SourceCred
SourceCred is an open-source, community-driven protocol that uses a modified PageRank algorithm to calculate reputation scores (Cred) and distribute community-specific digital currency (Grain) to participants in DAOs and Web3 communities based on their contributions across GitHub, Discord, and Discourse.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- Headquarters—
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What SourceCred does
SourceCred is an open-source, community-driven protocol that enables organizations, primarily DAOs and Web3 communities, to measure and reward member contributions through a graph-based reputation system. The technology stack consists of two core components: Cred, a non-transferable reputation score calculated via a modified PageRank algorithm (CredRank) across a Contribution Graph that aggregates activity from GitHub, Discord, and Discourse through dedicated plugins; and Grain, a community-specific digital currency distributed to participants based on their Cred scores, with configurable distribution policies (IMMEDIATE, BALANCED, RECENT). The system includes an experimental alternative algorithm (CredEquate), an Admin Portal for instance management, CSV-based integration with Gnosis Safe and Disperse.app for payouts, and community-built accessory tools for identity merging and governance voting.
The company operates as a decentralized autonomous organization rather than a traditional corporate entity, with no formal ownership structure, no institutional investors, and no traditional sales function. SourceCred transitioned from a founder-led governance model to a decentralized 'Core' group using Town Halls consensus processes. Known adopters include MakerDAO, 1Hive (via their Pollen instance), Aragon (via the AraCred fork), MetaGame, Giveth, Token Engineering Commons, ShineDAO, GEOWEB, Stacks Advocates, and Shenanigan—spanning DeFi, gaming, social impact, governance, and energy verticals.
The business model is non-commercial: the software is free and open-source, distributed via a GitHub template repository that communities clone and self-host. Funding flows through sponsorships (Protocol Labs is the named sponsor, backing Grain at approximately $1 per token redeemable for USDC) and an optional 'dependency cred' mechanism where communities voluntarily allocate a default 5% of minted Cred back to the core project. There are no licensing fees, no paid tiers, and no disclosed revenue figures.
SourceCred firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- SourceCred
- Legal name
- SourceCred
- Website
- https://sourcecred.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- SourceCred is an open-source, community-driven protocol that uses a modified PageRank algorithm to calculate reputation scores (Cred) and distribute community-specific digital currency (Grain) to participants in DAOs and Web3 communities based on their contributions across GitHub, Discord, and Discourse.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
SourceCred industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Open-source DAO Contribution Tracking Software
- NAICS
- Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (5162)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Open-Source & Developer Communities (BPAMABAM)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Developer & Open-Source Communities (MPACAJAK)
Keywords
SourceCred business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Community Sponsorship: SourceCred is funded through sponsorships and donations from organizations that use or support the project. Protocol Labs is mentioned as a sponsor providing backing that keeps Grain at approximately $1 per token. The project does not have a commercial revenue model as it is open-source.
- Dependency Cred: Communities can optionally allocate a percentage (default 5%) of minted Cred to SourceCred as dependency cred, which supports the project's longevity. This is voluntary but provides a way for communities to contribute back to the core project.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free Open-Source Tier |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels7 records
SourceCred product offering
Product offeringCore offering
SourceCred is an open-source protocol and software suite that helps communities measure and reward value creation. It uses a modified PageRank algorithm called CredRank to compute Cred reputation scores on a Contribution Graph built from activity on GitHub, Discord, and Discourse platforms, then distributes Grain tokens as rewards based on those scores. Communities self-host SourceCred instances and configure plugin weights, minting rules, and distribution policies to align with their own values.
Product overview
SourceCred is a protocol and software suite for communities to measure and reward value creation. The core product consists of Cred (a reputation score calculated via modified PageRank on a Contribution Graph) and Grain (a community-specific digital currency for rewarding contributions). Communities deploy SourceCred Instances based on the Template Instance, configuring plugins for GitHub, Discord, Discourse, and Initiatives to track contributions. The Admin Portal provides UI-based instance management. CSV Grain Integration enables external token payouts via Disperse.app or Gnosis Safe. Accessory tools include Cred voting and meeting attendance Discord bots. Two core algorithms are available: CredRank (graph-based, production) and CredEquate (tree-based, experimental Alpha).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Cred Cred is the reputation score earned by participants for making contributions to a project tracked by SourceCred. It is calculated via a modified PageRank algorithm (CredRank) operating on a Contribution Graph built from GitHub, Discord, Discourse, and Initiatives activity. Cred cannot be bought, sold, or transferred, and it retroactively updates to reflect newly discovered contributions.
- Grain Grain is a community-specific digital currency distributed to participants based on their Cred scores. Each community controls its own Grain price and distribution policy (IMMEDIATE, BALANCED, or RECENT). Grain can be redeemed for stable value such as USDC or used as governance voting weight. Distribution is opt-in due to potential legal and tax considerations.
- SourceCred Instance The SourceCred Instance is the self-hosted deployment of the SourceCred software that a community uses to compute Cred scores and distribute Grain. Each instance has its own Cred scores, Grain token, plugin configuration, weights, and data storage, and can be managed via a built-in Admin Portal when run locally.
- Template Instance The Template Instance is a GitHub template repository that lets a community bootstrap a new SourceCred Instance in minutes. It includes pre-configured GitHub Actions that run SourceCred every 24 hours and on configuration changes, GitHub Pages hosting for the instance UI, and default configurations for the GitHub, Discord, Discourse, and Initiatives plugins.
Quantifiable outcome
- Grain can be redeemed at approximately $1 per Grain in the SourceCred community, backed by Protocol Labs sponsorship.
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use SourceCred
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
SourceCred technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration11 records
AI capability2 records
Feature8 records
SourceCred partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.
- 1Hiveflagship1Hive is a flagship user of SourceCred, running their own instance called Pollen. They have developed additional tools including the Pollen bot for identity merging and the Pollen cred fetcher. 1Hive is one of the most active SourceCred implementations.
- MakerDAOflagshipMakerDAO uses SourceCred to track contributions to their ecosystem. They maintain their own SourceCred instance (makerdao-cred) and are a prominent example of SourceCred adoption in the DeFi space.
- ShineDAOcoreShineDAO has a formal partnership proposal with SourceCred for collaboration. They run their own SourceCred instance and are working on integrated use of the protocol for their DAO governance.
- GitHubcoreGitHub is the primary platform for SourceCred distribution and hosting. The template repository uses GitHub Actions for automated cred computation and GitHub Pages for hosting. GitHub's API is used by the GitHub plugin to track contributions.
- DiscordcoreDiscord is a key platform supported by SourceCred's Discord plugin. Communities can add a SourceCred bot to their Discord servers to track messages and reactions for cred calculation.
- DiscoursecoreDiscourse forums are supported via the Discourse plugin, which fetches public forum data via API to track topics, posts, and likes for cred calculation.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights4 records
SourceCred competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Karma: Karma is a Web3 contribution-tracking platform that aggregates on-chain and off-chain activity to build contributor profiles and grant reputations for DAOs. It is comparable to SourceCred as a parallel infrastructure play for measuring DAO member value, though Karma leans more on attestations and grants rather than PageRank-style scoring.
- Colony: Colony is a DAO platform for decentralized organizations that includes built-in reputation and reputation-weighted decision making. It competes with SourceCred in the DAO reputation and contribution-reward space, with deeper integration into organizational workflows but narrower adoption among pure-contribution communities.
- Coordinape: Coordinape is a DAO-native tool for distributing compensation to contributors using a peer-to-peer 'gift circle' mechanism. It directly competes with SourceCred in the Web3 contribution-rewards category, with a simpler but less graph-based approach to member allocation.
Others
- 1Hive: 1Hive is a flagship SourceCred user (Pollen instance) and a notable Web3 community. It is adjacent rather than competitive, since 1Hive depends on SourceCred infrastructure for its own contribution-rewards system but represents the customer/partnership side of the ecosystem.
- Disperse.app: Disperse.app is an Ethereum tool for distributing tokens to many addresses and integrates directly with SourceCred's CSV Grain Integration for payouts. It is a complementary infrastructure partner rather than a competitor, sitting one layer below SourceCred in the payout stack.
- MetaGame: MetaGame is an open-source project using SourceCred for contribution tracking within its decentralized wiki/guild. It is an adjacent ecosystem participant and customer rather than a competitor, illustrating SourceCred's adoption among meta-DAOs.
Broad incumbents
- Gitcoin: Gitcoin is a larger Web3 platform for funding public goods, with quadratic grants and a contributor reputation layer (Gitcoin Passport, Allo Protocol). It is comparable as a broader incumbent that addresses contributor recognition and rewards at greater scale, often overlapping with the communities SourceCred serves.
- Aragon: Aragon is a broad DAO infrastructure platform providing governance, treasury, and dispute resolution tooling. It is comparable because Aragon is both a SourceCred customer (running AraCred fork) and a broader incumbent whose platform decisions influence the demand for stand-alone reputation tools.
Emerging players
- DAOstack: DAOstack is an early-stage DAO operating system with reputation-weighted governance and a focus on holographic consensus. It is comparable as an emerging infrastructure player whose reputation primitives could substitute for SourceCred in DAOs that prefer all-in-one stacks.
- DeepDAO: DeepDAO provides analytics and rankings of DAOs and their members. While not a direct reputation tool, it overlaps with SourceCred in surfacing contributor information for DAO ecosystems and could expand into contribution scoring.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
SourceCred social profiles
Digital presenceSourceCred financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
SourceCred leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
SourceCred funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
SourceCred M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about SourceCred
What does SourceCred do?
SourceCred is an open-source protocol and software suite that helps communities measure and reward value creation. It uses a modified PageRank algorithm called CredRank to compute Cred reputation scores on a Contribution Graph built from activity on GitHub, Discord, and Discourse platforms, then distributes Grain tokens as rewards based on those scores. Communities self-host SourceCred instances and configure plugin weights, minting rules, and distribution policies to align with their own values.
Is SourceCred a public or private company?
SourceCred is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was SourceCred founded?
SourceCred was founded in 2020. It employs 11 to 50 people.
How does SourceCred make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Community Sponsorship is the primary driver. The others are dependency Cred.
Who are SourceCred's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Karma, Colony and Coordinape. Others are 1Hive, Disperse.app and MetaGame. Broad incumbents are Gitcoin and Aragon. Emerging players are DAOstack and DeepDAO.
Does SourceCred have an API?
Yes. SourceCred provides a JavaScript/Node.js CLI API. Developers can access lower-level commands via `yarn sourcecred ` after running `yarn sourcecred help`. Observable notebooks provide data analysis capabilities including: SourceCred API Tutorial, Grain Redemption Price calculator, Participant Grain Earnings Calculator, Grain Config Simulator, Nodes and Edges CSV Downloader, Cred and Grain CSV Downloader, Participant Grain Tax Withholdings Calculator, and Props Cred Analysis Notebook. The external plugin tutorial enables building custom plugins. Feature flags are available for individual commands via `yarn sourcecred help <command name>`. Developer documentation is at sourcecred.io/docs/api/documentation.
What industry is SourceCred in?
SourceCred's product category is Open-source DAO Contribution Tracking Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMABAM, Open-Source & Developer Communities, with a secondary code of MPACAJAK, Developer & Open-Source Communities. Its NAICS code is 5162 and its SIC code is 7372.