Supporting Public Goods with Gitcoin Grants
The maintenance and advancement of open-source software is crucial for the crypto community. Our portfolio companies, a16z crypto’s researchers and engineers, and pretty much every founder we interact with relies on open-source tools like client software, zero-knowledge proof libraries, and free analytics tools.
To increase our support of public goods in web3, a16z crypto is committing $300,000 for open-source developers participating in the next round of Gitcoin Grants (GR15).
At a16z crypto, we’ve seen the power of public goods firsthand. Sam Ragsdale, on our investment and engineering team, used Circom’s open-source library in his Zero-Knowledge airdrop repo. Our engineering and staking team has used Otterscan as a backup tool when other chain explorers experience downtime. We want to support developers working on similar tools, and encourage anyone working on open-source projects in the following domains to apply for funding: zero-knowledge proofs, infrastructure and ETH 2.0, the L2 ecosystem, and smart contract languages.
For more information on eligibility, please visit our round brief page. It’s heartening to see that new and novel ways of providing sustainable public goods funding are gaining traction. Earlier this year, a16z crypto donated to the Nomic Foundation, the lab behind the Solidity developer framework Hardhat. We’re also excited by Optimism’s pioneering work in Retroactive Public Goods funding. If you have any questions about a16z’s participation in GR15, ideas for other funding mechanisms, or want to chat about public goods more generally, we’d love to hear from you: reach out to me (eburger@a16z.com) or Caroline Friedman (cfriedman@a16z.com).
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