Opportunities for strengthening/scaling Gitcoin 3.0
Web of Trust × Coalitional Funding × Sub Domains
Kevin Owocki, with input from JonBo, MathildaDV, Benjamin Life, Monty Merlin, Jake Hartnell
TLDR
We explore how Gitcoin can combine Web of Trust signals, Coalitional Funding pools, and Sub Domains to scale.
Each element strengthens the others: trust graphs legitimize decisions, coalitions scale resources, and domains create modular labs for experimentation. Together, they position Gitcoin as the convening hub for next-generation funding mechanisms.
Web of Trust
A Web of Trust framework relies on relationships, attestations, and endorsements as signals for credibility and legitimacy. Instead of evaluating projects solely by applications or raw fundraising totals, funding flows are influenced by who vouches for whom.
This approach facilitates an emergent way to create resilience against attacks, incentivizes reputation-building, and allows allocation mechanisms to leverage existing social and professional networks.
Emerging primitives like Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS), hypercerts, and Farcaster graphs make these trust signals programmable, portable, and verifiable.
The GG24 Web of Trust Experiment
In GG24, the Web of Trust is not just a concept but a live prototype experiment by Benjamin Life + Jake Hartnell et all.
The Local Funding Programs round in the proposed Targeted Development & Adoption domain will test allocating funds based on attestations, endorsements, and coalition-based trust signals.
The goal is to measure whether reputation networks can meaningfully guide capital allocation: does it increase trust, improve perceived fairness, and surface better domain administrators? This experiment will generate data on how far trust graphs can be stretched before breaking, and what tools are most effective in practice.
Coalitional Funding
Coalitional Funding is the practice of multiple funders pooling resources around a shared intent or domain. By joining forces, funders increase leverage, brand reach, and signal strength to the ecosystem. This not only grows the pie of available resources but also fosters collaboration between philanthropies, DAOs, protocols, and impact investors.
Coalitional funding changes incentives—making grants more attractive by aligning them with large, credible, multi-party backers—and transforms Gitcoin from a single allocator into a convening hub for aligned capital.
Visual:
Domains
Domains are thematic focus areas within Gitcoin Grants, such as AI Builders, Ethereum Localism, or DeFi Transparency.
Each domain has a dedicated operator(s) who stewards its scope, curates its applicants, and experiments with allocation mechanisms suited to its context. Domains provide clarity to funders and builders alike by clustering projects around shared problems and intents. They also decentralize Gitcoin’s work, giving experts and coalitions direct responsibility for shaping outcomes in their chosen area.
Sub Domains
Sub Domains extend this concept further: domains that are nested, composable, and subdivisible into sub-domains. Each domain or sub-domain may choose to run / support multiple sub-rounds and programs
Instead of monolithic top level domains, future Gitcoin rounds can host multiple domains functioning as mini-ecosystems with their own operators, mechanisms, and success metrics. These domains can recursively split into sub-domains (fractal growth), creating resilience and adaptability as the system scales. Each domain becomes a living lab for allocation experiments, while still contributing to the whole.
Subdomains enable subsidiarity. The principle of subsidiarity is a political and social organizing idea that says decisions should be made at the most immediate (or local) level that is capable of addressing them effectively. Higher levels of authority (regional, national, international) should only step in when issues exceed the capacity or scope of local communities to handle.
Visual:
Weaving Them Together
The real opportunity in GG25 comes from braiding these three innovations.
Imagine coalitional funding flowing into domains, with distribution inside those domains guided by web-of-trust signals (for legitimacy) and coalitions of funders (for increased funders).
A coalition of funders could back the “AI Builders” domain, domain experts would rise to the top based on endorsements from respected peers and funder-attested trust networks of domain experts.
This dynamic builds legitimacy, momentum, reduces overhead for evaluators, and strengthens the relational fabric between funders, operators, and builders.
Over time, these components reinforce each other:
- Web of Trust ensures allocations are rooted in credible networks.
- Coalitional Funding scales resources and aligns stakeholders.
- Sub Domains provide the modular structure to host many such experiments in parallel.
Together, they transform Gitcoin into not just a grants round but a prototype of a new optimal capital allocation infrastructure—a system that is decentralized, reputational, and infinitely extensible.
Visual:
Combined visual breakdown:
- Subdomains allow emergent growth into more locality (right side),
- Coalitional funding allows emergent growth into more funding (left side)
- Web of trust weaves legitimacy into the entire system as it grows.
Opportunity Statements
- Gitcoin can become a convening hub where coalitions of funders align capital around trusted networks.
- This infrastructure positions Gitcoin stewards as a curator of next-gen funding mechanisms and problems.
- Domains give clarity to funders and builders, while subdomains ensure scalability and adaptability.
- Trust graphs provide a new layer of legitimacy and fraud resistance.
- By weaving these together, Gitcoin can prototype the future of capital allocation—a credible alternative to traditional philanthropy, venture, or DAO treasury management.