I spent a year moderating an online community. Hours every week, for free. I did it because I cared. Because the community mattered.
But after a while, I started feeling burned out. I was putting in real work — dealing with spam, helping people, keeping things running. And getting nothing in return except a badge and some goodwill.
Eventually I just stopped. And I felt guilty about it, like I was abandoning something. But I also realized: I can't keep doing unpaid labor forever.
That's when I started thinking about rewards and loyalty. Not in a transactional way, but in a fair one. If you contribute to something valuable, you should benefit when it succeeds.
That's why I'm building Jezero at v03.
The invisible labor economy
Most online communities run on unpaid work. Open-source maintainers. Discord mods. People answering questions, writing docs, organizing events, creating culture.
All of it is valuable. All of it takes time. And almost none of it is compensated.
We've normalized this. We call it passion or community building. And those things are real. But they're also being exploited.
The platforms benefit. They get content, engagement, moderation — all for free. And the contributors? They get exposure. Maybe some reputation. But no actual stake in the value they create.
It's not sustainable.
What Jezero does
Jezero is a rewards and loyalty protocol I'm building at v03. The idea is simple: track contribution over time, and reward it fairly.
You help someone in the community? You earn points. You show up consistently? You build reputation. You contribute to a project? You get a share of the value it creates.
It's not about making everything transactional. It's about making sure the people doing the work actually benefit when the community succeeds.
At v03, I'm testing this in small ways. Members earn tokens for participating, helping others, building things. Those tokens give you voting power and access. If the community creates value, contributors share in it.
Why even God works on rewards
Here's something I've been thinking about: even in religion, there's a reward system. You worship, you get heaven. You pray, you get blessings. It's built into how humans understand motivation.
So why do we pretend online communities should run on pure altruism?
People will contribute for free if they feel valued. But when they feel exploited, they leave. And you lose exactly the people who made the community valuable.
At v03, I'm building systems where contribution is tracked, recognized, and rewarded. Where loyalty isn't taken for granted — it's reciprocated.
Not because I think everyone needs to get rich. But because people deserve to benefit from the value they create.