(this post is a 10 min read, and is targeted at leaders following Gitcoin’s evolution in the regen web3 space. if you want to get up to speed, start with this post first 7 and this post 4 next, and this post 4 last)
This post discusses the evolution of funding mechanisms in the context of Gitcoin’s mission to “Fund What Matters”.
We use both empirical knowledge, a priori reasoning, and a few educated guesses, to explore the evolving landscape of funding mechanisms in web3.
The post examines how different design criteria have shaped various funding experiments.
We then explore the potential future of the design space, considering additional design criteria like project maturity, retroactive funding, dependance on impact attestations, or mobile first experiments.
We then make some educated guesses about how the design space might evolve, informing where to place bets over the next 5-10 years.
As a shape rotator 6, I love cartography. Cartography (the study and practice of making and using maps) allows for visual understanding of what’s around us. A picture is worth a thousand words, which means that by visualizing abstract concepts, more of us can get on the same page faster & at higher fidelity than we would otherwise.
The objective of this post is to cartography the design space in & around Gitcoin’s mission (To Fund What Matters).
Empirical knowledge is gained through experience or observation, relying on the senses or experiments to understand the world. A priori knowledge, on the other hand, is knowledge that is known independently of experience, based on reason or logical deduction.
In this post, I will try to leverage both types of reasoning to cut through the “fog of war” of the design space. “Fog of war” metaphorically describes the ambiguity and lack of clarity in understanding and making decisions within complex systems.
By reflecting on the growth of the internet empirically, and by reasoning about the a priori parallels between web1 and web3, we can reason about how web3 might play out…
Just as email, IMs, twitter and tik tok, and LLMs changed how we transfer information… The internet of money could change how we transfer money. How we Fund What Matters.
