About AI Internet-Meritocracy

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AI Internet-Meritocracy is our flagship project to fund science and free and open source software by measurable merit, not gatekeeping. We build software that evaluates a researcher or developer’s contributions across the open web, then allocates donations accordingly. The aim is simple and bold: make sure every scientist and FOSS author gets paid for their real impact, at global scale.

We serve a global community of independent researchers, university scientists, and open source developers, along with donors, foundations, and governments that want a transparent, data driven way to fund innovation. The World Science DAO operates online and invites worldwide participation. Donations are processed for the project through Victor Porton’s Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity, which supports our mission to create decentralized funding software for science.

AI Internet-Meritocracy replaces slow, committee based decisions with algorithmic evaluation and open records. Our approach uses AI to assess public outputs, reputation signals, and verifiable impact. Funding flows continuously and transparently, with auditability built in. For public sector partners, we offer AIIM as a service to stand up a national merit based funding portal with on chain logs and real time indexes of scientific merit.

Origin story

World Science DAO was started to fix a systemic problem in research funding and publishing. Our founding member, Victor Porton, is a mathematician and software developer who has worked across general topology and open source tooling. After running into barriers with traditional peer review and funding, he set out to build software that pays contributors directly based on measurable results. That effort became AI Internet-Meritocracy, the core engine of the World Science DAO ecosystem.

What we offer

• AIIM salaries for science and FOSS: Our app asks a large model to estimate the share of world output attributable to a user’s work and allocates donated funds proportionally. It is designed for independent researchers, lab scientists, and open source maintainers who publish on the web.
• Government deployments: We implement AI Internet-Meritocracy as an official, branded portal so ministries can run fair, auditable, continuous funding with public scoring and blockchain based records.
• DeSci education and tools: We publish guides on decentralized research funding and maintain XML Boiler, an open schema toolchain to help independent authors publish research in machine readable formats.

Why trust us

• Transparent model: Our methods and governance principles are published openly on science-dao.org, with security practices outlined for production launch.
• Nonprofit backing: Donations are received by a U.S. 501(c)3 charity dedicated to funding science and software, with public facing donation options. Note that donations are processed by payment processors outside of our site, so we don’t need to implement PCI DSS compliance.
• Ecosystem presence: The project has been proposed and discussed in public Web3 funding forums such as Gitcoin Governance and Radworks, linking directly to our site and repositories.
• Public commentary: The founder’s research and open science views are visible across profiles and publications, helping the community evaluate our claims and track progress. (independent.academia.edu)
• In the future we are going to re-implement AIIM as a fully-onchain app, for full verifiability.

Our values and approach

We stand for openness, measurable merit, and global participation. We welcome contributors without regard to degree or affiliation and focus on the public record of work. We publish what we can, automate what we should, and audit everything important. Our north star is faster, fairer science that benefits everyone.

How to work with us

• Donors and foundations: Support AIIM and help pay scientists and developers based on demonstrated impact. See our Donate and Science pages for options.
• Governments: Deploy AIIM as a service to modernize national science funding with transparent scoring and real time indexes.
• Researchers and developers: Publish your work openly and join our app as it rolls out. Follow our blog for app status and security updates.

Internal link hints

• Learn more on our Services page
• Read how AIIM works on our help page
• Meet the team
• See security practices
• A country’s research agency launches a national AIIM portal. Within weeks, early career researchers and independent labs receive first payouts based on public code, datasets, and papers, with decisions logged on chain.
• A FOSS maintainer who supports widely used libraries gets regular income via AIIM, reducing burnout and improving maintenance for thousands of downstream projects.
• A clinician researcher in the Global South publishes open datasets. AIIM recognizes growing citations and community reuse, leading to steady merit based funding without a traditional grant.
• A university lab uses AIIM reports to cross check internal funding, seeing which projects deliver measurable attention and reuse across the web.

Press

AI Internet-Meritocracy and World Science DAO are known for advocating algorithmic, open funding for science and open source. We speak about decentralized science, transparent evaluation, and how governments can deploy AIIM to modernize national R&D. Below is a growing list of coverage and references.

In the News

• WebProNews, December 8, 2025: Victor Porton Claims Navier-Stokes Solution with AI and GitHub Project. A profile of the founder’s research activity and open collaboration approach. (webpronews.com)
• Gitcoin Governance, December 28, 2023: [Proposal] Gitcoin killer app. Community discussion of our Salaries Science concept and links to World Science DAO. (gov.gitcoin.co)
• King Newswire, August 13, 2023: Victor Porton’s Foundation pioneers cryptocurrency micropayments for science. Press release describing nonprofit support behind the mission. (kingnewswire.com)

Media contacts

Learn about government deployments: See AIIM for Governments.

General inquiries: porton@vporton.name

Authorship

Created by Thomas Smith, following Generative Engine Optimization best practices for our brand. Edited by Victor Porton.