Contributor Payment Samples

Companion to the Contributor Payment Guidelines · Worked examples using KTD's real Working Groups

Tracker sheet DEP2_Contributor Payment Tracker_Template with Sample

These samples show the Contributor Payment Guidelines filled in for the KAT Tokenomics DAO (KTD) — an infrastructure DAO whose regeneration is systemic and indirect, so its seed fund goes mainly to human-capital / milestone work. Every task, deliverable, and amount below comes from KTD's approved Working Group plans; use them as a pattern any DAO can copy.

Reading note. Budgets are stated in USD; DEP 2 pays in USDT at 1:1. The approval chain in every sample is the standard one:

DAO member → WG Lead → DAO Lead → DF

Relationship to the Cashbook. This tracker sits upstream of the existing DEP 2 — DAO Cashbook and does not replace it. The tracker handles assignment, qualification, and the approval chain; the Cashbook records the money. When a payout is released, log one line in the DAO Cashbook under the existing Contributor payouts expense category, with Ref # = Task ID. See the Cashbook guidelines and DAO Cashbook template — don't re-teach or duplicate them here.

KTD Budget at a Glance

Only the human-capital pool is paid to contributors. Infrastructure (tooling, gas) and reserve lines are not contributor payouts — they are ordinary WG expenses logged separately in the Cashbook.

Sample 1 — Task & Payment Tables (the approved "menu")

Each WG's payable milestones, their deliverables, qualification criteria, and rates. This is what the DAO approves before anyone is assigned or paid. Per-member share = milestone pool ÷ active members on that milestone.

1A. Framework Application WG (FA) — $800

Lead: Abdlrrahman Shibani · Members: Yosuf, Sahil, Mariel (4 total)

1B. DAO Support & Audit WG (SA) — $600 (payable pool $480)

Lead: Andrew Mogambi · Members: Ruhi Clemence, Adekunle Gbemigun (3 total)

Infra $60 (gas/tooling) + reserve $60 are logged separately, not as contributor payouts.

1C. System Prototyping WG (SP) — $900 (payable pool $700)

Lead: Clemence Ruhi · Members: Pranav, Chioma, Bhavya, Serigne (5 total)

Infra $160 (hosting, domain, OpenAI tokens, gas) + reserve $40 logged separately.

1D. Documentation & Learning WG (DL) — $700 (payable pool $560)

Lead: Pranav Anand · Members: Andrew (QC), Adekunle (KM) (4 member-slots)

Infra $70 + reserve $70 logged separately.

Sample 2 — Task Assignment & Payment Tracker (populated)

This is how the tracker looks in use — one row per contributor sub-task (a member's share of a milestone), moving through the approval chain. It shows every status a row can be in.

Legend: ✔ approved · ⏳ under review · ↩ returned for revision · — not yet reached.

Notes visible in the sample:

• Self-qualification is avoided. When the assignee is the WG Lead (rows KTD-FA-M1-a, KTD-SA-M1-a), the DAO Lead does the first-line qualify instead.
• Cross-role separation. In DL, Andrew is the QC/first-line reviewer; but Andrew is also SA Lead — he never reviews his own SA sub-tasks.
• Reallocation (last row). The handbook section was originally assigned to another member who didn't deliver by the due date; Pranav completed it, so the $45 share moved to Pranav. Total milestone pool is unchanged.

Sample 3 — One Payment, End to End (FA WG · Milestone 1)

A concrete walk-through of a single payout through the four-role chain.

1. Submit (Sahil, contributor). Uploads Contribution Matrix v1 + evidence to the KTD DAO Drive, pastes the link into row KTD-FA-M1-b. Status → Submitted. 
2. Qualify (Abdlrrahman, FA WG Lead). Checks it against the criteria (categories clear, follows template, within Framework 1.0). Marks ✔ WG Lead. (For his own sub-task, the DAO Lead qualifies instead.) 
3. Approve (DAO Lead). Confirms $62.50 is within the FA envelope and matches the approved rate. Marks ✔ DAO Lead. 
4. Release (Zoe, DF). Runs the compliance check (budget remaining, evidence complete, no conflict of interest) and releases USDT from the KTD XDAO treasury. Marks ✔ DF with the tx reference. 
5. Record. The Cashbook Keeper adds one line to the existing DEP 2 — DAO Cashbook (not a new sheet) under expense category Contributor payouts, with Ref # = Task ID, and CCs the confirmation to [email protected]. Using the Cashbook's own input columns: 

(In / Out / Balance auto-calculate in the Cashbook — leave them alone. The Cashbook's Summary tab rolls this up under "Contributor payouts" automatically.)

Row status in the tracker → Paid. Sahil may also receive KAT / +1 GT recognition for the same work — that is separate and does not change the payout.

No double-entry. The tracker never re-totals money — that's the Cashbook's job. The only handoff is: for each Paid tracker row, the Keeper copies one line into the Cashbook (Task ID → Ref #, rate → Amount (USDT), category → Contributor payouts). The → Cashbook handoff tab in the tracker workbook formats these lines ready to paste.

Sample 4 — Notes for Adapting These Samples

• Milestone pool vs per-member share. The Task & Payment Table prices the whole milestone; the tracker pays each member their share of it. Split evenly across active members unless the WG proposal defines otherwise.
• Reallocation rule (optional). A WG may adopt the rule that if a member does not deliver their sub-task by the due date, that share moves to whoever completes it — the milestone pool never grows, and no one is paid for undelivered work. Apply it plainly and transparently; record the reassignment in the tracker before payment.
• Payment is not KAT / +1 GT. USDT milestone payment and KAT/governance recognition are tracked separately and can both apply to the same task. Being paid never reduces recognition, and recognition never creates a payment claim.
• Infra & reserve are not payouts. Only human-capital milestone shares use the Contributor payouts category. Tooling, hosting, OpenAI tokens, and gas belong to the Cashbook's other expense categories (Tools & subscriptions, Transaction / gas fees); reserve stays locked until the WG's own release rule is met.
• Stay inside the envelope. The sum of a WG's milestone pools never exceeds its payable pool (FA $800, SA $480, SP $700, DL $560). When the pool is spent, use KAT recognition until budget is re-approved.
• Forward-compatible with DEP 4. These Task & Payment Tables map directly onto DEP 4 Microjob task/rate definitions, and this tracker maps onto its assignment + payout ledger — run cleanly now and the transition to automation is smooth.

Questions? Ask in the KTD Discord channel or [email protected]. You're never alone.