Description
tea is a decentralized protocol secured by reputation and incentives that enhances the sustainability and integrity of the software supply chain by allowing open-source developers to capture the value they create in a trustless manner. The protocol's novel consensus mechanism, Proof of Contribution, quantifies the impact of all OSS projects in the software ecosystem and assigns a dynamic score—referred to as a project’s teaRank—based on each open-source project’s orientation within, and utilization by, the OSS ecosystem over time. TEA is an ERC-20 token that serves as the access key to the protocol. Holders of TEA tokens can support software projects by staking TEA tokens to specific OSS projects, contribute to the security of the software supply chain by preparing and submitting vulnerability reports, and participate in governance. The tea Protocol operates as an incentive layer by integrating with all the major software package managers—including Homebrew, npm, APT, Crate, PyPI, RubyGems, and pkgx. Led by the creator of Homebrew Max Howell, tea is Homebrew’s spiritual successor.