TL;DR: Five Priority Domains from Our Sensemaking
Based on 45 days of ecosystem interviews and community input, Gitcoin is proposing these five domains for GG24 community consideration and voting:
- Developer Tooling & Core Infrastructure - Critical libraries and compilers maintained by small teams need sustainable funding (75% of stakeholders identified this) [Gitcoin will submit to operate this domain]
- Security & Privacy Infrastructure - ZK tooling and security frameworks essential for user sovereignty and preventing exploits [Seeking domain allocator]
- Interoperability & Standards - Cross-L2 fragmentation requires coordination mechanisms over purely technical solutions (33% cited this) [Seeking domain allocator]
- Academic Research Bridge - Translation of research into practical tools needs dedicated support (33% identified knowledge gaps) [Seeking domain allocator]
- Targeted Education & Localism - Regional development provides exceptional impact-to-cost ratio for ecosystem growth [Seeking domain allocator]
All five domains will be subject to community voting. Each domain is designed for coalitional funding where multiple stakeholders multiply their impact through coordination.
Introduction: Building on Our Initial Findings
Earlier this month, we shared our initial sensemaking update with the community, outlining early patterns from our ecosystem interviews. Since completing our analysisâstructured interviews with foundation team members, project founders, and domain experts, plus bottom-up community proposalsâour preliminary observations have crystallized into themes.
These findings tell a story not just about what needs funding, but how the entire ecosystem approaches public goods support. The consistency between interview findings and community proposals confirms that these are systemic challenges requiring a coordinated response.
As we move toward GG24, weâre proposing domains that address root causes while building toward coalitional funding where multiple stakeholders multiply their impact through coordination.
âCoalitional Fundingâ
As outlined in recent discussions about Gitcoinâs evolution, we believe the future of ecosystem funding isnât about single entities bearing the entire burden. Instead, we envision coalitional funding where foundations, protocols, DAOs, and community members coordinate their capital allocation to create multiplier effects when one funder commits resources, others match and amplify that commitment, creating a chain reaction of support for critical infrastructure.
This transforms funding from zero-sum competition for limited resources into positive-sum collaboration where every participantâs contribution increases total impact. The domains weâre proposing for GG24 are designed specifically to enable this coalitional approach.
What We Heard
Through our interviews and community engagement, eight themes emerged with consistency. These themes represent not isolated problems but interconnected challenges that compound each otherâs effects.
Theme 1: Infrastructure Invisibility (75% of stakeholders)
The infrastructure securing billions in value operates on minimal resourcesâcritical libraries and compilers maintained by teams of just one to three people with unpredictable funding. One stakeholder captured this perfectly: âthe most underfunded areas are the ânon-sexyâ technical infrastructure that operates behind the scenes - P2P libraries, cryptography tools, language tooling, and formal verification systems.â These projects face a fundamental monetization paradox where the more successful they become as public goods, the harder it becomes to capture value. Programming languages and core libraries canât implement the freemium models or service contracts available to user-facing tools, yet the entire ecosystem depends on their continued maintenance and improvement.
Theme 2: The Onboarding Bottleneck (67% of stakeholders)
Despite years of development and billions in total value locked, getting users on-chain remains painfully difficult. Major exchanges require multi-day KYC and approval processes, emerging markets lack local payment support, and privacy-preserving solutions languish without liquidity. Multiple stakeholders emphasized: âOn-ramp/off-ramp infrastructure is the biggest bottleneck for getting people onchain.â The irony is starkâweâve built sophisticated DeFi protocols and scaling solutions, but potential users canât access them because the bridges from traditional finance remain narrow and rickety.
Theme 3: The Metrics Gaming Problem (58% of stakeholders)
Every attempt to measure impact eventually gets gamedâcontribution programs discovered thousands of fake accounts, TVL metrics get inflated through circular lending, and funding rounds devolve into popularity contests where Twitter followers matter more than technical merit. One stakeholder articulated a fundamental principle: âWhen a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.â This creates a vicious cycle where funders know the metrics are gamed but have no better alternatives, while honest projects get overlooked because they refuse to play the gaming game.
Theme 4: The Sustainability Gap (50% of stakeholders)
Projects building public goods face an impossible choice between perpetual grant-seeking and abandoning their mission for revenue. There is a lack of clear progression from initial grant support to sustainable operation, and technical teams often lack the business development skills necessary to identify revenue models. As one project lead noted, âhaving a dedicated fundraising person is a luxury many projects canât afford.â This creates a grant dependency, where projects fluctuate between funding rounds, spending more time on applications than on building.
Theme 5: The Adoption Reality Check (50% of stakeholders)
What counts as success in crypto would be considered failure anywhere elseâleading applications celebrate daily active user counts in the tens of thousands, most serve traders rather than mainstream users, and the mobile experience forces compromises on decentralization. A stakeholder put this in stark perspective: â20k DAU is a rounding error in Web2.â Weâve optimized for financialization rather than genuine utility, creating tools for a small group of sophisticated users while wondering why mainstream adoption remains elusive.
Theme 6: The Fragmented Funding Landscape (42% of stakeholders)
The ecosystem has numerous funding sources, but projects canât navigate them effectively. Teams waste months applying to misaligned programs, thereâs no centralized resource explaining different frameworks, and similar infrastructure gets rebuilt multiple times because teams donât know alternatives exist. This opacity particularly disadvantages newcomers and teams from outside traditional crypto hubs who lack insider knowledge of the funding landscape.
Theme 7: Coordination Failures (33% of stakeholders)
Basic coordination problems persistâcross-chain addresses remain unstandardized, each project creates new standards rather than adopting existing ones, and multiple communities rebuild identical tooling in isolation. As one technical expert emphasized: âThis is a standards problem, not a technical problem.â The cost of coordination exceeds the cost of building, so teams choose redundancy over collaboration, multiplying effort while dividing impact.
Theme 8: Knowledge Gaps (33% of stakeholders)
Academic research produces insights that never reach builders, security tools remain underutilized because developers donât understand them, and high-level architecture knowledge stays locked in technical blog posts. The gap between theory and practice costs the ecosystem millions in duplicated effort and missed opportunities. Researchers are unaware of the problems builders face, while builders are unaware of the solutions researchers have developed, which weakens both communities.
From Themes to Domains: Our Proposed Path Forward
Based on these themes emerging from our sensemaking process, Gitcoin is proposing five domains for GG24 community consideration. These proposals will be subject to community voting to determine final inclusion in GG24.
For the Developer Tooling & Core Infrastructure domain, Gitcoin will serve as the domain allocator, given its importance and our experience in this area (detailed proposal forthcoming from @MathildaDV ). For the remaining four domains, weâre seeking qualified allocators from the community who can bring the necessary expertise and networks to execute effectively.
These recommendations are based purely on our internal analysis of ecosystem needs and represent areas where focused effort could unlock significant value. The community will ultimately decide which domains move forward through the voting process.
1. Developer Tooling & Core Infrastructure
Gitcoin commits to operating this domain, pending community approval through voting.
Proposed Funding Domain: The infrastructure securing billions in value needs sustainable funding pathways for the small teams maintaining critical dependencies.
Focus Areas: Core Developer Infrastructure, including compilers, libraries, languages, and debugging tools, represents the foundation for everything else. Open Source Tooling, such as SDKs, development frameworks, and testing suites, accelerates ecosystem development.
Sensemaking Evidence: Our interviews revealed this as the highest priority, with 75% of stakeholders independently identifying infrastructure as critically underfunded. Foundation priorities explicitly include smart contract languages, SDKs, and debugging tools to reduce entry barriers. This domain particularly suits coalitional funding as every protocol, application, and user benefits from better infrastructure.
Execution Pathway: Gitcoin will implement a dual-mechanism strategy using Quadratic Funding for early-stage projects and Deep Funding for mature builders. Working alongside OSO and Deep Funding teams, weâll develop eligibility criteria and segment projects based on maturity and track record.
2. Security & Privacy Infrastructure
Proposed Funding Domain: Privacy-preserving technologies and security infrastructure are essential for maintaining user sovereignty while enabling regulatory compliance and preventing exploits.
Focus Areas: Privacy-Preserving Infrastructure, including ZK tooling, privacy protocols, and anonymous transactions, maintains digital sovereignty. Security and Formal Verification, encompassing audit tools, monitoring systems, and verification frameworks, prevent the exploits that regularly damage ecosystem credibility.
Sensemaking Evidence: Security concerns emerged repeatedly as barriers to enterprise adoption, while privacy was identified as essential for mainstream users. Foundation priorities explicitly include ZK proofs, transaction anonymity, and fully homomorphic encryption. Without security infrastructure, the ecosystem remains vulnerable to exploits that destroy trust necessary for growth.
Coalition Potential: This domain could attract support from protocols that have experienced security incidents and understand the true cost of inadequate infrastructure. Privacy-focused organizations and those serving regions with strong data protection requirements might also contribute to shared funding pools.
3. Interoperability & Standards
Proposed Funding Domain: Cross-L2 fragmentation necessitates coordination mechanisms and standard-setting initiatives over purely technical solutions.
Focus Areas: L2 Interoperability Solutions, including cross-chain protocols, unified interfaces, bridge standards, and address unification, can make Ethereum feel like one chain rather than a fragmented archipelago.
Sensemaking Evidence: Foundation priorities emphasize cross-L2 interoperability, while 33% of our stakeholders cited coordination failures as a critical issue. One expert emphasized: âThis is a standards problem, not a technical problem.â The cost of coordination currently exceeds the cost of building, leading to wasteful redundancy.
Coalition Potential: L2s themselves have the strongest incentive to solve interoperability challenges. Foundation support combined with L2 contributions could create the coordination mechanisms needed to drive standard adoption rather than continued fragmentation.
4. Academic Research Bridge
Proposed Funding Domain: Translation of academic research into practical tools requires dedicated funding to bridge the gap between theory and implementation.
Focus Areas: Research-to-Practice Translation involves converting academic papers into usable tools, implementing formal verification systems, and testing economic models in real-world conditions.
Sensemaking Evidence: Foundation priorities include long-term protocol development, DeSci, and academic validation. 33% of stakeholders identified knowledge gaps between research and implementation as a significant barrier. The disconnection between theoretical advances and practical application costs the ecosystem millions in missed opportunities and duplicated effort.
Coalition Potential: Academic institutions, research-focused foundations, and protocols benefiting from theoretical advances could co-fund this bridge. The recent academic research funding forum revealed strong interest from multiple potential contributors.
5. Targeted Education & Localism
Proposed Funding Domain: Regional ecosystem development through local communities provides higher engagement and lower costs than broad marketing campaigns.
Focus Areas: Regional Ecosystem Development through local meetups, education programs, and community hubs builds human infrastructure necessary for adoption. Targeted Application Development, creating region-specific solutions ensures local relevance rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
Sensemaking Evidence: Foundation priorities include mainstream education beyond speculationâwhat one stakeholder called âBill Nye for Ethereum.â 50% of stakeholders cited adoption challenges, while multiple interviews noted the exceptional impact-to-cost ratio of local initiatives. Small investments in regional development create lasting connections that drive genuine adoption.
Coalition Potential: Local businesses, educational institutions, and regional development organizations naturally align with this domain. The distributed nature makes it ideal for many small coalition partners rather than a few large ones.
Beyond Capital: Requirements for Success
Our sensemaking revealed that funding alone wonât solve these challenges. Every domain needs operational excellence, addressing the systemic issues we discovered. Impact Measurement Without Gaming responds to Theme 3 by implementing verification systems that maintain signal despite gaming attempts. Sustainability Pathways addresses Theme 4âs grant dependency by helping projects identify revenue models and transition paths. Ecosystem Coordination tackles Theme 7âs redundancy through regular collaboration and standard adoption. Knowledge Production bridges Theme 8âs gap by documenting what works and connecting research with implementation.
The âCoalitional Fundingâ Opportunity
These domains are designed for coalitional funding where multiple stakeholders contribute to shared pools, creating multiplier effects through coordination. When one funder commits, others match, transforming competitive grant-seeking into collaborative ecosystem building. This approach distributes risk, brings diverse perspectives, enables ambitious projects, and reduces redundancy while increasing coverage. Weâre actively seeking coalition partners for each domainâwhether youâre a protocol treasury, foundation, DAO, or individual supporter, thereâs a role in this collaborative approach.
Call to Action: Building the Future Together
This sensemaking exercise revealed clear patterns holding Ethereum back. The themes point directly to domains where focused effort can unlock broader ecosystem growth. Success requires coordinated action.
We invite ecosystem stakeholders to engage with these findings:
- Refine these domains based on your expertise and perspective
- Identify experienced allocators who can execute effectively in each domain
- Commit to coalition funding where you see alignment with your priorities
- Share additional insights from your own experience with these challenges
The path from sensemaking to action runs through collaboration. These eight themes show where the ecosystem struggles. These five domains show where coordinated effort can make a difference. The coalition funding model shows how to multiply our impact.
Together, we can build funding infrastructure that matches Ethereumâs ambition. The question isnât whether these problems need solvingâour sensemaking confirmed they do. The question is whether weâre ready to solve them together through coordinated, sustained, and strategic support.