(Thanks to @Viriya for helping me review, and @krrisis @umarkhaneth for their role in pushing Citizens rounds forward. And to the Citizens themselves)
TLDR
Here’s a brief overview of how Gitcoin Citizens rounds contribute to increasing Allo GMV through strategic value loops:
- GMV Creation Loop: Gitcoin Citizens retroactive funding rounds directly increase Allo’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) by operating on the Allo platform.
- Incentive Alignment Loop: Aligns the broader Gitcoin community with the DAO’s objectives, promoting active contribution and value creation across various roles.
- Dogfood Loop - Enhances product development and organizational structure by using Gitcoin’s own platform for its development, leading to improved empathy and functionality.
This value compounds over time.
The value loops of Gitcoin Citizens
The objective of this post is to articulate how Gitcoin Citizens rounds contribute to the goal of Allo GMV.
I think there are 3 primary value loops that Gitcoin Citizens rounds create for Gitcoin ecosystem.
- GMV Creation Loop - The first, and most simplistic, is that Gitcoin Citizens rounds are run on Allo. Thereby they directly create Allo GMV.
- Incentive Alignment Loop - The second, is that it aligns the incentives of an outer orbit of Gitcoiners to the mission, goals, and north stars of the DAO.
- The most recent citizens round incentivized lots of value creation at Gitcoin - from data analysts, to educators, to security service providers, to memelords.
- Product Dogfood Loop - The third, is that the people building Gitcoin are using Gitcoin to build Gitcoin. If that sounds like a lot of Gitcoin compounding on itself, it is! And that is where the exponential potential is!
- Dogfooding shakes things up. Software builders in the Gitcoin ecosystem gain new empathy for end users by having to use the software themselves.
- Dogfooding accelerates our builds. Software builders in the Gitcoin ecosystem can delegate their work to people in the community.
- Dogfooding compounds on itself over time. Conway’s Law posits that organizations design systems that mirror their own organizational structure. By using Gitcoin to build Gitcoin, we enable a sort of inverse conways law where the systems we build affect our organizational structure. As it compounds over time, this could create an upward spiral of momentum and positive output
Secondary Effects
But wait, thats not all. Each of these loops has their own secondary effects that further accelerate the ecosystem.
- The Incentive alignment loop creates more tools, services, and other resources that enhance the value proposition of Gitcoin, and that indirectly will create more Allo GMV over time as it compounds.
- The dogfood loop creates better products that enhance the value proposition of Gitcoin, and that indirectly will create more Allo GMV over time as it compounds.
Compounding Value
I think that these Citizens rounds will increase the value of Gitcoin ecosystem in a way that compounds over time. As the product suite grows more powerful and also as the ecosystem around it expands outwards, that will only attract more Citizens, which will in turn repeat and accelerate the cycle again.
Conclusion
In Summary: Gitcoin Citizens rounds contribute to Allo GMV through three primary “value loops.”
- The GMV Creation Loop highlights direct GMV generation as these rounds are run on Allo.
- The Incentive Alignment Loop aligns the wider Gitcoin community with the DAO’s mission by incentivizing contributions from various roles such as data analysts and educators, fostering value creation within Gitcoin.
- The Dogfood Loop underscores the recursive benefit of using Gitcoin to develop Gitcoin itself, enhancing system empathy and impacting the organizational structure positively.
Additionally, each loop has secondary effects that amplify Gitcoin’s value proposition and compound to increase Allo GMV over time.
