Gitcoin Grants 19 Complete Guide to Donations
Gitcoin Grants 19 is a decentralized donation event with a total matching pool of $600,000, supporting donations across multiple chains, including Arbitrum, Optimism, PGN, and more. Donations can be made using the 2+1 donation method, and the donation projects include Web3 open-source software, Mini Bridge, Umbra, and Hey.xyz, as well as Web3 community and education projects like Biteye, EtherScore, Alpha Insider, L2BEAT, and ETH Staker.Original Author: Shouyi
Original Source: BiteyeCN
Gitcoin is a donation platform for open-source software, where users can support various decentralized open-source projects. Early-stage projects can also receive donations on Gitcoin to sustain their operations.
Some well-known projects like Uniswap, 1inch, MaskNetwork, ENS, etc., have participated in Gitcoin Grants, which is why Gitcoin is also referred to as "the armory of Ethereum."
In each round of Gitcoin Grants, in addition to receiving donations from users, Gitcoin also uses a quadratic funding model to allocate funds from the Ethereum Foundation to high-quality projects. This allocation method has been recognized by Vitalik Buterin, significantly enhancing the community impact of Gitcoin Grants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJljTtLnymE
The Gitcoin Grants donation activities have been held 18 times so far (16 rounds + Alpha Round + Beta Round), helping projects grow while providing donors with rewards such as token airdrops. More and more users are entering the world of Web3 through Gitcoin.
Gitcoin has been exploring more efficient donation methods, aiming to transition from centralized grants to GitcoinDAO: creating a decentralized and customizable grant protocol.
Through the Gitcoin Alpha Round in January 2023 and the Gitcoin Beta Round in April, Gitcoin has refined its donation methods, and Gitcoin Grants 19 will take place from November 15 to November 29, 2023.
https://www.gitcoin.co/blog/announcing-gitcoin-grants-19
Next, Biteye will briefly introduce the Gitcoin Grants 19 and how it differs from previous donations, along with carefully selected high-quality projects.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction to Gitcoin Grants 19
2. Donation Suggestions for Gitcoin Grants 19
3. Donation Tutorial for Gitcoin Grants 19
4. Recommended Projects for Gitcoin Grants 19 (continuously updated)
01 Introduction to Gitcoin Grants 19
- Gitcoin Grants 19 is the 19th round of Gitcoin's donation series. Since 2023, Gitcoin has tested a new funding method called Grants Stack through the Alpha Round and Beta Round, shifting from centralized donations to a community-initiated, voted, and managed donation method. This helps the communities applying for donations build a good on-chain reputation while allocating funds to projects favored by users.
https://www.gitcoin.co/grants-stack
- The donations for GG19 are divided into Program Rounds and Community Rounds. Selected projects must meet qualifications such as "not having raised significant external funds through venture capital, token issuance, or NFT sales."
https://gitcoin.notion.site/GG19-Eligibility-50843c8b3ab44ad297731a00efa6e389
- Program Rounds refer to specific grant rounds directly managed and supervised by the Gitcoin Grants Program Team (GPT, formerly PGF). Projects selected for this round must align with Gitcoin's mission and values, emphasizing transparency, decentralization, and community participation.
This round consists of three parts, with a total matching pool of $600,000:
- Ethereum Infrastructure ($200,000 USDC)
- Web3 Community & Education ($200,000 DAI)
- Web3 Open Source Software ($200,000 DAI)
- Community Rounds are matching pools set up by external partners, providing a more decentralized and community-driven approach, allowing external entities to lead and participate in management.
This round consists of nine parts, with a total matching pool of approximately $640,000:
- Arbitrum Citizens Retrofunding Round 1
- Meta Pool
- Global Chinese Community
- Token Engineering Commons (TEC)
- Open Civics
- Climate Solutions
- Web3 Social
- Meta Gov - Governance Research
- 1inch LatAm
- Gitcoin Grants 19 will run from November 15, 12:00 UTC to November 29, 23:59 UTC. You can follow Biteye's official Twitter for the latest updates on donations.
Gitcoin Grants 19 supports donations across multiple chains: Arbitrum, Optimism, PGN, etc., where PGN stands for Public Goods Network, a layer 2 specifically designed for donations.
Using OP and PGN for donations will significantly reduce network fees, and you can quickly bridge assets to the target chain using Minibridge:
https://minibridge.chaineye.tools/
- The anti-sybil method for Gitcoin Grants 19 still uses Gitcoin Passport. Passport, as a verification method, has been adopted by projects like Linea and Link3, and it is recommended to pay close attention to it.
Users can log in and link social media and wallets to increase their weight. Since Gitcoin Passport resets every 90 days, users need to relink before donating.
Only users who reach a score of 15 or above in this round can receive additional matching funds. You can check this tweet to learn how to set up Gitcoin Passport.
https://twitter.com/BiteyeCN/status/1691026029731876864
Additionally, you can use the Chaineye Gitcoin dashboard to view the current donation status of projects in various categories, allowing you to quickly find popular projects based on donation amount and number of donors:
(Use the Gitcoin19 dashboard to view the current donation status of projects)
02 Donation Suggestions for Gitcoin Grants 19
Biteye has summarized the following donation suggestions based on previous rounds of donations:
Although Gitcoin does not limit donation amounts, the minimum amount for each project must be greater than 1U. On the other hand, due to ETH price fluctuations, you can choose to donate in DAI; if donating in ETH, considering price volatility, it is recommended to donate at least 0.001 ETH; (Note: Some projects only airdrop based on whether a donation is made, while others weigh the donation amount.)
Donating on Gitcoin is a good on-chain interaction. Optimism and Celestia have considered "users making Gitcoin donations on the mainnet" as one of the weights for airdrops. Donations are also a low-cost way to increase Passport scores.
Using MiniBridge to transfer funds to the PGN chain for donations can minimize network fees while interacting with the officially recommended PGN chain.
Donations should not be delayed too much; making donations in the last few days can lead to network congestion, causing you to miss the donation deadline.
Verify your passport to a score of 15 or above before donating; scores in the 15-25 range will receive higher weights as the score increases.
It is recommended that users with multiple accounts focus on the diversity of donations, adopting a 2+1 donation method, i.e., donating to 2 target projects plus 1 random project.
03 Donation Tutorial for Gitcoin Grants 19
If you already know how to donate, you can directly check the recommended projects in the fourth section to make donations, or you can read a minimalist guide from Biteye founder Teddy:
https://x.com/DeFiTeddy2020/status/1725465337431568793?s=20
If you are not familiar with the Gitcoin donation process, you can first view the donation video from the previous Alpha Round, and we will update Gitcoin Grants 19 as soon as possible:
https://youtu.be/bOTwY-DSgbE
04 Introduction to Donation Projects for Gitcoin Grants 19 (continuously updated)
(1) Web3 Open Source Software
https://explorer.gitcoin.co/#/round/424/0xd4cc0dd193c7dc1d665ae244ce12d7fab337a008
Web3 OSS grants mainly target open-source projects, dedicated to developing or advancing the broader Ethereum and Web3 industry. Open-source software often involves concepts like Web3, DeFi, NFT, etc., and projects in these tracks have previously airdropped to donors.
1. Mini Bridge
Mini Bridge is a "zero-fee" cross-chain tool, featuring multi-chain support and fast confirmation, developed by the Chaineye team for small transfer scenarios. Chaineye is an award-winning project from the 2023 Shanghai Ethereum Conference, receiving funding support from Gitcoin, Optimism, and Arbitrum.
Mini Bridge has also been selected for the Global Chinese Community Round at GG19, feel free to give us a call!
2. Umbra
As a protocol, Umbra defines a simple standard for implementing private transfers on Ethereum through smart contracts. Umbra currently supports the mainnet and multiple L2s and will continue to deploy on multiple chains using the funds.
3. Hey.xyz
Hey.xyz (formerly Lenster) is a decentralized, permissionless social media application. Hey.xyz operates on the Polygon network, allowing users to interact seamlessly with dApps without incurring any costs, and no one can delete any content from the application, not even the administrators. Hey.xyz is powered by Lens Protocol, a decentralized social graph created by Aave.
4. JediSwap
JediSwap is a DEX built on StarkNet—StarkNet is a Validity Rollup on Ethereum that achieves infinite scalability for web3 while relying on Ethereum's security. JediSwap is a fully community-driven project, and anyone can start contributing to JediSwap by joining the JediSwap Discord.
5. Revoke.cash
A one-stop platform for revoking authorizations, allowing users to immediately revoke token authorizations upon receiving attack reports.
6. dm3 protocol
The dm3 protocol is a lightweight information transfer protocol based on Web3 technology, focusing on secure end-to-end encryption, decentralization, scalability, and interoperability. The dm3 registry is based on ENS, meaning dm3 configuration files are added as text records to ENS names.
7. OmniBTC
OmniBTC is a decentralized cross-chain exchange and lending platform aimed at connecting and unifying all on-chain liquidity. It supports over 17 chains and 20+ DEXs, allowing users to swap any token across any chain with one click.
Recommendation: This project has certain airdrop expectations and a large community.
8. Glo Dollar
Glo Dollar is a fully-backed stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, supported 1:1 by cash reserves and US Treasury bonds. Like other stablecoins, the reserves supporting Glo Dollar will earn sufficient interest, with the distinction that Glo Dollar's interest is primarily used to alleviate extreme poverty.
When the Glo Foundation earns income from reserves, its income will be donated to GiveDirectly's basic income program to help people escape extreme poverty.
Currently, 20 organizations have adopted, donated, or collaborated with Glo to integrate charitable efforts into their operations.
Recommendation: Innovative concept with a good vision.
(2) Web3 Community and Education
https://explorer.gitcoin.co/#/round/424/0x98720dd1925d34a2453ebc1f91c9d48e7e89ec29
The Web3 Community and Education grant focuses on non-software projects that drive the Web3 space forward, including developing new communities, providing educational resources, creating content, protecting users, and advocating for inclusivity and diversity.
1. Biteye
Biteye is Asia's leading Web3 research community, generating forward-looking investment research content and tools through community and AI-driven methods, helping community members explore the Web3 rabbit hole.
2. EtherScore
https://explorer.gitcoin.co/#/round/424/0xd4cc0dd193c7dc1d665ae244ce12d7fab337a008
This is a decentralized reputation system that creates achievements and on-chain profiles for Web3 users through badges. On top of EtherScore, Dapps can develop reputation-based services, such as curated social networks, fair airdrops/ICOs, DeFi, and DAO governance.
Recommendation: Anti-sybil attacks have always been a focus for project airdrops, and this project can effectively identify real user identities.
3. Alpha Insider
A community focused on exploring crypto Alpha directions, discovering early and emerging projects, and sharing them with the public and Discord. It supports projects by providing guidance on marketing strategies, event development, and educational content directions.
Recommendation: Holds a certain influence within the crypto Twitter community.
(3) Ethereum Core Infrastructure, Research, and Development
https://explorer.gitcoin.co/#/round/137/0xa1d52f9b5339792651861329a046dd912761e9a9
Ethereum Core Infrastructure, Research, and Development aim to support the Ethereum ecosystem. This category includes the following areas: core client development, tool providers, and auxiliary products that showcase ecosystem concepts.
1. L2BEAT
L2BEAT is an analysis and research platform specifically for Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions, aiming to comprehensively compare various Ethereum L2 systems and provide educational services to the community with objective insights.
2. ETH Staker
EthStaker serves as a bridge between infrastructure creators and users, providing guidance and technical support for ETH infrastructure, dedicated to helping Ethereum users safely stake their ETH through the creation of guides, tutorial videos, educational content, and technical support.
Currently, the community has set up validators and testnet faucets for various testnets and planned devconnect events.
Recommendation: Ethereum staking is one of the major directions for the future of blockchain, and related infrastructure and educational communities are worth paying attention to.
3. ZK Email
ZK Email is a set of open-source SDKs, libraries, and protocols (https://prove.email) that support anonymous proof of email content on-chain. It is very useful for proving identities for Twitter account verification, GitHub contribution verification, and anonymous KYC.
Biteye and Mini Bridge have been selected in the categories of Web3 Community Education and Open Source Software and Global Chinese Community, and we welcome your support in all three categories!
