🔍 TruthBounty Protocol

Decentralized News Verification Infrastructure
A public-good protocol for incentivizing truth using cryptoeconomic guarantees

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🌍 What is TruthBounty?

TruthBounty is a decentralized fact-checking protocol that transforms news verification into a verifiable, incentive-aligned public good.

Instead of relying on centralized authorities or opaque editorial processes, TruthBounty enables communities to:

• Submit claims
• Verify claims using stake-weighted participation
• Build reputation through honest verification
• Earn rewards for truthful contributions
• Penalize misinformation through cryptoeconomic slashing

TruthBounty treats truth as infrastructure, not opinion.

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🎯 Core Problem

Misinformation spreads because:

• Verification is unpaid or under-incentivized
• Trust is centralized and opaque
• Identities are cheap to fake
• There is no economic downside to being wrong

TruthBounty solves this by aligning economic incentives, identity, and reputation around truthful verification.

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🧠 High-Level System Design

TruthBounty is intentionally modular and chain-aware, composed of three primary layers:

1️⃣ Frontend (User Interface)

• Claim submission & verification
• Evidence review
• Reputation dashboards
• Wallet & identity flows

2️⃣ Backend (Off-chain Logic)

• Claim lifecycle engine
• Verification aggregation
• Reputation scoring
• Evidence management (IPFS)
• Blockchain event indexing
• Identity verification (Worldcoin ID)

3️⃣ Smart Contracts (On-chain Enforcement)

• Staking & slashing
• Reward distribution
• Reputation anchoring
• Dispute windows
• Protocol invariants

Design Principle:
Complex computation happens off-chain, while economic enforcement and finality live on-chain.

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🔗 Ecosystem Alignment

TruthBounty is built within the Ethereum ecosystem, with compatibility for public-good-oriented chains.

Ethereum & Optimism

• Primary settlement layer
• ERC-20 reward token
• Low-cost reward distribution via Optimism

IPFS

• Immutable, content-addressed evidence storage

Worldcoin ID

• Sybil-resistant verifier identity
• One-person-one-vote guarantees (weighted by stake)

Drips Network

• Sustainable funding for maintainers
• Incentivized open-source contribution
• Wave-based development cadence

Stellar (Planned)

• Low-fee micro-rewards
• Global accessibility
• Cross-chain reputation proofs

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🧩 Protocol Invariants (Non-Negotiable)

All implementations across repositories MUST respect these rules:

1. Claims are off-chain, stakes are on-chain
2. No rewards without verifiable stake
3. Reputation must be earned, decays over time
4. Incorrect verification carries economic risk
5. Identity is Sybil-resistant
6. All critical state transitions are auditable

If a PR violates an invariant, it must be rejected or redesigned.

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📂 Repository Structure

This repository is the canonical source of truth.

Child Repositories

Repo	Description
truthbounty-api	Backend services & protocol logic
truthbounty-contracts	Smart contracts (staking, rewards, reputation)
truthbounty-frontend	User interface & dashboards

This Repository Owns

docs/ ├── architecture.md # Full system architecture ├── protocol-spec.md # Protocol rules & flows ├── tokenomics.md # Reward & incentive model ├── threat-model.md # Security & trust assumptions └── glossary.md

designs/ ├── flows/ ├── screens/ └── component-map.md

.github/ ├── ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ └── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

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🧭 How to Contribute

1. Read the canonical docs
2. Pick an issue from a child repo
3. Ensure your work aligns with protocol invariants
4. Reference this repo in your PR

All contributors are expected to:

• Respect protocol boundaries
• Document assumptions
• Write tests for logic
• Avoid “local optimizations” that break global behavior

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🧪 How Contributions Are Evaluated

PRs are reviewed based on:

• Alignment with protocol spec
• Security implications
• Incentive correctness
• Test coverage
• Clarity & documentation

This project prioritizes correctness over speed.

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🛡️ Security & Trust Assumptions

• Off-chain logic is assumed to be honest-but-verifiable
• On-chain logic is trust-minimized
• Identities are Sybil-resistant but privacy-preserving
• All economic actions must be reproducible from logs

See docs/threat-model.md for details.

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📜 License

MIT — open-source, forkable, and community-driven.

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🌊 Drips Wave Participation

TruthBounty participates in Drips Network Waves to:

• Attract serious contributors
• Fund maintainers
• Build long-term open-source momentum

All Wave issues are designed to:

• Have real protocol impact
• Be fairly scoped
• Align with long-term vision

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🙏 Acknowledgements

Built by the community.
Maintained with intention.
Aligned for truth.

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Truth is not free — but it should be worth defending.