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Continuous Convertible Grants Framework (draft)

A Self-Sustaining Engine for Public Goods Funding

This document describes an experimental framework for sustainable public goods funding, specifically designed to support decentralized science 1 (DeSci) projects.

The Continuous Convertible Grants Framework (CCGF) aims to become a HyperStructure 2 -- an unstoppable, free, valuable, and expansive system that can perpetually support scientific advancement.

Inspired by successful mechanisms like Quadratic Funding 3, StreamingQF 4, and Gardens 5, CCGF represents an evolution of these approaches designed to create greater impact across the DeSci ecosystem.

If you are new to Web3 and these terms, we suggest to start reading the Appendix 1: Glossary & Key Concepts

This is an evolving experiment, starting with the launch of $MEGAPI token and Gardens-based governance.

Executive Summary

This framework describes a perpetual grants mechanism for decentralized science (DeSci).

With CCGF:

  • Projects receive continuous, real-time funding rather than discrete grants.
  • Convertible returns from successful projects flow back to the treasury.
  • Slashing mechanisms deter misuse of funds and maintain fairness.
  • Governance is handled through Gardens-based conviction voting to ensure low-attention, decentralized decision-making.
  • $MEGAPI token aligns incentives between projects and the wider ecosystem.

Table of Contents

  1. The Vision

    • Problem Statement
    • New Paradigm

  2. Core Innovation

    • Continuous Over Discrete
    • Aligned Incentives
    • Low-Attention Governance

  3. The Mechanism

    • Token-Tied Matching Pool
    • Flywheel Effect

  4. Implementation: HyperDeSci Experiment Three: $MEGAPI

    • How to Participate in Gardens
    • General Eligibility Selection Process
    • Funding Experiments Selection
    • First Experiments

  5. HyperStructure Properties

    • Current Properties
    • Areas for Further Development

  6. Appendices

  7. References & Resources

    • Concepts
    • Inspirational Projects
    • Contact & Community

  8. Implementation Roadmap

The Vision

Public goods -- from open-source software to scientific research output -- form the foundation of human progress. Yet there's a lack of sustainable funding mechanisms that support public goods at a level matching their importance. Traditional funding models are plagued by inefficiency, misaligned incentives, and unsustainable economics. We believe that the future of public goods funding isn't in discrete grants or centralized decision-making -- it's in continuous, community-driven support systems that align incentives for long-term sustainability.

To bridge the gap to sustainable funding of public goods, we propose a new paradigm: the Continuous Convertible Grants Framework (CCGF).

Core Innovation

Key Differentiators

  • Continuous Funding: Unlike grant rounds with fixed windows, CCGF streams support in real-time.
  • Convertible Returns: Successful projects repay or share success back to the treasury, fueling future projects.
  • Low-Attention Governance: Powered by conviction voting, limiting the need for constant oversight.
  • Robust Slashing Mechanisms: Projects that fail to meet obligations or break rules risk losing staked tokens.
  • Aligned Incentives: Ecosystem token staking ensures that the community and funded projects share both risk and reward.

Key principles

  1. Collaborative Growth First

    • Give before taking
    • Honor commitments
    • Practice sustainable sharing
    • Grow as a community

  2. Build for Perpetual Value

    • Design systems that compound benefits over time
    • Create supermodular games where collaboration multiplies value

  3. Automate for Public Good

    • Leverage AI for automation
    • Build self-sustaining HyperStructures
    • Enable Universal Basic Income (UBI)

  4. Prioritize Public Goods

    • Focus on collective benefits
    • Create shared resources and infrastructure

  5. Enable Coordinated Progress

    • Overcome coordination failures (Moloch)
    • Solve multipolar traps through intentional cooperation

  6. Impact Over Token Price

    • Prioritize scientific and social impact
    • Measure success through advancement of public goods
    • Focus on long-term value creation over short-term token appreciation

The Mechanism

At its core, CCGF uses a token-tied matching pool instead of direct grants:

  1. Treasury holds ecosystem tokens
  2. Projects receive continuous token streams via different experimental funding mechanisms
  3. Success drives token value
  4. Projects pledge to voluntarily contribute value back to treasury through convertible mechanisms
  5. Projects can be punished for violating rules by slashing staking of proposers, or use other similar mechanisms

This creates a flywheel effect:

More projects → More value creation → Higher token value → Larger treasury → More projects

[A place for a diagram.]

Implementation: HyperDeSci Experiment Three: $MEGAPI

To test the vision in practice, we will launch a new experimental funding mechanism powered by $MEGAPI.

Tokenomics

  • Total Supply: π * 10^6 $MEGAPI
  • Current HyperDeSci Treasury: 0.15 ETH
  • Token Utility:
    • Governance rights
    • Grant participation

Governance Participation

  1. For governance, join Gardens (link TBD)
  2. Sign the ecosystem covenant
  3. Stake $MEGAPI tokens in support of a proposal
    • Minimum 1k $MEGAPI per proposal
    • 10% of staked $MEGAPI goes to treasury

Governance Framework

  1. Proposal Types:

    • Funding experiments
    • Parameter adjustments
    • Treasury management
    • Framework improvements

  2. Voting Process:

    • Conviction voting with time-weighted voting power
    • Minimum voting period: [X] days

  3. Proposal Requirements:

    • Detailed impact assessment
    • Clear success metrics
    • Risk analysis

Project Nomination

  1. Member of Gardens nominates a project by initiating a proposal and staking $MEGAPI
  2. Once a project receives enough voting power from other members, the project is accepted to the experiment and is funded in accordance with the experiment parameters.

If the funded project violates the rules, the staking could be slashed.

Project Evaluation Criteria

  1. Impact Metrics:

    • Scientific/technical merit
    • Community benefit
    • Open-source commitment
    • Collaboration potential

  2. Reporting Requirements:

    • Regular progress updates
    • Open documentation
    • Community engagement metrics
    • Resource utilization reports

Funding experiments selection

CCGF aims to support various continuous funding mechanisms. To find the most effective approaches, the community will test different funding models through controlled experiments.

Each funding experiment follows this process:

  1. A community member proposes a new funding model, specifying:

    • Allocation of $MEGAPI tokens for the test
    • Duration of the test period
    • Detailed description of the funding mechanism to be tested

  2. Once the proposal receives sufficient support from ecosystem stakeholders (e.g., 33% of the staked $MEGAPI tokens), the funding experiment begins.

  3. After launch, projects can apply to receive funding through this specific mechanism.

First experiments

For example, a funding experiment might test:

  1. Streaming QF: Real-time quadratic funding distribution
  2. Builder support: Direct funding similar to Commons Protocol
  3. Community staking: Stake-weighted funding allocation

Suggestions are welcome.

HyperStructure Properties

CCGF aims to become a true HyperStructure for public goods funding. Let's analyze its current properties and areas for improvement:

Current HyperStructure Properties

  1. Unstoppable

    • Conviction voting ensures permissionless operation
    • Gardens framework provides decentralized governance
    • No central admin keys or pause functions

  2. Free (or very low cost)

    • Only gas costs for interactions
    • No platform fees or administrative overhead
    • Minimal economic barriers to participation

  3. Valuable

    • Treasury growth tied to ecosystem success
    • Value capture through token mechanics
    • Network effects from project collaboration

  4. Expansive

    • Multiple funding experiments possible
    • Community-driven parameter adjustment
    • Cross-project pollination built-in

Areas for Further Development

  1. Credible Neutrality

    • Current: Basic slashing mechanisms
    • Future: More robust anti-gaming systems
    • Goal: Fully autonomous eligibility verification

  2. Perpetual Operation

    • Current: Relies on community maintenance
    • Future: More automated treasury management, maybe even with AI
    • Goal: Self-sustaining economic model

These improvements will be developed through community governance and experimental funding mechanisms, moving CCGF closer to its ideal form as a true HyperStructure.

Appendix 1: Glossary & Key Concepts

  • Public Goods: Resources or services that benefit everyone and cannot be restricted (like clean air, scientific knowledge, or open-source software). They are "non-rivalrous" (one person's use doesn't reduce availability for others) and "non-excludable" (can't prevent people from using it).

  • HyperStructure: A crypto-economic protocol that can run for free and forever, without maintenance, interruption, or intermediaries. Key properties include being unstoppable, free, valuable, and expansive.

  • DeSci (Decentralized Science): Scientific research and funding conducted through decentralized Web3 technologies.

  • Quadratic Funding: A matching mechanism where the matching amount increases with the number of contributors.

  • StreamingQF: A continuous version of quadratic funding where support flows in real-time.

  • Gardens: A decentralized governance framework that enables communities to coordinate around shared resources.

  • CCGF: This framework -- Continuous Convertible Grants Framework.

  • Moloch: A metaphor for coordination failures in society where individual incentives lead to collectively harmful outcomes.

  • Multipolar Coordination Trap: A situation where multiple actors, each acting in their own rational self-interest, create collectively suboptimal outcomes because they cannot effectively coordinate. Examples include:

    • Arms races where nations spend on weapons rather than social goods
    • Environmental degradation where companies pollute to stay competitive
    • Research secrecy where sharing would benefit all but each party holds back

    This is a key challenge that CCGF aims to address through aligned incentives and collaborative mechanisms.

  • DYOR: Do Your Own Research.

  • Slashing: A mechanism to penalize projects for violating rules, typically by reducing their staked tokens.

  • Staking: The act of locking up tokens to support a project or mechanism, typically to earn rewards or influence decision-making.

  • Conviction Voting: A voting system where the weight of a vote decreases over time, encouraging long-term commitment.

  • HyperDeSci Treasury: The treasury of the HyperDeSci ecosystem, holding $MEGAPI tokens and other ecosystem tokens.

Appendix 2: Risk Factors

Participants should be aware that:

  1. Cryptocurrency investments carry inherent risks
  2. The CCGF mechanism is experimental
  3. Token values can fluctuate significantly
  4. Smart contracts may contain undiscovered vulnerabilities
  5. Regulatory environment remains uncertain

All participants acknowledge these risks when joining the ecosystem. The project team is not liable for any losses. Do your own research.

Technical Risk Mitigation

  • Smart contract audit plan
  • Bug bounty program
  • Emergency response procedures

Economic Risk Mitigation

  • Treasury diversification strategy
  • Grant recipient vesting schedules
  • Slashing conditions and process

Governance Risk

  • Reduced through transparent, on-chain voting and time-weighted conviction mechanisms

References & Resources

Concepts

  1. What is Quadratic Funding
  2. StreamingQF
  3. Web3 HyperStructures
  4. Greenpilled: How crypto can regenerate the world
  5. Onchain Capital Allocation

Projects

  1. Gitcoin
  2. Giveth
  3. MoonDAO dePrize
  4. 1Hive on Gardens
  5. Octant
  6. Commons Protocol

Contact & Community

Footnotes

  1. https://ethereum.org/en/desci/ ↩

  2. https://jacob.energy/hyperstructures.html ↩

  3. https://www.wtfisqf.com/ ↩

  4. https://github.com/Geo-Web-Project/streaming-quadratic-funding ↩

  5. https://docs.gardens.fund/ ↩