How might we fund what matters (better faster & cheaper) in 2025?

happy new years gitcoin community!

as we enter a new year, with new challenges and new opportunities, i wanted to start a discussion about what the gitcoin community is (or should be) up to in 2025.

my prompt is as follows: how might we fund what matters (better faster & cheaper) in 2025?

Screenshot 2025-01-02 at 8.24.15 AM

to break that down

  1. fund what matters = our mission. we want to enable communities to discover what matters to them, and then fund it. i believe the crypto can be a great conduit for the discovery, articulation, and expression of preferences by groups of agents (people, ai agents, etc), and we are progressively discovering, elaborating, and communicating the design space of how to do that.
  2. better = doing a better job of reaching that mission.
  3. faster = doing it faster or with more efficiency.
  4. cheaper = doing it with less cost (whether financial, time, or other resources)

so what do you think? what should gitcoin prioritize in 2025? how might we reach this goal? what can you contribute? how might we fund what matters (better faster & cheaper) in 2025?

clearly, this is a very open ended prompt. that is by design! i have my own vision for answering this prompt that i will be progressively elaborating over the coming weeks and months. but i wanted to create space for the community to answer the prompt with their own opinions, ideas, GCPs, RFPS, partnership proposals, and visions unencumbered by my own first…

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One of my main goals for 2025 is to connect similar projects and protocols that are currently building in isolation. By bringing teams together, we can rapidly create more robust tools, merge the best features from each project, and grow collectively. My role in this process is largely through my stewardship of the Greenpill Dev Guild. After focusing heavily on community building last year, we’re now well-positioned to facilitate new collaborations between the individuals and groups we’ve worked with. A great example is our current work with Allo and we’re preparing a proposal alongside other Allo builders, based on the recent forum post.

In that same vein, GitCoin’s support of the Allo Builders Advancement last year, especially via matching funds, is exactly the kind of initiative I hope continues. That support helped the Dev Guild connect with new builders, re-energize existing Allo contributors, and increase overall momentum in Allo development.


Regen Coordination

On a broader level, I believe Regen Coordination can make a massive difference in effectively funding what matters. Similar to how I described connecting isolated projects, uniting communities that are working on similar processes and tools can dramatically speed up community growth, development and reduce costs. Through Regen Coordination, we can align community goals and create the structures that make it easy for builders to work together.

As a member of the Regen Coordination team, we’ve been discussing several ideas for 2025, such as:

  • Creating a shared regen forum
  • Hosting workshops
  • Coordinating more Regen-themed funding rounds on GrantStacks
  • Aligning impact measurement methods

From GitCoin’s perspective, this could look like more Regen Coordination rounds, joint community calls with GitCoin and Regen Coordination, and collectively designing robust impact measurement frameworks.


Priorities Summary

  1. Grow community rounds with a dedicated focus on how these rounds can promote deeper collaboration.
  2. Foster more community-driven Allo governance, allowing GitCoin to focus on other crucial tooling.
  3. Cross-pollinate with Regen Coordination to build standardized impact-measurement tooling.

Challenges

  • Governance & Ownership Structures: Without clear frameworks and role definitions, collaboration can stall due to conflicting decision-making processes.
  • Misaligned Incentives: Different motivations can fracture partnerships unless shared goals and success metrics are established.
  • Fragmented Funding: Ensuring projects and teams have sufficient resources so they can dedicate their full energy to development.
  • Technical Integration & Compatibility: Multiple platforms or protocols require early technical reviews and architecture agreement to avoid costly roadblocks.

My Contribution

I bring a wide range of skills, from engineering to community management and have consistently worked to connect initiatives across the space. As Steward of the Greenpill Network and Dev Guild, I’ve gained a well-rounded perspective on product and community development, covering everything from code and community engagement to business development and strategy.

My bandwidth for direct coding has shifted toward software architecture, this transition has positioned me to craft and integrate the architecture for connecting tools. My focus is now on bridging the gaps between similar initiatives at both a technical and team level ensuring they work together effectively.

I’m incredibly excited about what 2025 holds and look forward to doing my part.

I found some time to type up a post about how I think about funding what matters better faster cheaper. In this post, I tried to not be prescriptive about what to do, but instead put forward considerations about how I think about where are now vs where we want to go. Check it out here.

oh and another update… a couple of you asked me about my “fund what matters better faster cheaper” zoom background from yesterdays ai agent livestream…

Screenshot 2025-01-04 at 11.54.38 AM

you can download it here. thx @harryeastham for the design-fu

join me in meming this north star into existence by setting this as your zoom background :slight_smile: