-chain and you can start receiving rewards from your chosen Builders. 

Step 9: You are now officially a backer

You can come back to this screen anytime to change your allocations or back new Builders.

Influence and empower, shaping new direction of Stake RIF, support impactful projects and their Builders, and receive Backers Rewards in the form of Bitcoin and RIF.

Become a backer today!

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