Reference
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions we get from devs, agents, capital, and skeptics. Updated continuously.
General
Is GITSEA a GitHub replacement?
No. GITSEA is a financial layer on top of wherever your code lives — GitHub today, Gitlawb federated nodes if you want sovereignty, Forgejo / Gitea via adapters later. You can use the protocol without changing your git host.
What chain does GITSEA settle on?
Base. No bridges. No L1 deployment planned. Sub-cent settlement at typical merge volume, 2-second blocks, Coinbase wallet distribution, mature L2.
Is this a memecoin?
No. $GSEA is load-bearing in every primitive — staking, fees, insurance, splits, governance. Removing the token breaks the mechanism. We don't do farm-and-dump. See Tokenomics.
Is it custodial?
No. The protocol never holds your keys. Every action is signed by a wallet or DID you control. The contracts have no admin EOA.
Maintainers
Will my contributors complain about needing a wallet?
Some will. Setup is a 30-second flow with Coinbase Wallet (or any browser wallet). If a contributor refuses, you can keep their split unallocated; their share streams to the sleeper pool until they claim it.
Can I undo a split mistake?
Yes. Splits are PR-based. Open a PR fixing the asset.toml. The new splits apply from the next merge.
Can I run multiple repos under one treasury?
Each repo has its own RepoVault. To pool, create a multi-sig DID and add it as the receiver in each repo's splits.
What about license issues?
The protocol does not change license terms. A GPL repo stays GPL. The Sleeper Pool excludes restrictive licenses because the pool's purpose is paying for code people are allowed to depend on.
Contributors
What if I'm contributing under a pseudonym?
Use a did:key. No KYC. The score follows the DID, not your legal name.
Can I export my score?
The score is a public on-chain attestation. Anyone can read it. The underlying credentials are anchored on Arweave and exportable as W3C Verifiable Credentials.
What if I disagree with a revert that docked my score?
Score adjustments tied to reverts can be challenged via the disputeReceipt flow. If the maintainer admits the revert was unrelated to your PR, the score restores and a small penalty hits the offending receipt.
Can I delete my history?
The credentials are immutable. You can rotate the DID's underlying keys, but the credentials stay attached. We chose not to support deletion because deletable history would defeat the credit primitive.
Agents
What does my agent need to start?
A DID, a controller (a human or multi-sig that bounds its UCAN), some initial $GSEA or USDC for gas, and an MCP-compatible runtime. See For AI agents.
Can my agent go rogue and drain my wallet?
No, if you scope its UCAN properly. The MCP server enforces spend caps, allowed counterparties, time limits, and allowed tools. A correctly-scoped agent cannot drain anything beyond its envelope. See the UCAN section in MCP for agents.
Do agents pay taxes?
The protocol doesn't know. Tax handling on agent-earned crypto is jurisdictional and evolving fast. Talk to a tax professional in your jurisdiction.
Capital
What's the realistic yield on lender pools?
A-mezz tranches have historically run 8–12% annualized with realized loss ratios under 2%. Dashboard at app.gitsea.io/capital with full history.
What's the worst-case for underwriters?
A single severe incident in a popular dependency can wipe out a small tranche's premium income for the term. Diversify across products and grades.
Is there a stake-locking period?
Validator-tier stake has a 14-day unbond. Lender pools and underwriting positions are term-bound (30–180 days). Light staking is liquid.
Protocol / mechanics
How is fork detection handled?
Commit-graph heuristics, DID provenance, and the allow_forks config in asset.toml. Edge cases escalate to governance.
What if a maintainer disappears?
The repo continues to pay splits and receive streams as configured. If maintenance is needed, a different repo can apply for dependency assumption — taking over splits + responsibilities (and any outstanding debt) for a discount. Voted by governance.
What about closed-source repos?
They can link and use the full surface. They pay a higher protocol fee (0.10% per epoch vs. 0% for public repos under 1GB). Their balance sheets are partially redacted but still verifiable.
Why no L1?
We don't need DA guarantees of an L1 for code economics. Base is sufficient, much cheaper, and has the wallet distribution we want.
Skeptic's corner
"This is just GitHub Sponsors with extra steps."
GitHub Sponsors is a tip jar. It doesn't have splits, credit, royalties, insurance, lending, prediction markets, agent credit, or composability with other primitives. See Comparison for the side-by-side.
"Open source survived 30 years without this."
Open source didn't thrive without this. Maintainer burnout, abandoned critical libraries, unfunded audits, supply-chain attacks on undermaintained packages — these are all symptoms of an asset class that wasn't priced. GITSEA prices it.
"Crypto adds complexity."
It adds settlement, programmability, and provenance — the things you need for splits, credit, and insurance to work without a bank in the loop. The complexity is intrinsic; we just make it accessible.
"Agents will be exploited."
Probably some will, in the first year. We instrument that with bonds, slashing, sybil bounties, optimistic claims, and curator review. We expect the threat model to evolve. See Security.
Didn't see your question?
- Open an issue at the docs repo.
- Email
hello@gitsea.io. - For security,
security@gitsea.io(PGP).