DRAFT [PROPOSAL] Support Critical Infrastructure - Potlock QF Matching Round

NDC Community and nodes
1

[OVERVIEW]

Proposal to support existing critical infrastructure public goods on NEAR through a Potlock quadratic funding round with a matching pool worth $75,000.00 USD in $NEAR tokens to be deposited directly into the funding contract.

[AMOUNT REQUESTED]

$75,000.00 USD in $NEAR tokens.

[TARGET WALLET]

ndc.v1.potfactory.potlock.near

[OBJECTIVES]

The goal of this initiative is to allow ecosystem users to vote with their $NEAR by donating to public goods projects in the first “Support Critical Infrastructure” funding round. This is achieved by voting with $NEAR donations through Potlock’s quadratic funding (QF) mechanism. The use of QF gives the community the power to decide how the $75,000 matching pool is distributed among projects in the round, while leveling the playing field by giving more voting weight to the total number of donors than the amount of $NEAR contributed by a single donor.

This proposal aims to pilot a new funding system on NEAR designed to aid in creating a culture of supporting builders who provide public goods to the ecosystem. By gaining traction and notoriety through the deployment of successful funding rounds, the goal is to drive external capital and create positive network effects as a direct result of NDC support.

[PROCESS]

The receipt of applications and the onboarding of projects to the Support Critical Infrastructure funding round will be administered by a working group (WG) comprised of the following members of the House of Merit (HoM), with assistance provided by the Potlock team.

• Dav
• Chloe
• Kiskesis
• Odin
• Plug

The Support Critical Infrastructure WG shall be responsible for the designation of key performance indicators (KPIs) expected, relative to the amount of funding received from the round, and oversee the creation of reporting to document applicable metrics.

Projects to be onboarded shall meet the majority of the following criteria.

• Project has been building in NEAR for 1.5+ years and is dedicated to NEAR ecosystem

• Provides a free service or an open source codebase to the NEAR ecosystem

• Serves as a key component on which the functionality of other ecosystem dApps is reliant

• Project will immediately benefit from a funding distribution, providing critical support for increased runway, team expansion, etc.

Application Period

START DATE - END DATE (2 weeks)

Matching Period

START DATE - END DATE (3 weeks)

Cooldown / Challenge Period (1 week)

Max Number of Projects Admitted to Round (Five)

Nadabot Requirements (Yes)

Lists: NDC Curated List

[JUSTIFICATION]

The Support Critical Infrastructure round from the NEAR Digital Collective is needed as a way to allow the community to support key projects that have been underfunded and continue to build open tools on NEAR. The purpose of this initiative is to provide assistance in offsetting infrastructure and development costs, reducing latency, and aid in onboarding consumers into the ecosystem. Additionally, fostering a culture in which teams are compensated for continuing to build, increasing talent retention, and ultimately creating a flywheel of momentum to attract new founders and developers to the NEAR ecosystem.

[PROJECT SHORT LIST / EXAMPLES***]

***subject to change based on review

• ShardDog

• Pikespeak

• Nearblocks

• Jutsu

• Meteor

• HERE

[RESOURCES]

About Potlock & Quadratic Funding

Potlock is a composable and decentralized funding stack focused on public goods, utilizing Web3 social, donations, and quadratic funding to build network effects around free and open sourced products which serve the ecosystem.

App - https://app.potlock.org/

Docs - https://docs.potlock.io

Tutorials - PotLock

Pot Planning - PotLock

Chef Training - PotLock

9 Likes
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I pledge for the support of of critical Infrastructure.

Here’s why I fully support it:

  • By leveraging Potlock’s quadratic funding, the community has direct control over how the matching pool is distributed. This fosters a sense of ownership and encourages participation.
    Supporting Critical Infrastructure: Funding existing public goods projects is crucial. They provide the foundation upon which the entire ecosystem thrives.

  • This extra funds will help scalability of the team probably for team expansion and subscriptions. mechanism for public goods on NEAR.

  • The outlined criteria for project selection ensure funding goes to established and impactful projects within the NEAR ecosystem.

A little concern, how about a way or round to seamlessly onboard new critical infrastructure projects to the ecosystem? This could ensure a robust and thriving ecosystem.

6 Likes
3

No need for concern. This round is designed to give immediate support to existing teams on NEAR in order to provide some relief from the market conditions that they’ve endured over past year and a half while continued to build public goods for the ecosystem. The intention is to create subsequent funding rounds which aim to not only foster a culture of supporting builders on NEAR, but also to drive initiatives specifically designed to onboard new founders and developers to the ecosystem.

4 Likes
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Why does this proposal limit the WG to admitting a max of 5 projects? If that is the case it seems those projects should potentially be identified now and included in the proposal, or, that the selection criteria & process be more explicitly defined.

Otherwise I generally voice support for this proposal.

4 Likes
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Based on feedback, rather than supporting incumbent projects, we should support new projects.

3 Likes
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Also that there shouldnt be max number of projects based on @chloe 's feedback

2 Likes