Initiatives and Virtues

Any member of the community can start an initiative to improve the wellbeing of the community. Once that improvement has been introduced in practice, the initiator can request a grant of Virtues. Virtues are a measure of improvements people have brought to the community.

Each Virtues request includes a description of the improvement that was introduced and a justification for the amount of Virtues requested. In the current app guidance, the grant is decided by a pool of randomly selected citizens. They are asked whether the initiative already feels like a real improvement to the community's wellbeing, and whether the requested amount should be granted.

The idea works by market-like principles: the citizens are the market. People are unlikely to reward vague future plans or improvements that are not yet usable. Improvements that are already delivered and that citizens can actually take advantage of are much more likely to receive support.

One major advantage of this system is that it can reward both commercial and non-commercial work. A useful business may deserve recognition, but so may a non-commercial tool, service, or piece of community infrastructure that clearly improves shared life.

Granted Virtues can be converted into Rooted Merits on demand when someone wants to achieve a title, or they are automatically converted into Rooted Merits after four years.