Gitcoin Blog

This is a transcription of the talk that Kevin Owocki gave at ETH Denver on March 3rd, 2023: How Crypto Can Regenerate The World

This is a transcription of the talk that Annika Lewis gave at ETH Denver on March 3rd, 2023: Making Decisions in a DAO: Gitcoin Lessons Learned 

I have been with the project Gitcoin for about a year and a half now, previously serving as a workstream lead and presently as a steward with the project. My perspective comes from being a full-time contributor and an external steward at Gitcoin. The other day, I told my mom about this talk, and she asked me to describe it. So I walked her through what I was going to discuss, and at the end, she played it back to me, saying, “Okay, so it’s kind of like making decisions when nobody’s in charge.” And I was like, “Yeah, thanks, Mom.” So, that’s how we settled on the alternate title, “Making Decisions When Nobody’s in Charge.” 

This is a transcription of the talk that Alex Marx gave at ETH Denver on March 4th 2023: Web3 Fraud Defense as a Philosophical Stance: Ban Behaviors, Not Users with Alex Marx

I'll start with a confession: I cheer for the con man in the film noir just as much as the next guy. I don't leave that piece of my personality at the door while working in risk mitigation. Acknowledging the innovation from so-called bad actors and how we're all pushed is essential. Our systems are driven by constant competition, and the Web3 space, more than any, attracts that competition.

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Since its launch in 2019, Gitcoin Grants has been a powerful tool leveraged by Gitcoin's community and our partners to fund digital public goods and beyond. Powered by Quadratic Funding, our grants program has distributed over $50M, all done democratically. We couldn’t do any of it without our matching pool funders—champions of public goods and supporters of innovation who pool the necessary resources in support of thousands of grantees from all over the world. We sincerely thank you as we embark on our next chapter—the launch of Gitcoin Grants Stack, a suite of open-source tools aimed at empowering communities to fund what matters most to them.

Fantom successfully completed their first Quadratic Funding round on the Gitcoin Grants Stack. Revamping the Fantom Incentive Program with more avenues for community feedback and transparent funding, Fantom used Gitcoin’s new open funding protocol to distribute 125,000FTM in matching incentives to support projects building on Fantom. The stack was used to manage applications from community projects, as well as a week-long quadratic funding contribution period where the community donated around 240,942 FTM to over 85 projects.

Numerous Internet-based social entities need help ensuring each individual is a real person and does not set up multiple accounts. Sybil attacks rely on an attacker creating numerous identities that are not easily distinguishable from legitimate users. By creating a mechanism to detect and reject these false identities, web3 communities can be kept safe from malicious actors. Most existing digital identification solutions are either centralized (like national ID cards) or based on an individual (like most "self-governed" identity designs). But, identity is typically intersectional and social; everyone has different information and connections with a unique set of others. This case study will review how Bankless Academy adopted a curated approach to integrating with Gitcoin Passport to defend against malicious actors earning learning credentials.

New funding mechanisms are needed to overcome limitations in traditional public goods funding. This necessitates offering fresh ways to incentivize contributions, broaden the pool of available resources, and ensure efficient allocation of funds. Gitcoin has been deploying blockchain technology to establish decentralized funding mechanisms that facilitate more transparent and streamlined funding of public goods. Gitcoin and Index Coop are partnering to create Gitcoin Staked ETH Index (gtcETH) to take this ambition further. The objective of a new ERC-20 token is to provide diversified exposure to the top liquid staking tokens enabling users to earn staking rewards and contribute to public goods simultaneously. 

In December, as part of the Alpha Round Test Season, we kicked off with UNICEF's round to be the first to test our new grants protocol. We are excited to have begun this season with one of the largest NGO's, and welcoming so many incredible grantees to participate. 

Gitcoin is pleased to announce the winners of the “Outstanding Steward Award” for 2022