Without any doubt, the digital economy, aided by the emergence of web3 has grown to become one of the largest economy in the globe. Today, the sphere, undoubtedly, houses hundreds of thousands of remarkable innovations, including crypto and blockchain-based projects. These projects, irrespective of their designs, offer distinctive opportunities and benefits to subscribers. This thus justifies why they have, over time, continued to witness massive adoption, thereby enhancing the economy of the sphere. Notably, one of such projects is Gitcoin. This platform, just like few others avails earning opportunity and enablement for coders and developers, working on open-source softwares through variety of programming languages. Without further ado, this article intends to focus on this project, with great emphasis on its background, features, native token and potential.
Gitcoin – General Overview
Gitcoin (GTC), according to findings, runs as a blockchain-oriented platform. It gathers a team of builders, creators, and protocols together with the sole aim of enhancing the future of the open internet. According to its whitepaper, Gitcoin aims to facilitate collaboration on open-source software projects. To actualize this, the protocol usually avail rewards to developers to build worthwhile projects. Interestingly, the Gitcoin community of developers usually explore open-source technologies to develop virtual public goods projects, capable of benefiting every user by solving their problems.
Notably, public group projects, funded by Gitcoin are majorly for the benefit of users and not for competition. Meanwhile, most of the such projects, sponsored by Gitcoin include innovations capable of aiding blockchain within the Ethereum ecosystem. A good example of this is an ongoing project on the platform, seeking to help translate Ethereum’s source material into different languages. More so, the project will help Gitcoin cement its place as a fully decentralized platform.
Generally, Gitcoin aims to encourage and create an enablement for talented developers to join its platform. This is why it avails financial rewards for participation in “hackathons, bounties, and funded community grants.” Meanwhile, according to its website, developers who conceived an innovative projects can always submit them on the Gitcoin platform. Afterward, they are encouraged to seek funding directly from other contributors.
Quadratic funding and bounties on Gitcoin
Gitcoin, according to its website, usually direct its funding of public goods projects via a proprietary, democratic mechanism, identified as quadratic funding. The mechanism avails a robust system for crowdfunding campaigns, allowing donations from individuals to complement the amounts of funding from bigger pools of funds supplied by bigger donors. Remarkably, the funds become “matched” based on a proprietary structure.
More so, the platform avails bounties. With this, users are able to fund and crowdsource support from developers on technological development issues. As designed, the user must “create an issue on GitHub, fund the issue on Gitcoin (specifying project details, a timeline for completion, and any other expectations or relevant information), and then contributors may submit a short form to express their interest in completing the issue.” Meanwhile, in some situations, bounties are permissioned, thereby requiring the approval of the user to commence work. It may also be permissionless. This thus means there is no need for any approval before the commencement of work.
Gitcoin’s native token
Just like other projects, Gitcoin has a native token, identified as GTC. It runs as an ERC-20 token, geared towards aiding the governance of the platform. Occasioned by the native token, communities initiate and fund open-source projects. However, the GTC token possesses no financial or economic value as it is just designed to administer the Gitcoin ecosystem.
The total supply of the GTC tokens is 100 million. Notably, 15% of the total supply are distributed in a retroactive airdrop for the users of the platform. 35% of the total tokens was also distributed to existing stakeholders. The remaining 50% was distributed to Gitcoin DAO.
Recently, the platform launched a Stewards Delegation Program. Stewards, as reported, are individuals of the community who actively participate in governance. Meanwhile, with the program, holders delegate their voting rights to community stewards to vote on their behalf. Although the community possesses a direct impact on their influence.
Founders of the project
Worth noting that Gitcoin emerged in November 2017 by Kevin Owocki and Scott Moore. As of today, Owocki remains the CEO, while Moore runs as the technical growth lead and the director of research at Gitcoin.
Interestingly, Owocki completed his BS in computer science from the University of Delaware. Afterward, he worked at numerous heavyweight firms, including Barclays and Vanguard. Moore, on the other hand, finished his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and political science at the University of Toronto. Before co-founding Gitcoin, he worked with numerous firms, including Bell, Picolo Research, and others.
Features
One of the distinctive features of Gitcoin is its strong emphasis on community development. The ecosystem of Gitcoin is specially designed for open-source projects. The platform strongly supports the nurturing of start-ups. Therefore making it more popular among emerging projects. A notable feature of Gitcoin is its support for the advancement of web 3.0. The ecosystem serves as a platform for developers and protocols to work together toward the mass adoption of a decentralized internet.
Additionally, the Gitcoin ecosystem provides solutions and networks that will facilitate the adoption of web 3.0. The affairs of the project are governed as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Therefore, giving the highest holder of its native token, GTC, the highest voting strength. So, Gitcoin is more popular as a decentralized project, making it gain more fame among Web 3.0 enthusiasts.
As of June 2021, Gitcoin has forked out over $20 million to fund open-source projects. Then, the project can boast of having more than 160,000 developers that use the platform every month. These developers have created as much as 1,600 projects using Gitcoin. Recently, the project webpage indicates that it has raised $69.2M for different projects. Notably, the project remains focused on working to develop a future vision known as “Quadratic Lands.” As revealed, Quadratic Lands is a virtual community with digital democracy that focuses on community development.
Growth of Gitcoin
Now, one cannot deny the increasing advocacy for Web 3.0 and how it has attracted influential personalities in the cryptocurrency space. The popularity of Web 3.0 has heavily influenced the growth of Gitcoin ecosystem. The project has attracted numerous developers and projects to its ecosystem. In fact, the funding initiative for open-source projects has helped as well.
Currently, Gitcoin has attracted $69,191,862 of funding for Open Source Software projects. In the third quarter of 2021, Gitcoin aided $4.1 million in value transfer, this amounts to about $1880 per hour during the quarter. It is imperative to note that Gitcoin has assisted about 142,270 investors in reaching out to about 410,577 earners.
Gitcoin has proven effective at accelerating open-source software development in blockchain by providing a platform for a community of donors and developers interested in creating a more open internet to build together. With a platform designed to direct funding to meaningful open-source projects via a system of open governance, Gitcoin continues to foster the development of Web 3.0 — the decentralized web.
The influx of developers and investors into the Gitcoin ecosystem has helped facilitate a good market atmosphere for the GTC token. Like many other token in the crypto space, Gitcoin token has reacted to the current market condition of the crypto space. However, there are promising pointers about the future of the Gitcoin crypto.
Transiation into full decentralization
GTC remains essential to the Gitcoin DAO, the token gives holders the opportunity to propose and vote on different emerging issues. Currently, Gitcoin is fast-tracking a full transition into total decentralization. This implies that the developers display willingness to leave the decision-making process of the platform to token holders. This transition has GTC in the middle of its plan.
The webpage of the project indicates that as of October 2021, community stewards are leading the charge for the transition. Stewards are the selected GTC holders due to their commitment to the growth of the ecosystem. Similarly, the stewards were chosen due to their willingness to contribute to the project on a weekly and daily basis. Alongside their stake in the GTC token, the Gitcoin stewards performs the responsibility of designing policies for the community.
Lately, the governance of Gitcoin is seeking the opinion of community members about issues that ranged from Public goods funding, Public goods prototyping, Sybil defenders, and progressive decentralization.
Future of Gitcoin
Without a doubt, the future of Gitcoin and its native token, GTC remains bright, thus giving investors hope. To some extent, the project possesses the capacity to gain more prominence and attract investors to its platform.
Since the popularity of Web3 doesn’t look like a slowing train. The crusade for the decentralized web is gaining more attention. Therefore posing a strong utility case for the Gitcoin ecosystem. Undoubtedly, increased usage of the Gitcoin platform will facilitate the growth of the GTC token.
Prior to the emergence of the intruding presence of the crypto winter, GTC enjoyed a good market performance. This good form is expected to continue once the market regains its feet. Alongside the increase popularity of Gitcoin, GTC will gain more attention, leading to a possible positive market performance. It’s fair to establish that the future is bright for Gitcoin and its token, GTC.
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