Understanding the Cascade model
This text is a gateway to understanding the Cascade model. Its purpose is not to describe the platform's precise features, but to provide the keys to understanding the Cascade system through three notions: contribution, redistribution, and cycles.
Why should this system matter to you? Because it opens a concrete path toward other forms of economic development, freed from capitalist logics: Cascade enables organizations such as community hubs, cooperatives, associations, or grassroots collectives to collect and manage the contributions that sustain their activities, on a non-profit basis.
When the goal is no longer to generate profit but to allow an activity to exist and endure, an immense field of new possibilities opens up. By imposing logics of competition, value capture, and rent-seeking, the pursuit of profit stifles creativity and fractures the collectives that would rather operate differently. A contributive model like Cascade, by contrast, makes possible a form of development more coherent with the social, political, or ecological aims that these communities carry.
To build this system, we start from existing practices observed in the field, among actors who are already experimenting with other ways of producing and developing services. Cascade offers a generic formalization of these practices, one capable of forming a coherent system.
This text can serve:
- as a guide to understanding the Cascade project.
- as a resource for those who wish to get involved in and contribute to Cascade,
- as a reference for rethinking the economy from a post-capitalist perspective.
Contribution, redistribution, cycles
Contribution
The system's basic unit: the full set of means, monetary or otherwise, dedicated to supporting a shared objective.
Redistribution
The system's internal regulator: it corrects imbalances between contributions received and the objective being pursued.
Cycles
The system's temporal rhythm: defined periods during which a cascade collects its contributions and activates its internal mechanisms.
Contribution, the system's basic unit
Cascade is a platform for collecting and managing funds. But unlike its competitors, contribution within Cascade is not a simple fixed price.
By contribution, we mean here the full set of means (monetary or not) directed at supporting a shared objective defined within a cascade. It is neither a donation, nor a price, nor a tax. Its purpose is to help achieve a collective objective.
The shared objective is at the heart of Cascade's contribution mechanism. It represents the amount that needs to be collected during a given cycle to allow a service to exist or a project to come to fruition. Contribution is the means of sharing this effort with the other members of a cascade.
Contribution within Cascade has 5 attributes: it is (1) adaptive, (2) sourced at origin, (3) plural, (4) adjustable, and (5) deferrable.
Contribution is adaptive
Cascade contribution adjusts to the collective objective, unlike conventional models that operate by accumulation, where the objective is defined privately and built into a fixed price in order to generate profit. In Cascade, there is always a defined objective to which contributions adjust. For example, if the objective for the base share is 100 € to produce an item or fund a service, and 10 people take part, each can contribute 10 € toward that share. If an eleventh person joins the cascade and the allocation is made automatically per head, each contributor's share can be adjusted down to 9 €. In a conventional system, the price would have stayed at 10 €, generating a surplus captured by the operator.
This attribute of the base share becomes all the more powerful as the number of contributors grows, when its allocation is automatic. The contribution's other shares follow a different logic — adjusted to actual usage rather than to the number of contributors — but carry the same philosophy: aligning the effort asked for with real need rather than with a profit target. This makes possible a kind of shared economic interest between the one offering the service and the one benefiting from it. It is the philosophical foundation of the model: thinking of an economy as a shared effort rather than a mere transaction between producer and consumer.
Contribution is sourced at origin
Contribution directly finances the different components of a service. For example, for a guesthouse, lodging is a service provided separately from the booking service supplied by a platform. Unlike conventional economic models, where the price hides its composition under the guise of simplicity (often to better absorb profit), Cascade contribution has a "composite price" structure made up of 4 separate shares:
- the base share, which corresponds to the objective carried by the cascade, whose amount stays the same regardless of the number of contributors.
- the activity share, which corresponds to costs that rise in proportion to the number of users or their level of activity.
- the network activity share, which corresponds to the activity share of the other cascades to which it is connected as a contributor.
- the over-contribution share, which corresponds to a surplus added voluntarily, arising mechanically, or through forgoing a discount ("keep the change").
Each share is allocated to whatever it finances, which allows for a high degree of transparency in the flow of funds. The network activity share is particularly interesting, because when one of the service's components is itself structured as a cascade, a user's contribution can directly feed several levels of organization at once. This is, notably, how the Cascade platform itself is financed.
This principle extends all the way to collection: when a cost is directly tied to an external service provided by another cascade (a digital tool, a federation, a network partner), each contributor can pay it directly at its source rather than routing it through an intermediary fund that could hide or inflate the amount. In exchange for this direct payment, they can gain access to the governance of the cascade they are paying into.
This turns the service into a solidarity commons, by construction. The structure of the system creates interdependence, and therefore collective resilience.
Cycle objective (base share)
€60
Contribution / person
€9
Active contributors
Only the base share varies with the number of contributors. The other shares reflect actual usage and stay unchanged.
Breakdown of a typical contribution (per contributor)
Base share
fixed costs, split equally between contributors
€6
Activity share
flat usage-based rate, independent of the number of contributors
€2
Network activity share
contribution to connected cascades
€0.7
Over-contribution
voluntary
€0.3
Total
€9
Contribution is plural
Contribution can be monetary or non-monetary (time, skills, materials, and so on). To move beyond the capitalist paradigm that turns every relationship into a commodity, Cascade seeks to reconcile the flexibility of money with the ability to run services through means other than monetary transactions. The goal is not to rank forms of contribution against one another, but to allow them to coexist on genuinely equal footing. This makes it possible, in particular, to reintegrate and give due credit to volunteer work, which is frequently relied upon in associative and nonprofit models without being recognized as a full component of the value produced. In the absence of this recognition, value capture often occurs once the service becomes sustainable, benefiting those who are later skilled at positioning themselves advantageously. Cascade prevents these structural imbalances through traceability and the fair valuation of all contributions, whatever form they take.
Contribution is adjustable
It can be adjusted after the fact when the objective is hard to define upfront. This mechanism is especially useful when certain components of a service carry a high degree of uncertainty, making it difficult to set an objective in advance. For instance, in a temporary-occupancy setting, costs linked to water, electricity, or gas consumption can fluctuate significantly depending on usage. Likewise, a restaurant operating on the cascade model would not know in advance how many covers a given service will need, which would make it impossible to set an objective ahead of time. In such cases, contribution is provisioned, then adjusted after the fact — upward or downward — based on the reality observed. This allows for greater budgetary precision while preserving the logic of adapting to the real objective.
Contribution is deferrable
It can be committed now and paid later. This mechanism makes room for contributors who, at a given moment, lack immediate resources but still wish to signal their commitment. The most common case is that of an organization being created or in transition, which can declare an intended contribution upfront (for instance through a pledge or a moral agreement) and follow through once its situation allows. Deferred contribution also makes it possible to anticipate a service's gradual ramp-up, giving contributors time to gauge its real price. It thereby strengthens collective sustainability, without excluding those who are out of step, timing-wise, with the financial dynamic.
Cascade thus proposes a contribution logic that is variable in its cost, its composition, and its nature — in contrast to most conventional systems of fundraising or pricing.
This flexibility allows Cascade to remain fair within the collective dynamic, while offering a precise tool for economic engineering. It fits within a logic of dynamic regulation that naturally paves the way for the redistribution discussed in the next section.
Redistribution, the system's internal regulator
The attributes of contribution aim to limit, upstream, the creation of surplus or deficit, by adjusting inputs to a collectively defined objective. However, this does not necessarily guarantee an immediate balance between the contributions received and the objective to be reached. Such a balance is achievable when the number of contributors and the target amount are compatible with the group's real capacities, in proportions such that the adjustment remains acceptable to everyone. In practice, imbalances frequently arise:
- either a deficit, when the objective is not reached because the effort required exceeds the collective's real capacities,
- or a surplus, when contributions exceed what was actually needed and the adjustment mechanism was unable to contain it.
While it is easy to understand how a cascade can run a deficit (a shortage of resources and contributors), a surplus can result from more subtle dynamics. A surplus can be:
- voluntary, when a contributor chooses to give more (an over-contribution),
- induced, as a mechanical residue left after contributions are adjusted — this can be substantial when a service has a very low marginal cost and a large number of contributors, as can be the case for a mature digital tool,
- reactive, for example when a contributor whose contribution is adjusted downward decides to leave the difference ("keep the change").
Because Cascade operates in cycles, these imbalances are not fixed over time:
- a deficit can accumulate and form a collective debt that contributors choose to pay down over successive cycles,
- a surplus must be put to use: it can help pay down a debt, support another cascade, temporarily lower contributions, or be set aside in reserve for future use.
Acting on surplus or deficit is what makes it possible to properly regulate a cascade. While its execution can be automated through rules defined in advance, choosing those rules remains a collective decision-making process.
Cycles, the system's temporal rhythm
Contributions and regulation take place over time according to cycles: defined periods (for example a month, a quarter, or six months) during which a cascade collects contributions and activates its internal mechanisms (adaptation to the objective, redistribution, regularization, governance, and so on).
Cycles are essential because they give rhythm to the economic life of a project or collective: they make it possible to structure key moments, align development ambitions, adapt contributions to the pace of needs (slow or fast), and schedule regular moments of regulation.
They embody a kind of breathing rhythm within Cascade's economic model, framing the circulation of contributions over time while opening windows for democratic deliberation on matters that are concrete, measurable, and specific. There are two types:
Finite cycles
For projects with a deadline (e.g. a campaign, an event, a one-off development).
Continuous cycles
For recurring activities or services (e.g. a platform, a community hub, a cooperative, and so on).
Cycles also define an essential characteristic of contribution: its frequency. A contributor can take part in every cycle and thereby operate within a recurring logic, or contribute only once, on a one-off basis. This distinction matters because it shapes how we think about contributors' legitimacy to take part in a cascade's governance.
A contributor active over several cycles can be seen as more directly invested in the project's dynamic, while a one-off contributor may play a more limited role. To avoid free-rider effects or opportunistic capture of decision-making processes, threshold mechanisms can be put in place. These make it possible, for example, to reserve certain decisions for contributors who have taken part in a minimum number of cycles, or who have sustained a certain level of contribution over time.
This approach makes it possible to link contribution frequency to a recognized degree of involvement, without excluding those who can only contribute occasionally. It thereby contributes to governance that is fairer and more context-sensitive, giving proper weight to sustained, real engagement over time.
From today's tool to the Cascade vision
Today
A subscription model sets a configured amount once and for all.
Tomorrow
Each contributor's share of a shared objective adjusts automatically to the number of active contributors — the same mechanic, applied continuously.
Today
A contribution is typed as Fixed, Adaptive, or One-off, but remains a single amount per line.
Tomorrow
Each contribution breaks down into 4 explicit shares — base, activity, network activity, over-contribution — for full transparency of flows.
Today
Payments are tracked by method (direct debit, bank transfer, card).
Tomorrow
Contribution becomes plural: time, skills, or materials are recognized on the same footing as money.
Today
Invoicing is issued and sent automatically when due.
Tomorrow
Contribution becomes deferrable and adjustable: committed now, adjusted or paid later according to observed reality.
Today
Management dashboards provide indicators per cascade: occupancy, contributions, pending invoices.
Tomorrow
Redistribution becomes an active mechanism: surpluses and deficits are put to collective use, cycle after cycle.
Today
A cascade manages a place or a project, with its own contributors and its own objective.
Tomorrow
Cascades connect into a network: the network activity share directly finances several levels of organization, including the federation itself.