[TEMP CHECK] 6.9m GTC Citizens Fund

This is a great proposal and makes a lot of sense (if the allocation is done well).

We’ve been compiling a framework for different strategies which might be useful Web3 Ecosystem Development

And the strategy we have been converging towards as most powerful: Business Clusters as a Strategy for Web3 Ecosystems

If this resonates, we’d love to explore more with the Gitcoin community whether we can collaborate on it!

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This proposal has been moved to Snapshot for a vote.

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I’m late to weigh in on the forum, though have chatted with @owocki about this over the past few months. I will vote in favor of earmarking the funds though will be much more circumspect about voting for any release of these funds.

For starters: I very strongly support funding projects that increase the value of Gitcoin’s ecosystem. As the leader of Grants Lab, I want that organization to be one of many future contributors to Gitcoin.

That said, I also want to raise our standards across Gitcoin (including Grants Labs) for the type of work that gets funded and the accountability and quality of work delivered. In earmarking these funds, I want to make sure that we are also pledging to:

  • Create and evaluate high value ways for citizen involvement. A classic example is the funding we’ve given in the past to activities like bug reporting, twitter spaces hosting, etc. These are all great and appreciated, but the bulk of our funding and efforts should go directly to projects building on Allo or creating complimentary tools that increase GMV. I would encourage citizens who are interested in getting funding for their project to use a framework like this (Allo Mechanism Evaluation Framework) and include a business plan!
  • Make sure that the builds referenced above are set up for success. We have activites at Grants Labs (including Allo 2.1, a new data layer, and AlloKit) that will make it much easier for new developers to build on the protocol. I expect to see more funding unlocked as the developer experience is better tested and validated.
  • As mentioned in the post above, I’d also love to experiment with distribution mechanisms that allow for more delegated GTC for governance from grant funding or other means of longer-term alignment! I recognize that early stage projects need funds to get off the ground and grants should be partially used as cash – but I think there is also a limit to the extent that they should be used purely for runway and we should ensure long-term alignment as well.

I don’t fully support the proposal. Based on what i’ve learnt in arbitrum, the way to build a decentralized community isn’t transferring a chunk of funds for the next 4 years but instead creating a culture where contributors can permissionlessly make their own proposals to the DAO.

For example, @noahchonlee wanted to do credit card integration in rounds. He was turned down by the team. He should have been encouraged to directly move to snapshot for a vote, the discussion, awareness and engagement that provokes is sometimes as valuable as the actual funding request.

On a sidenote, I’m also not a fan of using memes for budgets. 6.9 million, 4.2 years - i understand we work in ballparks but i’d like a little more thought into these numbers. i also don’t think giving a large amount to a person for gatekeeping its allocation will result in citizen engagement, i hope to be proven wrong though