Gitcoin (GTC)

Last updated 08/10/2022

What is Gitcoin (GTC)?

From an ideological perspective, Gitcoin considers open-source software to be a crucial pillar of both software development and contemporary computing in general. The Gitcoin cryptocurrency platform, which was introduced in November 2017, aims to promote cooperation on open-source software projects. It accomplishes this by providing subsidies and incentive payments to developers to encourage them to take on development initiatives. Gitcoin was developed to assist in compensating developers who want to contribute to significant open-source software applications. Because open-source software is by definition free and open, many developers who work on it do so with little to no direct pay.

The Gitcoin platform is dedicated to sponsoring "public goods" initiatives that are often "non-rivalrous" and "non-excludable" — in other words, they are intended to benefit everyone without necessarily being in competition with one another. Projects involving clean air, infrastructure, and privacy are a few examples of public goods. However, the majority of the public goods initiatives supported by Gitcoin focus on blockchain within the Ethereum ecosystem. For instance, there are current initiatives to promote educational content producers, hasten the decentralization of Gitcoin, and translate the source code of Ethereum into several languages.

Gitcoin provides a cash incentive to take part in hackathons, bounties, and supported community grants in an effort to entice creative coders to use the platform. Developers who want to work on a project can post it on the Gitcoin platform and crowdsource funds from other participants directly. They can also take part in quarterly possibilities to earn more funding through the platform's cutting-edge quadratic funding mechanism.

Through a unique, democratic system called quadratic funding, funds from the cryptocurrency Gitcoin are allocated to initiatives that provide public goods. A crowdfunding campaign format known as quadratic funding matches individual donors' contributions with equal quantities of funding from larger pools of money provided by wealthier donors. Funds are "matched" according to a proprietary formula other than a 1:1 ratio. The criteria has been improved to reward initiatives that receive more community support. Therefore, a grant would receive more in matched money than one that only received one donation of $100, for instance, if it received 100 separate donations of $1 USD.

The goal of quadratic funding is to balance the wants and motivations of donors, people looking for money for public goods projects, and developers. Small donors can support the public goods projects they believe to be the finest through quadratic funding, which raises matched funding as a result. Similar to this, developers that have a goal in mind can use quadratic funding on the Gitcoin platform to fund their own initiatives. Users who submit their own grants must provide a precise project title, description, and indicate whether they want donors to send them money in an exclusive ERC-20 token (Gitcoin supports all ERC-20 tokens).

Although there are other matching pools and more are likely to be formed, the quadratic financing matching pools are currently primarily supported by user donations to the Gitcoin Grants official matching pool fund. Users can contribute money to matching pools, and with matching rounds taking place every three months, matching pools are equally distributed to popular projects using the quadratic financing formula. As of October 2021, $35 million had been allocated through Gitcoin Grants to open-source public goods projects, including $5 million for specific "bounty" projects, which give developers another chance to profit from Gitcoin.

Users of Gitcoin can crowdsource support from available developers on the Gitcoin network to fund specific technological development challenges. A user who wants to finance a bounty must first open an issue on GitHub, fund it with Gitcoin, and provide any expectations or pertinent information. After that, contributors can submit a brief form to indicate their interest in resolving the issue. Gitcoin bounties can either be permissioned, needing funder consent before work can start, or permissionless, allowing anyone to complete the bounty at any time. Funders can choose workers at their choice, establish deadlines, and cancel at any time using Gitcoin bounties.

The developers' choice to contribute to any publicly listed project with a "bounty" — a term used to denote the total amount of project financing that developers can earn — is the other side of this agreement. The hourly fees could be higher the bigger the bounty is. A project with a payout of $1.5k to $5k, for instance, may correspond to an hourly fee of $50 to $195. The hourly wage might increase to between $125 and $520 for projects with a $5k and $50k reward. Hourly charges differ according to a person's skill level and the specific programming language needed. For instance, starting rates for projects requiring fundamental computer programming abilities, such as CSS and HTML, are lower than for more complex languages like JavaScript and Solidity, which offer higher ranges of pay for developers.

Team

Keving Owocki and Scott Moore founded Gitcoin. Moore is the director of research and Owocki is the CEO. Moore also leads technological growth.

Roadmap

Founded - Date September 2017 - Gitcoin was founded by Kevin Owocki as a passion project
Joined Consensys - Date November 2017 - Gitcoin was endorsed by Joe Rubin and became a member of ConsenSys group of projects
Gitcoin Grants Launch - Date January 2019 - Start of Gitcoin's quarterly grants program, a recurring funding program for open source software development team
Gitcoin Quests Launch - Date October 2019 - Launch of web3 learning platform for users. Gitcoin Quests adopt a learn-to-earn model allowing users to participate in games and learn about the web3 ecosystem
Gift from Vitalik Buterin - Date May 2020 - Vitalik Buterin gifted the Gitcoin's community with 49 trillion Akita Inu tokens (AKITA), worth about $5 million at the time of donation. The funds were used as matching funds for future Gitcoin Grants
ICO - Date May 2021 - Initial Coin Offering
Series A - Date April 2021 - Gitcoin raised $11.3 million from an investment round led by Paradigm, followed by other investors including IDEO, 1kx, Electric Capital, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, The LAO, MetaCartel Ventures, and many others. At the same time, the funding allowed Gitcoin to spin out of Consensys
Gitcoin DAO - Date May 2021 - Launch of Gitcoin's DAO to oversee the community's GTC treasury and determine governance frameworks for delegates to participate in key ecosystem decisions such as fund allocation, matching pools, and grant collusion

Where to store Gitcoin (GTC)

Gitcoin (GTC) tokens are built on the Ethereum network and can be stored in any wallet compatible with Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens. Options to keep your Gitcoin (GTC) secure and offline can therefore include the leading hardware wallet providers Ledger and Trezor. All ERC-20 tokens including Gitcoin (GTC) can be stored on the Ethereum blockchain using MyEtherWallet, allowing users to interact with the network without additional software.

An alternative wallet provider for Gitcoin (GTC) token holders can be Trust Wallet – a multi-currency mobile wallet that enables users to simultaneously store a variety of digital assets in one place. Popular among traders and gamers, the beginner friendly mobile wallet may be appropriate for users looking for a convenience and accessible app, with trusted security and backup options.

Similarly, a user-friendly option to keep your $GTC secure can include MetaMask, a leading browser wallet extension popular amongst DeFi platforms and highly praised by developers. Users can integrate with the network’s Liquidity Mining pools by connecting your MetaMask wallet.

We always recommend our customers to perform their due diligence and research into any platform they are looking to start using. You may find some general information regarding various wallets on our Wallet Guides page

Where to buy and sell Gitcoin (GTC)

You can Buy & Sell Gitcoin (GTC) by heading over to the Buy Coins page of our website. Gitcoin (GTC) is available on BC Bitcoin trading against major fiat currencies: GBP and EUR. Buying $GTC has never been easier, simply place your order and provide your wallet address. Once your payment arrives Gitcoin (GTC) will be sent directly to your wallet.

If you choose to Sell Gitcoin (GTC) you can send us the coins and receive a payment to your bank account. Details and valuation can be found on our Sell Coins page.

Gitcoin (GTC) Resources

Website: https://gitcoin.co/

Block Explorer: https://etherscan.io/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gitcoin

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/gitcoincommunity

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is intended for informational purposes only. It is the reader's responsibility to complete their own research and due diligence.