tea

tea is a decentralized protocol intended to improve the sustainability and integrity of the software supply chain by letting open-source developers capture value from the code they publish. The protocol's core mechanism, Proof of Contribution, assigns each registered open-source project a dynamic score called teaRank, based on the project's position within, and use by, the wider OSS dependency graph over time. Developers search for eligible GitHub projects through the tea web app, register a project by creating a "project constitution," and then receive rewards tied to the project's measured influence, as well as donations from other community members. The protocol is presented as being built by the creator of Homebrew and covers packages from RubyGems, Crates, npm, PyPI, APT, Homebrew and pkgx.

The stated product ecosystem comprises TEA L2, a purpose-built Ethereum Layer-2 with a GPG/PGP precompile that embeds rewards into the network; TEA DePin, a decentralized node network for storage, validation and uptime; the Chai Oracle, which ranks open-source projects via teaRank; tea Rewards, a permissionless distribution system based on cryptographic signatures; PKGX, a web3-native package manager for discovering, installing and verifying software; and a Universal App Store for open source, AI and software distribution. Public code repositories under the teaxyz GitHub organization include the white paper, the chai package dataset, teaBASE (a developer cockpit), the $TEA ERC-20 token contract, forks of Optimism/geth components maintained with Nethermind, a CGT bridge, and a public record of code audits.

The protocol is governed through the tea Association, a legal entity accountable to teaDAO. TEA is an ERC-20 token used as an access key to protocol features; holders can stake it to specific OSS projects and submit software vulnerability reports. tea has run an Incentivized Testnet (ITN) using testnet-only TEA tokens, in which participants earn non-transferable points for registering OSS projects, staking testnet tokens, and referring other developers.

Business model

tea operates as a token-based protocol rather than a conventional software vendor. Value flows through the TEA ERC-20 token: emissions reward OSS project developers, community members and project supporters; staking secures the supply chain and supports registered projects; and gas fees collected from protocol usage are largely returned to the community via the emissions pool, with a portion earmarked for node operations as the network decentralizes. The tea Association holds treasury and ecosystem allocations and administers issuance under DAO oversight.

Protocol usage generates gas fees denominated in TEA; the majority of these fees are recirculated to the community through the emissions pool, with additional distribution earmarked for node operations. Token allocations fund protocol development, the ecosystem and governance fund, and treasury operations rather than a subscription or licence fee.

Traction

The teaxyz GitHub organization hosts 19 repositories, with the white-paper repository at roughly 7,900 stars and 809 forks, teaBASE at 976 stars and the chai package dataset at 208 stars. The Incentivized Testnet drew participation described by the company as exceeding expectations, prompting a phased rollout of challenges starting with the top 50,000 point earners.

Latest developments

The tea mainnet is scheduled to launch on 2026-06-04, with token genesis estimated in Q2 2026 and approximately 20% of the 100 billion TEA supply unlocked at launch. ITN challenges are being released in phases, and the TEA token is available on CoinList. Repository activity continued into 2026 across the L2 client forks, the chai dataset and the audits repository.