Introduction

FIL-RetroPGF-1 is the first in an evolving series of experiments to establish retroactive impact-based funding of public goods projects in the Filecoin ecosystem. This article will set out a brief summary of the first round, present quantitative and qualitative feedback collected from different stakeholders — applicants, badgeholders, funders and round operators — and set out improvements to consider for Round 2 based on what has been learnt so far.

Round statistics:

• 224,000 FIL pledged by round funders: Titan, Web3mine, FF, & PL.
• 162 nominations: GitHub Nominations
• 132 nominations eligible and invited to apply.
• 109 applications received and attested to the Filecoin chain.
• 32 additional applications from a 2-day extension for late submissions.
• 106 applications accepted: Check out the Applications Page!
• 2 applications rejected, on the basis of no eligible nomination.
• 25 badgeholders cast their votes.
• 99 projects met quorum qualifying to receive funding.

Pie-chart illustrating the distribution of the FIL funding pool across various projects and their respective categories in Round 1, (b) Categories by number of applicants and number of FIL allocated to the category.

Funding was distributed across seven categories. Infra & Deps was the most well-funded category with 60k FIL, also punching above its weight by total funding relative to number of submissions.

Infra and Deps entries scooped 3 of the 5 top spots with GLIF Nodes, Lotus Deps, Drand, with Lighthouse in the Product & UX category and Filecoin Orbit Ambassadors in Edu & Outreach also scoring highly.

Feedback from Applicants