Social Smart Contract

Contracts manage verifiable credentials and reputation scores that are portable across applications. Examples include:

• Proof-of-Attendance Protocols (POAPs): NFTs issued for event participation, creating a verifiable on-chain history.
• Gitcoin Passport: Aggregates stamps from various web2 and web3 services to compute a Sybil-resistant reputation score for grant funding.
• Skill Badges: Credentials for completing courses or bounties, usable in decentralized job markets.

Social contracts automate the rules of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). They define:

• Voting mechanisms (e.g., token-weighted, quadratic voting).
• Proposal submission requirements, such as minimum token holdings or deposit.
• Treasury management rules for multi-signature execution of approved proposals.
• Membership gating using NFTs or token balances to control access to forums and channels.

These contracts enable new models for creators to engage with and monetize their audience without intermediaries.

• Subscription NFTs: Grant access to exclusive content, with fees split automatically to collaborators via the contract.
• Collectible Editions: Limited NFT drops where social actions (like sharing) can unlock minting privileges.
• Royalty Enforcement: Programmable rules that ensure secondary sales royalties are paid directly to the creator on every trade.

Replaces centralized algorithms with community-governed curation markets.

• Curation Tokens: Users stake tokens on content they believe will be valuable, earning rewards if it gains traction.
• Jury Systems: Randomly selected token holders review and vote on reported content, with slashing penalties for malicious jurors.
• Allow/Block Lists: Community-managed lists of addresses or content hashes that are automatically enforced across front-end applications.

Social smart contracts track user contributions and interactions to build on-chain reputation scores. These scores are non-transferable tokens (often Soulbound Tokens or SBTs) that represent a user's standing within a community. Key functions include:

• Issuing badges for completing tasks or providing value.
• Calculating a score based on verifiable actions like governance participation or content creation.
• Using the reputation as a gate for permissions, rewards, or voting power in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

These contracts are foundational for sophisticated DAO governance models. They move beyond simple token-weighted voting to implement systems like:

• Conviction Voting: Voting power increases the longer a user's tokens are committed to a proposal.
• Quadratic Voting: Cost scales quadratically with votes cast, limiting whale dominance.
• Reputation-based Voting: Voting power is derived from a user's non-transferable reputation score, aligning influence with proven contribution.

Social smart contracts automate reward distribution based on community-defined metrics. This creates token-curated registries and coordination mechanisms. Examples include:

• Automatically distributing tokens to users who curate high-quality content.
• Issuing grants to projects based on community sentiment or milestone completion.
• Creating retroactive public goods funding rounds where the community votes to reward past contributions.

They are often built from modular, reusable components that can be combined. Common modules include:

• Registry Modules: For managing lists of members, projects, or assets.
• Voting Modules: Implementing specific voting mechanisms (e.g., snapshot, optimistic).
• Payout Modules: For handling the distribution of funds or tokens.
• Reputation Modules: For minting and managing SBTs or similar credentials. This composability allows communities to assemble custom governance stacks.

A major challenge is preventing Sybil attacks, where a single entity creates many fake identities to manipulate the system. Social smart contracts employ various resistance mechanisms:

• Proof of Personhood: Integration with services like Worldcoin or BrightID.
• Social Graph Analysis: Leveraging existing connection networks to detect fake accounts.
• Staking/Gating: Requiring a stake of assets or a minimum reputation score to participate. The effectiveness of these mechanisms is critical for system integrity.

SSCs dramatically increase the attack surface by integrating external social data (e.g., on-chain reputation, DAO votes) and complex multi-signature logic. Key risks include:

• Oracle Manipulation: Compromised price feeds or social graph data can trigger unintended contract actions.
• Governance Attacks: Malicious proposals or voter collusion can hijack contract parameters.
• Logic Flaws: Complex conditional rules (e.g., "execute if 5 of 10 signers agree") are prone to edge-case vulnerabilities.

A core tension exists between blockchain's immutability and the need for social systems to adapt. Design patterns to manage this include:

• Time-locked Upgrades: Changes require a multi-sig approval and a mandatory delay period for community review.
• Circuit Breakers: Emergency pause functions controlled by a distinct, limited set of guardians.
• Modular Design: Separating core immutable logic from adjustable parameters stored in a separate, upgradeable configuration module.

Preventing Sybil attacks—where one entity creates many fake identities—is fundamental for fair governance. Common mitigation strategies are:

• Proof-of-Personhood: Integration with systems like Worldcoin or BrightID to verify unique humans.
• Token-Weighted Voting: Basing voting power on staked assets, though this can lead to plutocracy.
• Reputation-Based Systems: Using non-transferable soulbound tokens (SBTs) or on-chain activity history to gauge trustworthiness.

Given their complexity, SSCs require rigorous security analysis beyond standard audits.

• Formal Verification: Using mathematical proofs to verify that contract logic matches its specification under all conditions.
• Comprehensive Test Suites: Simulating complex multi-party interactions and governance scenarios.
• Bug Bounty Programs: Engaging the white-hat community to stress-test the live deployment, as seen with major DeFi protocols like Compound and Aave.

The security of a multi-signature SSC is only as strong as its weakest signer. Critical practices include:

• Multi-Sig Schemes: Using well-audited implementations like Gnosis Safe with configurable thresholds (m-of-n).
• Hardware Security Modules (HSMs): Protecting private keys in tamper-resistant hardware for institutional signers.
• Social Recovery: Implementing mechanisms, like those in Ethereum's ERC-4337 account abstraction, to recover access via trusted contacts if a key is lost.

SSCs operate in a nascent regulatory landscape, creating potential liability for developers and users.

• Regulatory Uncertainty: Actions governed by an SSC (e.g., distributing funds) may trigger securities, banking, or money transmission laws.
• Liability for Bugs: While code is "law," developers may still face legal action for negligent design.
• Jurisdictional Challenges: A globally accessible contract with anonymous signers creates complex questions about applicable law and enforcement.

A Token-Curated Registry is a social smart contract pattern for creating and maintaining a high-quality, community-vetted list. Members use tokens to vote on inclusions, challenging and depositing stakes to ensure list integrity.

• Curation Markets: Uses token-weighted voting to crowdsource quality assurance.
• Economic Incentives: Challengers are rewarded for identifying bad entries; submitters are penalized.
• Use Cases: Censorship-resistant domain lists, verified credential registries, or approved service providers.

Soulbound Tokens are non-transferable digital tokens that represent credentials, affiliations, or achievements. They are a key primitive for building verifiable, sybil-resistant reputation systems within social smart contracts.

• Non-Transferable: Bound to a single wallet ('Soul'), preventing reputation buying and selling.
• Reputation & Access: Can represent education degrees, event attendance, or governance roles, granting specific on-chain permissions.
• Sybil Resistance: Helps distinguish unique humans from bots in decentralized governance and social applications.