The Gitcoin Grants Program is dedicated to fostering the growth of Open-Source Software (OSS) within the Ethereum ecosystem. By setting clear eligibility criteria, the program ensures that all participating grantees uphold ethical standards, embrace community values, and contribute meaningfully to OSS development. This framework is designed to encourage innovation while maintaining transparency and integrity.
Ethical and Community Standards
For the upcoming GG23, projects must meet specific requirements to qualify. Ethical and community standards are paramount, prohibiting hateful content, deceptive practices, falsification of contributions, fraud, impersonation, bribery, and direct advertising. Projects must be transparent about their affiliations and intentions, ensuring they align with community-driven funding principles. Legal compliance is also mandatory, as is adherence to open-source licensing, ensuring that all code remains accessible for modification and redistribution.
Open-Source Principles and Project Activity
In addition to ethical considerations, projects must demonstrate active development, reflected in their GitHub commit history. Those meeting all criteria will be approved automatically, while others requiring further assessment will undergo a manual review process. Projects that fail to satisfy the eligibility standards will be disqualified.
OSS Quadratic Rounds
The GG23 funding initiative will include three quadratic funding rounds, each targeting a different segment of the Ethereum ecosystem.
- The dApps & Apps round, allocated $200,000, aims to accelerate the adoption of decentralized applications, particularly those enhancing Web3 usability, financial inclusion, and social impact. Applicants must demonstrate strong user interface design and innovative use cases to qualify.
- Another $200,000 is allocated to Web3 Infrastructure, supporting projects that strengthen Ethereum’s core network, improve staking diversity, and enhance decentralized identity solutions. Contributions to security, scalability, wallet privacy, and standardization efforts will also be considered. Projects in this category should showcase their impact on network infrastructure and involvement in pioneering technological advancements.
- The Developer Tooling and Libraries round, also funded with $200,000, seeks to improve developer efficiency by supporting the creation of development environments, testing tools, and smart contract libraries. Successful applicants must provide evidence of reducing development barriers and gaining traction within the developer community.
A structured evaluation process will be employed, combining quantitative and qualitative assessments. Open-source licensing compliance and active development will be examined alongside contributions to the OSS ecosystem, community engagement, and innovation. By setting clear guidelines and objectives, GG23 ensures a transparent selection process that fosters diverse, high-impact projects.
Retro Round – 1 Round
Additionally, a Retro Round will distribute $600,000 to mature projects that have demonstrated sustained contributions to OSS. This curated round will identify 30 top builders from previous Gitcoin Grant rounds based on participation history and performance metrics. Selected participants must have a consistent development record, evidenced by at least one commit per week over the past six months. Eligible builders will be directly contacted by the Gitcoin team and given the option to participate in either the Retro Round or a quadratic funding round, but not both.
Through these funding initiatives, Gitcoin Grants continues to empower open-source innovation, ensuring resources are directed toward projects that drive meaningful progress within the Ethereum ecosystem. You can read more details about this on the forum.
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