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Ethereum Fundraising Event

NOTE: This is a working draft! All ideas presented below are just that - ideas. We want to encourage anyone and everyone to submit their own ideas and start discussions around what should happen with regards to funding within Ethereum. Don't be shy!

Motivation

A recent discussion on Twitter highlighted the fact that teams working on Ethereum scaling solutions aren't able to dedicate their full time to their projects because of funding issues. The Ethereum Foundation gives out grants to many of these teams. Unfortunately, this funding is not sufficient to pay full time salaries over a long period of time and it shouldn't be expected that the Ethereum Foundation fully fund every development team.

ETH holders have an incentive to fund these teams as it contributes to the long term success of the network but, currently, there is no formal process for this to occur. Knowing which teams to donate to, what addresses are legitimate and how the funds will be used are a barrier. It seems that there could be a solution to this by running a fundraising event for the entire Ethereum network.

Format

This type of idea could be accomplished in an entirely decentralized way through a DAO but it's important to remove complexity given the immediate need for funding (due to the active Eth 1.x and 2.0 research). We suggest the following format for the fundraising to occur:

  • Website is created for the event under a name such as "EthScalingFunding.com".
  • Ethereum Foundation selects 5 projects they see as the most important for the success of Eth 1.x and 2.0. This will give assurance to donators that every project in the fundraiser is credible.
  • NOTE: This could be done through EthHub or a panel of community members but it may potentially add unnecessary complexity.
  • Every project selected is put on the website with a "kickstarter style" pitch for their raise goal and what the funds will be used for.
  • Try to secure donation matching commitments from crypto funds & buisnesses.
  • The event runs for 30 days. If entire funding goal is not reached, funds are returned to those that donated.

Smart Contract

The entire funding initiative is run via smart contract. This contracts core function will be:

  • Direct link to each project's funding wallet
  • Implemented time limit of 30 days from start of funding
  • Knowledge of each project's funding goal in ETH
  • Ability to return funds to donators if funding goal is not reached within 30 days.
  • Ability to unlock funds for project if funding goal is reached within 30 days.

Logistics

We still need to work on who can own each part of the process:

  1. Creation and ownership of the website
  2. Selection of the teams up for receiving funds
  3. Creation of the smart contract
  4. @hex_capital has offered to lead this charge
  5. Auditing of the smart contract
  6. Publicity and marketing

Potential "advanced" features

  • NFT given to donator that is redeemable for some future feature.

Resources