How Qadam works
From idea to funded project — every stage explained.
The four stages of funding
Lock
Backers commit SOL. It leaves their wallet, enters the campaign vault on-chain.
Hold
Funds wait in escrow. Creator can't touch them. Qadam can't touch them. Only the smart contract — guided by community votes — can move SOL.
Release
Community votes to approve a milestone. The smart contract releases that milestone's amount: 97.5% to creator, 2.5% to Qadam.
Refund
If a milestone fails and backers vote to refund, remaining vault balance returns to all backers, proportional to their original contribution.
Funds move only through the on-chain program. No human can withdraw a vault directly.
Where your SOL lives
Each campaign has its own Program Derived Address (PDA) on Solana. Funds aren't pooled across campaigns. The Qadam team has no key to any vault. The smart contract — and the community vote that triggers it — is the only path SOL can take.
Every escrow vault is publicly verifiable on Solana Explorer.
How the community decides
Backers — and only backers of that specific campaign — vote on each milestone. Vote weight equals your ownership points. The creator picks the rules at launch:
Vote period
3 — 14 days
How long voting stays open after evidence is submitted.
Quorum
10% — 50%
Minimum participating weight for a vote to be valid.
Approval threshold
50% — 75%
Percentage of YES votes needed to pass. 50% = simple majority.
Once a campaign launches, voting rules lock. Creator can't change them mid-campaign.
What backers earn
Backers don't get equity. They earn ownership points — utility, not securities. Computed as sol_contributed × tier_multiplier. The earlier you back, the higher your tier's multiplier. The creator chooses the tier structure: from 1 tier (everyone equal) up to 10 tiers.
Example structure — not a platform default
100%
70%
50%
Each campaign sets its own tiers, multipliers, and spot counts.
Worked example: If a creator launches with the example tiers above and you back 2 SOL as a Founder, you earn 2.0 ownership points. If you back later as an Early Backer with 5 SOL, you earn 3.5 points. Your share at completion is your points ÷ total pool.
What Qadam guarantees
2.5%
Platform fee
Taken on release, never on backing
On-chain
Escrow
No human can drain a vault
Creator-set
Tier structure
1 to 10 tiers, monotonic decrease
Creator-set
Voting rules
Period, quorum, threshold
These rules are enforced by the on-chain program. They cannot be changed by Qadam mid-campaign.