Polygon Quadratic Funding Round

Quadratic Funding
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Hello beautiful people!

As you may have heard, Polygon is interested in running a quadratic funding round on Giveth. We have been in comms with the Polygon team for the past few months and now it looks like things are getting closer to a launch point!

The purpose of this forum post is to provide the details of this prospective round and create a space for discussion, question, or concerns.

Round Details

  • The round would start as early as October 2023.
  • There will be ±100 projects in the round.
  • A matching pool of ±$80k (USDC or MATIC) will be provided by Polygon on Polygon for the round.
  • Only donations made on Polygon chain will be eligible for matching.
  • 10% of the matching pool would go to the giv.eth multisig for our compensation.
  • An additional 5% of the matching pool would go to trustalabs for sybil data analysis post round.

Scope of Work

In order to make this round a success, we would need to:

  • Help onboard those ±100 projects to Giveth on Polygon
  • Do load testing & make relevant improvements to ensure our backend can handle a round of 100 projects (in progress)
  • Finish mobile improvements to QF rounds (in progress)
  • Make some modifications to our QF product so that only Polygon donations are eligible for matching (in progress)
  • Create marketing banners and promotional material for the round
  • Set up the round in Admin bro, monitor during the round for maintenance
  • Post-round data analysis & funds distribution

The work here would fall under the scope of the Quadratic Funding working group.

This is a great opportunity for Giveth to strenghten our ties with Polygon, onboard many new awesome projects to Giveth, drive traffic from the Polygon ecosystem onto our platform, thereby increasing donation stats & generate a bit of revenue for Giveth.

Here’s a poll to get a temperature check.

Are you in support of Giveth running a Quadratic Funding round in partnership with Polygon?

  • Sounds great, let’s go!
  • I have concerns and will leave a comment

0 voters

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I support the idea of hosting the Polygon QF Round on Giveth because it means revenue for the org. However, I would appreciate some guidance regarding our communication strategy for this initiative. Specifically, I would like to know how we plan to brand/communicate this information. Will it be a public round? Will only be communicated by Polygon? My main concern is ensuring that our community does not feel excluded due to the involvement of sponsors, especially in light of the recent situation with Shell on Gitcoin. It’s crucial that we communicate effectively and transparently to avoid any misunderstandings or negative reactions from our community.

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Well, Polygon is putting up the matching funds and will select the projects, but it will definitely still be a community round and we should communicate it to our audience! It would be great to work with Polygon to take advantage of cross-promotion.

The point of running a QF round is that the community gets to decide how the matching funds are allocated… so anyone who wants to support projects building on Polygon can donate in the round and help channel more funding to projects they believe will support the Polygon ecosystem. ← this is the messaging I think we can use in our comms. And we can do our usual stuff - a few social media posts, discord announcement & if we can we can run a “Shill space” on X where projects can talk about what they’re up to.

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Thanks for putting up this proposal Lauren, I appreciate taking the extra steps to align our efforts with our community.

Overall I think this is a net win for Giveth and will be great. I do share some concerns of having this vibe of “private” QF rounds - where a large donor puts up matching funds and gets to pick all the projects, which could be projects Giveth would not normally promote… who knows what it will actually look like.

I think we should still go for it but this is a tricky situation, if we end up mostly doing rounds this way (not saying we will, this is only round #2!) I wonder how that might affect the perception of Giveth QF.

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I hear the concerns about the sponsoring org choosing the projects, I’m not aware of the “Shell” Gitcoin situation so I’ll have to look that up.

It still sounds like a win/win/win for everyone involved, though I see how it could be viewed as exclusionary or something. Most important to me it seems, is that we agree Polygon is a good partner who we trust to have valid requirements for project eligibility.

Good to be cautious and of course not partner with projects that are sketchy but here we have a great opportunity to learn through another round, funded by a solid collaborative entity, that benefits projects on our platform AND Giveth.

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Mitch took the words right out of my mouth. Love Polygon, love to build more with them and how this would open the door for more in the future (ie zkEVM), love the $8K for GIV and the big size of the pool, which we can market the sh*t out of :slight_smile: but I am really concerned from the somewhat forcing of the 100 projects. Do we get any say in Yeah or Nah, can we at least get the final say or some say on which ones are good or which ones we really dont want on the platform, if any?

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Great work @karmaticacid !!

I’m all in to continue the work in QF, the Alpha round was hard work but I think it was worth it!

I am curious though in the number and selection process of the projects, 100 projects to onboard sounds big. Does Polygon already have all the projects selected? Are they all new projects? Or are they selecting from existing projects on Giveth that can receive funds in Polygon? is it a mix? are they opening up an application period for these projects that will be participating? Will verification be a requirement?

Sorry for all the questions! I know there was a call not long ago about this but unfortunately I couldn’t attend :frowning:

Thanks for putting this up :heart:

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Onboarding 100 projects.

Polygon will be giving us the list of projects that they want to have included in the round. They will all be projects that are adding value to the Polygon ecosystem.

Before the round begins, the projects themselves will be responsible for creating their project on Giveth. It would be great if we offered them some supporting materials (like links to our docs, onboarding videos) and perhaps if we created space where they could ask questions.

Polygon will let them know that they need to create their project to be part of the round.

I don’t expect there will be any issues with this, and I don’t expect that it will be much work on our side. The projects themselves have an incentive to create their project… because they WANT to be part of the round. If 100 crypto projects can’t figure out how to create a project on Giveth, we’ve got bigger problems.

Our team of course will need to review & “list” the projects as the come in and check to make sure they’re not in violation of our Terms & Conditions, but the projects don’t need to be verified to be in the round.

We are effectively just working with Polygon to create a big incentive for 100 Polygon focused projects to join Giveth. This ups our project base, increases traffic on our platform and is overall just great for Giveth.

ANYONE can create a project on Giveth, and it it’s not downright violent, pornographic or a scam… we list it! I don’t understand why there is so much resistence from our team from the prospect of having a nice influx of new projects. We are a free, open, fundraising platform that is inclusive to all kinds of projects… And the projects that will end up on Giveth from this round are cool crypto-savvy projects, and maybe some of them will even apply & qualify for verification. I don’t see any downside to this at all.

Giveth is a Host

Giveth is a free, open fundraising platform. Anyone can add a project, anyone can donate. Anyone can donate to whoever they want.

We built Quadratic Funding into the platform. If a large donor wants to say “Hey, I want to donate $80k to these projects, but I want it to be distributed according what the community thinls is best” - We offer the space where they can do that!

Polygon is giving loads of projects and incentive to get on Giveth. And then they’re saying they want to donate $80k to those projects through our platform. They also want to incentivize MORE people to donate to projects on our platform via a QF round.

This is only good for us.

I don’t think there is anything “tricky” about allowing people to use our products. There is especially nothing “tricky” about working with a reputable trusted organization like Polygon and supporting them in donating to projects they believe in, through Giveth.

When we are putting up the matching funds from donation.eth we can create different requirements or application processes, based on what we think is fair, but I see no issue in running more rounds like this for other orgs in the future. It will only help:

  • Onboard more projects
  • Drive more traffic through Giveth
  • Get more donors, large and small
  • Gain more traction
  • Grow our user base
  • Generate revenue and make our team more sustainable

And effectively, get us closer to meeting our goals.

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Perfect! Thanks for the explanation on the questions @karmaticacid ! Everything seems more clear now :heart_hands:

I definitely think this a great opportunity for Giveth and continue to make QF bigger and stronger :heart:

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You said the word tricky twice in quotes so I guess that refers to my comments. :smiley:

I agree with most of what you said. It makes sense if an organization wants to fund a matching pool and distribute it via a QF round to projects they selected. It gets “tricky” when Giveth is expected to get behind and promote this type of use to our community at large.

It’s not totally in the spirit of Giveth to have closed QF rounds where an organization onboards or hand picks only projects that serve their interests. Polygon is doing great work and has a great reputation, I wouldn’t assume they have bad intentions, but Polygon will probably pick only projects that serve it’s high level goals, those might be different from Giveth’s goals. This leads to mixed feelings of having it pushed as messaging we forward to our community.

The second issue is that generally we don’t cater our products towards non-verified projects, GIVbacks and GIVpower are the two best examples I could refer to.

This is because we want to incentivize high quality public goods projects to get the most benefits from the Giveth platform. Allowing non-verified projects to participate in Giveth QF is a divergence from that principle.

To keep it short, it’s probably fine, Polygon is a great organization and this Polygon round is net good for Giveth, I can agree.

However, these are my “tricky” concerns that aren’t resolved in your comment. You don’t need to resolve them, but let them be stated!

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As I dive in deeper, it appears to me this use is totally in Giveth’s best interest and what we have designed and built toward.

This initiative appears totally aligned with, and supportive of, Giveth Values:

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Heck we even share a Founder:

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When I look in their Forum it is clear their treasury governance prioritizes Public Goods, and that, like Giveth, they are starting with a trusted set of ecosystem representatives with a roadmap toward community-led decision-making, so I feel confident placing my trust in their team to choose wisely.

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It feels weird when I think about our current projects not being able to be included in the round. Many project owners have asked me… “When is the next round? How can I make sure my project is included? etc.” I think it will be very disappointing for them that there is nothing they can do to join.

I think this is a great opportunity in many ways though. I see the potential and I would love to see more great projects on the platform as well as Giveth becoming more known in the Polygon ecosystem.

My biggest concern is the timing. I believe it is unrealistic to think that we can onboard 100 projects, successfully market and build hype around the QF round, and also be able to make fully tested and functional DApp adjustments in 2 weeks.

I am willing to help with the onboarding and whatever I have the capacity to help with, however I think we could be more strategic and take advantage of this opportunity to build the hype and really run a robust marketing effort around this. Its kind of a big thing for Giveth right? How strict is their timeline? Is there a spec document somewhere that outlines everything that will be needed to make this successful? We can use that to estimate a more realistic timeline and I believe we will reap more benefits by taking the time needed to ensure hype and success. I don’t see any reason to rush it out in 2 weeks.

You have included a very high level scope of work and that is helpful… do we have an idea of the resources needed to complete each of these tasks?

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This is a great point. We have projects with Polygon addresses that are also aligned with their public goods missions; is it limited to Polygon ecosystem building projects and do we have access to their selection criteria or a way for existing projects on Giveth to apply to be in their 100? It would reduce the effort involved to do so.

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I’m grateful to see this forum post, thanks for putting this up @karmaticacid. Great discussion is unfolding and I appreciated all the additional info and viewpoints.

I too feel aligned and see significant benefits and a potential win-win-win for all. And I’m here to support in whichever way I can within my capacity. This is gonna be great for Giveth and I think we all agree on that. I also do agree with the timeline concern.

My two cents, one is a concern and the second is feedback:

  1. We have one week till the end of September and it seems pretty unrealistic to make this happen with the current deadline. I agree that more time would allow for more strategy around execution and comms and less pressure and stress on the teams directly involved on both sides. I think it’s a wonderful idea to allow existing Giveth projects to qualify as well - maybe at least those who already do something on Polygon - even just to have a polygon address and raising funds on the chain could be enough. Then I would love to see some more coordination with Polygon teamwise - as we may need some form of tracking the projects (project list?) when setting up the round in admin bro…etc.

  2. My feedback is related to some principles I would hope to find in leadership in Giveth. I noticed nobody likes having a bomb dropped on them. I felt like that a little bit during the initial call and the way this “last minute” project was announced. With limited information, I didn’t feel very good about having to adjust to the rushed vibe, and I am not even a developer… I wish this forum post would come sooner perhaps, since as you mentioned the convo is happening for a few months. What I would hope to see is a little more surrendered leadership, meaning I would come to talk to my team first - including them in picking the deadlines and making sure the teams don’t have to work under stress. I believe that this type of synergy can keep us happier and healthier in the longrun.

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Got an update from Polygon today!!

They will doing an onboarding/reviewing/vetting for Polygon projects that wish to be included in the round, and after they do all that, they will be giving us a .csv file with all the project data.

From there, we’ll be able to manually input all the projects ourselves (add them to Giveth)… including the project owner address, just to streamline everything.

We’ll have about 4 weeks from the time of receiving the data to the start date of the round.

Round start date ETA: mid-November.

They’ll also want some support from us on marketing, so I’m connecting w/ their marketing team and looping in @oyealmond

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Any opportunity for existing Giveth projects to apply for their onbaording/reviewing/vetting process? :thinking:

Manual entry! Providing pics and category types too? I’m assuming we will give them a list of fields that need to be collected for this to be effective…

Round will start smack dab in DevConnect… that’s something to work into things.

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yeah I think if the Giveth projects are working on building something to support Polygon, they can apply just like anyone else. I can keep an eye on when they open applications & where and then we could draft an email to send out to our project owners.

I’m going to give them a list of info we will need, so they can give us a .csv that has eveything we need/want.

Good point! We should keep this in mind, but I’m not 100% sure on exactly when the round will start etc. it’s possible that it will even start after we leave Devconnect, but we’re bound to have at least some work meanwhile.

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