As announced in this October post, CoinAlpha has established the Hummingbot Foundation (the "Foundation"), a new, independent open source foundation that will enable a decentralized, community-led software development model for Hummingbot, an open source toolbox for building crypto trading bots.

Like our spiritual predecessor the Linux Foundation, we believe that community maintenance is key to scaling Hummingbot to every exchange and blockchain and enabling traders to build any type of bot.

The Foundation’s mission is to democratize high-frequency trading by enabling decentralized maintenance and community governance over the open-source Hummingbot code repository. CoinAlpha has transferred control over the official Hummingbot code repository to a Foundation-owned Github organization, and the new repo URL is https://github.com/hummingbot/hummingbot.

Starting with the Hummingbot 1.0 release planned for January, Hummingbot users and community members will be able to control many aspects of the Hummingbot codebase and the Hummingbot Foundation. Approved by the interim Board of Directors, the Hummingbot Foundation is introducing the Hummingbot Governance Token (HBOT) as the medium of community governance.

The Hummingbot Governance Token (HBOT) has been deployed to the Ethereum blockchain with the following details:

  • Issuer: Hummingbot Foundation
  • Contract Address: 0xE5097D9baeAFB89f9bcB78C9290d545dB5f9e9CB (Etherscan)
  • Name: Hummingbot Governance Token
  • Symbol: HBOT
  • Total Supply: 1,000,000,000

The HBOT token is a standard ERC-20 token. It has a fixed total supply so there will never be any additional HBOT tokens created.

The sole use case for HBOT tokens will be to empower holders to decide how the Hummingbot codebase changes over time. All pull requests will need to be approved by HBOT holders to be merged and included in an official release. See the Hummingbot Foundation Governance whitepaper for more details.

HBOT token distribution

The goal of the HBOT distribution plan is to disseminate HBOT tokens into the hands of stewards who have the long-term goal of expanding the Hummingbot project. With this in mind, the Hummingbot Foundation has authorized the distribution of HBOT tokens and plans as follows:

Hummingbot community pool (40%)

Retroactive distribution (4%)

The Hummingbot Foundation is allocating 4% of the total HBOT token supply (or 10% of the community pool) to be distributed to historical Github code contributors and to users and traders who have participated in Hummingbot Miner.

Github code contributors

  • Allocation per developer: 75,000 HBOT tokens
  • Total eligible developers: 62
  • Total allocation: 4,650,000 HBOT tokens or 0.465% of total HBOT token supply
  • Eligibility: Code contributors to the Hummingbot codebase as of the v0.46.0 release, excluding any who were full-time employees of CoinAlpha at the time of contribution

Hummingbot Miner users

  • Allocation per miner: Based on rewards earned, subject to 800,000 cap. Average: 14,017 HBOT tokens.
  • Total eligible miners: 2,522
  • Total allocation: 35,350,000 HBOT or 3.535% of total HBOT token supply
  • Eligibility: Earned at least USD 1 equivalent on liquidity mining rewards on Hummingbot Miner, between launch (March 2020) to December 13, 2021, 11.59 pm UTC

Future community activities (36%)

Of the total HBOT token supply (or 90% of the community pool), 36% will be reserved by the Foundation for distribution to support future activities of the Hummingbot community. This distribution of HBOT tokens will be directed by governance proposals voted on by token holders through the Foundation. The Hummingbot Foundation plans to release an equal amount of the community tokens over four years (i.e., 9% of total HBOT token supply per year). 

CoinAlpha investors (37.9%)

The Foundation has allocated 37.9% of the total HBOT token supply to CoinAlpha equity holders, who have supported development on the Hummingbot codebase since 2017. Investor tokens are subject to a one-year lock-up from the grant, and will release linearly over the subsequent year (year two).

CoinAlpha team (21.1%)

The Foundation has reserved 21.1% of the token allocation for CoinAlpha team members, advisors, and service providers. Similar to investor tokens, team tokens are subject to a one-year lock-up. Unlike investor tokens, team tokens will be subject to a linear release schedule over the subsequent three years (years two to four).

Hummingbot Foundation team (1.0%)

The remaining 1.0% token allocation has been reserved for current and future Hummingbot Foundation team members. These are subject to a one-year lockup with a three-year linear unlock schedule.

Claiming HBOT tokens

The only official site where recipients can claim tokens is located at https://claim.hummingbot.org

To ensure that Retroactive Distribution recipients securely receive their HBOT tokens, the Foundation will transfer HBOT tokens directly to the Ethereum wallet of each recipient, incurring all gas fees in the process. 

Distribution period:

  • Start date: December 17, 2021
  • End date: February 28, 2022, 11.59 pm UTC