Gitcoin is building.. And we are so excited to share this new future with you!

A vote was passed last week to wind-down our centralized grants (cGrants) platform and fully transition to a new Gitcoin Grants Stack (currently in testing) to achieve our goal of decentralizing our grants program. Over the next few months we will focus on running alpha test rounds to ensure that we continue to support early-stage builders as we transition to a decentralized, scalable solution that will support many more communities in funding their shared needs. During this phase, all data on cGrants will remain intact. In the coming weeks, we will clarify a clear data migration plan as we onboard grantees to the Grants Stack.

But why? In short, Gitcoin’s impact as a centralized, single point of running quadratic funding rounds was reaching its limit. Our ability to experiment with new funding mechanisms, and to allow communities to fund their shared needs in a self-sovereign way couldn’t scale on our old platform.

What’s next? In January, we will run streamlined alpha rounds for the Gitcoin grants program with existing grantees on the Gitcoin Grants Stack (currently in testing) so they can participate in the development of our tech and preview what our team has been working on. In addition, because this is a test of new technology, the rounds will only be open to a limited number of existing grantees to apply. These grantees should look for an invitation in the coming weeks. We are also working with a set of design partners who will launch grants programs of their own to help test the Grants Stack.

Grantees have always been and will continue to be our priority. We'll engage our grantees through S16 to help test the protocol, prepare for its launch, and help grantees build connections with one another during this transition. Our focus on Grants Stack will ultimately provide a better experience than our current centralized grants platform and allow more projects and communities to experience the value of community-driven funding.

We're excited to transition our complete Gitcoin Grants Program to the Gitcoin Grants Stack, and this test round is the first step. Afterward, supporting partners with transitioning their grants programs to the Grants Stack and having the big launch of our decentralized program and the permissionless protocol for anyone to use self-service or with our support from early Q2, 2023.

As we transition to Gitcoin Grants Stack, we'll continue to care for the community and provide ongoing grantee support. We're committed to helping communities build through the bear and continuing to serve the ecosystem.

In Summary:

• We will be running Gitcoin test rounds in S16 January 17-31. We will be working toward our goal of a launch event for the new decentralized Gitcoin Grants Program in early Q2, 2023.
• We will launch a permissionless Gitcoin Grants Stack (currently in testing) that anyone can use to connect resources, contributors, and ecosystems to democratic funding mechanisms in the most optimal way possible.
• We will be running a variety of smaller design partner rounds on the Grants Stack in the weeks and months ahead to support the design phase of the protocol, also aligning with our goals of decentralizing the Gitcoin Grants Stack (currently in testing) whereby not all grants programs run at the same time on our cadence.

Grantee feedback is extremely important to us as we move forward with the protocol transition- we welcome any responses from projects and community members. Join the Gitcoin Grants Program Update & Info Telegram to ask questions, meet fellow Grantees and engage in the conversation.