Decentralizing Public Goods Funding with Gitcoin Grants
July 29, 2021 / Ben DiFrancesco
One of the amazing things about being a dev shop in the crypto ecosystem is the incredible founders and teams we get to work with. The space is filled with highly motivated builders who are genuinely striving to create something better than the status quo. Gitcoin is a shining example of this ethos, and we’re proud to have worked with them over the past year and half to help improve Gitcoin Grants.
From helping build Gitcoin’s cart based checkout system, to contributing to the initial sybil aggregation tools, to aiding in the integration of cutting edge Layer 2 tech, we’ve reveled every minute of our collaboration with Gitcoin’s talented team. We’ve also found great satisfaction seeing these tools embraced by the community, to the tune of millions of dollars of funding directed to public goods.
The Next Chapter
While the impact Gitcoin has had to date is impressive, we believe the next chapter for Gitcoin— one constituted as a DAO, rather than just a company— will eventually dwarf what’s been accomplished so far. It’s therefore a great honor to be collaborating once again with the Gitcoin team on the effort to decentralize Gitcoin Grants, and turn ownership of this powerful tool over to the community.
To be sure, this is no small task. From sybil resistance to fraud detection, decentralized metadata to computationally costly quadratic calculations, significant challenges— both technical and social— have to be overcome for this goal to be achieved. An iterative and methodical approach will be required. The first version will not be perfect. Mistakes will be made along the way. But as Gitcoin itself has shown over the last few years, by constantly learning, improving, and leaning on the many incredible individuals that comprise community, great things can be achieved from humble beginnings.
Join Us
In that vein, we invite all of you to follow along, and even participate, on this journey toward a community owned future. You can read our kickoff post, which details our approach to the project. You can also join us in the #decentralize-gitcoin channel of Gitcoin’s Discord and follow along on the Decentralize Gitcoin GitHub to see the latest developments. Don’t be shy! ScopeLift is thrilled to be along for this ride. We hope you’ll come aboard as well.