Gitcoin has announced Gitcoin Alpha Round with categories, namely Ethereum Infrastructure, Open Source, and Climate Solutions. The aim of the Quadratic Funding round is to support 200 grantees with a matching pool of $1 million. It will commence on January 17, 2023, and end on January 31, 2023.
Participation of users will enable the platform to test the protocol and deploy it once it is ready to be implemented.
The development is a part of the Alpha Test Season, which has been launched in collaboration with Fantom and UNICEF. Gitcoin has previously distributed $38 million in funding, and it now looks to transition to a completely decentralized funding round. Testing of the protocol during the Gitcoin Alpha Round will help the team to bring improvements to the UX in the final version.
Grantees have been selected based on criteria that are different for all three categories. Criteria for Open Source Software Round require projects to be actual open source projects where meaningful Github activity has happened in the previous three months. This would showcase the work that has been done by the team. The second criterion is that the open source project should have been developed with a focus on being developed on top of the Ethereum and/or Web3 industry.
A total of 40 projects have been selected for Climate Solutions Round from G15 based on the support they have received due to the number of unique contributors. Their work must have been towards Carbon Markets, Renewable Energy, and Community Engagement, among other sections.
They will be reviewed before being shortlisted for the final round. It has projects that are dedicatedly based on building projects to support the Ethereum ecosystem. Subcategories include tooling providers, core client devs, and developer education, to mention a few.
Every category contains a unique link that redirects users to Grants Explorer, a section where users can browse grants and donate via Quadratic Funding. Links for each round will go live once they have been activated.
Donors are sure to receive benefits for their contributions. Gitcoin has announced the beginning of POAP Quest, where donors can claim a POAP for every round they participate in. Collecting all the POAPs will make a user eligible for the draw, where they can win a Schelling Point VIP package which is inclusive of $150 in Gitcoin merch.
Gitcoin is dedicating its efforts this year to transition to a blockchain-based grants protocol. This will enable all the users to launch a Quadratic Funding grants program. Funders can set up a grants program whenever they want, with better flexibility for grantees who apply from different parts of the world.
Source: https://www.cryptonewsz.com/gitcoin-announces-gitcoin-alpha-round-that-supports-3-rounds-and-1m-usd-total-matching-pool/