Metafunding: Fund PGF Mechanisms & Research - Gitcoin 3.0 Sensemaking Report

🧐 Gitcoin Sensemaking Szn
8

Metafunding Update (August 23, 2025)

By GainForest.Earth, Funding the Commons, Hypercerts Foundation, Seer One, Octant, and the Recerts Editors Collective

We are thrilled to welcome Octant as a new partner for the Metafunding DDA proposal. Octant has committed 20,000 USD in co-funding, and will additionally contribute datasets and research challenges for the academic community.

With Octant on board, the Metafunding coalition has surpassed its minimum funding target of 50,000 USD, reaching 55,000 USD in committed funding.

This milestone is an important signal, but our work doesn’t stop here. We are actively engaging additional funders. Expanding the pool matters: larger funds send a clear message of seriousness and reputation to academia, help attract top-tier researchers, and allow us to reward expert reviewers for their time—setting a new standard for academic rigor in public goods mechanism design.

Updated Domain Overview

Domain Name: Metafunding

Domain Experts:

  • David Dao, PhD — CEO, GainForest.Earth & Recerts Chief Editor
  • Sejal Rekhan — PGF, Protocol Labs & Recerts Chief Editor
  • James Farrell — CTO, Funding the Commons
  • Holke Brammer, PhD — Lead, Hypercerts Foundation & Recerts Editor
  • Clément Lesaege — CTO, Kleros / Proof of Humanity & Seer One
  • Luca Nicoli, PhD — Researcher, CryptoEconLab & Recerts Editor
  • Joel Miller — Researcher, UIUC, Co-Inventor of COCM & Recerts Editor
  • Wisdom Ogwu — Lead, Sublinear Labs, ZK Researcher & Recerts Editor
  • Raymond Cheng, PhD — Lead, Open Source Observer & Recerts Editor
  • Angela Kreitenweis — Lead, Token Engineering Academy / GovXS & Recerts Editor
  • Devansh Mehta — PGF, Governance & AI Lead, Ethereum Foundation & Recerts Editor
  • Sharfy Adamantine — CTO, GainForest.Earth
  • David Casey — Lead, Funding the Commons
  • Octant Team

This coalition brings together some of the most experienced organizations in Ethereum’s PGF ecosystem to push for rigorous evaluation and shared progress:

  • GainForest.Earth: XPRIZE Rainforest Winner and Ethereum Next Billion Fellow, with a track record of Gitcoin-funded and independently run PGF rounds.
  • Funding the Commons: Organizers of leading global conferences on public goods funding, within and beyond web3.
  • Hypercerts Foundation: Pioneers of the hypercerts protocol—the de facto web3 standard for impact certificates—and leaders of multiple Gitcoin rounds.
  • Seer One: One of the earliest Ethereum projects implementing prediction markets, developed in collaboration with Kleros.
  • Octant: Building the first self-sustaining global PGF ecosystem, balancing collective good with individual empowerment.
  • Recerts Journal: The first decentralized journal dedicated to public goods mechanism design, with an editorial board of leading thinkers in the field.

Updated Funding

  • Committed Funding (55,000 USD):

    • Octant: 20,000 USD
    • Seer One: 15,000 USD
    • Funding the Commons: 10,000 USD
    • Hypercerts Foundation: 5,000 USD
    • GainForest.Earth: 5,000 USD
    • Minimum Goal (50,000 USD): Achieved :white_check_mark:

  • Additional Support:

    • Funding the Commons Residency Bonus Prize: 2–3 residency spots for PhD candidates with promising submissions.
    • Seer Prediction Market Subsidies: Liquidity and trader incentives.

  • Next Steps:
    Conversations with additional potential funders are ongoing. Our objective is to grow the fund further, strengthen the domain’s credibility, and enable world-class research and peer review in public goods funding.

3 Likes