Most projects sidestep the need to scrape off the top by premining the token.
But there are much better ways to go about it as well.
On a certain level it's a "problem" that doesn't need to be fixed.
Many devs will work for free and build cool shit just because they want to and they are already millionaires.
Another way is to try monetizing reputation. Whoever builds the coolest stuff gets rewarded within the community. That's why Hive is interesting because we are already doing this sort of. We do this with upvotes and the dev fund.
It's also possible to make money within a system that you've built because you are running arbitrage bots and know more about the system you've built than anyone else. There are a lot of options.
"It's also possible to make money within a system that you've built because you are running arbitrage bots and know more about the system you've built than anyone else."
I hope nobody thinks "future career opportunity" when they hear that. Yuck! Professional digital leech?
Hm yeah exactly. This is the disconnect between corporate programmers and open-source programmers. Corporate programmers need to capture value and worry about business models while open-source programmers can do whatever they want. Inevitably the bills come due, which is why crypto monetizing open source work is a miracle.