Episode 50: Gitcoin, Quadratic Funding, and how Crypto can sustain Open Source

Aug 21, 2020

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Panelists

Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman | Richard Littauer

Guest

Kevin Owocki

Gitcoin

Show Notes

Hello and welcome to Sustain! Today, we have special guest, Kevin Owocki, founder of Gitcoin. We find out what Gitcoin does and what’s changed with it in the past couple of years. Some other topics we discuss are Quadratic Funding (QF), a hot new thing called DeFi, Ethereum, Blockchain, and Downtown Stimulus in Boulder, CO. Download this episode now to find out this and much more!

[00:01:27] Kevin tells us what Gitcoin does, what he’s doing there, and what’s changed in the past couple of years.

[00:03:43] The hot new thing is “DeFi.” Kevin explains what this is. Richard wonders if there’s any way to make some sort of mutual funds out of all the different dollars, out of all the different major currencies that you can actually stabilize and cross them.

[00:05:54] Richard wonders if the currencies have shifted in this stable currency market and has that affected DAI and Gitcoin in any way, and has Kevin seen less percentages going out because the current downturn in the global economy at all.

[00:07:44] Eric brings us economic struggle and he wants to know Kevin’s perspective on blockchain and if they’ve stepped up. Does this whole process make people think that we need to have more control over the structure of our economy?

[00:12:44] Kevin answers a question about maintainer’s views on providing quality or quantity on contributions. We also find out how much money has flown through Gitcoin’s platform.

[00:15:39] Eric asks Kevin, since there is a lot of money pumping through Gitcoin’s platform and the intention is to sustain open source, is that focusing on blockchain projects now and does he see this type of technology or this idea moving into more of a global landscape with all sorts of projects? Downtown Stimulus in Boulder, CO is also mentioned.

[00:19:52] Kevin explains what QF is. We also find out how QF can be gamed.

[00:32:41] If you are a maintainer, and you want to get involved in Quadratic Funding, find out here how to get involved.

[00:34:50] Kevin tells us how people can go about from nothing to doing stuff with Quadratic Funding, using Ethereum, using Gitcoin, or learning about DAI, if they don’t know anything right now.

[00:36:12] Kevin tells us where we can find more about him online.

Spotlight

[00:37:34] Justin’s spotlight is inspired by Dave Gandy, Episode 41, a weight loss app called NOOM.
[00:38:11] Eric’s spotlight is Kevin’s magnificent mane and the shampoo he uses.
[00:39:10] Richard’s spotlight is Awesome Remote Job-a repo run by Lukasz Madon.
[00:39:57] Kevin’s spotlight is Ethereum.

Quotes

[00:13:23] “One of the things she said was, even when contributors are coming to these repos is that they’re not providing quality contributions. And if they do, then they’re like drive by contributions and they don’t come back and they don’t promote to maintainers.”

[00:23:37] “If you push the power out to the edges and you let your community decide what to find, not only does that push the decision out to the edges, the Ethereum Foundation gets to measure which projects their community cares about. The community co-funds the projects along with them and they can fund a thousand projects per quarter or ten thousand projects per quarter instead of just 10-20.

[00:41:25] “And so, I’m really excited about what Ethereum is doing and I want an Ether-binge. You should check it out!”

Credits

Produced by
- Richard Littauer
- Rebase.fm
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound

Special Guest: Kevin Owocki.

Support Sustain