This draft DDA report aims to 1) speedrun the Strategic Sense-Making Framework to serve as a benchmark and provide additional insights and clarity for other GG24 DDAs and 2) make the case for what we believe is a key problem Ethereum faces.
While the report itself is still in draft stage, we would love early feedback on the structure, overall direction of the DDA (and interest of others to contribute to it), and other high-level recommendations.
Author: Luuk Weber, Founder Kolektivo Labs & Lead CeloPG
DDA: Ethereum For The World
Despite having the most mature infrastructure and ecosystem for building effective real-world solutions, Ethereum is not at the forefront of most innovators’ and development institutions’ minds when they develop their solutions.
Problem & Impact
The lack of cohesive, accessible resources, proactive relationship and program building, and timely support available to promising builders are the primary reasons why Ethereum is not yet embedded in a large share of SDG initiatives, despite providing a global, permissionless and open-source foundation that could play a key role in many challenges ranging from identity, humanitarian aid tracking, to last-mile funding.
It’s critical to position Ethereum as the de facto public blockchain and ecosystem for sustainable development and ensure sufficient resources are allocated to those solving real problems. This is important now more than ever before, as a) regulatory clarity (such as the GENIUS Act) and technical progress are increasingly drawing in institutional interest to use and invest in public blockchains, b) geopolitical changes are shaking up global development value chains and forcing traditional leaders to re-org and re-focus - with the best example being the UN having the reduce it’s budget with ~30%.
For Ethereum To Win, it has to continue to play a key role as the world ledger (a vision shared by key stakholders Vitalik and Joseph Lubin) for ETH to be able to function as a Global Reserve Asset, Store of Value, and Oil of the Digital Economy (Bull Case Picture).
Tough times accelerate change and innovation. This is a unique opportunity for Ethereum and Gitcoin to become a proven infrastructure for new-age sustainable development solutions and funding infrastructure. If successful, ETH FTW would result in thousands of impactful and open-source solutions thriving in the Ethereum Ecosystem, resulting in hundreds of millions of real humans benefiting from the value created, a share of which will undoubtedly flow back to Ethereum and Gitcoin stakeholders.
Sustainable Development, when viewed collectively, is one of the largest and fastest-growing market opportunities. Let’s grow that pie, and get our fair share of it!
Sensemaking Analysis
Our sensemaking effort combines deep market experience, public signals and sources by leading stakeholders and institutions, and statistics to prove the importance and urgency of the ETH For The World DDA.
Deep Market Experience: Our team, Kolektivo Labs, and I have 8+ years of experience operating at the intersection of Ethereum and Sustainable development. Since launching CuraDAO, the first real-world impact DAO in 2019, we’ve coordinated with hundreds of solution builders and institutions, from being part of UNICEF Innovation’s Climate Fund, to presenting at the UNDP HQ, to coordinating large-scale programs and strategic grants to realize the potential of Blockchain to solve real problems. We’re first-hand experiencing a) our partner development organizations struggling with uncertainty and reduced budgets, b) the rapid development of new generation onchain solutions and last-mile solutions, and c) an increased demand for solutions that can scale to millions of users and solve a real problem.
Public Signals: see problem & impact section for now, more sources to be added later.
Statistics: see problem & impact section for now, more sources to be added later.
Gitcoin’s Unique Role & Fundraising
Historically, functionally, and strategically, Gitcoin plays a key role in funding what matters for the world and Ethereum. With a rich history of supporting open-source development - a great share of which focused on the intersection of the world and Ethereum’s needs - Gitcoin has the legitimacy and resources required to play a leading role in making Ethereum the de facto sustainable development ecosystem.The problems that sustainable development aims to solve are wicked and complex; an ecosystem approach paired with strong leadership and feedback loops is required to solve them effectively.
There’s a range of projects and funders that have in the past and/or are actively funding and driving initiatives at the intersection of sustainable development and open-source software within and around the Ethereum ecosystem, including but not limited to: Funding The Commons, Ethereum Foundation, Gitcoin, Giveth, Octant, Unicef Ventures, UNDP, Celo, and Optimism.
Previous Gitcoin rounds, including the dApps & Apps and other OSS core rounds hosted by Gitcoin and the Real World Builders round hosted by CeloPG during GG21, provide a strong foundation to source learning, traction, and solution developers from.
As the lead for CeloPG, we have included a budget request of up to $150,000 from the Celo Ecosystem Treasury for this domain to be voted on in the next weeks. We also have a soft commitment from the EF to support the overarching Ethereum For The World movement, which would allow us to create marketing resources, case studies, a platform, and host an ETH FTW event around DevConnect.
With a commitment from Gitcoin to prioritize this DDA, we would imagine being able to reach out to additional co-funders to work towards a $500K budget, allowing this DDA to have a lasting impact on Gitcoin, Ethereum, and the world.
Success Measurement & Reflection
ETH FTW aims to make Ethereum the most attractive place to build sustainable development solutions that have a positive impact on the world.
To realize its purpose, we aim to measure outcomes across multiple dimensions, namely:
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How well are we able to identify, curate, and support meaningful, sustainable development solutions that leverage Ethereum? Measured by the amount and quality of projects funded through the ETH FTW program.
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What is the size and depth of impact of the projects that benefited from our program on solving the sustainable development programs of the world, and the Gitcoin, Ethereum, and Celo ecosystems? Measured by having teams report their impact through proven standards, such as the SDGs and CIDS, which we’ve already started using in the Regen Coordination round, and their onchain impact.
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How much traction can we gain to accelerate the program and initiatives of ETH For The World further beyond GG24? Measured by our ability to produce the required impact and resources needed to gain serious interest from multiple stakeholders to (continue to) dedicate resources to the progression of the ETH FTW program.
We’ll set up impact tracking solutions for each of these dimensions using tools like Karma, Divvi, OSO, Forms, Partnership CRM, Analytics, and host interviews to be able to report on the program’s impact 6 and 12 months after the start of the ETH FTW program.
Satisfaction test: We are confident that the Ethereum ecosystem will be glad we funded this domain in the long term if we’re able to increase the amount of sustainable development solutions built on Ethereum (L2s), the number of real users regularly engaging with dApps that provide them with clear value, and the number of development companies and institutions dedicating time and resources to the Ethereum Ecosystem.