At 21:00 on January 14, 2021, the 002 episode of the informal Talk With ENF initiated by the EOS Network Foundation will start broadcasting! In this issue, we have invited EOS Nation CEO Daniel Keyes to talk about the EOS ecological secondary crowdfunding platform Pomelo and Grant related topics.
As we all know, in the public chain ecology, Grant plays an important role in promoting the prosperity and development of the ecology, providing financial, technical, marketing and other supports for the ecological development. This continuous virtuous circle of <success-feedback-success> can Promote the vigorous development of the public chain ecology.
On December 1, 2021, the first phase of funding for the EOS ecological secondary financing platform Pomelo officially ended, and a total of 209 EOS ecological project applications were received, covering multiple categories such as DeFi, wallets, NFT, and infrastructure. 1,022 independent users initiated 5,796 donations for their favorite projects. Under the high degree of ecological discussion and participation, we are also concerned about how to allocate Grant funds, so as to be more democratic, scientific and transparent, more in line with the demands of the community, and more accurately fill the gaps in ecological development. In-depth thinking on board and other issues.
first level title
Daniel shared Pomelo's functions and development plans
Thank you all very much for participating in this event. I am honored to chat with you about Pomelo, the role Pomelo plays in supporting the EOS community, and our experience and thinking along the way.
We believe that for a community to thrive in the digital age, three key elements are required:
First, effective coordination of public infrastructure funding;
Second, provide rich income opportunities for ecological participants;
Third, increase investment opportunities for idle capital.
Here, I would like to share with you the powerful synergy between Pomelo and these three key elements.
Pomelo is the secondary financing platform of EOS ecology, dedicated to promoting the development of EOS ecological public basic products. Pomelo aims to be a self-funded, community-driven portal for funding projects built on EOSIO. Developers can get funding by participating in the quarterly grant program initiated by Pomelo. We use a quadratic funding mechanism where EOS token holders can decide for themselves how to allocate matching pool funds.
At the heart of Pomelo is a quadratic financing mechanism where the number of donors is more important than the amount of donations. This mechanism was first proposed by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, and it was first practiced on Ethereum through Gitcoin. This mechanism has repeatedly been shown to be the optimal allocation of funds for public goods in democratic communities. To date, Gitcoin has raised approximately $50 million for thousands of open-source technology projects built by the Ethereum community.
The matching pool funded by partners such as the EOS Network Foundation makes it possible to realize the secondary financing mechanism. The EOS Network Foundation provided $500,000 in funding for the first round of Pomelo.
Calculated using the secondary financing method, the funds obtained by each project party from the matching pool are proportional to the square root of the sum of the square root of each user's voluntary donation to the project party.
To put it simply, under such an algorithm, the role of ordinary users is greater, and the proportion of large users is appropriately reduced to increase the rights and interests of retail investors, which makes a larger part of the funds in the matching pool allocated to the projects most supported by community members.
Public infrastructure goods are critical to the prosperity of a society because they establish the basic infrastructure that enables other aspects of social development to continue to expand. Unfortunately, public goods tend to be underfunded due to the difficulty in capturing value compared to private goods.
As the world continues to iteratively evolve into the digital age, public goods face new challenges. Geography is no longer a decisive factor in forming or restricting the development of a community. Modern communities form around shared values, often across multiple languages and geographic time zones.
That's why we believe that communities that respect the values of their members and effectively coordinate the deployment of shared resources are the ones most likely to thrive in the Web 3 era.
A key design principle of Pomelo is accessibility.
From the first day of operation, Pomelo has been available in multiple languages, providing the most friendly localized experience for various EOS wallets, and using technology that can be easily accessed anywhere in the world.
Given the diversity of the EOS community, we believe that the extra effort to overcome challenges such as "reachability" is worthwhile, and Pomelo will continue to focus on lowering the barriers to access.
Pomelo Grants provide a channel for the community to follow where their funds are going. This directly affects the funding allocation of each round of project parties. When community members donate through Pomelo, they support the project, voice and vote for the project. Their participation determines how much matching pool funding the project receives, and their votes have secondary effects. Therefore, the public infrastructure goods that best embody the values of the community are the ones that are most successful in being funded.
In November, more than 1,000 users participated in the first round of Pomelo donations, raising more than $135,000 for 75 projects. Together with the $500,000 matching pool provided by the EOS Network Foundation, the funds used for the EOS community to develop public products have exceeded $630,000, of which:
35% of funds allocated to infrastructure projects;
30% will be used for EOS ecological development;
11% for the community;
24% went to DeFi, privacy, developer tools, governance, and arts and media.
And this is just the beginning! Pomelo will hold 4 seasons every year, and I believe that the true value of Pomelo will be realized through the participation of community members round after round. In the short term, obtaining sustainable income can attract more new projects; in the long run, this also provides exposure opportunities for projects.
The secondary financing mechanism allows developers and project parties to focus more on construction rather than earning a living. This is why we believe that providing eco-participants with rich income opportunities is one of the key elements for the success of modern communities.
In Pomelo's first round of funding, the most popular projects will receive matching funds of up to $60,000. There are four funding rounds per year, and they also have the opportunity to secure additional funding every three months.
This shows that EOS community members attach great importance to each project party.
A person is free to focus on meaningful work. We can’t wait to see: Pomelo is able to maximize the independence of each community member over time through incentives that align with community values.
The more success each project has, the more they can invest their energy in the success of the community. Each project earns more reputation in the community over time, and more opportunities to create value.
No matter what matching funds the projects participating in the first round of funding have received, they have gained widespread attention from the community and are more likely to obtain financing in the future. This provides an excellent opportunity for venture capital and the EOS Network Foundation to discover rising star projects in time, invest in them, and make them continue to develop.
Venture capital funds that use the wisdom of the crowd to spot quality projects early on can also spot opportunities on the platform. A lot of capital is looking for investment opportunities, and what Pomelo has done can help these capital invest in community-supported projects.
That's why we believe that investment opportunities for idle capital are one of the keys to success in modern communities. That's why we're constantly exploring ways to enhance synergy with Pomelo.
Pomelo supports open web development, but otherwise, we see Pomelo as an important experiment in secondary funding. Examining the science of quadratic financing is extremely important because we believe that such mechanisms are the best way to finance public goods on democratic principles and may become the primary way in which public resources are allocated.
Each phase of Pomelo’s funding program provides the EOS community with more opportunities to learn and test the system, and with each funding round, the probability of success increases. Therefore, after each round of funding, we will take a short pause to reflect on the success or difficulties encountered in this round of financing. This process allows us to learn how to better support the community and improve the integrity and process of the system. transparency.
The quadratic funding mechanism is impressive in amplifying the contributions of ordinary users, but it also brings up some unanswered questions, such as how to prevent Sybil attacks and collusion attacks. As a crowdfunding platform for public basic products, Pomelo has a different way of thinking about this issue.
From a certain point of view, each round of funding is a huge battleground for red and blue team exercises, and it is an actual combat exercise of the secondary financing mechanism in the real world, which has practical significance.
Our method is continuously updated iteratively. The goal of each round is to build up the defense of the blue team by identifying and classifying attacks from the red team, so that the EOS community can defend against incoming attacks. This way, we can amplify the positive impact of the quadratic funding mechanism even outside the EOS community.
While we saw no signs of Sybil attacks or similar attacks in our first round of funding, we predict that over time, as the stakes increase and more people will become aware of the opportunity, such attacks will emerge. The odds will increase.
One of our biggest challenges going forward will be Sybil defense mechanisms and achieving wider accessibility.
Our team has the courage to rise to the challenge, and we're excited to see the level of support and engagement we've had from the community so far.
Pomelo aims to provide everyone with a path to financial independence, so that ecological participants can focus more on community work.
first level title
Daniel answers questions from five lucky users
First question: from user viX1024
Daniel replied:
Daniel replied:
As I shared just now, one of the challenges we face is how to defend against Sybil attacks, because on a crowdfunding platform like Pomelo with many people participating, there will definitely be many people motivated to do these attacks . We will continue to improve and solve these kinds of things every season and every round, and improve our defense mechanism, which is also one of our main goals now.
In the first quarter of financing, we did not see a very huge attack. Of course, we have also made some attempts to improve defenses. For example, we require participating projects to be associated with EOS accounts, social media, and also Adjusted some algorithm mechanisms. In addition, we have established a trust mechanism for the community, allowing all community members to serve as endorsers and witnesses of the project's trust.
By various means, we hope to minimize such attacks.
Second question: from user yayayang
Daniel replied:
Daniel replied:
The way we donate at the beginning is by distributing some funds. We found that many members will become individual donors after seeing the value of this Grants behavior, and every community member will see the tangible benefits they can get through the development of ecological public infrastructure.
We found that the most successful projects in the first quarter of funding were those that were able to encourage community members to get involved and provide tangible benefits to community members.
Third question: from user Bloks.bit
Daniel replied:
Daniel replied:
We basically don't provide oversight because we don't want to play the police. We want to provide a platform for the community to allow community members to choose the projects they like to support. Therefore, in each round of donations, community members are also observing which projects can bring tangible benefits to the community.
Those projects that can succeed on the Pomelo platform must be those that can make lasting contributions and benefits to the ecology. If you want to succeed, you must be responsible for donors, platforms, and ecology. Those project parties with good credit will be funded in each round of financing in the future.
The fourth question: from user A Fei (A Fei)
Daniel replied:
Daniel replied:
Yes, to some extent, we are supporting the development of for-profit projects. As long as the project can provide value to the public ecology, they can get our funding. For example, an open source App interface suite team, as long as they can prove that they are valuable to the entire ecosystem, then they can receive continuous funding in Pomelo.
Question 5: From user Mario's Garden
Daniel replied:
Daniel replied:
Very good question, but to be honest, I don't know.
We think that now we only know that we have a priority work item, which is to let more people know about the Pomelo platform, understand that Pomelo can provide them with a channel for obtaining funds, and encourage everyone to participate in the governance of the Pomelo platform, and DAO In itself, it is also an attempt at a better governance method, and it may be the most feasible way.
But whether Pomelo will firmly develop in the direction of DAO in the future, we are not sure now. The only certainty is that we try to get more people to participate in us and build Pomelo together.
Wonderful sharing will always make people feel that time flies, and before you know it, this AMA is coming to an end.
About the EOS Network Foundation
In the future, the work related to the EOS Network Foundation and Pomelo will continue to advance at a high speed. It is expected that with the joint efforts of the EOS Network Foundation and Pomelo, the EOS ecology can start the next chapter of vigorous development.
Make an appointment for the next informal pomelo talk (Talk With ENF), we will see you soon.
About Talk With ENF
Informal Talk With ENF (Talk With ENF) was initiated by the EOS Network Foundation to listen, communicate, and connect blockchain communities at home and abroad. The EOS Network Foundation will invite high-quality project leaders in the blockchain industry from time to time to chat about hot topics in the encryption field, share the development trend of encryption technology, and reveal the stories behind the encryption world. In addition, the EOS Network Foundation will prepare surprise benefits for everyone in each program. Actively participate in the live Q&A to have a chance to win benefits.
About the EOS Network Foundation
The EOS Network Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to listen to the voice of the community, convey the wishes of the community, and support the development of high-quality projects in the community. It will become an information sharing bridge for the EOS community and provide funds, technology, operations, future planning, Key infrastructure support such as ecological construction further develops the full potential of EOS as the world's fastest governance-based blockchain.
