I think you should feel good that Gitcoin has impacted many lives.
Stats from: https://impact.gitcoin.co/
There are more case studies on https://impact.gitcoin.co/ also
Tho I do wince at the idea of a motive to make a profit from $GTC. We have always been very careful not to promise profit or create an expectation of profit. And to advise people to do their own research, not give more $$ than they can afford to lose, and other best practices…
This is because crypto is very risky (and especially small caps like Gitcoin are especially risky), and while we are working hard to make Gitcoin successful, there is no guarantee that Gitcoin is going to make it.
I do think a great use case for GTC utility would be to get some upside in projects that are alumni.
For example a project like uniswap now has a $10bn fully dilluted value, but got some of its first capital on Gitcoin. But the same is also true for other alumni: 1inch exchange, walletconnect, and so on…
If Gitcoin was able to get just 1% of each of these projects at seed stage, it would be a viable business for a very long time.
Gitcoin has an unfair competitive advantage over other seed stage investors/funders bc it finds the coolest, newest, best stuff, first. If it were to launch a venture fund I think it would do very well.
That said, I think there are other worthwhile ideas here too: