Glossary

These are terms frequently used throughout this documentation

Cohorts

Grants are compiled on a rolling basis but allocated in groups or cohorts. Each cohort is a collection of nominations over a given period, usually starting where the previous cohort ended and ending when the next cohort starts.

Contributors

Individuals who have made significant contributions to projects. Contributors should not have otherwise received funding for the task for which they are being nominated.

Glow

A retroactive funding program. Only past contributions are rewarded, ensuring the work has already been done and the community has received value.

Judges

Seasoned program administrators who review all data about a nomination and attribute a shirt size. Initially, judges are members of the XRPL Commons team, but over time, they will be sourced from existing Scouts for a maximum tenure of 6 cohorts in a row and never more than six cohorts a year. Typically, 3 Judges evaluate each project, and the combination of evaluations creates the final grants list.

Kudos

Kudos is a service developed by Lorem Labs. Kudos is a new way for rewarding creation while keeping the best parts of the "free Internet". Kudos creates an attribution economy where end users record those who help them, and then later optionally fund their accounts with a monthly fee which will be proportionally distributed to all kudos attributions they generate for that month. Kudos is used under the hood by the Glow platform to reward XRPL econsystem contributors.

Nominations

Once per cohort, Scouts can nominate contributors for the next grant wave. This enables community voting for this specific contribution and project. Several Scouts can nominate the same project, increasing the chance of a higher shirt size. The more Scouts nominate a project, the higher the nomination will be on the Judges' list.

Projects

Any product, tool, documentation, or other initiative provided to the XRPL ecosystem for free. These can be core open-source projects such as xrpld, explorers, wallets, standards proposals, or any resource made available to the community at no cost.

Retroactive

Glow is a retroactive funding program. Only past contributions are rewarded, ensuring the work has already been done and the community has received value.

Scouts

Remarkable individuals in the community who are typically visible and known, and have a chance to see many projects in their day-to-day. Scouts are entrusted with nominating meaningful contributions, making them part of a given cohort. Every Scout can occasionally elect other Scouts. You can view Scouts for a given cohort on the public Scouts page of the corresponding cohort.

Votes

XRPL wallet holders cast votes on nominations through the Glow platform. To vote, users must connect their wallet using supported providers like Xaman (formerly XUMM) or GemWallet or Crossmark, then register by signing a minimal 1 drop transaction to verify wallet ownership. This registration enables voting on all nominations in current and future cohorts.

A single wallet can cast one vote per nomination, which can be changed at any time. Three voting actions are available: upvote (+1), downvote (-1), or remove vote (0). The platform tracks and displays the total community score for each nomination, which helps inform judges' evaluations. Nominations with higher vote counts are typically prioritized during the review process.