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:
I’m sure Giveth will be more than happy to transfer their knowledge, @griff has mentioned GIVPower here a few times, and pretty sure he’d also like the token utility of GTC going up.
GIVpower brings some real wins as a governance tool while also creating demand for $GIV.
How GIVpower Generates Demand
Demand is driven by:
Prioritizing projects at the top of QF rounds
The stake & lock mechanism (inspired by the popular veCRV model but with friendlier parameters)
Impacting GIVbacks percentages (though this has created less demand than expected)
A Governance Upgrade
In the Giveth DAO, we’ve moved away from using liquid $GIV for governance. Instead, GIVpower introduces a non-transferable token that operates behind the scenes.
How Governance Works
GIVpower is calculated based on staking and locking mechanics:
Stake GIV → Receive 1 GIVpower per GIV
Lock GIV → Receive a GIVpower multiplier based on:
Lock for 2 weeks → 1.414 GIVpower per GIV (minimum lock period)
Lock for 52 weeks → 5.196 GIVpower per GIV (maximum lock period)
Why This Matters
Long-term commitment is rewarded. If you lock for a year, you get 5x more voting power—which makes a lot of sense for governance, IMO.
GIVpower Rewards
We currently reward GIVpower users, but for a potential “GITpower” model, I’d consider omitting this to avoid inflation. The added governance powers already provide strong financial incentives through QF rounds.
What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts!
I think the GIVpower model is awesome and thanks for laying it out here. What we’re planning for GG23 is heavily inspired by this, though will be pared down in MVP format as we test to see how it’s received and how we can build upon it!
SimScore has been selected to Demo our prioritization tool on Feb 11 at 2 utc. @DaeYunique and I are troubleshooting some Discord issues, so hopefully that will be worked out by then.
Our purpose is to reduce Overwhelm in organizations. DAOs are often structured in a way that Overwhelm is inevitable. SimScore makes life easier by determining a consensus priority list.
“https:// rndadocs.notion.site/Gitcoin-Demo-GTC-utility-and-Empowerment-in-2025-to-date-feb-8-194786e93779801b9f11dee0b5e34680?pvs=4” (Being a new user - cannot add links yet)
Top 1 - @Recce “Good to see a discussion on this subject - better late than never.While I am an avid supporter plus investor in Gitcoin / $GTC I am here to offer my perspective.Bear in mind not everybody is in a situation to actively contribute to the development of the project itself. deltajuliet Let me open up about my situation. I am from humble origins and fell in love Gitcoin which at that time seemed to be the only ALTRUISTIC crypto initiative.With my household savings i invested roughly $20,000 to purchase 1000 $GTC (my one and only crypto to this day) in the hope that my funds would directly or indirectly impact many lives.Obviously I had a smaller selfish motive(like all of you here) to make some profit. In the years all I have seen is that numerous projects funded by Gitcoin have done incredibly well financially for investors. $GTC has been brutal, my $20,000 is today worth $380( am I moonboi to be in this forum?) VB, owocki are some of the biggest names in this space but somewhere something has gone wrong.Praying I get my investment back even if I don’t make any profit.I still love and believe in Gitcoin and in extension $GTC”
Top 2 - Recce “This has taken a long time coming.In essence $GTC cannot keeping going the way it has been. Might be high time to change the narrative from purely governance and amplify it 100x. While it is a non speculative asset, but the fact remains that there are 100K + wallets that hold GTC and a lot of them hold it from an investment perspective. Do they deserve utility with their tokens? What do we give them back for the faith they have reposed on us? One of the recent threads about Regenerating GTC is an eye opener (unable to post link here) never realized how GTC has sunk from $22.37 to $0.50 now. That is shocking especially for those faithful who still hold this token! Do we pump the token- NO. Do we create an environment for it to get back to previous ATH- BIG YES”
Top 3 - Recce “Thanks Kevin- this is what I envisage but I am constrained by my lack of knowledge of writing up a detailed proposal. Any volunteers here who could assist-Help Help? Basically a burn with the revenue + stable coin stash and additionally an ongoing buyback/burn mechanism. $GTC definitely needs to have more traction. The healthier our fiscal outlook faster will be our traction. For the massive opportunities that Gitcoin offers, GTC ideally needs to be a top 50 token ATLEAST (emphasis on utility here), people dont take much notice of a project that is beyond 100-200 in rankings .I am an outsider here who loves and believes in the project, wants it to reach a MUCH bigger audience- glad my voice is being heard rather than being dismissed! I want Gitcoin to be a $50 Billion entity! Bigger the bourse, more the number of projects that can be funded, more impact and rapid development of Web3. We only live only life so need to see it to fruition sooner than later”
SimScore API is ready for deployment. Our next project is to integrate SimScore as a Discourse plug in so DAO delegates and proposers can reduce the “Overwhelm” and work on the most important ideas first.
