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EEA Unveils New Rewards Program Supported by Microsoft

source-logo  livebitcoinnews.com 08 October 2019 18:00, UTC

Microsoft and Intel are backing a new type of rewards program for businesses developed by the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). The program was first introduced at Devcon 5 in Osaka, Japan.

A New Kind of Crypto Rewards Program

Rewards programs are solid ways of boosting crypto use. The more one utilizes or develops on a specific blockchain, the more rewards they can get. Typically, these rewards programs involve the garnering of tokens that individuals can spend or trade via exchanges and peer-to-peer platforms.

This seems to be how the EEA system will work. In addition, there will be three separate tokens that users can garner. They are reputation tokens, reward tokens and penalty tokens. At press time, there doesn’t appear to be explanations for the tokens or what they’ll stand for.

Perhaps a rewards token is as it sounds: a financial reward of some kind for those who utilize the blockchain in the development of apps or other products, while a reputation token is perhaps given to those who somehow improve the overall nature and appeal of the blockchain in question.

A penalty token might be harder to pinpoint. Has the user committed some sort of faulty action that results in a penalty towards themselves? Or did they stop someone else from committing such an act, and thereby earn tokens for their “heroism?”

While no clear explanation is given, Marley Gray – a principle architect at Microsoft, says that accumulated penalty tokens stem from demerits, and must be “factored in” before any rewards points can be earned. Thus, it appears these tokens have to do with individuals compromising the system in some way.

Gray says:

One of the problems you have is people making large commitments but never following through. This is almost more damaging than not stepping up at all because it leads to long delays when people are thinking things are happening and they’re not.

So, How Does It All Work?

Michael Reed – the program manager – explains the basic structure of the reward program, explaining:

It really can be applied to any consortium to incentivize teamwork. The example we are using is a software development consortium like EEA, where we are trying to motivate activities like editing and contributing to specifications, developing and adding code. Then, of course, you could apply penalties for negatives, such as lack of contribution, lack of review, missing deadlines and so on.

Cryptocurrency rewards program are nothing new at this stage, and many companies seem to be in the habit of tokenizing the rewards they offer as we step deeper and deeper into a digital age. One such company doing this is Caffe Lattesso, based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company offers what are known as “Lattessocoins” for every purchase. An individual can then enter the rewards into the company website and exchange them for other tokens, as well as cash.

livebitcoinnews.com