Evolution of the Steward Council

The Gitcoin Stewards Council was created in March 2022 as a governance mechanism and has continued to refine the objectives, selection methods, and compensation of selected Gitcoin Steward Council members. Here is a quick recap of key milestones in the evolution of the Steward Council.

May 2021: Along with the creation of GTC, the governance of Gitcoin was handed over to the community via a group of individuals known as Stewards with delegated voting power to make decisions on behalf of the community.

December 2021: Proposal introduced for creating a Steward Council that would use representation and incentives as a main driver for sustained and increased engagement in the governance process.

March 2022: The first Steward Council was authorized via The Steward Council Election & Mandate snapshot vote. The council consisted of the most engaged stewards, exemplified by the engagement scorecards.

September 2022: Key priorities for the new Steward Council were set based on a retrospective. The new council was selected based on the engagement scorecards looking at stewards with a rating above 8/10. 

October 2022: Proposal: V2 of the Steward Council introduced external stewards to improve market sensing ability. Each workstream nominated one representative per season to the Steward Council. Additionally, each workstream nominated three stewards into a quadratic voting pool for an election by existing stewards.

November 2022: The first-ever quadratically elected Steward Council was created in a modified format with one representative from each workstream and ten externally active web3 leaders.

May 2023: An amendment changed the voting mechanism from an egalitarian vote (all voters are weighted equally) to a token-weighted vote (more tokens = greater influence). This change also opens voting up to all GTC token holders (who are eligible to vote) versus the previous approach, which whitelisted participation to Gitcoin Stewards.

July 2023: Implemented a higher level of Sybil protection via Gitcoin Passport for token-weighted quadratic voting by requiring token holders to add at least one stamp from a list of 25 stamps to be eligible to vote. The passport-gating allows communities to utilize the cost of forgery to cap ‌Sybil-resistant rewards to users (like participation in governance) while increasing friction for attackers.

Results for Steward Council v3

The Steward Council Elections v3 are now complete. The Gitcoin Workstreams identified 2 to 3 nominees per work stream for external council members and those nominees were reviewed by CSDO. The vote was conducted on Snapshot using “token-weighted quadratic voting” allowing every GTC token holder to cast any percentage of their delegate tokens to the candidates using the Quadratic Voting methodology. The newly elected council will serve its new term for 180 days.

Gitcoin Workstream Steward Council members:

@Jeremy - Passport

@azeem - Public Goods Funding

@Viriya - Marketing, Memes, and Merch

@nategosselin - Allo/Grants Stack

@kyle - Gitcoin Foundation

Quadratically elected Steward Council members:

JR-OKX (PGF) has been involved in blockchain both as an investor and contributor to the development of OKX platform. They first encountered Gitcoin in 2019 when they saw a protocol raising funds from community members. Seeing how Gitcoin has become a crucial support hub for numerous projects, they are thrilled to join it by becoming a Gitcoin steward. They aim to engage with different perspectives and strengthen Gitcoin governance through their diverse experiences as an investor, advisor, mentor, and operator of web3 and crypto projects. Read their steward post here.

Vikram’s (PGF) vision is to use innovative technologies and deep wisdom for a global transition towards a Regenerative Economy - a World where our daily actions regenerate our asset base and relationships to self, others and the planet. They are deeply involved in exploring and developing web3 applications (including blockchain infrastructure, Tokenisation, DeFi, Crypto and NFTs) for Sustainable and Regenerative Development projects. Read their steward post here.

Essemharris (PGF) is a Senior Director, Lead Product Manager for R&D at the National Basketball Association (NBA), where blockchain technology represents a core component of their portfolio. They see blockchain as a means to democratize access to public goods and believe Gitcoin is at the forefront of pursuing and deploying these values in the web3 community. They are enthusiastic about participating in Gitcoin for its focus on grants, identity, and DAO development. ​​Read their steward post here.

Deana (MMM) is a co-founder of Boys Club, which aims to bring new voices, primarily women, to the new internet. They nurture this community through social DAO, Discord, media channels, and real-world events. They engage in various activities such as writing a web3 newsletter, hosting podcasts, and organizing events. Boys Club experiments with technology, particularly at the intersection with culture. They also helped steward the recent Celo rebrand and are passionate about the regenerative finance movement. They excel at simplifying complex technical concepts and are eager to contribute their skills to Gitcoin. Read their steward post here.

Vinayvasanji (Passport) is passionate about digital public infrastructure, particularly decentralized identity solutions. They believe Gitcoin is well-positioned to advance these technologies and are eager to support its mission as a Steward. They have a background in leading technical communities at Blockchain Commons and co-founding the Humanetics Workshop, focusing on proof of personhood discourse and cryptoeconomic systems. Additionally, they developed Everyname, a middleware protocol for blockchain naming systems, which is offered as a free-to-use public good for the community. Read their steward post here.

TheCollinsFamily’s (Allo/GS) life goal is to create a sustainable, prosperous, and pluralistic future for humanity. They believe web3 technology provides unprecedented opportunities for new nations, cultures, and social structures. Gitcoin's role in the web3 ecosystem is crucial, and they want to ensure it plays a part in shaping future systems. They authored the "Pragmatist's Guide to Governance," which gained recognition and explored governance theories. They are enthusiastic about web3 since 2014 and participate as a two-person unit, valuing family as the core unit of identity and sharing various aspects of their lives and work. Read their steward post here.

Jelena647 (Allo/GS) is co-founder & CEO of Noble, a Cosmos project, and is involved in the Canadian Web3 Council as a Co-Founder and as a Strategic Advisor to Kado Money, among other roles, with six years of full-time experience in the blockchain and crypto industry. They strongly resonate with Gitcoin's mission to support the development of public goods in a fundraising landscape often skewed toward extractive projects. Their experience with core development teams like Dfinity, Celo, and Cosmos has emphasized the significance of transparent and well-scoped funding programs. Read their steward post here.

Ccerv1 (Allo/GS) compares Gitcoin's significance in web3 to Florence's role in the Renaissance—a place where diverse people exchange funding, ideas, and creations. As a steward, their main priorities are financial sustainability, finding additional revenue models for the DAO, further decentralization, and ensuring the presence of exceptional people in the community. They have hands-on experience with various organizational models, including DAOs, and have been actively involved in DreamDAO's governance. They are a repeat founder, comfortable with decision-making in different contexts, and strongly committed to social impact, having worked with NGOs and mobilized funding for public goods. Read their steward post here.

Additional Details

Steward Council Elections v3 announcement & election results