EngineerDAO contracts are trust-less working agreements that allow both parties to put "skin in the game" to complete a task. We do not rely on reputation, past working relationships, networking, or even language barriers. The engineer must decide if the contact is a good fit for them - so much so that they're willing to lose money if they're wrong.
We believe this is how the Internet of Jobs goes world-scale and solves many of the legacy work arrangement issues experienced today.
EngineerDAO imagines contracts as contained, well-defined, testable tasks that outsource their implementation - but not integration. We capitalize on the experience that many software engineering tasks are 90% implementing a design, and 10% integration.
A supplier (party that needs work done) creates a contract in EngineerDAO. They list acceptance criteria, labels, description, timeframe, the bounty price, and the buy-in price.
The contract is created and listed when the supplier funds the contract with the bounty price.
An engineer (party looking for work) finds a contract that meets their needs. The work looks doable and the price is right.
The contract starts when the engineer funds the buy-in price. Bounty and buy-in are now locked in the contract and can only be withdrawn via specific rules. In the happy path, funds are transferred to the engineer in Step 5. See Sad Paths below for other scenarios.
The engineer and supplier collaborate to complete the contract requirements. The nature of this stage varies greatly!
Once satisfied with the submitted work, the supplier approves the contract manually or via automated tests.
The contract completes when the supplier is satisfied with the submitted work, within the agreed upon timeframe. When the supplier clicks "Accept", the contract automatically pays out the bounty + buy-in to the engineer and closes the contract.
As much as we all want to get along and work happily together, there are bound to be disagreements and failures. We believe that EngineerDAO makes these significantly less painful for all parties involved. The "buy-in" protects the supplier from a total loss. In the event that the engineer is unable to deliver, the buy-in compensates the supplier for their time lost.