A social media platform where "likes" are replaced by scarce tokens. Users have a limited supply of tokens and must spend them thoughtfully to engage with content. This creates economic incentives for quality content and meaningful curation.
"By reducing how easy it is to like content, the bar for what goes viral goes a notch higher."
Traditional social media incentivizes engagement at any cost. Kudos flips this model by making engagement meaningful through scarcity.
- New users receive: 100 tokens upon account creation
- Purpose: Enough to explore and participate before earning/receiving stipends
When a user spends X tokens on a post:
| Recipient | Percentage | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Post Creator | 60% (0.6X) | Immediate earning reward |
| Government Pool | 20% (0.2X) | Funds weekly stipends |
| Burned | 20% (0.2X) | Deflationary mechanism |
When a user spends tokens on a comment (0.5 tokens per comment):
| Recipient | Percentage | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Original Post Creator | 30% (0.15) | Rewards content that sparks discussion |
| Commenter | 10% (0.05) | If comment receives tokens |
| Government Pool | 10% (0.05) | Funds stipends |
| Burned | 50% (0.25) | Stronger deflationary pressure |
- New account creation — 100 tokens (one-time)
- Weekly stipends — Funded by taxes + decay + government cut
- Earnings from content — 60% of tokens spent on your content
- Spending on posts/comments — Primary circulation mechanism
- Permanent burning — 20% of post spending, 50% of comment spending
- Time decay — Returns to government pool (not destroyed)
- Progressive taxation — Redistributed to active users
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum spend | 1 token |
| Maximum spend | 10 tokens per post |
Spending Meaning:
- 1-2 tokens — "I like this"
- 3-5 tokens — "I really like this"
- 6-10 tokens — "This is exceptional"
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost to comment | 0.5 tokens |
| Daily free comments | First 2 comments |
| Max tokens per comment | 5 tokens |
Comment Economy:
- First 2 comments per day are FREE (prevents lockout of new/poor users)
- Additional comments cost 0.5 tokens each
- Comments can receive tokens (max 5), boosting visibility
- Great comments become valuable, incentivizing quality discussion
- Cost: Free (sharing helps creators gain exposure)
- Reposts: Not allowed (prevents content duplication)
- Sharing: Helps original creator gain visibility organically
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Window | 24 hours after spending |
| After 24 hours | Tokens permanently locked to post |
| Refund | Full token refund if unliked within window |
Each post displays TWO distinct metrics:
- Social Proof: Number of unique users who spent tokens
- Example: "89 people"
- Quality Signal: Total tokens spent
- Example: "347 tokens"
Combined display: "347 tokens from 89 people"
- High average spend (347 ÷ 89 = ~4 tokens) indicates high quality signal
Content moves through different visibility tiers based on age and engagement:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CONTENT LIFECYCLE │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────┐│
│ │ Queue 0 │────▶│ Queue 1 │────▶│ Queue 2 │────▶│ Q3 ││
│ │ HOT/NEW │ │ TRENDING │ │ ESTABLISHED │ │ARCHIV││
│ │ (0-48h) │ │ (3-14d) │ │ (3-8w) │ │(2Mo+)││
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ││
│ │ Visibility: │ │ Visibility: │ │ Visibility: │ │ Vis: ││
│ │ 2.0x │ │ 1.5x │ │ 1.0x │ │ 0.3x ││
│ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────┘│
│ ▲ ▲ ▲ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ └────────────────────┴────────────────────┘ │
│ BOOST (if previously engaged) │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Queue Level 0: Hot/New (0-48 hours)
- Highest visibility boost (2.0x)
- Shown widely to establish initial signal
- Fast promotion to trending if engagement is strong
Queue Level 1: Trending (Days 3-14)
- Moderate visibility (1.5x)
- Competes with other recent content
- Can remain here if consistently receiving tokens
Queue Level 2: Established (Weeks 3-8)
- Lower baseline visibility (1.0x)
- Relies more on organic discovery
- Receives first boost at 4 weeks if historically engaged
Queue Level 3: Archive (2+ months old)
- Minimal baseline visibility (0.3x)
- Periodic boosts at increasing intervals
- Boost effectiveness determines next boost schedule
Purpose: Surface evergreen content and prevent good content from being lost
Boost Behavior:
- Temporarily promotes content back to Queue Level 1 visibility for 24-48 hours
- If receives tokens during boost → qualifies for next boost
- If receives minimal tokens → boost interval increases or stops entirely
- If receives high tokens → may promote back to Queue Level 0
Boost Eligibility Criteria:
- Has maintained >X total tokens after decay
- Previous boost generated engagement
- Time-based pattern detection (annual, seasonal relevance)
Adaptive Boost Intervals:
- Strong performance → shorter intervals (resurface sooner)
- Weak performance → longer intervals or discontinuation
- System learns which content is truly evergreen vs temporarily viral
Formula:
decay_rate = base_decay × (1 / (1 + recent_engagement_factor))
Active Posts (receiving new tokens regularly):
- Slow decay: ~1% per week
- Recent engagement keeps decay rate low
- Self-sustaining for truly evergreen content
Inactive Posts (no tokens in 7+ days):
- Fast decay: ~5% per week
- Accelerates return of tokens to circulation
┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ Post Tokens │──decay──▶ │ Government Pool │──stipend─▶│ User Accounts │
│ (locked) │ │ (reserve) │ │ (available) │
└─────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘
- Decayed tokens return to government pool (not burned)
- Used to fund weekly stipends
- Creates circulation without inflation
If content is truly valuable, it will naturally receive sporadic tokens over time, keeping decay rate low. No special protection needed—quality content self-sustains.
Applied to token wealth above thresholds:
| Token Balance | Tax Rate | Applied To |
|---|---|---|
| 0-200 | 0% | — |
| 201-500 | 5% | Amount above 200 |
| 501-1,000 | 10% | Amount above 500 |
| 1,001-2,000 | 15% | Amount above 1,000 |
| 2,000+ | 20% | Amount above 2,000 |
Example Calculation:
User with 1,500 tokens pays:
0% on first 200 = 0 tokens
5% on next 300 = 15 tokens (300 × 0.05)
10% on next 500 = 50 tokens (500 × 0.10)
15% on remaining 500 = 75 tokens (500 × 0.15)
────────────────────────────────────
Total weekly tax = 140 tokens
Stipend Pool Composition:
- Tax collected from wealthy accounts
- Decay returns from old content
- Government's 20% cut from all spending
Distribution Formula:
Total Stipend = Base Stipend + Engagement Bonus + New User Bonus
Where:
- Base Stipend = (Gov Pool × 0.80) / Active Accounts
- Engagement Bonus = +10 if earned > 0 tokens last week
- New User Bonus = +10 for first 4 weeks (2x base)
Result: Active participants always have tokens to engage, good creators earn more through both direct earnings AND higher stipends.
- Identity verification: One phone number = one account
- Prevents: Sybil attacks, fake account multiplication
- Token pool: Single unified pool per account
Users can create multiple public "pages" or personas:
| Feature | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Use cases | Professional/personal separation, different interests |
| Token sharing | All pages draw from the same account token pool |
| Token earnings | All earnings flow to unified pool |
| Anti-gaming | Prevents gaming through account multiplication |
- Account Creation: Phone verification prevents mass account creation
- Token Markets: Accept black markets will exist; official gifting is transparent
- Like-for-Like Cartels: Limited effectiveness since total tokens remain constant in closed loops
- New User Protection: Free comments + stipend bonuses + initial 100 tokens
- Wealth Concentration: Progressive taxation + decay + burning mechanisms
Multiple feed options to balance discovery, personalization, and quality:
| Feed | Description | Sorting |
|---|---|---|
| Hot Today | Queue 0 & 1 content | Recent token velocity |
| Following | Content from followed pages | Chronological + engagement weighted |
| Hidden Gems | High engagement relative to follower count | Undervalued content |
| Resurfaced | Boosted evergreen content from Queue 3 | Boost performance |
| Trending This Week | Highest total tokens in 7 days | Total tokens |
- Show content liked by users whose taste aligns with yours
- Learn preferences without creating filter bubbles
- Balance between discovery and relevance
- Collaborative filtering based on spending patterns
| Category | Target % | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Locked on posts | 40-60% | Healthy engagement |
| Circulating | 30-50% | Available for spending |
| Government pool | 10-20% | Ready for stipends |
Gentle mechanisms rather than harsh penalties:
- Social visibility: "You've spent X tokens this month" as public metric
- Achievement badges: "Generous curator" vs "Token hoarder" status
- Diminishing spending power (optional):
- First 100 tokens/week: 100% value
- Next 100 tokens: 90% value
- Encourages spreading tokens rather than dumping all at once
- Natural pressure: Hoarding = opting out of influence
Deflationary pressures:
- 20% burn on post spending
- 50% burn on comment spending
- Taxation removes tokens from wealthy accounts
- Decay returns tokens slowly
Inflationary pressures:
- New accounts (100 tokens each)
- Creator earnings (60% of spending)
- Weekly stipends
Goal: Maintain stable purchasing power where 1 token means roughly the same thing over time.
| Scenario | Cost |
|---|---|
| First 2 comments/day | FREE |
| Additional comments | 0.5 tokens |
| Max tokens receivable | 5 per comment |
| Nested economy | Great comments become valuable |
Users can see:
- "This post has 347 tokens from 89 people"
- Their own token balance and spending history
- Tax paid and stipends received
- Decay happening on their posts (optional: real-time visibility)
- No opt-out: Creators cannot decline tokens or limit who can spend on their content
- Reason: Defeats the purpose of open quality signaling
| Scenario | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Spent tokens on removed post | No refund (penalty for violating policies) |
| Where removed post tokens go | Government pool |
- ✅ Boost Algorithm — Based on peak token percentage + views
- ✅ Share/Repost — Sharing free, reposts not allowed
- ✅ Discovery — Through feeds, lower queue = lower visibility
- ✅ Token Market — Official gifting allowed, marketplace planned
- ✅ Bootstrapping — Early users get bonus, founder accounts seed ecosystem
- ✅ Content Moderation — No refund, tokens go to government
- ✅ Wealth Visibility — Public leaderboards, transparency helps
- 🔄 Appeal Systems — Not in MVP
- ✅ Analytics — Yes, creator tools planned
- Tipping beyond the 10 token cap
- Token-gated content
- Subscriptions using tokens
- Creator fundraising
- Gamification elements
- International considerations
| Decision | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Token Scarcity | 100 initial, max 10 per post, progressive tax, time decay |
| Economic Model | 60/20/20 split (creator/govt/burn) |
| Content Lifecycle | MLFQ-style queues with adaptive decay and boosts |
| Anti-Gaming | Phone verification, unified pool, multiple pages |
| Engagement Costs | Posts 1-10 tokens, comments 0.5 tokens (first 2 free) |
| Redistribution | Progressive weekly tax funds stipends |
| Feed Algorithm | Hybrid with multiple feed types |
| Unlike Window | 24 hours for full refund |
| Display Metrics | Social proof (people) + quality signal (tokens) |
This project was born from a conversation about improving social media:
Amay: "An idea to improve social media. Likes should be a currency, everyone gets a limited number of them when they join. To like a post, you literally have to spend your hard-earned likes..."
S-Alan: "depends on how people would gain the like currency, like non content creators ko kaise milega... daily login pe thode likes milenge?"
Amay: "there would be some stipend for the users, and this stipend would come from taxing the rich"
The name "Kudos" was chosen because it captures the essence of giving genuine recognition:
"it could just be kudos... like 'shit i only have 20 kudos'... 'damn it about 15% of my kudos go in taxes'"
The system is built on PostgreSQL with the following core tables:
accounts— User accounts with token balancespages— User profiles/personasposts— Content with token metricscomments— Threaded discussionstoken_transactions— Complete audit trailtax_collections— Weekly tax recordsstipend_distributions— Weekly stipend recordsdecay_events— Token decay historysystem_state— Global economic metrics
- Auth Service — Phone verification, JWT tokens
- User Service — Profile management, avatars
- Content Service — Posts, comments, CRUD operations
- Token Service — Spending, balance, transactions (Go/gRPC)
- Feed Service — MLFQ feeds, recommendations (Go/gRPC)
- Jobs Service — Decay, taxation, stipends, queue updates (Go)
- API Gateway — Request routing, rate limiting
This is a living document. As we address open questions and run simulations, this design will evolve.