Hi all! Joel here with another Q.E.D. program update. A few things to discuss:
1. We used plural QF in GG18! I consider this to be a major marker of success. We were able to implement SOTA QF research for use at Gitcoin in a way that respected Gitcoin’s unique needs and circumstances, which was the #1 goal of the Q.E.D. program. I want to give a huge shoutout to @umarkhaneth for helping this implementation come to life. More info can be found here.
I believe there are also some plans for working to integrate plural QF more seamlessly into the grants stack workflow.
2. Educational Blog Posts and Podcasts. Following up on the goal of producing educational materials about plural QF, I have two pieces of media to share. First off, @owocki was gracious enough to have me and @umarkhaneth on a recent episode of Greenpill to discuss our work. Secondly, I was able to contribute to a stellar explainer article spearheaded by @rohit and with contributions by a few others whose gov forum handles I unfortunately don’t know.
3. Call for community input for a research paper. As always, I want to better understand how the Gitcoin community thinks about QF, and what the community wants out of the algorithm. This isn’t just useful for me as someone who writes code for Gitcoin – it’s also useful information for any community or researcher trying to understand strategies for algorithmic alignment and community self-governance. That’s why I’m working on a research paper aimed at shedding light on the lessons I’ve learned here.
If you want to be interviewed about your opinions on QF for the paper, please reach out to me here or on twitter (@CS_Synthesist). Importantly, I would love to hear from you even if you’re not happy with plural QF! The point of this paper is to objectively reflect on the community’s attitudes, so all opinions are welcome, and all interviewees will remain anonymous. Your input will be a huge help in communicating the lessons Gitcoin has learned to the wider world.
4. Timeframe and wrapping up Q.E.D. You might have noticed that I’m writing this update in November, despite the original GCP stating that the Q.E.D. program would wrap up at the end of September! That’s because my progress was slowed by a combination of personal circumstance, and two of the four original members of the original Q.E.D. team leaving Gitcoin (in an official capacity) over the summer. Since these two factors both interrupted progress, I chose to keep working for longer to make sure I could still produce something up to my standards. However, I’m now at the point where I feel that I’ve delivered on all the promises of the original Q.E.D. proposal. Nevertheless, I’ll keep working with folks at Gitcoin in the future as a volunteer and out of my own personal interest as a researcher, and we’ll see if the future holds another GCP or other opportunities. For now, though, I’m not too worried about any of that, and happy to keep helping out where I can.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions.