Gitcoin: Q1 2018 Update

Taking a look back at Q1 and a look ahead to our plans for 2018

Gitcoin’s mission is to grow open source software. In pursuit of this mission, we are also focused on the ‘future of work’, where creatives (read: everyone) are compensated for the work they achieve in a variety of ways.

Pilot Projects Successfully Launched

In November 2017, Gitcoin announced the launch of Pilot Projects alongside leading web3 projects including MetaMask, ConsenSys Diligence, EtherDelta, Truffle, and web3py.

The hypotheses we were testing were as follows. Using the Gitcoin Issue Explorer:

Leading web3 projects could post bounties on issues their core teams could use help on from the open source community and achieve a positive ROI.

Developers could get ‘paid by the Github issue’, achieving a strong market rate for development work while building relationships, learning new skills, and building open source infrastructure.

Here are some of the results.

To recap, for those intrigued. In our first four months of launch, we have:

$25,000 (~42 ETH) of work completed directly through Gitcoin bounties

of work completed directly through Gitcoin bounties $3.5K of work currently available (Issue Explorer)

of work currently available (Issue Explorer) $4.5K of work currently in progress (Issue Explorer)

of work currently in progress (Issue Explorer) 3,500+ Newsletter Subscribers (Join) | 2,000+ Slack Members (Join)

In the meantime, Gitcoiners have fielded issues for other leading web3 projects such as MyCryptoWallet, Colony, ETHGasStation, Remix (Ethereum Foundation), Grid Plus, Software Engineering Daily, MARKET Protocol, Trust Wallet…and, Gitcoin.

Growth of Gitcoin Core

Gitcoin core added four team members during Q1, rounding out a team who inherently focuses on two goals: growing Gitcoin’s community and building Gitcoin products which enable the community to grow open source. Without further ado, here are the team members.

The team will continue to grow into Q2, with openings for a Business Development Lead and a Front-End Engineer. The process to find a good fit is well underway for both roles. We are grateful to have a strong community who has helped make the process easy (though it does make decisions hard).

Are you interested in joining Gitcoin? Message us on Slack and tell us how you’d consider pitching into the mission.

A Variety Of Product Launches

Alongside our focus on driving the Pilot Projects to successful completion, we launched a few interesting Gitcoin features which we believe set us up well.

Standard Bounties : Bringing security, interoperability, and a richer feature-set to Gitcoin’s smart contracts via Bounties Network

Bringing security, interoperability, and a richer feature-set to Gitcoin’s smart contracts via Bounties Network Gitcoin Faucet: The first Ethereum mainnet faucet distributes a small amount of ETH for those who wish to make their first transaction with Ethereum’s blockchain

The first Ethereum mainnet faucet distributes a small amount of ETH for those who wish to make their first transaction with Ethereum’s blockchain Solid Coin: Bringing physical ERC-20 tokens to your events

Along with these launches, we also dealt with some production bugs which we believe are now in the past. Thanks for sticking with us.

Community Events (Online and IRL)

In Q1, the Gitcoin team sponsored two hackathons, ETHDenver and the SXSW Hackathon. We enjoyed meeting community members and inviting new ones to the fold at both events.

Gitcoin Core Team members Mark Beacom, Alisa March, and Vivek Singh at ETHDenver!

We’ve also immensely enjoyed our weekly livestream (Every Friday, 4PM CT). If you work remote, like seeing demo’s of live crypto products, or have a perspective on whether or not we’re living in a simulation… you might enjoy the conversation. Conversations on Github and Slack have been stimulating as we think through the different ways we can support open source. Interest in demo-ing anything to an engaged group of developers? Reach out and let us know.

Special shoutout to Aditya, Mitch, Eswara, Ian, Collin, and many others for hanging out with us often these community calls.

Looking Ahead: Q2 OKR’s & Product Roadmap

Gitcoin is an open source project. Following the OSS ethos, we aim to be as transparent as possible about our goals so that contributors can offer feedback and we can row in the same direction. Or, at least generally in the same direction. We are a bubbling bazaar, at the end of the day. 🙂

In Q2, we’ll be building on the success of our pilot projects and welcoming a number of new repositories to Gitcoin. Here are some of our tangible OKR’s.

Scale current platform

Scale to $100k worth of lifetime work on the platform

Scale to $15k worth of open work on the platform

Have 15 repeat (3+ times) repo customers

Understand our customer

Run a cohort analysis for the following information. How many people graduate / find full time work in the space and move on from Gitcoin?

for the following information. How many people graduate / find full time work in the space and move on from Gitcoin? How many give up because Gitcoin is broken / too hard? How many people are just dabbling in blockchain? If they give up, when?

Aim to maintain a 9 NPS with both developers and repo maintainers

Rapid hypothesis testing

Launch MVP for three new OSS funding tools (outside of Issue Explorer)

Launch MVP’s for two Blockchain UX projects (SolidCoin, ETH Avatar)

How can you help?

In order to ‘Scale Current Platform’, we’re looking for great open source repo’s to partner with in order to bring top-tier development talent to web3. If you know of any web3 open source projects which Gitcoin should be involved with, please let us know. We’re willing to put up an initial bounties of up to $300 on successful applicants.

For those who refer repo’s, we’re offering a 15% founders fee on the first bounty which is funded by that repo on Gitcoin’s platform.

Other than this, we appreciate you doing what you’re already doing. Let’s continue our journey to grow open source and change the way we work.