Surprise 285 ETH Anonymous Donation Given to Giveth

Giving to Giveth: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

2018 was a transformative year for the Giveth Community. From big steps for the Giveth DApp, including winning the superdemo and releasing our beta, to the launch of the Aragon DAC, to the creation of the Unicorn DAC: the Giveth Galaxy has grown, embraced new people and projects, and is shining brighter than ever. Just as 2018 was coming to a close, and it looked like the year could not get any better, Giveth received a late and much needed Christmas gift: an anonymous donation of 285 ETH, or 29,736 DAI! (today’s value). We would like to use this opportunity to thank this generous Giver who enables us to continue building, explain how these funds will be used, and illustrate why we need more help.

After some transparent, inclusive, and decentralized deliberation (viewable here for anyone interested) among the Giveth Unicorns, a decision was reached to use a multisig transaction to split the donation down the middle. 142.5 ETH went to the Giveth DAC (17.5% converted to DAI) and 142.5 ETH went to the Unicorn DAC (50% converted to DAI). Whereas in the existing (Giveth) DAC logic one person delegates and decides the use of funds, the Unicorn DAC is a new governance experiment, a decentralized decision-making engine that drives the Giveth Galaxy forward from the bottom up. The money allocated to the Unicorn DAC will be split between the Unicorns who make up this DAC, each of whom will use their allotment to fund projects they believe are important. Splitting the donation between these two models was an experimental decision that Giveth hopes will empower its Unicorns to push the Galaxy forward in a decentralized and democratic manner. Overall, this generous donation will fuel the Giveth engine for the first few months of 2019, and enable the Giveth community to continue its work.

Although the Giveth Donation Application is and remains our flagship product, the work of Giveth has become so much more than ‘just’ the Giveth DApp. Projects such as DAppNode, which makes it easier for individuals to run their own node, BrightID, which uses trust graphs to ensure the integrity of important decentralized votes, and Tennagraph, an Ethereum signal aggregator have all grown out of work done by Giveth’s Social Coding Circle. The Governance Circle is experimenting and documenting anything that could be useful for future decentralized communities like ours. At the same time, when we run into problems with our projects, we look outwards and unite people through initiatives such as scaling, signaling, block explorers and the organization of side events on the wider concept of decentralization. The Future of Giving to us is about more than enabling transparent and accountable donations: it has become an entire Galaxy of governance experiments, novel approaches to collaboration, and community-based initiatives that seek to make decentralization the rule rather than the exception.

And we firmly believe that the best is yet to come. Many of these projects are still in their infancy and have enormous potential. In 2019, Giveth plans to continue to build out and evolve its Donation Application, with a focus on the governance side of things (our ‘DAOfication’), support more people, projects and events in Social Coding and work on more decentralized governance experimentation, amongst others through research on token bonding and curation markets.

To achieve these ambitious goals, and build this Future of Giving, Giveth needs your support. The generous donation we have just received will fund the Giveth community for the start of 2019, but alone it is not enough to enable us to build The Future we envision, a truly decentralized one. If our vision inspires you, and you want to help the Giveth Galaxy shine brighter than ever in 2019, then please donate to Giveth.

The beauty of Giveth is that you, the Giver, are in control. Once registered, you can transparently follow your donations in the DApp and hold us accountable. If you give directly to the Giveth DAC without any specific wishes, the DAC Delegate (Griff Green) will then delegate them accordingly. As a registered Giver, you can veto any funding decisions made and request we reassign funds if you do not agree. If you would like to fund a specific initiative you believe in — one of our main Campaigns (Governance, Social Coding, DApp or Communication) — you can donate directly to them in the DApp. If you would like to learn more on this, head to donate.giveth.io or contact Griff, Bowen, Vojtech or Kris (the Campaign Managers) directly in Riot.

Your donation will go directly towards building The Future of Giving, and thus it will be a gift that never stops Giving. Come over, and help us build.

If reading this has left you excited to learn more about what’s going on at Giveth, we hope you’ll take the next step and get involved!