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November 27, 2024

GG22 Results & Recap

Gitcoin Grants Round 22 Recap: GG22 raised $294k+ from 28k donors, powered by a $1.5M matching pool. Highlights include the return of OSS rounds, new donor tools, and enhanced sybil resistance. Explore the impact and what’s next!

TL;DR 

  • Round Dates: October 23 – November 6, 2024
  • Matching Pool: $1.5M
  • Key Features: All OSS Program rounds consolidated onto Arbitrum, continued improved sybil resistance tooling, introduction of Quick Bridge and Mint Attestations.
  • $294,972 crowdfunded with over 28,000 unique donors across 12 rounds

"The reintroduction of Open Source Software rounds alongside Community Rounds truly embodied our mission to support builders creating meaningful impact across the Ethereum ecosystem. Gitcoin Grants takes a pluralistic approach to funding what matters in the ecosystem and we’re excited to see so many communities joining us as we further decentralize." - MathildaDV, Grants Program Lead

Introduction

We are so excited to share the results for GG22, Gitcoin’s 22nd Quadratic Funding round, that boasted a total matching pool of $1.5M. Gitcoin Grants empowers high-impact builders in the Ethereum ecosystem to align funding with community priorities. Since its inception, the program has distributed over $64 million across more than 3,500 projects.

GG22 marked another important milestone, with the return of the Open Source Software (OSS) rounds. Featuring 4 targeted OSS categories and 7 Community Rounds, GG22 introduced operational enhancements while addressing key feedback from previous rounds.

This recap reviews GG22’s successes, challenges, and learnings, offering a roadmap for future improvements as we head into 2025.

Funding Results

GG22 crowdfunded $294,972 overall with contributions from over 28,000 unique donors across 12 rounds. With OSS and the decentralized portion of our program running hand-in-hand speaks to the powerful pluralistic vision of the program coming to life.

Notable successes in the Community Rounds included the ENS Ecosystem which ended with 42 projects, a total of $10,137.74 donated, and 1995 unique donors. Another standout round was Regen Citizen Genesis with 60 projects, a total of $8,868.97, and 491 unique donors.

Major Achievements

Community Education and Onboarding

Feedback from past rounds highlighted the need for better education and guidance, so to support grantees more effectively, Gitcoin posted an RFP (Request For Proposal) for a community-led onboarding program for GG22. Partnering with Let’s Grow DAO, this program provided tailored resources to help grantees navigate Gitcoin Grants and maximize their success.

Enhanced Product Features

  • Quick Bridge: Hearing various donor feedback from previous rounds, this feature addressed a major pain point by simplifying checkout with a seamless bridging solution for donors.
  • Mint Attestations: Enabled donors to mint and share their contributions as onchain attestations during checkout, enhancing engagement and visibility for a small fee.

Improved Round Structure

  • OSS Rounds Reintroduced: After focusing solely on community-led rounds in GG21, GG22 brought back OSS Rounds to address the unique needs of the open-source software ecosystem.
  • Community Round Criteria: Introduced stricter eligibility criteria, including a minimum $5k matching requirement, to ensure greater accountability and commitment. This approach led to higher-quality rounds and allowed the Community Council to focus on impactful projects.

Result Highlights

The projects on this list are the ones with the most diverse bases of support, benefiting from the use of COCM. 

Developer Tooling & Libraries - Top Projects

Hackathon Alumni - Top Projects

Web3 Infrastructure - Top Projects

dApps & Apps - Top Projects

Key Learnings

Platform Navigation & Application Process:

  • While grantees appreciated improvements, many still found areas to be overwhelming, especially understanding Quadratic Funding, COCM. This speaks to a higher need for further education.
  • Challenges included limited clarity on funding source breakdowns (e.g., donations vs. matching pool).

Onboarding & Donor Engagement:

  • Non-crypto-native donors struggled with wallet balance detection and bridging, leading to donation drop-offs.
  • Feedback emphasized the need for clearer instructions and first-time user guidance.

Gitcoin Passport & Sybil Resistance

GG22 continued its two-pronged sybil resistance approach:

  • COCM: An approach within that enhances Quadratic Funding by prioritizing projects with diverse support bases, helping to counteract sybil attacks and coordinated groups trying to unfairly influence funding distribution.
  • Passport Model-Based Detection: Analyzed onchain history to identify sybil wallets without adding user friction.

This dual strategy results in fewer sybils and more substantial contributions, helping to ensure fairness in matching pool distribution.

Moving Forward

As we head into 2025, OSS will return to run during every GG round, with various other updates that will be shared on the Gitcoin gov forum over the next few weeks. A new Community Council will also be elected at the beginning of next year. As it’s the program’s continued commitment to decentralize and be led by the community, it’s important that we receive community feedback on the proposed new strategy for 2025.

Conclusion

GG22 highlighted the resilience and growth of the Gitcoin community, showcasing impactful projects while uncovering areas for improvement in donor onboarding, platform usability, and operational transparency.

As we begin to plan GG23, Gitcoin remains committed to simplifying processes, innovating, and empowering builders with extended resources. 

“As we look ahead to 2025 and embrace Gitcoin’s multi-mechanism future, I’m excited to see our program evolve with a builder-centric mindset, ensuring we continue to support a diverse range of grantees not just through funding, but with holistic, community-driven resources.” - MathildaDV, Grants Program Lead

Read more

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