BitShares 2.0 Worker Primer
This is a primer for those interested in being a worker or want to know what one is.
Introduction:BitShares 2 separates responsibilities and incentives activities that are beneficial to the network, thus acknowledging different skill sets and interested community members to have incentives to contribute in the most appropriate way.
- Witnesses are paid for maintaining the back-bone of the network.
- Committee members are unpaid volunteers that organize the community and propose changes to the network.
- Marketers are paid in referral fees.
- Workers are paid for whatever they propose and do.
Each of the above (except Marketers) requires users to vote for the people, proposals, and/or changes. Those with sufficient approval will be compensated.
Workers are the "catch all" group where if you have an idea for something that could improve the network, you can get "paid" by the network to do it. Organizing meet-ups, developing a new tool or feature for the community, and maintaining websites and infrastructure (e.g. the mumble server team or linux distribution) are all examples of things workers may do.
How to Create a WorkerWorkers are currently created with the cli_wallet with the following command syntax
create_worker owner_account work_begin_date work_end_date daily_pay name url worker_settings broadcast
example, awesomebitsharer is creating a one day worker starting Oct 28 and will get paid 1 BTS/day (vesting in 1 day) to make an android app. The first command won't broadcast, this will just check:
create_worker "awesomebitsharer" "2015-10-28T00:00:00" "2015-10-29T00:00:00" 100000 "BitShares Android App Development" "http://bitsharesandroid.org/worker_proposal.html" {"type" : "vesting", "pay_vesting_period_days" : 1}
Notes:
the url should point to something describing your proposal: what will you do, by when, and for how much?
for the worker properties you can choose:
"type" can be "refund" (return your pay back to the pool to be used for future projects), "vesting" (pay that you pay yourself), or "burn" (destroys your pay thus reducing share supply, equivalent to share buy-back of a company stock)
"pay_vesting_period_days" is the integer number of days you set for vesting. Some people don't want workers to withdraw and sell large sums of BTS immediately, as it puts sell pressure on BTS. Also, if you require vesting, you have "skin in the game" and thus an incentive to improve BTS value.
Pay is pay per day (not hour or maintenance period) and is in units of 1/100000 BTS (the precision of BTS)
To generate a worker proposal, add the word "true" to the end of the command as in:
create_worker "awesomebitsharer" "2015-10-28T00:00:00" "2015-10-29T00:00:00" 100000 "BitShares Android App Development" "http://bitsharesandroid.org/worker_proposal.html" {"type" : "vesting", "pay_vesting_period_days" : 1} true
How to see proposals on the chainSince there is no support in the UI yet, go to
http://cryptofresh.com/ and look at the worker proposal chart.
You also can inspect all the objects 1.4.* (e.g. "get_object 1.4.0")
unlocked >>> get_object 1.14.4
get_object 1.14.4
[{
"id": "1.14.4",
"worker_account": "1.2.22517",
"work_begin_date": "2015-10-21T11:00:00",
"work_end_date": "2015-11-21T11:00:00",
"daily_pay": 1000000000,
"worker": [
1,{
"balance": "1.13.235"
}
],
"vote_for": "2:73",
"vote_against": "2:74",
"total_votes_for": "14632377015617",
"total_votes_against": 0,
"name": "bitasset-fund-pool",
"url": "https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,19317.0.html"
}
]
How to Vote for a WorkerCurrently the GUI doesn't have an interface, but you an vote using the CLI:
update_worker_votes your-account {"vote_for":["proposal-id"]} true
for example:
update_worker_votes "awesomebitsharer" {"vote_for":["1.4.0"]} true
you can also vote against or abstain (remove your vote for or against)
update_worker_votes your-account {"vote_against":["proposal-id"]} true
update_worker_votes your-account {"vote_abstain":["proposal-id"]} true
How Workers Get PaidEvery hour the worker budget is processed and workers are paid in full order of the number of votes for minus the number of votes against. The last worker to get paid will be paid with whatever is left, so may receive partial payment. The daily budget can be estimated by inspecting the most recent budget object 2.13.*
for example:
new >>> get_object 2.13.361
get_object 2.13.361
[{
"id": "2.13.361",
"time": "2015-10-28T15:00:00",
"record": {
"time_since_last_budget": 3600,
"from_initial_reserve": "106736452914941",
"from_accumulated_fees": 15824269,
"from_unused_witness_budget": 2250000,
"requested_witness_budget": 180000000,
"total_budget": 1520913100,
"witness_budget": 180000000,
"worker_budget": 1340913100,
"leftover_worker_funds": 0,
"supply_delta": 1502838831
}
}
]
So the daily budget is worker_budget*24=1340913100*24=32181914400 (in units of 1/100000 BTS, or 321,8191.44 BTS). There is currently a maximum daily worker pay of 500k BTS, and this can be found using the "get_global_properties" command in the cli_wallet
Here are the full details
Every second, [ 17/(2^32) * reserve fund ] is allocated for witnesses and workers. The reserve fund is maximum number of BTS available less those currently in circulation. This is defined in:
https://github.com/cryptonomex/graphene/blob/f85dec1c23f6bf9259ad9f15311b2e4aac4f9d44/libraries/chain/include/graphene/chain/config.hppEvery hour the total available reserve fund is calculated by finding how many BTS are available to be distributed and how many BTS will be returned to the reserve fund (i.e., "refunded") during the next maintenance interval.
First find how many BTS have not been distributed:
from_initial_reserve = max_supply - current supply of BTS
from:
max_supply: get_object 1.3.0
current_supply: get_object 2.3.0
then modify it by adding the accumulated fees and witness budget remaining (i.e., 1.5 BTS per block is budgeted, so budget remaining is 1.5 BTS * (number of blocks left in maintenance period+blocks missed by witnesses)) in this maintenance cycle (they will be added to the "reserve fund" permanently at maintenance)
updated reserve fund = from_initial_reserve + from_accumulated_fees + from_unused_witness_budget
variables all from: get_object 2.13.* (choose the most recent one, for example)
Next calculate how much is available to be spent on workers and witnesses is:
total_budget = (updated reserve fund)*(time_since_last_budget)*17/(2^32)
rounded up to the nearest integer
Ok, now to find how much workers will get in this budget period (1 hour), you find the smaller of the available pay AFTER subtracting witness budget from the total_budget OR the worker_budget_per_day/24 from "get_global_properties"
worker_budget=min(total_budget-witness_budget,worker_budget_per_day/24)
That is how much per hour allocated for all workers. NOW you rank each worker and pay them one hours worth of pay in order or # votes.