The Hatch
The Hatch was the Token Engineering Commons’ launch event, and served as the set of mechanism that simultaneously raised the commons’ initial capital and formed its founding community. It was deliberately designed as a two-phase process, governed by parameters the community chose for itself (“your economy, your choice”). This page explains the mechanics.
For why the Hatch was designed this way, see Economics & Token Design. For the tokens involved, see Tokens of the TEC.
Who could participate: the Trusted Seed
Participation in the Hatch was gated by the Trusted Seed (a group of token-engineering, governance, and commons-minded participants) who had been accepted into the community and held a CSTK Score. This implemented Ostrom’s first principle of clearly defined boundaries (see Ostrom and the Cultural Build). A parameter called the Membership Ratio (the Hatch Oracle) capped how much wxDai each CSTK holder could contribute, keeping the raise proportionate to reputation rather than purely to wealth.
Phase 1 — The Hatch DAO
On launch, the Hatch opened for a limited time to receive contributions in wxDai (a ~1 USD stablecoin). Two outcomes were possible:
- If the minimum funding goal was not met, the Hatch failed and 100% of funds were returned.
- If the minimum goal was reached before the funding period ended, the Hatch DAO was created and the funds were split into two vaults:
- A reserve vault holding wxDai that backed the token, and was redeemable by burning Hatch tokens for a proportionate amount of wxDai.
- A funding pool vault holding a non-redeemable portion of the raise, usable only by a DAO vote to further the TEC’s mission. The size of this portion was set by the Hatch Tribute parameter.
Token minting. Contributors received TECH (Hatch) tokens in proportion to their share of total wxDai contributed. Of the freshly minted tokens, a percentage went to the people who had already built the TEC and its culture, allocated according to their Impact Hours (earned through Praise). This is what gave builders (not just funders) a real stake from day one.
The three voting events
Governance of the Hatch process ran through three distinct votes, each using the tool best suited to it:
- Hatch DAO Parameters Vote. Impact Hour tokens and CSTK tokens, weighted 50/50, used quadratic voting to select the best proposed set of Hatch parameters. These deployed the Hatch DAO.
- Commons Parameters Vote. TECH tokens used quadratic voting to select the parameters for the full Commons.
- The Commons Upgrade. TECH tokens used Dandelion Voting to migrate the Hatch DAO’s funds and members into the full TE Commons.
Voting on parameters was conducted through TokenLog, a token-weighted backlog tool that let holders continuously signal which options mattered to them rather than casting a single up/down vote. Vote delegation was not available during the Hatch.
The parameters the community chose
The community deliberated and voted on a specific set of parameters, each the subject of a dedicated “deep dive” on the forum. They included the Hatch Minimum and Maximum Goal, Hatch Period, Hatch Minting Rate (TECH per wxDai), Hatch Tribute (the non-redeemable share), Membership Ratio, Maximum IH Raise and Expected Raise per Impact Hour, along with the governance settings that would run Dandelion Voting, which included Support Required, Minimum Quorum, Vote Duration, Vote Buffer, Vote Execution Delay, and the Tollgate Fee.
Phase 2 — The Commons Upgrade
The second phase upgraded the Hatch DAO into the full TEC DAO. Hatch contributors could participate in the upgrade proposal:
- Voting yes (and the upgrade passing) moved all members, tokens, and funds into the final TEC DAO.
- Voting no, or not voting, gave a contributor the option to exit the Hatch DAO before it upgraded — burning their tokens in exchange for an equivalent value from the reserve vault. The portion that had gone to the funding pool and to community contributors via Impact Hours was not reimbursed.
When the upgrade completed, the Augmented Bonding Curve, Conviction Voting, and Disputable Voting went live — the full economic and governance system of the Commons. See Augmented Bonding Curve.
In short
The Hatch turned a fundraising event into an act of community formation: it set boundaries through the Trusted Seed, let the community author its own parameters, rewarded prior contribution alongside capital, gave dissenters a clean exit, and handed off into a fully governed token economy, all without a single founder at the center.
Related: Economics and Token Design · Augmented Bonding Curve · Praise · Tokens of the TEC · Onchain