NEAR Foundation Allocates $100K (now $~200K) to Pilot Quadratic Funding on NEAR
TLDR
- NEAR Foundation has committed $100,000 USD worth of NEAR (now ~ $200,000) to quadratically match external donations to support public goods and open source projects
- First NF sponsored rounds will run from now to early May 2024, rounds include Africa Public Good, Retroactive Builders, Open Source, and AI
- Projects can sign up in the registry & apply to the first pots today
Goals
- Compensate public goods builders in the NEAR ecosystem based on a cohort list of people who haven’t previously been funded or deserve more funding
- Build a culture in the NEAR ecosystem where people know they will be compensated for work
- Create an environment not dependent on grants for pre-seed startups and public goods
- Leverage new funding mechanisms to onboard new projects to NEAR Social, NEAR Horizon, DAO tooling and the overall NEAR Ecosystem
- Amplify NEAR’s support for pushing the public goods funding and impact tracking space
- Encourage other players to actively fund these matching pools
- Bring traction for smaller communities to fund and run their own rounds
- Work with different stakeholders and experiment with round managers as effective capital allocators
For decades, founders have been torn between seeking funding and focusing on building their projects. They’ve navigated lengthy bureaucratic processes via outdated funding frameworks and models, which frequently fail to adequately support projects with genuine social impact.
Now with Potlock, builders can find funding for their projects in a more democratic and effective way.
The decision-making process doesn’t solely rest in the hands of a few but is now fairly distributed among the collective wisdom of many. In this era, Quadratic funding encourages diversity and innovation by allowing a broad range of projects to receive funding, including those that may be overlooked by traditional models due to their niche appeal or non-commercial nature.
An ecosystem thrives when good products and impactful initiatives get funding. They generally get it from many sources. These include both community and ecosystem reserves. On NEAR protocol, supporters of public goods could get rewards for their contributions. This fosters a cycle of generosity and innovation. Here, people can easily send funds to the sectors they truly care about. They do this by rallying the community’s feelings. They empower changemakers who drive real change. They do all this while bypassing the bureaucratic obstacles of launching new programs. Here, project owners have data. Funding is transparent. Tracking money flows is public. What matters now isn’t the relations that you have but your reputation in the community and provable track recording. It opens doors to more funding and support.
This vision fueled the NEAR Foundation’s decision to invest $100,000 (now ~$200,000 into a pioneering initiative: Quadratic funding rounds via Potlock, NEAR’s decentralized protocol for funding public goods.
Focus Areas
In this new initiative to flip funding mechanisms, where external capital and democracy merge, the Foundation is proud to sponsor 4 important verticals in the next two months totaling over $100,000 worth of NEAR in matching (now ~$200,000);
- AI ($45,000, now around ~$90,000): Funding research and development in open, ethical and responsible AI and the intersection of AI x Web3
- Retroactive Builders ($30,000 now around ~$60,000): Rewarding past contributions to the NEAR ecosystem builders and building a culture of compensation for impact
- Open Source Software ($22,000 now around ~$44,000), Supporting the development of open-source projects that benefit the broader tech community.
- Africa ($3,000 now around ~$6,000), Seeding innovation in public goods for high-growth regions.
Funding Round Schedule
To view the pots (quadratic funding rounds) that are deployed you can check them potlock.org/pots and the full global round schedule here
Originally starting as an AI company, NEAR always recognized the critical need to utilize Web3 for funding and coordinating ethical open AI initiatives such as research, products, and even governance.
The upcoming round is set to unite leaders in the AI domain, coordinated by Edge Intelligence. While the NEAR ecosystem has engaged with grassroots-driven DAOs for funding initiatives, it has lacked a democratic mechanism to appropriately reward the builders who have contributed their efforts toward the public.
While it’s crucial for builders to concentrate on their projects and receive recognition for their work, we advocate for a culture where future funding is closely tied to the project’s impact, recognized by the community within the ecosystem.
For this reason, we have enlisted BuildDAO for its reputation among NEAR’s builders to oversee this round, with the goal of acknowledging the developers who have contributed far more than they have ever received in compensation.
Finally, NEAR Africa is initiating a pilot round to bring together communities, NEAR projects, and organizations focused on creating public goods in Africa. As we know, Africa stands at the threshold of becoming the world’s most significant future market, filled with untapped potential. Its rapidly developing regions are home to a youthful demographic and an expanding middle class, presenting a prime opportunity for businesses and investors.This willingness to leverage this potential seeks to showcase the integration of NEAR users and projects, alongside fostering growth in fast-developing areas where market presence is highly emerging.
Open Source Software (OSS) is key to driving innovation and efficiency in tech. It empowers developers worldwide to work together and create innovative software. This spirit of collaboration not only propels technological progress but also makes cutting-edge tools accessible to all, building a more inclusive digital future. This brought NEAR to develop the Open Web by championing the open-source culture, recognizing the invaluable contributions of open source developers to the Web of tomorrow. With a steadfast commitment to OSS, NEAR aims to harness the collective intelligence and creativity of the global developer community.
This commitment is rooted in the understanding that open-source developers have the extraordinary ability to produce impactful and high-quality code, driving forward innovation and offering substantial cost savings for private companies. NEAR’s dedication to the open-source culture is not just a philosophical stance but a strategic approach to nurturing an ecosystem where innovation, efficiency, and collaboration flourish, and this is exactly where Potlock comes into work. Through support for OSS, Potlock not only facilitates immediate project funding but also promotes a sustainable model for open source development. By enabling projects to receive funding based on community support, Potlock encourages continuous innovation and the development of high-quality, impactful software which will ensure NEAR to remain a leader in the web3 space and its mass adoption mission.
How Quadratic Funding elevates NEAR to New Heights
We aim to revolutionize Web3 funding by merging our favorite functionalities from platforms Gitcoin, Giveth, Farcaster but on NEAR with a unique flair and an expanded inclusivity. Utilizing quadratic funding to support open-source projects and innovate in charitable giving, all while benefiting from the low transaction fees, chain abstraction technology, and security offered by NEAR blockchain
Quadratic funding is an innovative funding mechanism that aims to enhance fairness and inclusivity in the support of community-driven projects. Distinct from traditional crowdfunding approaches, quadratic funding amplifies donations from multiple contributors with matching funds from a pool, using the quadratic formula for calculation. This approach ensures that smaller donations from a wider group of people are matched with greater funds than larger donations from fewer individuals. By encouraging widespread participation and backing from the community, quadratic funding seeks to empower a variety of initiatives, guaranteeing that projects with substantial grassroots support are provided with sufficient resources.
On the backend, Potlock leverages NEAR as a database, utilizing a suite of contracts similar to those found in NEAR Horizon and NEAR Social Layer, along with its unique registry, donation, and quadratic funding factory contracts. This setup integrates funding, social interaction, discovery, and organizational components in a modular fashion, eliminating the need for intermediaries.
To counteract Sybil attacks, Potlock’s ecosystem has introduced nada.bot, inspired by the Gitcoin Passport. This system is engineered to verify “humanness” and reputation while safeguarding user privacy. It operates flexibly across both the application and contract layers, leveraging a network of provider contracts. This approach integrates social authentication, on-chain credentials, identity solutions, and Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proofs.
On the front end, Potlock leverages the NEARJS framework for publishing every piece of JavaScript code on-chain, making the application easily accessible from over 50+ clients. Its smart contracts are permissionless, enabling anyone to receive donations and deploy their own contracts with unique registries and identity integrations. This level of composability and open source ethos positions Potlock as a public good, empowering anyone to craft their own experiences for various use cases in a censorship-resistant manner. This flexibility extends beyond public good funding, and even beyond the NEAR ecosystem, while still utilizing NEAR’s infrastructure. Beyond this, Potlock contributors are committed to developing new funding mechanisms, innovative ways to track impact, and new building blocks for a truly decentralized internet.
How to Participate
All the NF supported pots are deployed, and anyone can fund the matching pools today alongside the NEAR Foundation directly on the pot page. For projects they can sign up as a project on the Potlock public goods registry and apply to the pot, while for the Africa round is live for matched donations. For donors, when pots are live you can verify as a human through nada.bot to get your donations quadratically matched.
If you want to contribute through the PotLock community join Telegram, follow the Twitter, LinkedIn, or NEAR Social or subscribe to the newsletter
View the NEAR Foundation’s Blog Post Here https://pages.near.org/blog/potlock-and-near-foundation-partner-to-accelerate-public-goods-funding-pgf/
