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Gitcoin Grants Rounin: New Alpha Test Round, Only 159 Projects Qualified

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The upcoming Grants Round 16 will not take place. Instead, we will have the Gitcoin Alpha Round running from January 17th to January 31st.

Original Title: " Gitcoin New Grant Round Arrives! New Alpha Test Round, Only 159 Projects Qualified, Trust Bonus Removed, Check Out This Grant Guide "

Original Source: Shouyi, Biteye

Gitcoin is a donation platform for open-source software, where users can support various decentralized open-source projects through Gitcoin. Early-stage projects can also receive donations on Gitcoin to sustain their operations. Well-known projects such as Uniswap, 1inch, MaskNetwork, ENS, etc., have participated in Gitcoin Grants, earning Gitcoin the nickname "the Ethereum arsenal."

In each round of Gitcoin Grants, in addition to receiving user donations, projects also benefit from Gitcoin's Quadratic Funding model to allocate funds from the Ethereum Foundation to high-quality projects. This funding method, approved by Vitalik Buterin, has significantly boosted Gitcoin Grants' community impact. The Gitcoin Grants donation event has gone through 15 rounds so far, helping projects grow and rewarding donors with token airdrops, leading more and more users into the world of Web3 through Gitcoin.

Gitcoin has been exploring more efficient donation methods, aiming to transition from matching donations (i.e., centralized QF grants) to GitcoinDAO: creating a decentralized and customizable grant protocol.

Therefore, the new Grants Round 16 (GR16) will not be coming. Instead, it will be replaced by the Gitcoin Alpha Round running from January 17, 2023, to January 31.

According to Gitcoin's plan, it will conduct a Test Alpha Round in the coming months with UNICEF, Fantom, Optimism, and Alchemix to continue supporting developers during the transition to GitcoinDAO.

Next, Biteye will briefly introduce the Gitcoin Alpha Round and highlight the differences from previous grants, selecting 11 high-quality projects for everyone. Note that participating in each round of giving will allow you to claim a special POAP.

I. Introduction to Gitcoin Alpha Round

II. Gitcoin Alpha Round Grant Suggestions

III. Gitcoin Alpha Round Grant Tutorial

IV. Gitcoin Alpha Round Project Recommendations (ongoing)

I. Introduction to Gitcoin Alpha Round

1. The Gitcoin Alpha Round plan aims to support 200 recipients dedicated to open-source software, Ethereum infrastructure, and climate solutions, with a total matching pool of $1 million, still utilizing quadratic funding.

2. The Gitcoin Alpha Round will run from January 17 to 31, during which you can join the official TG for the latest donation updates. The Gitcoin Alpha Round will feature a new donation page.

3. The Gitcoin Alpha Round canceled the Trust Bonus and introduced Gitcoin Passport instead. Users can log in and link their social media and wallet to increase their score, and only users who reach a specific score can receive matching funds.

4. Projects in the Gitcoin Alpha Round will only come from previous rounds of donations (defined as donations received in GR14 or GR15 totaling over $1000 (donation + specific round matching) or donations from at least 150 unique donors in GR14 or GR15). This round will consider about 200 projects, including:

(1) The Open Source Software Round will consist of recipients outlined in the governance post of GR14 and GR15 funding criteria, around 250 projects, with 87 actually qualifying;

(2) The Ethereum Infrastructure Round will be composed of 32 projects from GR14 and GR15, with 22 actually qualifying;

(3) The Climate Solutions Round will include 40 projects from GR15 and additional projects under 10 related categories, with 50 actually qualifying.

2. Gitcoin Alpha Round Donation Suggestions

Biteye has summarized the following donation suggestions based on the past few rounds of donations:

1. Although Gitcoin does not have a donation amount limit, the minimum amount for each project is at least greater than 1U. On the other hand, due to ETH price volatility, you can choose to donate using DAI; if donating with ETH, considering price fluctuations, it is recommended to donate 0.002 ETH or more;

2. Gitcoin donations are a good on-chain interactive behavior. Optimism once considered "User donating to Gitcoin on the mainnet" as one of the weights for airdrops;

3. In the past, Gitcoin donations could be made through zkSync, which saved fees and also achieved zkSync interaction. However, this time, based on different rounds, donations are supported on only the ETH, OP, and FTM chains;

4. Donations should not be made too late, as donating in the last few days is prone to network congestion, resulting in missing the donation deadline.

3. Gitcoin Alpha Round Donation Tutorial

If you already know how to donate, you can directly view the recommended projects in part four for donation.

If you are not familiar with Gitcoin's donation process, you can first watch the following donation videos:

The official website currently does not list the donation amounts for each project. Users can view the donation status here:

4. Introduction of Gitcoin Alpha Round Donation Projects (in progress)

(Clicking on the project name will take you to the project donation interface)

(I) Open Source Software Round

Open Source Software mainly revolves around concepts such as Web3, DeFi, NFT, etc., with past projects in these tracks having precedents for airdropping to donors

1. DefiLlama

DefiLlama focuses on professional analysis of DeFi project TVL data, categorizing current DeFi and public chains and tracking their TVL over the long term. DefiLlama's homepage also features an Airdrops section that recommends some protocols that may have airdrops.

2. ChainEye

ChainEye is an open-source full-chain analysis tool with over 80,000 users. It currently offers features such as BridgeEye (a cross-chain bridge comparison tool), On-chain & CEX transfer fee lookup, Multichain Gas fee lookup, Multichain stablecoin lookup, ETH 2.0 data, and will develop new features such as security modules and NFT modules in the future. ChainEye commits to providing users with free data services indefinitely and will reinvest tool revenues from ToB back into the community and users.

3.Umbra

As a protocol, Umbra defines a simple standard for private transactions on Ethereum through smart contracts. Umbra currently supports the mainnet and multiple L2s, and will use funding to further deploy to multiple chains.

4.Lenster

Lenster is a decentralized, permissionless social media app built by the Lens Protocol. Lenster operates on the Polygon network, allowing users to seamlessly interact with dApps without paying any fees, and ensuring that no one can censor any content from the application, not even admins. Lenster is backed by Lens Protocol, a decentralized social graph established by Aave.

5.Tally

Tally is an open-source, community-governed decentralized Web3 wallet with community governance aspirations, openly positioning itself against MetaMask to carve out a piece of the latter's market share.

6. Phi

Phi (philand.xyz) is a metaverse created by ENS and wallet addresses, making the visualization of "on-chain identity" more accessible. It incentivizes users to interact with various web3 protocols, providing positive feedback to all protocols and accelerating the overall network effect of web3.

7. Optinames

Optinames are tradable and transferable subdomains wrapped as ERC721s and fully integrated with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), allowing them to be resolved on L1 Ethereum through an off-chain resolver.

8. Soul Wallet

Dedicated to providing a wallet that explores Ethereum in a new way, you can currently leave your email on the official website to receive a testing opportunity.

(2) Ethereum Infrastructure Round

Ethereum Infrastructure, while having a low issuance probability, is indeed a vital credential for participating in Ethereum's ecosystem development.

9. Chainlist

Acquired by DefiLlama and still operational to this day, it is one of the common tools for querying new chain RPCs, truly living up to the four words "a public good." It currently supports most public chains and testnets and can query the latency between different RPCs.

10. L2BEAT

L2BEAT is an analysis and research website about Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions. It provides various non-microeconomic metrics in addition to Total Value Locked (TVL), making it a daily observatory that is very convenient for comparing L2 solutions.

（III）Climate Solutions Round

Climate Solutions are mostly public good products with low coin issuance and airdrop probability. Biteye only introduces innovative projects, and users can choose whether to donate.

11. TaterDAO

A project dedicated to bringing real-world assets on-chain to better quantify, identify, create, and develop climate solutions.