$500k+ in pooled funds, striving for over $1mm total for Web3 projects. Create your grant now!

Today we’re excited to announce Gitcoin Grants Round 9 will begin on March 10th, 2021. Through the past eight rounds, with the incredible support of the Web3 community, we’ve helped distribute over $7 million to over 1,400 key Web3 ecosystem projects. These projects include large DeFi mainstays, critical Ethereum infrastructure, major Web3 news outlets, and other artistic community ventures.

For example:

• In DeFi, 1inch, Uniswap, Zapper, and more went from early Gitcoin Grantees to billion dollar projects.
• Prysmatic Labs, Lighthouse, and other teams successfully enabled the launch of the Eth2 beacon chain.
• Bankless, EthHub, and MetaCartel funded their Web3 media and community projects, contributing to the rich plurality of the Ethereum ecosystem.
• NFT initiatives like POAP, ETHMemes, and the Green NFT Project pushed forward the nascent creator economy in the space.

None of this would be possible without the support of our Funders League, a core pillar of our community, which includes Badger, Ethereum Foundation, Optimism, and Yearn as founding members, and some new faces for Grants Round 9 including Polygon (prev. Matic), The Graph, Sushi, and two previous grantees: Mask Network + Uniswap (which incidentally really shows the pay it forward nature of the ecosystem). Huge thanks to all of these projects for supporting public goods.

What is Gitcoin Grants?

In short, Gitcoin Grants gives open source projects of all sizes the opportunity to seek and receive community funding.

Our core mission is to grow open source Web3 development because we believe it’s an essential force for good in the world. And we know the best way to promote Web3 development is by providing opportunities for developers to get paid to build it. On Gitcoin devs can earn year round in sponsored hackathons and through bounties, but during Grants Rounds there is a focused coordination of project launches and community investment that expands earning opportunities. There’s no better time to start and fund Web3 projects, so there’s no better time to earn in Web3.

But that’s not all — Gitcoin Grants is a grand experiment in Quadratic Funding. Quadratic Funding is a mechanism that ensures that the projects our community values the most, get the most funding. There is simply no better way to democratically decide how to prioritize disbursement of a limited pool of resources. We believe Quadratic Funding is a compelling solution for any community looking to coordinate, fund, and build public goods projects, and Grants Rounds are a great opportunity for all of us to test it out together.

Gitcoin Grants Hackathons

Last year, Gitcoin decided to help bootstrap the next wave of grants projects through a hackathon that brought in over 15 amazing alumni as sponsors, and over 700 enthusiastic hackers. For Grants Round 9, we want to continue that trend, and with over 1000 hackers registered we’re happy to report that the Gitcoin Grants Round 9 Hackathon will be our largest yet. As a project that came in part out of a hackathon ourselves, we’re excited about the potential for events like these to exponentially grow Web3 development, and showcase just how far we can go if we go together.

If you’re interested in taking part in Grants Round 9, here are all the links you’ll need:

• Create a Grant. Are you building in Web3? Your work is valuable! Join the Gitcoin community and get it funded!
• Find Grants to Fund. Signal your support for public goods by helping to fund your favorite projects.
• Register to Hack. Build with some of the most innovative projects in Web3.
• Join Us (Virtually) In Celebrating Web3. 20+ events in 2 weeks in the always-open GR9 Airmeet.

If you’re not sure what you want to do yet, or just want to jam, please join us in Gitcoin’s brand new Discord, where grantees, contributors, and hackers will be hanging out during the round!

Round 9 Matching Pool

This round, the funds that have generously been donated will be distributed to the following categories:

• Infrastructure Tech: $150k
• DApp Tech: $125k
• Community: $125k
• East and Southeast Asia Regional: $50k
• NFTs: $50k

How do grants work?

It starts with a Grant page, a pool of funds, and a community of contributors.

Grants start with a page for your project (or yourself!) and a pool of matching funds. Donors will signal support for grantees by contributing funds to their projects. Then, the Quadratic Funding algorithm determines what percentage of the matching pool is allotted to each project.

If you’re a grantee, the key thing to note is that the number and amount of contributions to your project both influence the total amount allocated to you. If you’re a contributor, even a small contribution can have a huge impact on the amount of matching funding a grantee gets, so if you like a project, say so with even 5 DAI!

Gitcoin Grants is all about communities working together to help fund and signal support for public goods. We all benefit from public goods, and Quadratic Funding is an optimal way of democratically allocating resources to them.

Round 8 Recap

GR8 saw $571,000 raised through crowdfunding from over 5,000 contributors, plus $500,000 contributed by our Funders League, and $100k in hackathon prizes. That’s a whopping $1,171,000 paid to developers building Web3 public goods projects!

Round 9 — What’s new?

In Grants Round 7 we introduced a new feature called “Collections”. This feature allows individuals to create a curated list of grants they think are worthy of funding. As a funder it takes research to figure out which grants to support, particularly if the projects in a field the funder doesn’t have expertise in. With Collections, you can rely on the expertise of community members you trust to point you to projects they trust.

In Round 9 we are highlighting Collections as an overall effort to improve user experience, so that funders have additional ways of discovering interesting grants to support. Find collections by navigating to Gitcoin Grants and sorting by Collections (left column).

Our lineup of events!

The GR9 Hackathon

After debuting in GR8, this is the second ever Gitcoin Grants Hackathon. This combined event is a chance to rally the community not just around funding projects they care about, but to help build them as well. Read more here.

Thank you to the GR9 Hackathon sponsors!

Kickoff, workshops, and more.

We’re offering a full slate of webinars, workshops, and community discussions around Grants and Hackathons that takes place through Airmeet, beginning Friday, March 12th. Signup here to stay in the loop.

Public Goods Funders League

We’d also like to give a huge thanks to the Funders League for continuing to support open source public goods development. Our membership keeps growing! We can’t thank you enough for your support, and we hope the rest of the Ethereum community will thank you too.

Here’s the full Funders League member list (by join date):

• Ethereum Foundation
• Optimism
• Balancer Labs
• Synthetix
• YFI
• Matic
• Three Arrows Capital
• Chainlink
• YAM Finance
• Mask Network
• 1337 working group
• MEME
• 1kx
• 1inch
• Binance
• Harvest Finance
• Badger.Finance
• Kraken
• The Graph
• Uniswap
• Sushi
• Polygon / Matic

Individual Donors

• @knotmegan
• @econnor
• @nanexcool
• @bantg
• @rleschner
• @jordanlyall
• @andrewDARMACAP
• @future_fund_
• @nanexcool
• @tenQkp
• #FerretPatrol
• Andrew Keys

If your organization is interested in joining the Funders League, please reach out here!

With Grants Round 9 around the corner, we hope that the Gitcoin platform and community will help you connect and engage with the amazing, flourishing Web3 ecosystem, so that we can all create valuable relationships while growing open source, together.

— The Gitcoin Team