State of Public Goods Funding 2024

## Executive Summary The Ethereum ecosystem distributed over $500M to public goods in 2024 through various mechanisms. This report analyzes the landscape, trends, and opportunities. ## Key Findings ### Capital Flows by Mechanism Estimated public goods funding in 2024: - **Retroactive Funding**: ~$150M (Optimism RetroPGF 5 & 6, OP Stack incentives) - **Quadratic Funding**: ~$50M (Gitcoin rounds, clr.fund, Octant) - **Direct Grants**: ~$200M (EF ESP, Arbitrum LTIP, protocol treasuries) - **Streaming**: ~$50M (Protocol Guild distributions) - **DAO Treasuries**: ~$50M (Nouns, ENS, other DAOs) ### Mechanism Trends 1. **Retroactive funding maturing**: Optimism's RetroPGF has become a major force, with rounds 5 and 6 distributing over 10M OP tokens 2. **QF decentralizing**: Community rounds expanding beyond Gitcoin core with 15+ independent rounds per season 3. **Streaming gaining traction**: Protocol Guild's $92.9M success inspiring adoption 4. **Hybrid approaches emerging**: Combining mechanisms for different needs ### Notable Programs - **Protocol Guild**: $92.9M+ pledged for 187 core devs - **Optimism RetroPGF**: 100M+ OP distributed across all rounds - **Arbitrum Incentives**: 117M+ ARB through STIP and LTIP - **Gitcoin Grants**: $60M+ total since 2019 ## Recommendations 1. More investment in impact measurement infrastructure 2. Better coordination between major funders 3. Focus on sustainability beyond one-time grants 4. Support for mechanism research and experimentation