Pyth Community Content Creation & Referrals Program
TL;DR
The Community Council has built a content creation and referral system into MissionMonitor — the bot that powers Pyth community missions. Here’s how it works: missions go out via Telegram and Discord, community members create content, judges score submissions, winners get paid in PYTH, and anyone who referred a winning creator earns 10% of their payout automatically. The entire pipeline — from mission brief to payout — is tracked, auditable, and running in production today.
This post explains the system, how to participate, and how it connects to the Community Council’s broader content programs.
The Problem We’re Solving
Pyth’s content programs have historically operated as separate line items. Impact Awards tracked Discord/Telegram contributions. Kaito tracked Twitter mindshare. Community missions ran through ad-hoc coordination. Each had its own budget, its own tracking method, and its own distribution bottleneck.
The distribution bottleneck is the critical one. You can build the best content incentive system in crypto, but if the only people who know about it are already in the Discord, you’re paying insiders to talk to each other. The people who should be creating Pyth content — finance-literate creators, DeFi analysts, short-form video editors, builders who actually understand price feeds — don’t know the programs exist.
The referrals system solves distribution by aligning incentives. Existing community members know who should be here. Instead of running awareness campaigns and hoping the right people notice, the system pays contributors to bring them in directly — and only pays when the recruit actually produces winning content.
How the Content Creation System Works
The Pipeline
Pyth Campaign (product launch, partnership, milestone)
↓
Mission Brief generated (MissionMonitor pulls from Notion, Claude AI formats)
↓
Distributed to community via Telegram group + Discord channel
↓
Community members create content (tweets, threads, videos, articles)
↓
Submissions posted in Discord mission thread
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Judges score submissions (1-5 scale via emoji reactions)
↓
Scores calculated, winners announced
↓
Payouts exported to Google Sheets → distributed in PYTH
What MissionMonitor Actually Does
MissionMonitor is a Discord + Telegram bot built by the Community Council. It runs 24/7 on a dedicated server and handles the operational mechanics of community content campaigns.
Mission creation. When Pyth has a campaign — a product launch, a partnership announcement, a governance milestone — a mission brief is generated from the Notion campaigns database. The brief includes key facts, suggested content angles, example tweets, source links, and a deadline. It’s formatted for creators: facts mode, no pre-written content. We provide the raw material, creators provide the voice.
Cross-platform distribution. Mission briefs go out simultaneously to the Pyth community Telegram group and a dedicated Discord channel. Roles are pinged. Deadlines are set with Discord timestamps so everyone sees their local time.
Submission tracking. When a community member posts content in a mission’s Discord thread, MissionMonitor automatically detects the submission, confirms it with a 
reaction, logs it with the user’s ID, content, URLs, and timestamp, and pre-creates voting reactions (
through 
) for judges.
Judge voting. Community Council members and designated judges score submissions by clicking emoji reactions. Only users with judge roles can vote — the bot automatically removes non-judge reactions. Votes are persisted to disk, so they survive bot restarts. When enough judges have voted, the bot announces the score.
Payout export. All submissions and scores export to Google Sheets for the Community Council’s treasury management. Every submission, every vote, every payout is recorded and auditable.
How the Referrals System Works
Step 1: Get Your Referral Code
Send /referral to the MissionMonitor bot in a private Telegram message. You’ll receive a unique code in the format PYTH-XXXX (e.g., PYTH-R3NX, SHARK-7KMQ) and a shareable deep link.
Step 2: Share Your Link
Your referral link is a Telegram deep link:
t.me/TheIntelligentsiaBot?start=PYTH-XXXX
When someone clicks your link and starts the bot, they’re automatically attributed to you. No extra steps for them. The bot generates the code from a pool of memorable word prefixes (ORACLE, FEED, SIGNAL, PYTH, PYTHIA, PYTHNET, HERMES, ENTROPY) plus a 4-character alphanumeric suffix — easy to remember, easy to share verbally.
Step 3: Your Recruit Onboards
New users who join via referral link go through a guided onboarding flow in the Telegram bot:
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Privacy policy agreement — they read and accept the data terms
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Twitter/X handle — for content attribution
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Solana wallet — for receiving PYTH payouts
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ETH wallet (optional) — for multi-chain support
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Discord account link — via
/linkcommand, so Discord submissions are properly attributed
Once onboarding is complete, their account is live and tracked across both platforms.
Step 4: They Participate in Missions
Your recruit creates content for community missions — the same missions distributed to everyone via Telegram and Discord. There’s no separate “referral tier.” Everyone participates in the same missions with the same judging criteria.
Step 5: They Win, You Earn
When your recruit’s submission wins a mission and receives a PYTH payout, you automatically receive 10% of their payout as a referral bonus.
| Example | Recruit Payout | Your Referral Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 5,000 PYTH | 500 PYTH |
| Medium | 15,000 PYTH | 1,500 PYTH |
| Large | 50,000 PYTH | 5,000 PYTH |
This compounds. More recruits = more potential payouts. And it rewards quality over quantity — one recruit who consistently produces winning content is worth more than ten who never submit.
Step 6: Track Your Stats
Send /referrals to @TheIntelligentsiaBot to see:
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Total recruits and active recruits (within 90-day window)
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Total referral earnings to date
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Recent payout history
Referrers can also register their own Solana wallet via the bot for payout distribution.
Program Rules
Attribution window: 90 days. When someone joins via your link, the referral relationship lasts 90 days from the date they clicked. After that, the attribution expires. This prevents stale referrals from accumulating and ensures the program rewards active recruitment, not one-time link drops.
No self-referrals. The system blocks attempts to use your own referral code. Automated, no exceptions.
No duplicate attributions. Each recruit can only be attributed to one referrer. First click wins.
Cross-platform tracking. Recruits join via Telegram but can link their Discord account using the /link command. Submissions on either platform are properly tracked against their referral attribution. The system checks both Telegram ID and linked Discord ID when calculating referral payouts.
Wallet registration required. Both referrers and recruits register a Solana wallet for payout distribution. ETH wallet support is also available for multi-chain flexibility.
Onboarding must be complete. Recruits need to finish the full onboarding flow (privacy agreement, wallet, Twitter handle) before their submissions are eligible for referral-linked payouts.
Anti-Gaming Protections
The system includes several protections against abuse:
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Self-referral blocking — automatic, checked at code redemption
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Duplicate attribution blocking — one referrer per recruit, enforced at registration
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90-day expiry — prevents indefinite passive accumulation from a single referral
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Performance-based payouts only — referral bonuses only trigger when recruits actually win missions with content good enough to score well from judges. No participation rewards for referrers.
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Judge-gated quality — submissions must pass Community Council / judge review before payouts process. Low-effort content doesn’t score, which means it doesn’t generate referral bonuses.
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Full audit trail — every referral code generation, attribution, payout calculation, and export is logged to disk and Google Sheets. The Community Council reviews aggregate referral data as part of quarterly reporting.
Future iterations will integrate Pythentity verification for additional sybil resistance. Verified contributors may receive preferential access or enhanced referral rates.
Budget Context
The referrals program is not a separate budget line. It sits inside the unified content creation engine funded by the Community Council allocation.
Referral payouts are a 10% increment on top of existing mission rewards. When a mission pays out 50,000 PYTH to a winner, the referral bonus of 5,000 PYTH comes from the same content program pool.
The economics are straightforward: if referrals bring in better creators who produce better content, the marginal cost of the 10% bonus is vastly outweighed by the distribution and quality gains. If referrals don’t bring in winning creators, the program costs nothing — no winning submissions means no referral payouts triggered.
All payouts are tracked through MissionMonitor’s automated Google Sheets export, giving the Community Council and the DAO full visibility into referral spend alongside all other content program costs.
Why This Design?
Performance-based, not participation-based. You don’t earn for sending links. You earn when your recruit produces content good enough to win. This filters for quality referrals — you’re incentivized to bring in people who can actually create, not just anyone with a Telegram account.
Time-bounded. The 90-day window creates urgency. You need to bring in people who are active now, not someone who might engage eventually.
Transparent. Every referral, attribution, and payout is logged and exportable. No black-box allocation, no manual approvals for individual referral payouts.
Automated. No manual claims, no forms, no “tag the admin.” The bot handles code generation, attribution tracking, payout calculation, and Sheets export. The Community Council reviews aggregate data, not individual transactions.
Composable. The referral system integrates with every program running through the Pyth community. There is always more opportunities just around the corner!
How to Get Involved
How to Get Your Referral Link
- Open a private chat with @TheIntelligentsiaBot on Telegram
- Type /referral
- The bot will reply with:
- Your unique referral code (e.g. PYTH-R3NX)
- A shareable link: Telegram: Launch @TheIntelligentsiaBot
Share that link. When someone joins through it and wins missions, you earn 10% of their payouts for
90 days.
Use /referrals anytime to check your recruit count and earnings.
If you want to learn more:
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Join the Pyth Discord and check the Community Grants channel.
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Follow @PythNetwork for campaign announcements
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Read the Community Council Term 2 Budget Proposal for full program context
FAQ
Q: Is there a limit to how many people I can refer? No cap. Refer as many people as you want. Each recruit gets their own 90-day attribution window.
Q: What if my recruit doesn’t participate in any missions? No referral payout is triggered. The program only costs when it produces results.
Q: Can I refer someone who’s already in the community? Yes, but only if they haven’t already been attributed to another referrer. First referral link clicked wins.
Q: What happens after 90 days? The attribution expires. Future payouts for that recruit no longer trigger referral bonuses for you. If the recruit hasn’t been attributed to someone else since, a new referral link could create a fresh attribution.
Q: How are payouts distributed? PYTH is sent to the Solana wallet registered during onboarding. Payouts are processed alongside regular mission rewards through the Community Council treasury.
Q: What platforms count for submissions? Discord mission threads are the primary submission channel. Recruits who link their Discord account via /link in Telegram ensure their submissions are tracked regardless of which platform they use.
Q: Will this integrate with Pythentity? Planned for a future update. Pythentity verification will add sybil resistance and may unlock enhanced referral rates or priority access for verified contributors.
The infrastructure is built. The missions are running. Now we scale distribution through the people who know this community best — you.
Questions? Tag the Community Council in Discord or comment below.