GG24 Sensemaking Report
This report is about a major issue in the Ethereum world: making it easier for everyday people to use. Right now, it’s pretty difficult, and that’s holding back a lot of good things. If we can fix these problems, we can help a ton more people join in.
As a web3 developer, I’ve personally experienced these exact problems. I’ve seen firsthand how confusing and frustrating it can be for new users to get started. From the moment they try to set up a wallet to the moment they try to make their first transaction, they face many of the same obstacles that I did. My experience building for this ecosystem has shown me just how critical it is to solve these issues, not just for developers, but for everyone who wants to be a part of the future of the web.
Problem & Impact
The Ethereum world has a few big problems that make it tough for new users. It’s like having a great new car that’s a pain to drive because you have to solve a puzzle just to open the door. These problems are:
- The User Experience (UX) is confusing: When a new person tries to use an Ethereum app (called a dApp), it can feel like a maze. They first have to learn about something called a “seed phrase,” which is a bunch of secret words they can never lose. Then they have to figure out how to get money (ETH) from a regular bank into a special digital wallet. After that, they need to deal with different networks and a process called “bridging” just to get started. This is way too much for most people and it makes them give up quickly. It’s a huge wall preventing millions of people from even trying. When we look at the data, we can see that many new users just leave because of this difficulty. The few projects that have made this process simpler, like some easy-to-use wallets, have had much better luck keeping users around.
- Transaction Fees are expensive and unpredictable: Even after all that, users still have to pay fees, called “gas,” every time they do something on the network. While new solutions (called Layer 2s) have made these fees much cheaper, users still have to deal with complex ideas like “gas tokens” and “gas limits.” The cost can also change a lot, especially when the network is busy. This makes it too expensive to do small, simple things, like sending a quick message or playing a game. This is a big turn-off because people expect to be able to do small things online without paying a fee for every single click.
- Not enough apps that people actually want to use: Right now, most Ethereum apps are for finance, like trading or borrowing money. They’re great for experts, but there aren’t many fun or useful apps for everyone else. Think about it: a regular person doesn’t have a reason to go through all the trouble of setting up a wallet and paying fees if there isn’t an app they’re excited to use, like a social network or a popular game. This creates a cycle where no new apps are made because there are no new users, and no new users come because there are no new apps.
Sensemaking Analysis
To understand this problem better, I looked at a lot of different sources. I read articles and blog posts from important people in the Ethereum community, like Vitalik Buterin, who have been talking about this for a long time. I also looked at reports from the teams behind Layer 2 networks, like Optimism and Arbitrum, to see how people were actually using them and how much they were paying.
I also spent time in places where regular users and developers talk to each other, like online forums and communities. I listened to what they were saying about their biggest frustrations.
I put all this information together and noticed a clear pattern. No matter who I talked to—a top expert or a new user—everyone was talking about the same three problems: the difficulty of getting started, the confusing fees, and the lack of everyday apps. This shows that these aren’t small issues; they are big, important problems that the whole community agrees on.
Gitcoin’s Unique Role & Fundraising
Gitcoin is the perfect place to help fix this problem because it’s a community, not a company. A single company can’t solve all of these issues by themselves. The best solutions will come from many different builders working on many different projects—some making better wallets, some creating educational tools, and some building the next great app. This is like a team effort. Gitcoin’s unique funding model, called Quadratic Funding , lets the community decide which projects are most important. This means money goes to the projects that real users and builders care about most, not just to projects that a big company thinks will make a lot of money.
I believe we can easily raise over $50,000 for this. Why? Because the problem affects everyone. The companies that run the Layer 2 networks like Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, and zkSync would all benefit hugely from more users. So would big applications like Uniswap and Aave . They know that if more people can use Ethereum, their own projects will grow. By giving money to this project, they are really just investing in their own future. We haven’t gotten any official commitments yet, but it’s a very clear win-win for them.
Success Measurement & Reflection
We’ll know this effort worked in about six months if we see a few things happen:
- Easier-to-use tools are everywhere: Projects will start using open-source tools that make it simple for anyone to connect a wallet or swap a token.
- A “how-to” guide for better design: The community will create a public guide for making great Ethereum apps that are easy to use.
- New users stay longer: Wallets and apps will show that new users are getting started faster and are more likely to come back after their first week. We will measure this by tracking on-chain activity.
We won’t just count the number of projects. True success means that using an Ethereum app feels as simple and normal as using a regular app on your phone.
The ultimate goal is for the community to be genuinely happy we funded this work. We’ll know we succeeded when people can use a dApp without even thinking about what a “seed phrase” or “gas fee” is. The technology should just work in the background.
Domain Information
Yes, I am proposing a new domain for Gitcoin Grants 24. I’m calling it “Ethereum Mass Adoption: User Experience & Consumer Apps.”
The Experts: We’ll need people who understand both the technical side of building and the human side of design. This includes UX designers from popular wallets and the developers who are already working on fixing these problems.
How We’ll Fund It: We’ll use two methods:
- Quadratic Funding (QF) : This will fund brand new projects that are creating open-source tools and guides for the whole community.
- Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RPGF) : This will reward projects that have already done a great job of fixing these problems and can show that their work is helping real users.
Sub-Rounds: We can break this into smaller, focused rounds to keep things organized:
- Making Wallets Easy: This round would focus on things like smart accounts and getting rid of seed phrases.
- Making Fees Disappear: This round would fund tools that let app creators pay the gas fees for their users.
- Making Fun Apps: This would fund new games, social networks, and other cool apps that show people what the Ethereum world can really do.