Braintrust (BTRST)

Basics

• Started in / Announced on: 10-2018, came out of stealth on 6-2020
• Testnet release:
• Mainnet release: The BTRST token launched on the Ethereum mainnet on September 1, 2021 using the ERC-20 standard.
• From their website (20-10-2021):

"Braintrust is the first decentralized talent network that connects highly skilled technical freelancers with the world’s most reputable brands like Nestle, Porsche, Atlassian, Goldman Sachs and Nike. Braintrust’s unique business model allows talent to retain 100% of their earnings and enables organizations to spin up flexible, skilled teams on-demand at a fraction of the cost of traditional staffing firms. This new business model that limits fee extraction and enables community ownership is uniquely enabled by a blockchain token."

History

• From their website (20-10-2021):

"Braintrust is founded by serial entrepreneurs Adam Jackson and Gabriel Luna-Osasteski. They have spent the past two years building the first decentralized talent network uniquely enabled by a blockchain token."

Audits & Exploits

• Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].

Governance

Admin Keys

Braintrust Wallet

• From the website (20-10-2021):

"Braintrust holds your BTRST tokens for you on an internal wallet, but Braintrust is not an exchange. The Braintrust platform is keeping track of BTRST that you earn and storing it for you on a wallet hosted at an insured, qualified custodian. Multi-Sig wallets are held at Coinbase and Anchorage Intsitutional Custody. Once the tokens leave the Braintrust platform, they are your responsibility. If you’d like to use your tokens to vote, stake, or exchange, you will need an external wallet that is ERC-20 compatible."

• The snapshot page is held by 2 admins (20-10-2021).

DAO

• Has been the target of crypto sceptic Liron Shapira who goes off on its lack of utility, its burn rate and its non-existing governance (21-8-2022):

"Braintrust's #1 claim about the BTRST token is that it attracts contractors who appreciate having network governance rights... Yet there’s been no serious on-chain voting to date. A core team member even admitted that Braintrust's on-chain voting feature isn’t a priority. Does important governance still happen off-chain? Kind of. The Braintrust community recently “voted” on a proposal to partner with Kunai, a non-blockchain developer contracting marketplace. The decision appears to have had little community involvement. At the time of the vote on Kunai, Braintrust’s network had about 45,000 registered members. Only 27 wallets voted, a microscopic fraction of the community. Those 27 votes all gave unanimous consent. Very normal."

• Governance is token based, 1 token, 1 vote. The module is a fork of Compound. Votes can be delegated. For more details on the process, check here (20-10-2021). Some parts of which are done automatically:

"On-chain voting occurs on the Braintrust governance site and is used to determine outcomes that require a change in the blockchain's smart contract code that can be implemented automatically and without Braintrust’s intervention. An example of these types of proposals is changing Braintrust's fees or token rewards."

Further in the documentation it is clear that there are limits to what can be voted upon at the moment:

1. "Admin permissions: Adding or removing permissions for specific users.
2. Marketplace fee: Changing the marketplace or platform fee that Braintrust charges employers on talent billed fees
3. Marketplace category: Changing the “Roles” that are used on the platform. Currently the first level of role categories are: Engineer, Designer, Product, Other"

• From the website (20-10-2021):

"BTRST Governor Alpha is the governance module of the protocol; it allows addresses with more than 2,500,000 BTRST to propose changes to the protocol. Addresses that held voting weight, at the start of the proposal, invoked through the getpriorvotes function, can submit their votes during a 3 day voting period. If a majority, and at least 25,000,000 votes are cast for the proposal, it is queued in the Timelock, and can be implemented after 7 days."

• This is a bit confusing, since a bit further in the documentation it is said that 500 BTRST is enough:

"Anyone with at least 1 BTRST in their connected wallet can participate. However, only for on-chain creation of proposals, there is a 500 BTRST token minimum to ensure that only active/involved community members can propose."

Treasury

• From a commissioned Messari report (21-4-2023):

"Braintrust revenue in Q4’22 remained solid at $2.2 million, consistent with the revenue in Q3’22 and Q4’22. Braintrust revenue is accrued after a job is completed and talent is paid the contract value in USD. While the BTRST token doesn't accrue any network fees, Braintrust takes a flat 10% fee on top of all network transactions to sustain its operations and the community. The 10% flat fee paid by clients in cash is sent to a smart contract (i.e., the fee converter) and used to buy back BTRST from the open market. The acquired BTRST tokens are then deposited to an on-chain pool managed by the Braintrust DAO, thus strengthening its treasury.

• From a commissioned Messari report (10-1-2023):

"Braintrust revenue in Q4’22 remained solid at $2.2 million, down 4% from 2.3 million in Q3’22. Braintrust revenue is accrued after a job is completed and talent is paid the contract value in USD. While the BTRST token doesn't accrue any network fees, Braintrust takes a flat 10% fee on top of all network transactions (i.e., paid contracts) to sustain its operations and the community. This fee is paid by the client, representing Braintrust’s revenue. On a cumulative basis, Braintrust registered $11.3 million revenue from all network transactions since July 2019."

Token

Token Allocation

• It has a fixed supply of 250 million tokens (10-2021):

1. "Community Incentives and Rewards 54% Unlocked at network launch and distributed over time in accordance with community incentive and reward programs, including  the  connector  program.
2. Early Token Purchasers 22% 2 year lock, 1 year cliff, then monthly.
3. Early Contributors 19% 4 year release schedule, 1 year cliff, then monthly.
4. CoinList Sale 5% 3 month/6 month lock, releasing monthly depending on tier."

Utility

• Has been criticized for not fullfilling its utility promisses.
• Voting and soon (10-2021) staking. Still not live (8-2022).
• From the website (20-10-2021):

"The Braintrust token (BTRST) is the core incentive mechanism given to users for building, curating, and improving the network. Examples of this include building out a talent profile (work history, reputation, skill certifications, etc.), referring new talent, referring new clients and helping to vet and curate the talent pool. Community members can also earn tokens by taking courses on Braintrust Academy, an independent community-run educational program, which teaches talent valuable skills to help them earn more on the network."

Technology

• Whitepaper can be found here.
• Code can be viewed here.

Implementations

• Built on: Ethereum, forked the Compound governance contract.

Fees

• From their website (20-10-2021):

"Braintrust charges a flat 10% success fee to the client."

Staking

• Is being worked on (10-2021).

Oracle Method

• Conflicts within the Braintrust network are resolved by a Jury Member Pool, which anyone can volunteer for (10-2021).

Roadmap

• Can be found [Insert link here].

Revenue

• Revenue goes towards the DAO treasury, see above.

Usage

• From a commissioned Messari report (10-1-2023):

"In Q4’22, talent applications increased substantially given the rough landscape in the tech industry. Applications overall rose 59% (from 26,000 in Q3'22 to nearly 42,000 in Q4’22). On a year-over-year basis, the increase was 580% from over 6,000 active talent in Q4’21. First-time job applications rose 188% QoQ (from 3,600 in Q3’22 to over 10,000 in Q4’22), while incremental job applications rose 39% QoQ (from nearly 23,000 in Q3’22 to over 31,000 in Q4’22).

In Q4’22, registered clients on the Braintrust network reached 1,337, up 7% QoQ from 1,247 in Q3’22. On a year-over-year basis, the increase was 82% from nearly 733 clients in Q4’21. Relative to the 130% growth in the supply of active talent, the 7% growth in Braintrust clients shows a weakening demand due to the overall macroeconomic conditions."

• Has been accused of having no substantial usage while claiming otherwise (8-2021).

Projects that use or built on it

• According to the website it works with Nike, Deloitte, Nestle, Porche and other companies.

Pros and Cons

Cons

• Has been the target of crypto sceptic Liron Shapira who goes off on its lack of utility, its burn rate, lack of transparancy and its non-existing governance (21-8-2022).

Team, Funding and Partners

Team

• Full team can be found [here].
• The Braintrust Technology Foundation
• Freelance Labs is one of the 6 core teams that helped build the Braintrust platform (10-2021).

Funding

• $123M raised from, among others, Tiger Global, A16z, Packy McCormick, Pantera, Multicoin Capital, Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Ventures, IDEO, Hashkey Capital, Kindred Ventures and Variant Fund (21-8-2022).

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