Exploring Gitcoin's Blockchain Grants: Projects from the Citizens Round #1
Gitcoin has established itself as a prominent web3 grants initiative within the web3 ecosystem. Starting in 2017, Gitcoin has been dedicated to developing tools that empower web3 communities to create, finance, and safeguard projects of significance to them. Through this Blockchain Grants Program, they have allocated more than $50 million to support creators driving projects spanning DeFi, climate initiatives, open-source endeavors, and more. As a new round is on the horizon, we're highlighting some projects from the Gitcoin Citizens Round #1 that wrapped earlier this summer.
Celebrating Web3 Community Involvement
The Gitcoin Grants Citizen Rounds aim to recognize individuals and grassroots projects that have played a role in Gitcoin's achievements, particularly by actively participating in the larger community. This initiative falls under the category of 'Gitcoin Community Engagement', seeking to reward endeavors that directly contribute to Gitcoin’s ‘most important things’ as well as their 'Purpose and Essential Intents.' These contributions could include creating educational materials, conducting data analysis, and launching support-driven projects.
Empowering Collaboration and Equitable Support
Before we dive into some of the specific projects, it's essential to explore Gitcoin's funding approach. Gitcoin employs a strategy known as quadratic funding, which combines small individual contributions with larger matching funds to back projects. Under this system, each donor's contribution is matched based on the overall funds raised, the number of contributors, and the total donations made. This method ensures that open-source projects and public goods secure funding in proportion to their significance and community backing, thereby ensuring equitable distribution. It particularly benefits smaller projects lacking major supporters, as it encourages collaboration among developers by enabling them to pool resources for collective ventures. For instance, a grant receiving 100 individual donations of $1 USD would garner more in matched funds than a grant receiving a single $100 donation.
Unveiling Community Impact
Impressive projects emerge from Gitcoin Grants, including the Citizens Round. We found standout projects that align with Gitcoin's values, showcasing innovation, commitment, and transformative potential. Here are some of the projects that epitomize the collaborative spirit defining Gitcoin's essence.
40acres DAO
Web3 is transforming the creator economy, and 40acres DAO drives this evolution. Using blockchain, they empower marginalized groups through education and engagement. With 500+ diverse members, this impact DAO creates a vibrant ecosystem amplifying historically silenced voices. Focusing on art as activism, liberation tech, and publications, they integrate overlooked artists into Web3, offer internet access to underserved regions, and present cultural Web3 insights via a monthly newsletter. Their mission to decentralize the internet, foster innovation, and uplift marginalized perspectives is commendable.
Blu3 Global
Blu3 Global is a mission-driven organization dedicated to promoting justice and equality for a diverse range of technology and blockchain creators. They support varied teams by sponsoring their participation in web3 hackathons, aiming to inspire future founders worldwide. Their comprehensive approach aims for a seamless experience across onboarding, education, and direct integration of diverse talent into the web3 space, both as users and leaders. The community embraces inclusivity, welcoming individuals of all genders, allies, and those with technical or non-technical backgrounds. Blu3 Global operates through regional chapters like Blu3 North America, Blu3 LATAM, and Blu3 Africa, with equal distribution of funds from their Gitcoin round across these regions. I have personally met a handful of Blu3 Global members, and each time my heart is warmed by their dedication to their mission.
Indigenous Voices in Gitcoin by Mycelia
Mathilde Everaere, a French-born global citizen, has spent 8 years learning and living among Indigenous communities in South America, particularly the Brazilian Amazon. She believes that digital and web3 tools have the potential to uphold Indigenous rights and cultures, fostering positive cross-cultural ecosystems for global impact.
Through Mycelia, Mathilde aims to amplify Indigenous voices within the Gitcoin Community. The goal is to create inclusive spaces for Indigenous communities in Web3 and Gitcoin. Mathilde urges Indigenous members to join as Gitcoin Citizens, engaging in tasks such as running diverse Twitter Spaces, boosting Indigenous presence in Web3, co-hosting an IndigenousWeb3 radio, making educational content, and backing Indigenous projects in Gitcoin Rounds.
Gitcoin Awareness and Female Founder Amplification
Sandra Ponce de Leon led the Gitcoin Awareness and Female Founder Amplification initiative, which highlighted female founders participating in Gitcoin grants and emphasized quadratic funding. Through virtual and metaverse meetups, as well as IRL gatherings, Sandra enabled founders to exchange experiences, showcase Gitcoin's significance, and emphasize quadratic funding's importance. This effort demonstrated the effectiveness of Gitcoin grants in backing social impact ventures and encouraged broader involvement.
This initiative yielded multiple outcomes, including increased Gitcoin visibility, greater engagement with female founders and the web3 community, and enhanced fundraising support for impactful projects. Gitcoin Awareness and Female Founder Amplification significantly contributes to cultivating a more inclusive and influential web3 ecosystem by championing women's empowerment and leveraging quadratic funding for meaningful and positive changes.
greenpill.network
The greenpill.network project is dedicated to the creation of a global initiative known as "CoordiNation," envisioning the formation of a network state that advocates for regenerative digital infrastructure on a global scale.
The initiative involves the assembling a web3 community comprising 1000 members, producing educational materials (books, podcasts, and a YouTube channel) as well as establishing of a dedicated Discord channel. The project has successfully set up 24 local chapters, a number that continues to expand over time. These efforts are all directed towards a unified objective: nurturing a more regenerative cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The allocated funds will be directed towards supporting greenpill.network's local chapters and content creation endeavors. This financial support plays a pivotal role in nurturing the growth and advancement of the initiative, ultimately striving for the enhancement of sustainable digital infrastructure on a global scale.
All for Climate DAO: Gitcoin support since GR12
All for Climate's mission is to enhance accessibility to climate and social justice action by providing legal, administrative, community, and fundraising support. They believe that addressing the climate crisis requires a collective effort from diverse grassroots projects and engaged citizens. Over the last three years, this impact DAO integrated more than 200 collectives into their network and has raised and distributed nearly 2 million euros to ground-level initiatives.
All for Climate emphasizes the importance of supporting active citizens as a public good, vital for the well-being of communities and society as a whole.
Borderless
Borderless is dedicated to training a minimum of 100 African tech developers annually to create Web2 and Web3 products. This is achieved through the establishment of physical hubs, event hosting, training programs, mentorship, and tech project launches.
Physical Hubs are set up across multiple African countries to provide a conducive environment for developers to learn, collaborate, and network.
Events such as hackathons, meetups, and conferences, enable developers to acquire new skills, connect with peers, and showcase their work.
Training programs, both online and in-person, encompass topics like web development, blockchain development, and data science.
Mentor are paired with developers to provide guidance and support, facilitating the developers' growth and potential.
Borderless envisions a future where their efforts contribute significantly to the growth and expertise of African tech developers in both traditional and blockchain technologies.
Karma
Last but certainly not least, we introduce you to Karma, the project that received the largest grant, coming in over $11K! Karma introduces a reputation system tailored for web3 participants. The initial offering comprises a set of governance tools designed to enhance DAO governance. This suite indexes delegate actions across both on-chain and off-chain voting systems, community forums, and other platforms. The collected data is presented through a dashboard. This assists token holders in identifying candidates for token delegation and provides the community insights into delegate engagement. Additionally, Karma has developed tools simplifying delegate-to-token holder interaction, enabling token holders to view delegate performance and enabling the community to tip their delegates.
Impactful Support & Comprehensive Management
CharmVerse was thrilled to support Gitcoin on past rounds (Beta and Citizens Round #1) by building spaces for all Gitcoin Grant Applicants in Gitcoin's on-chain project registry.
CharmVerse's web3 community platform remains perpetually free for impact-oriented projects that operate transparently, ensuring that 100% of the content is publicly accessible. And for those seeking more advanced permissioning, paid plans are indeed available.
CharmVerse stands as an excellent tool for grant applicants, offering a range of benefits to recipients including the capacity to collect recurring donations, enable project-specific access, vote on initiatives, engage volunteers, and effectively manage donor privacy settings.
It's also important to note that CharmVerse serves as a valuable tool not only for grantees but also for the grantors. Grant programs have embraced CharmVerse as an integral platform for orchestrating blockchain grants from start to finish, allowing them to seamlessly offer transparency, build effective proposals to select grant recipients, track project milestones and payments, and enable better networking.
Celebrating Gitcoin Citizens: Discover, Support, Innovate
Congratulations to all of the projects that actively participated in the Gitcoin Citizens Round. Be sure to check them out, show your support by following them, and consider contributing to them as well as future Gitcoin Grant projects! We will certainly be keeping an eye on the upcoming rounds in anticipation of the exciting innovations that are sure to emerge.