Gitcoin Grants 24

Gitcoin Grants 24 (GG24) was the inaugural round of "Gitcoin 3.0," marking a fundamental transformation from Gitcoin's previous single-mechanism model to a plural, multi-mechanism funding approach organized around six thematic domains. Under the tagline "Fund What Matters," GG24 distributed approximately $1.8M — $1.175M from Gitcoin and $632.5K from external partners — using six different funding mechanisms simultaneously. The round ran its primary QF donation window from October 14–28, 2025, with extended building and evaluation phases continuing into 2026.

GG24 introduced the Domain Allocator model, in which funding was organized around specific problem areas identified through ecosystem-wide sensemaking. Each domain was led by independent allocators who designed, managed, and evaluated their rounds using mechanisms best suited to their funding goals. This replaced the previous approach where Grants Stack served as the sole infrastructure layer, following its sunset in May 2025.

How It Works

GG24 followed a five-phase structure spanning several months:

Sensemaking (June–July 2025): The community identified high-impact challenges across the Ethereum and public goods ecosystem, surfacing priority problem areas for funding.
Domain selection (Late July 2025): GTC holders voted to ratify five to six domains, each representing a distinct funding area with its own allocator team, budget, and mechanism design.
Mechanism design (August–September 2025): Domain allocators designed round-specific mechanisms — selecting from quadratic funding, deep funding, MACI private voting, conviction voting, retroactive funding, and peer-reviewed hypercerts — and recruited partners and co-funders.
Synchronized donation rounds (October 14–28, 2025): QF donation windows opened across multiple chains (Arbitrum, Celo, Ethereum). Applications had opened on October 2. Non-QF mechanisms (conviction voting, deep funding, retroactive evaluation) operated on domain-specific timelines.
Outcome measurement and distribution (November 2025–Q2 2026): QF results were reviewed November 5–10, with fund distribution by November 13. Several domains extended into 2026 with building phases, impact tracking, and retroactive reward distribution.

Six Domains

1. Ethereum Developer Tooling & Infrastructure — $600K

The largest domain, combining Deep Funding (via Seer prediction markets, $350K) with Quadratic Funding (via Giveth on Arbitrum, $200K). Deep Funding used prediction markets to evaluate 98 eligible repos through ~500 evaluations from 50 evaluators. The QF round funded 55 projects from 1,028 unique donors and 2,361 donations, with $29,739 in direct contributions. Ten projects hit the $10K matching cap. Human Passport drew the broadest support (604 donors), while EthStaker had the highest match per unique donor ($765.79).

2. Privacy — $150K

Operated using MACI (Minimum Anti-Collusion Infrastructure) private voting via Privote, in partnership with Web3Privacy Now. Of 121 applications, 93 projects were accepted across four categories: dApps, Infrastructure, Education, and Research. The round saw 7,427 QF votes cast and raised 35.41 WETH total, with ~$13K in community donations. The highest-funded project was dev3pack at 6.4368 WETH.

3. Interop Standards, Infrastructure & Analytics — $150K

Quadratic Funding via Giveth on Celo, with a $100K matching pool. Funded 23 projects from 328 unique donors and 681 donations, generating $6,918 in direct contributions. Silvi received the highest match ($10,913), Superchain Eco attracted the broadest support (82 donors), and Hypercerts Foundation had the highest match per unique donor ($448.33). Retrospectives noted that capital clustered around analytics and visibility tools, with QF proving less effective at surfacing deeper infrastructure work.

4. Public Goods R&D — $332.5K

Combined Conviction Voting (via Gardens/1Hive) with Retroactive Funding (via Karma). Included the Public Goods Tooling Development Round ($155K budget, 43 pre-applications, 12 projects proactively funded with $81.8K distributed, $60K retro rewards pool, 9-member evaluation council) and the Bioregional Reforestation Round ($100K matching pool across 9 bioregions including Nigeria, Kenya/Uganda, Cascadia, Mediterranean Coast, and others, with a plant-to-earn impact phase extending into H1 2026).

5. Targeted Development & Adoption — $450K

Combined Conviction Voting (via Gardens) with Retroactive Funding (via Karma and Silvi) plus Trust Graph. Featured the Solutions Development Grants Program (up to $155K in milestone-based grants, 51 pre-applications, 22 full applications, 19 projects approved with grants ranging $2.5K–$20K). Projects covered all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, spanning environmental sustainability, decentralized governance, financial inclusion, impact tracking, and clean tech.

6. InfoFi (Information Finance) — $125K

Explored InfoFi-native mechanisms including conditional funding markets, applying information finance principles to capital allocation.

Eligibility

Eligibility criteria varied by domain and mechanism, reflecting the decentralized allocator model. Baseline requirements applied across all domains:

Open-source projects contributing to public goods
Active development and verifiable team
Alignment with domain-specific problem areas

For QF rounds operated via Giveth, donors required Gitcoin Passport verification (Model Score >50 or >15 stamps). Connection-Oriented Cluster Matching (COCM) provided sybil resistance. For the Privacy round, MACI's encrypted voting mechanism provided anti-collusion guarantees. Deep Funding participants were evaluated through prediction market-based assessment of code repositories.

Results

Funding outcomes

Total funding available: ~$1.8M across six domains ($1.175M from Gitcoin, $632.5K from external partners)
QF matching pools (Giveth-operated): $300K across Dev Tooling and Interop rounds
QF direct donations: $36,657 in crowdfunded contributions
QF projects funded: 78 projects across two Giveth-operated rounds
Privacy round: 93 projects, 35.41 WETH raised
Solutions Development: 19 projects approved, $2.5K–$20K per project
Public Goods Tooling: 12 projects funded, $81.8K distributed
Bioregional Reforestation: 9 bioregions supported

Participation

QF unique donors (Giveth rounds): ~1,286
QF total donations: 3,042
Privacy round votes: 7,427
Deep Funding evaluations: ~500 from 50 evaluators across 98 repos
Crowdfunding-to-matching ratio: 12.22% (Giveth QF rounds)

Partner co-funding

External partners provided 54% of total non-Gitcoin funding, validating the coalitional "match on match" model. Key co-funders included CeloPG, Ethereum Foundation, Ma Earth, Climate Coordination Network ($35K), BioFi Project ($5K), and GoodDollar ($4K in G$ tokens).

Highlights

GG24 deployed six distinct funding mechanisms simultaneously — Quadratic Funding, Deep Funding, MACI Private Voting, Conviction Voting, Retroactive Funding, and Peer-Reviewed Hypercerts — making it the most mechanistically diverse Gitcoin Grants round to date.

QF donation volume ($36,657) was lower than GG23 ($95,278), reflecting narrower project scope (78 vs. 235 QF projects) and broader ecosystem conditions, though donor engagement (~1,286 unique donors) remained comparable to other 2025 Giveth rounds.

The domain allocator model successfully attracted external co-funding, with partners contributing $632.5K — demonstrating that decentralized round design could unlock new capital sources beyond Gitcoin's own treasury.

Retrospectives across multiple domains identified operational learnings: the need for bulk checkout to reduce donor friction, earlier eligibility finalization, stronger pre-round marketing, and the conclusion that QF alone is "insufficient for reaching deeper, less visible layers" of infrastructure — validating the multi-mechanism approach.

What Changed

GG24 established domain-based, multi-mechanism funding as Gitcoin's operating model under Gitcoin 3.0. It was the first round after Grants Stack was sunset, with QF operations moved to Giveth and other mechanism-specific platforms. The round validated that independent domain allocators could design and operate funding rounds with external partners, shifting Gitcoin's role from infrastructure operator to ecosystem coordinator.