🌍 61/This Week in Web3forGood
Reflections on #GitcoinBeta
gm gm,
After two buzzing weeks. Gitcoin Beta Round has officially come to a close. Beta Round was the second experimental round (after Alpha in Q1) since Gitcoin’s transformation from a centralized to decentralized structure, and like all great experiments, there were ups, downs, and lots of learnings.
This was the first time Web3ForGood participated in any kind of Gitcoin funding round, and we overall had a great experience! Our reflections:
The Highs
Wow, there are SO MANY brilliant projects, led by amazing individuals.
The connection to global communities and push towards greater collaboration overall was palpable.
Compared to Alpha (which we were only part of as funders), there was an overall Improved experience. Yes, the UX is not perfect yet, but things are trending in the right direction.
The Lows
For much of the donation period, gas fees were extremely high. Not only could we not afford to support some of the projects we cared about, but we also were unable to onboard new people. It came off as very “pay-to-play” to expect people to pay $50, $75, $150+ in *fees* just to make a small donation. For a system that’s ultimate goal is to level the playing field, having to pay to make your voice heard wasn’t a great look when it came to introducing the uninitiated.
Speaking of onboarding, even outside of fees, it’s still a struggle. Both from the grant creation side and from the funding side, there are lots of steps and this remains a barrier for entry.
That being said, we had so much fun getting to be a part of this early experiment in public goods funding, and we can’t wait to see how the process continues to improve over time. Thank you to everyone who supported our grant and to all the people at Gitcoin + funding partners who made this possible.
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact)
What’s Inside
🕊 Tweets of the Week
📣 Latest News
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🚀 Opportunities & Events
📡 On Our Radar
🕊 Tweets of the Week
📣 Latest News
Project & Product Updates/Launches
Donor Advised Fund (DAF) Donations Now Enabled by The Giving Block via Chariot
Worldcoin commits to Optimisim’s superchain vision ahead of Mainnet launch
Policy & Regulation Updates
New York introduces bill to accept stablecoins as payment for bail
Chamber of Commerce Backs Coinbase in SEC Fight With Scathing Amicus
Liechtenstein to allow payment for certain state services in Bitcoin
CCI Files Amicus Brief Supporting Coinbase’s Writ of Mandamus
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🏛 Report: Lessons for Decentralized Trust-Building Technologies in Democratic Governance (Harvard Kennedy Belfer Center)
🧸️ Play. Whimsy. Mischief. What if these were the kinds of words that framed our approach to the world? Interactive Report: A More Play-Full Future. (RADAR)
🤝 Everything you need to know about Celo Foundation’s 2% pledge to help 100+ impact investors onboard into Web3. (Celo Twitter Space)
🎆 What is Gitcoin? It’s a revolution in public goods funding. (Givepact)
📜 Carl Cervone of Protocol Labs explains Hypercerts (Green Pill Podcast)
🧠 Kevin Owocki’s thoughts on Gitcoin Beta Round. (@owocki)
📚 Jamie Joyce, US Project Lead at Democracy's Library, an organization striving to collect and preserve our democracy's data in one place on Democracy's Library’s quest to empower the future of government.(Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web)
❌ America is not leading the way when it comes to crypto regulation. (Blockworks)
🗣 What US presidential hopefuls are saying about crypto so far. (Blockworks)
🪙 The US Federal Reserve has no plans to issue a Central Bank Digital Currencies, yet potential presidential candidates are already sounding an alarm. Why? (CoinDesk)
⚒️ Bhutan has been quietly mining Bitcoin for years. (Forbes)
👑 Despite initial skepticism, cybersecurity expert Olayinka Odeniran is committed to empowering women in blockchain. (BFF)
😊 5 ways to donate crypto to support mental health this Mental Health Awareness Month. (The Giving Block)
🤝 Why do carbon rating agencies matter? Because transparency in the VCM helps people and organizations take more efficient climate action. (Toucan)
🚀 Opportunities & Events:
Attend: Blockchain for Social Good Berlin: Mapping Carbon & Web3 Ecosystems is happening June 1.
Attend: How Can Your Nonprofit Prepare for the Future of Philanthropy? from The Giving Block is happening June 13 virtually.
Earn: Get 5X invite rewards when you invite a friend to GoodDollar for a limited time. That’s 500 G$ on Celo per friend who signs up and makes a claim.
Win: Celo is partnering with Web3Berlin to give away 30 free tickets to Web3 Berlin.
Nominate: The newly launched Gitcoin Grants Citizens Rounds retroactively rewards people who create value for the Gitcoin Ecosystem. Nominate yourself or someone else starting May 15.
Join: Good Tech Community Groups in Web3, AI, Machine Learning, VR & Metaverse, Product, Data, and Security are accepting applications for members, leaders, mentors, and funders.
Join: The Good Tech Fest Slack.
Register interest: The Digital Resiliency in the Social Sector virtual event from Good Tech Fest is coming soon.
Apply: Mercy Corps Ventures is hiring a Marketing Coordinator (Colombia).
📡 On Our Radar
EthicHub is the first DeFi project to connect yield farmers with real farmers, creating an affordable lending system that benefits both lenders and farmers.
GovHub by Blockworks provides the ability to track and analyze protocol proposals across the industry.
Copies of the book “Brave New World '' will soon be available as NFTs. The Algorand Foundation and Book.io are teaming up to bring 10,000 eBooks of Aldous Huxley’s classic to the blockchain.
The Crypto Altruism Podcast Starter Pack is a bundle of 8 episodes highlighting incredible projects using the power of web3 and blockchain to combat climate change, and drive regeneration and conservation efforts.