Gardens - a modular coordination mechanism for funding Public Goods

Public Good Projects Discussion
1

Describe your project and why you classify it as a Public Good?

Gardens (built by 1Hive) is a modular coordination mechanism giving organizations in low trust + inefficient environments streamlined access to web3’s best spending strategies like Conviction Voting, Quadratic Funding, Streaming Proposals, Bounties, and more, which they can use to invest their treasuries in any combination of instances.

Our emphasis is on a community experience that’s healthy, fun, intuitive, secure, trustless and open.

The keystone of Gardens v2 infrastructure is the Community Covenant, which serves the role of:

  1. encoding a community’s values / mission in an on-chain social contract
  2. linking that Covenant to the various smart contracts that make up the communities funding and spending strategies.
  3. allowing people to signal support for the community through token staking

All of our code is open-source. Always has been and always will be. :seedling:

How much have you raised from each of your funding sources and from who?

Over the last 3 years we’ve raised ~$120,000 - here’s an approximate breakdown:

  • $60,000 - 1Hive Funding Proposals
  • $30,000 - Gitcoin Grants
  • $15,000 - Polygon Ecosystem Grant
  • $10,000 - Allo on Arbitrum Hackathon winnings
  • $2,000 - Giveth Donations

Project Roadmap

Our focus is on hyperscaling funding for digital and physical ecosystems by improving the ROI for expenditures on public goods.

Phase 1 - 2024

  • Build an exceptional grants funding platform! Focus on web3 ecosystems currently running grants programs + open-source software communities in crypto.
  • Build coordination mechanisms that help these orgs fund public goods so they can reach hyper-scalable growth.

Phase 2 - 2025-26

  • Expand to web2 open-source software communities. Provide coordination infrastructure and funding mechanisms that allow for community-owned digital collectives to fund and build and maintain digital public goods sustainably and scalably.

Phase 3 - 2027-28

  • Expand to real world public goods. Provide a UI/UX so simple that any group of people can easily spin up a community and coordinate funding and decision-making sustainably and scalably for their cause.

Our goal is to spur an economic revolution in Public Goods production. Success for gardens isn’t accomplished until over half the world’s wealth is stored in entities whose primary purpose is to fund Public Goods.

What milestones have you achieved?

We launched Gardens v1 in Spring of 2021 and reached a max TVL of $40.5 million in December 2021. To date, millions of dollars of funding has been distributed to Gardens communities through Conviction Voting. In the last 3 years Gardens has fostered:

  • 50+ communities
  • 3,000+ members
  • 400+ proposals passed
  • 12 disputes ruled on by Celeste

A proof of concept for our new platform overhaul recently won Best Novel Funding Mechanism in the Allo on Arbitrum Hackathon

Tell us more about milestones you’d like to achieve

We are aiming for beta launch of our first major platform overhaul (dubbed internally as “Gardens v2”) in April 2024.

By the end of 2024 Gardens aims to reach:

  • 5+ ecosystems with active gardens communities
  • 20+ active gardens communities
  • 1,000+ active community members
  • $1M distributed through gardens v2 Funding Pools
  • $50M+ TVL - measured in Funding Pool token balances of all gardens v2 communities

Our Team

Gardens is a globally distributed team with 8 contributors spanning 6 countries and 3 continents! Collectively we have 2 decades experience in web3.

Links:

2

Additional info since we’re a new project!

  1. A text description of the project, about 3-4 paragraphs long,

Our goal is to hyperscale ecosystems by improving the ROI for expenditures on public goods.

Gardens v2 is a modular coordination mechanism giving organizations streamlined access to web3’s best spending strategies like Conviction Voting, Quadratic Funding, Streaming Proposals, Bounties, and more, which they can use to invest their treasuries in any combination of instances.

Our emphasis is on a community experience that’s healthy, fun, intuitive, secure, and open.

The keystone of Gardens v2 infrastructure is the Community Covenant -

  1. encoding a community’s values / mission in an on-chain social contract
  2. linking that Covenant to the various smart contracts that make up the communities funding and spending strategies.
  3. allowing people to signal support for the community through token staking

We’re targeting a beta launch in April 2024.

  1. A hero message - a concise one-liner summarizing your project,

A bottom-up governance framework for public goods funding ecosystems - Gardens provides coordination infrastructure and funding mechanisms for communities to grow shared wealth.

  1. A project mark / logo in SVG format,
  1. At least one URL (to your project’s website or a social media page),
  1. A designated admin wallet address and a message signature from that address including the word “Octant”.

Admin Address: 0x809C9f8dd8CA93A41c3adca4972Fa234C28F7714

https://signer.is/verify/JTdCJTIyY2xhaW1lZF9tZXNzYWdlJTIyJTNBJTIyR2FyZGVucyUyMEFkbWluJTIwYWRkcmVzcyUyMGZvciUyME9jdGFudC4lMjIlMkMlMjJzaWduZWRfbWVzc2FnZSUyMiUzQSUyMjB4YTU5YmM3OTA3NGExMTNkMDQ4MDQ1N2U5YmYyY2FlMzQzZDk0Mzg4ZDQ5ZGJmYTdiNGZmODJlNTI4ZGNhOWUwMzZmYmI1YTI2NDNmZWM1MGFjNzAxNDhhNmNhMWMxODNhN2M5YzI4ZmVmYTQxNTk1M2E2ZGIwYWI1MWFjODliODExYyUyMiUyQyUyMmNsYWltZWRfc2lnbmF0b3J5JTIyJTNBJTIyMHg4MDlDOWY4ZGQ4Q0E5M0E0MWMzYWRjYTQ5NzJGYTIzNEMyOEY3NzE0JTIyJTdE

3

Project update time!

Since Epoch 3 the Gardens team has completed the alpha version of our platform overhaul dubbed “gardens v2.”

These functions are now supported in our current alpha version:

Create a Community

  • Publish a Covenant (community’s social contract) via IPFS
  • Select a Council Safe as community admin
  • Choose the staking token for the community
  • Optionally, collect a fee from members when they register in the community
  • Optionally, allow the Council Safe to boot members from the communnity

Create a Conviction Voting Pool

  • Choose between Type: Funding or Signaling
  • Select the Pool Parameters
  • Choose Voting Weight System: Fixed, Capped, Unlimited, or Quadratic
  • Modularly create as many Conviction Voting pools as you’d like
  • Update CV parameters on active pools

Create a Proposal

  • Post a proposal in an active Conviction Voting Pool
  • For signaling proposals: add a title and description
  • For funding proposals: also add a funding amount and beneficiary wallet

Actions for Community Members:

  • Register in a community or leave the community
  • Change your voting weight in pools by increasing / decrease total stake in community
  • Activate / deactivate your governance in each Conviction Voting pool
  • View and Support Proposals
  • See Proposals results

Here’s some screenshots from the app on ETH Sepolia:

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4

Awesome update, thanks for sharing @paul
I have a bit of a question about this part:

How are you planning to approach this token and its distribution?

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5

We call that token the “ecosystem token” - members stake it in the Covenant to join a community. It can be any ERC-20 and should be the token ecosystem that the community directly supports.

For example Gardens is from the 1Hive ecosystem, so our’s will be $HNY.
Octant’s would be $GLM, a community supporting infra on Arbitrum would use $ARB, Optimism would be $OP, etc. etc.

We’re not currently supporting native tokens in v2 so for now it’s BYOT.

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6

July Project Update

Follow along with our progress on our Notion doc: Gardens v2 Roadmap

Some highlights since our last update:

  • 3 token ecosystems, 5 communities, and $200k in funding to be deployed on Gardens v2 post-launch (estimated mid-August).

  • Contract and backend work for Gitcoin Passport integration complete. We’ll be using a custom API + on-chain verification hybrid approach so we can support all the networks we’re deploying to and minimize on-chain costs.

  • Disputability Process / Tribunal Safe UML complete. Community members will be able to challenge active proposals they believe violate the community’s Covenant, and a Tribunal Safe multisig chosen for the community will arbitrate.

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  • Significant progress on UI redesign (see in Figma). Public beta will be a much cleaner, sexier, more intuitive UI than our alpha demo!

7

Gardens Project Update - July 11 to Today

Karma Gap Profile: https://gap.karmahq.xyz/project/gardens-

Follow along with our roadmap progress and growth on our Notion doc: Gardens v2 Roadmap
Track our operational costs and contributor payments here: Gardens Hours 2023/2024 - Google Sheets
Track our project fundraising here: Launch Hub - gardens v2 fundraising - Google Sheets

Epoch 4 Octant Earnings: 1.4719 ETH

All funds have been spent - 100% of our Epoch 4 earnings were spent on gardens v2 development.

Highlights from the last month:

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for v2 deployments on mainnets :eyes:

Thank you Octant community for all your support! :seedling:

1 Like
8

Hey @paul , thanks for the update. I feel like it could be a bit more aligned with the reporting template: Octant Docs

If you could add your KarmaGap link, that’d be helpful - relevant link: Octant Docs

9

Hey Matias - added our Karma Gap link at the top.

Here’s the link: https://gap.karmahq.xyz/project/gardens-

10

Hi Paul! Congrats on receiving 1.2208 ETH. I wasn’t able to see concrete timelines around the roadmap on Karma (or on the Roadmap link you’ve shared). Would love to learn more about what this funding will be used for.

Thanks!

13

Hi everyone! I’m Thiago. I recently joined the Gardens Team to help with Growth and Fundraising. Here are some updates following the Long Term Update Template from the documentation.

Long-term Update

The funds received from Octant have been primarily allocated to development work, including:

  • Backend Development: Completion of contract and backend work for Gitcoin Passport integration, utilizing a custom API and on-chain verification hybrid approach to support multiple networks and minimize on-chain costs.
  • Disputability Process Design: Development of the Disputability Process and Tribunal Safe UML, enabling community members to challenge proposals that may violate the community’s Covenant, with arbitration by a designated Tribunal Safe multisig.
  • User Interface Redesign: Significant progress on the UI redesign to ensure a cleaner, more intuitive experience for the public beta launch.

Additionally, together with 1Hive, we ran the Growing the Public Gardens Round during Gitcoin Grants Round 22 (GG22). This initiative was designed to support communities interested in building on the Gardens v2 platform by providing them with resources and assistance for successful pilots. The effort engaged nearly 100 communities, facilitated onboarding to the platform, and helped establish Council Safes to boost community growth. It also secured $10,000 + $20,000 (1Hive + Gitcoin) in matching funds through Gitcoin’s quadratic funding, showcasing the ecosystem’s potential to foster decentralized collaboration and innovation.

These efforts have been instrumental in advancing the Gardens v2 platform towards its launch.

Milestones and Deliverables

Milestone 1:

  • Description: Completion of Gitcoin Passport integration.
  • Immediate Outcome: Enhanced user verification across multiple networks with reduced on-chain costs.
  • Approximate cost to develop: $2,000

Milestone 2:

  • Description: Implementation of the Disputability Process and Tribunal Safe.
  • Immediate Outcome: Empowered community members to uphold the Covenant through a structured challenge and arbitration system.
  • Approximate cost to develop: $5,000

Milestone 3:

  • Description: User Interface Redesign.
  • Immediate Outcome: Improved user experience with a more intuitive and visually appealing interface.
  • Approximate cost to develop: $5,000

Karma GAP: Our project’s Karma GAP page is available at Gardens 🌱 | Karma GAP, where relevant milestones and updates have been added.

Challenges

Previous Challenges:

  • Description: Integrating Gitcoin Passport across multiple networks and designing a fair Disputability Process.
  • Updates: Both challenges have been addressed through the completion of backend development and the establishment of the Tribunal Safe mechanism.
  • Resolution: Collaborative development and community feedback were pivotal in overcoming these challenges.
  • Lessons Learned: The importance of modular design and early stakeholder engagement in complex integrations.

Outputs and Outcomes

Outputs (Last Epoch):

  • Output 1: Onboarded 4 networks, 11 token ecosystems, 51 communities, and 99 community members, with $400,000 in TVL (Council Safes).
  • Output 2: Completed contract and backend work for Gitcoin Passport integration.

Short-term Outcomes:

  • Outcome 1: Increased community engagement and trust through enhanced verification and dispute resolution mechanisms.
  • Outcome 2: Streamlined onboarding process for new communities and ecosystems.

Long-term Outcomes:

  • Outcome 1: Sustained growth and scalability of the Gardens platform across diverse ecosystems.
  • Outcome 2: Strengthened governance structures leading to more resilient and self-sustaining communities.

Metrics for Outcomes:

  • Retool where we’re tracking growth: https://gardens.retool.com/app/metrics
  • Growth metrics we’re tracking:
    • Number of Communities
    • Number of Community Members
    • TVL:
      • $ of tokens staked in Communities
      • $ of tokens held by Council Safes
      • $ of tokens in Funding Pools
    • Number of Transactions
    • Qualitative Feedback from communities and community members

Plans for Potential Funds Raised in the Next Octant Allocation Window

Goal 1:

  • Description: Diamond Pattern upgrade
  • Expected Outcome: Update smart contract framework to Diamond Pattern for efficiency and to add new Gardens features without running into contract max size limits.
  • Expected Funding Needed: $10,000

Goal 2:

  • Description: Beta Security Audit.
  • Expected Outcome: Ensure the smart contracts used in the system are secure, efficient, and free from vulnerabilities.
    • Validation of smart contract logic (e.g., Gitcoin Passport integration, Disputability Process).
    • Identification of potential reentrancy issues, overflows/underflows, or other coding vulnerabilities.
    • Evaluation of gas efficiency and optimization.
  • Expected Funding Needed: $30,000

Other Funding

Grant Funding Received Since Last Epoch:

Since the last Octant Epoch we have received $ 11,952.68 from Grants - Grants and Fundraising spreadsheet here.

Other Non-Grant Funding Sources

$ 507.18

Future Plans for Financial Sustainability

1. Funding Proposals from Supported Networks and Infrastructure:

  1. Funding Proposals from Supported Networks and Infrastructure:

    We aim to leverage our relationships with Arbitrum, Optimism, Gitcoin, Polygon, and Gnosis Chain to secure funding proposals. These networks align with our goals and provide a strong foundation for continued development and community engagement.

  2. Protocol Fees:

    Implementing a protocol fee structure will create a recurring revenue stream. This ensures that as our platform scales, we generate sustainable income to reinvest in development, community support, and infrastructure improvements.

  3. Grants and Donations:

    By actively pursuing grants and donations from aligned ecosystems and philanthropic sources, we will expand our funding base to maintain agility in addressing the needs of our community and enhancing the platform’s functionality.

In addition to these revenue streams, we plan to set aside a portion of the income generated through these channels to build liquidity for a future Gardens token. This token will be integral to the platform, fostering broader community participation and enabling us to attract public funding investments.

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