Really appreciate the transparent and detailed summary highlighting the pros/cons/logistical needs of each option @J9leger. As someone directly involved w/ the funding conversations w/ partners, I foresee a loss of credibility if we were to announce dropping GR16 completely w/ minimal advance warning.
Would hate to see our hard-earned goodwill to tank from rugging our main offering; regardless of grantees financials truly rely on our funding, Gitcoinâs grants program is our bread and butter QoQ and its absence in Q4 will certainly be noticed.
I think there are a couple more ways we can reduce the friction from running/transitioning Cgrants to the Protocol:
- Reducing our focus to 3-4 top performing relevant cause rounds to maintain our level of QoQ consistency
- No main round, no ecosystem roundâapart from our select Design Partner trials
- Selected PGF cause round leads to focus on GR16, while the PGF contributors who normally focus on a round that wasnât selected can focus on the Protocol transition
- Reducing time window for grant applications to mid November
- Reducing the # of new grant applicants we accept, prioritizing returning quality granteesâalso increasing funding for high-value/signaled projects
- Finally: wondering how large of a lift it would be involve Passport usage into GR16 Cgrants to bolster sybil resistance?
- Not talking product integration for Cgrantsâcan imagine running an Excel matching formula on a spreadsheet to cross reference verified Passport users w/ grant applicants by November X could suffice to knock out low-effort attacks, while giving us decent time to review the remaining.
- Give audience a heads up that w/ increased sybil attacksâgrant applicants must also have verified Passport
- Not as decentralized as people imagine us to beâbut free money simply canât be handed out this easily without trust, and reasonable people should understand.
From PGFâs conversations, Iâve observed that funders are more excited over our cause rounds that relate to their interests/pillars, because it shows how closely Gitcoin is listening, while supposedly benefitting their business. Although funders recognize the impressive legacy of our main round & are impressed by our early successful granteesâas the Ethereum ecosystem currently standsâitâs extremely saturated at this point w/ even the Merge not creating much effect in this market. My conclusion is less people are building on Eth, and money is going towards specific interests/niches and other chains. Although Main Round is easiest to verify tags, I think a few specific Cause Rounds are the way to go here, axing Main and Ecosystem during GR16.
Not many orgs offer what we offer so consistently, and the potential complaints about the reduced funds/focus can be countered pretty easily by revisiting our Vision of âempowering communities to fund their shared needs.â Although it doesnât feel very empowering to reduce rounds, raise requirements, and tighten deadlines, itâs even less empowering to rely on a manual, centralized system that can lose grant money to sybil attackers. Like any good public infrastructure, systems are generally forced to temporarily restrict access to make improvements, like roads and operating systems.
Regardless of what we decide, I foresee pushback any way we do it. But rugging GR16 100% worries me about peopleâs belief in Gitcoin, which will reflect in our token price lol. Humans hate change, even when itâs good for them, so imo the best thing we can do is preparing our counters / documentation / explainer threads to remind them that what we are doing is still extremely true to Gitcoinâs founding vision.
TLDR; Reduce rounds from 7+ main/eco/cause to ~3 top cause. Move grantee application cutoff date in November, increase barrier to entry for safety. Ensure we have materials revisiting our original Vision prepared to counter potential dissent. Allow Cause Round leads for selected upcoming cause rounds focus on GR16, while allowing rest of team to focus on Protocol transition.
PS: Definitely talking very theoreticallyâonly joined Gitcoin a couple months ago so GR15 was my first round here. Please take my words with a pinch of salt.