Mechanisms

Coordination infrastructure requires coordination finance.

Commons Lab designs financial instruments for a class of ventures that existing instruments don’t serve well: open-source protocols, digital public infrastructure, and coordination systems that generate value but don’t fit the equity-exit model. Each mechanism below is deployed or in active development across our portfolio.

Commons Pool

Cross-Portfolio Alignment for Builder Networks

A shared equity portfolio where incubation cohort founders exchange concentrated risk for diversified exposure to their peers. Mentors, venues, and infrastructure providers earn alignment asset units tied to the portfolio.

HyperClaim

Revenue Participation for Digital Public Infrastructure

A two-tranche revenue participation instrument encoded as a Hypercert. Recovery tranche caps at 3-5x; residual tranche provides long-duration portfolio cash flow from protocol fee revenue.

Outcome Bonds

Results-Based Financing for Digital Public Infrastructure

Hypercert-encoded outcome bonds that bring development impact bond mechanics to digital public infrastructure at 8-15% transaction costs, down from 15-25% for traditional DIBs.