[GCP - 017] UPDATED - Proposal for Fiat Donations in Grants Stack

We already have this and many funders are receiving updates from projects they funded every month!

Screenshot 2024-10-04 at 1.49.30 PM

Easy to subscribe, just enter your wallet address, we fetch all the projects you funded and will subscribe you to those project updates.

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Brilliant!!
Ill see if i can include instructions for donors to do that in the youth in need round description

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As recommended by Kat I’m writing up here details on the user flow

Donor user flow:

Click “donate with Paypal” in their grant stack cart. Do the usual PayPal checkout. That’s it.
Video here of how we did it in the viaPrize website: https://photos.app.goo.gl/UbqyYnGS78jQmhJb7

Project manager user flow:
At the end of the round, We send the CSV back with the list of whitelisted wallets. That’s it for the project manager.

Note on the CSV:
If the round manager or Gitcoin prefers, instead of doing this for them, we could show them the Paypal data and they could edit the CSV themselves. We might be able to automate this in the future as well. For now it’s pretty easy to manually whitelist the wallets with a checkmark associated with verified Paypal accounts.

Summary

This proposal would fund the viaPrize team to build fiat donations to Gitcoin projects directly into Grants Stack in time for GG22.

Funding would consist of the following:

  • An immediate transfer of 100,000 stablecoins to fund the fiat-to-crypto reserve
  • Ongoing transaction fee which is split with Gitcoin
  • A retroactive fee equal to the fiat donation volume after one year (minus the 100,000 in stablecoins that was already transferred)

Abstract

During GG21, our team successfully built fiat donations on our own site for the Open Civics round which led to 7.21% of donation volume occurring through fiat. We believe this number would be much higher if the option were added directly into Grants Stack because this was a new, unfamiliar feature only found on a separate website.

Upon seeing this success, most GG21 rounds asked us to build this for them as well. However, we did not have the resources. Currently, several rounds for GG22 are asking if we could do the same thing this time for them, and once again we do not have the resources to assist with this community demand.

If this proposal is passed, then we will be able to support all rounds with fiat donations and have a much better user experience by including this directly in Grants Stack.

Motivation

  1. Gratitude to Gitcoin. viaPrize grew to a full time team of 5 with our sole funding coming from over 1,500 donors on Gitcoin and thanks to initial successful experiments during Zuzalu which was also funded by Gitcoin. We exist thanks to this ecosystem and we would love to give back in a meaningful way.
  2. Months of work on the line. Our team spent many months learning how to make web3 easier to use, familiarizing ourselves with Allo, and then finally succeeding in putting fiat payments on-chain. We would like to see this work make a difference to users.
  3. Bringing web3 to billions of people. How can we expect to onboard people when 3/4 of onramp attempts fail? To solve this the viaPrize team are launching Normie.Tech to allow non-crypto users to interact with web3 platforms through gasless transactions and fiat transactions straight to smart contracts. This allows us to transition viaPrize to a nonprofit and to use this separate company to support many web3 platforms in the ecosystem. If this proposal passes, Gitcoin would be our 3rd and biggest client which would jumpstart our future growth.

Specifications

How It Works

-An individual checks out in their cart through PayPal with $100 for example. See a demo video of how this worked during GG21 https://photos.app.goo.gl/UbqyYnGS78jQmhJb7

-We send 100 in stablecoins from our crypto reserves through a wallet generated for the user to those projects

-Those donations receive full matching if they have a verified PayPal account

The Budget

Why the 100k upfront?
We manually refill the crypto reserves by turning the fiat we receive into crypto. Thus, we would want enough on hand so that it doesn’t run out due to donation volume exceeding the reserves over a weekend. Considering 600k was donated during GG20, we think 100k would provide a reasonable buffer.

Why the ongoing transaction fee?
Transaction fee breakdown: 3.5% + $0.35 per transaction to PayPal, 0.75% to Normie Tech, and 0.75% to Gitcoin.
The transaction fee to us allows us to scale our crypto reserves as usage increases.
The transaction fee to Gitcoin provides valuable insight into a potential way for Gitcoin to become self-sustaining long-term.

Why the retroactive cost?
We would be rewarded equivalent to how much Allo GMV was processed through our feature after 1 year and at least 4 GGs (in case a GG gets delayed before the end of the 1 year time frame.) The 365 days would start when the feature goes live.
If 300k is processed through us after 1 year, Gitcoin would send us 200,000 in stablecoins (300,000 minus the 100,000 already sent).
If 50k is processed through us after 1 year, we would send Gitcoin $50,000 (50,000 - 100,000).
Plus, we’re PGF nerds in a crowd of PGF nerds so… let’s go retro :sunglasses:

By making the costs usage-based + retroactive we ensure our incentives are aligned. The benefit to us is proportional to the benefit produced for Gitcoin.

The Team

Noah Chon Lee (steward responsible for the execution of this proposal)
Dipanshu Singh
Nithin Varma
Swaraj Bachu
Aryan Tiwari

User Flow

Donor flow:
Click “donate with Paypal” in their grant stack cart. Do the usual PayPal checkout. That’s it.

Project manager flow:
After the round, we send the round manager a CSV with the appropriate wallets whitelisted. The round operator uploads the CSV into manager.gitcoin.co and then sends funds the usual way.

Sybil resistance

Each unique PayPal donor account would be linked to a single custodial wallet.
The Sybil resistance consists of whether this donation comes from a verified PayPal account.
Verified PayPal account = has a bank account linked to it.

We’ve stress tested this ensuring only one bank account can be linked to one PayPal. Umar the head of data of Gitcoin has called this Sybil resistance satisfactory.

Donation Minimums

Due to PayPal’s $0.35 minimum fee per transaction, we would implement a $2 minimum donation. Note that a donation to many projects at once would count as a single transaction.

Possible improvements

Bank transfers and Visa card verification

We’ve found APIs that we are in process of gaining production access to which allow us to check whether someone is using their legal name in a bank transfer or a Visa card transaction. We likely can add bank transfers as an option (with $50 minimum donation) which invites larger transactions. If we access the Visa API we may eliminate PayPal in the future and also increase the cut to ourselves and Gitcoin.

Requirements from the Gitcoin product team

Accepting a Github request that would add the pay with PayPal button into Grants Explorer.
We would also add a little alert by the button that says, “Make sure a bank account is connected to your PayPal account to have matching funds added to your donation.”

Benefits

  • With a bootstrapped version resulting in 7.21% of donations in fiat, we expect that this feature directly within Grants Stack could result in an immediate 10-30% increase in Allo GMV.
  • Long-term, adding fiat capabilities to Grants Stack means Allo Protocol is accessible to billions more people, increasing the potential user base by 100x.
  • Not only that, making the platform more accessible means easier partnerships with major corporations and governments. Grants stack would no longer be another crypto platform just for crypto users, it would be a blockchain-based platform that anyone can use.

Perhaps in 5 years Allo GMV will be 10x thanks to this capability.

Drawbacks

Chargebacks
Credit card chargebacks average 0.6% in online platforms
We would deduct these costs from the transaction fees given to us and Gitcoin.

Massive transaction at end of the round
If a massive transaction comes in through fiat (such as the 400k that was donated at once in 2021) that exceeds our crypto reserves, then we can still process it manually with a few day delay. If this massive transaction comes in within a few days of the end of the round then it may miss out on automatic matching.

Time to pass this proposal
Considering that we must take 5 days of discussion then 5 days of voting before finishing this proposal, we may need to build in this feature 3 days before the start of GG22. We believe this is doable, especially if the DAO vote is passed quickly, but we may have to launch fiat donations partway through GG22.

Vote

  • Yes: Fund the addition of fiat donations in Grants Stack in time for GG22 with an immediate 100k transfer, ongoing transaction fee, and retroactive reward
  • No: Do not fund the addition of fiat donations in Grants Stack in time for GG22 with an immediate 100k transfer, ongoing transaction fee, and retroactive reward
  • Abstain: I am missing context
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Responding to question from @meglister
Called with @umarkhaneth about potential of automating the user flow for round operators.
Worst case scenario our team would send round operators a CSV that they add into QF calculator which takes a couple clicks and 15 seconds just like we did for OpenCivics.
However, we might be able to automate this before the end of GG22.

He suggested:
Gitcoin sets up a cloud folder (just a list of addresses to whitelist)
Our team would write the file and Gitcoin would read from it and pull it into the calculator
Then round managers don’t need to upload a CSV from our team to calculator.
@katalunia does this sound right to you? Also what’s Ed’s forum handle?

Keep in mind this resource: Grants Stack GraphQL indexer - possible to fetch the data on viaPrize to have all rounds, all projects, purely as a backup, in case 1-class Grant Stack integration not accomplished in time.

If you are not working everyday with these data structures, it takes some effort to figure out the correct query (but I did it anyway, see this GitHub issue), that’s why help / support / dev time from Gitcoin core contributors is practical, one way or another.


I would love to support BUT the bounty seems excessive.

Where is the money coming from? :unicorn: You cannot guarantee the $GTC token performance. In fact I’d rather bounty in $GTC and mutual exchange of the viaPrize tokens. Ideally viaPrize can becoime a new crypto onramp payment system financial system lego block and becomes public good :sunglasses: In terms of new financial systems: just imagine a coffee shop and by buying there you become a shareholder of the place, genuine WIN WIN WIN.

The $100m is totally aligned with the vision: How might we scale Gitcoin's Impact from $50mm GMV to $500m GMV? 📈

RELATED: https://transak.com/ (buying crypto reasonably easy, something to keep in mind)

Maybe use this https://www.privy.io/ maybe use some open-source alternative. I do not like the vibe of managing custodial wallets, that’s a honeypot for hackers. Need to think about about OPSEC and INFOSEC (security in general) from the start.


Also in terms of governance: don’t mix 4 questions in into one.

  • create 4 separate votes
  • create a single vote with all 16 combinations
  • maybe some convenient Snapshot feature to ask 4 questions separately

Currently the vote is clear NO to me, needs rewording :innocent:


EDIT / UPDATE / RELATED:

The cashback in $DON… That’s also kind of logical. Inspired by the UK regulation - when donating, cannot receive anything in exchange. Donation token = hacker mindset, finding loopholes, treating regulation as a guideline. Technicaly speaking there is nothing wrong with it. Maybe in 5 years the courts will decide otherwise, but in the meawhile I see this as a genuine pathway to adoption. It is the role of visionaries / entrepreneurs / builders to push the limits of what is possible. It is morally ethical and acceptable in my book, even though the UK charity regulator may not like it.

Initially suggested in legacy twitter thread on May 20. We can design Web3 onboarding experience :seedling:

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this is an interesting proposal, and i believe Gitcoin could def benefit from fiat donations — would love to see the integration happening, given that tech & ops details are aligned. good luck!

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Ok update talking with Meg that we need to look more into the legal side of this. She said she’d connect me with some lawyers to chat with

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@meglister update, called Bridge.xyz (stablecoin service being bought by Stripe) and they have money transmitter license
It’d cost $2,000 /mth and 0.40% transaction fees
So we have a solution we are testing though it’ll cost us

And we also would use non-custodial wallets if there’s concerns about the MTL so that’d also cost Privy.io fees

nice – would also love to learn more about how we can verify unique wallets/users!

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Currently using “paypal verified users” as sybil protection, that’s explained more fully in this post We Donated to Gitcoin Projects with Credit Card! - Review of PayPal Fiat Payments in GG21
Looking for other options (with slightly cheaper fees and perhaps more options than PayPal): Just had a call yesterday with people from Visa who explained next steps to work with Stripe (this has been a looooong process) to get API to verify someone’s legal name with credit card checkouts and bank transfers

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Also we can use Circle wallets as Circle has MTLs and that’s available on Arbitrum, not on Celo or OP. So far I’ve called 4 lawyers including the MTL expert Gitcoin recommended and I’m setting up calls with another several groups who might have MTLs and an API

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@katalunia is the bridge multichain feature on grants stack live?
Would love to try it

Just realized perhaps we can use circle programmable wallets on arbitrum and use bridge feature for rounds on celo and op.

Also i called brale who offered us a better deal than bridge and they have MTLs

hey Noah, yes the bridge feature is live and you can use it by donating to any GG22 project. Let us know when you have another proposal ready! Telegram chats are probably the best way to coordinate.

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Update:
Chatted with @sejalrekhan and @James of fire eyes hearing advice on how to structure pricing.
Suggestions were to make an upfront one time set-up fee.
And also to have a performance bonus paid out in GTC and for it to have a cap.

So 3 parts are:
-One time set up cost
-Ongoing tx fee
-Performance bonus

Performance bonus could be something like x amount of GTC per 1 dollar processed through us up to x amount within the first 1-3 years

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Results from GG 22: 48.08% of GMV volume flowed through fiat in the rounds that worked with us to include that option We are founding a new company to add fiat payments straight to your smart contract: normie.tech
Specific stats: $55669.75 in total donations to the 4 rounds we supported
$26763.78 came through our fiat integration

500 users able to fund public goods on-chain with 0 friction of onboarding to crypto

Meeting with Gitcoin team in Bangkok our team will be staying at the Allo house, will discuss proposal and update! :slight_smile:

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I was a grantee in the Land Regenerators Round, which experimented with disabling Gitcoin Passport and allowed the same match impact for crypto and Paypal’s donations above $5, and will share my perceptions about it.

  1. Crypto donations are transparent and can use social graphs to flag collusion, while Paypal donations can’t. I have been in rounds where a project was flagged because it distributed crypto funds to wallets that then donated back to the project. In Paypal Rounds this is not possible to flag.
  2. Paypal is a northern company unknown in the global south so its use obviously benefits grantees from Europe, USA, Australia and other Paypal markets. It makes obsolete the saying “I came for the money and stayed for the tech/community”, doesn’t incentivize learning about web3 tools, financial autonomy or public goods and brings in legacy finance intermediaries culture.
  3. Not clear to me whats the point of using web3 infrastructure if the round doesn’t consider web3 reputation and security. Seems to me like if crowd wisdom was replaced by individual agency in convincing tech able donors. It could be done in a web2 way just using the QF formula, Paypal could fund a matching pool and do it within their network, the Paypal Rounds.

I praise the experimental aspect of a Land Regenerators round, so worth analyising the results to prevent unwanted outcomes in the future. We participated in joy and are very grateful for the dedication of operators, grantees and donors. Will use our funds carefully over the next six months. They represent ~0.8% of a matching pool of 200k distributed among 30 grantees.
In our end, thanks to the support we had in past rounds we built a small treasure and will continue stewarding food forests irl and onboarding people to web3 public goods, and will start managing the funds in a multisig with local team newbies. Resilience in practice.

I understand and respect if this is the intention of @metahands the Land Regenerators Round, but truly hope that @jon-spark-eco, Coreen, the CCN and Gitcoin consider these aspects in community before accepting fiat in future rounds.

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Hey Diogo! Great feedback.

  1. Super intriguing point. I’m curious @umarkhaneth thoughts on this
  2. Great point. Though PayPal is available in most all countries, by far most existing users are western countries. I’m wondering if we can get bank account transfers through Stripe and Visa card payments instead (we’re trying to get API access that lets us check people’s legal names for sybil defense.) Do you think that would have the same issue or be an improvement?
  3. My thought process towards this is that web3 users can still choose to rely on more privacy preserving on-chain sybil defense while also allowing anyone to participate. I love the ideal of democratization in web3, but if we build platforms that my mom can’t use then what are we democratizing?
    Definitely agree that these points should be considered :slight_smile:

i think the biggest problem with PayPal isn’t related to the flow between ViaPrize, Grants Stack, Sybil Defense and the “user”, what Diogo explains is something that could be “exploited” big time if the Red Team figures out a way to join the Round as a Grantee but also Attack the Round via PayPal & Fiat donations unless some other security measures are implemented after the donation is made via FIAT.

If no verification is made on the payment because it came from a “verified PayPal address”, then this is a choke point for Red Team to exploit due to how cheap it is to get Verified PayPal Accounts out there.

If you get this API to verify people legal names, this doesn’t mean this is not an attack unless you KYC every transaction beyond the “verified” status coming from PayPal.

Bank Account transfers via Stripe won’t clear instantly and kinda defies the purpose; for the Cards via Stripe scenario, I would say this one is way more secure as long as 3D Security is enabled via SMS to verify cardholder actually is making the transaction, if Visa/Mastercard 3D security is done via Email or Pin Codes then it has a higher degree of a malicious transaction.

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Hi Noah, thanks for the reply.

  1. Also looking forward to hear other toughts, @wasabi Wassabi was on the spot in his comment
  2. Here is a table showing the inequality involved in using these northern intermediaries:
    . India and Brazil really underperform. CC to @thedevanshmehta
    Source PayPal use by country 2024 | Statista
  3. The best way to onboard newbies imo is through purpose and usecase. If in your example your mother didn’t learn how to have autocustody and participate in the rounds it’s because there are not enough incentives for her to go through the trouble of learning. This is why every Gitcoin grantee is incentivized to concentrate their efforts in onboarding community. Gitcoin community is aligned with this democratic Purpose. We have to cultivate this commons soil, spread the news and more users will join. Fair funding allocation already creates a lot of network effects, believe me. We’ve been onboarding unliterate rural brazilians because they believe in our purpose, and if we can learn than I’m sure anyone can. Remember, banks and large companies are not democratic, unbanked people can’t use them. Your mother however can use web3 platforms because they are indeed democratic, but maybe she just haven’t seen the Purpose yet.