Public Goods Tooling Development Round - Retro Funding
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Abstract
We're requesting 2.5 ETH to fund the Retro Rewards pool for the GG24 Public Goods Tooling Development Round, scheduled for allocation in early February 2026. This round has already successfully deployed $81,800 across 13 projects building critical Ethereum public goods infrastructure. This funding will reward the strongest performers based on demonstrated impact, creating a powerful incentive for builders to continue investing in the tools our ecosystem depends on.
Proven Success
The Public Goods Tooling Development Round launched in October with a clear thesis: if we want public goods to thrive, we need to invest in the meta-layer. Capital formation tools, governance primitives, identity systems, and impact measurement infrastructure that communities depend on to fund and coordinate their work.
The round attracted 43 proposals from across the ecosystem. Using conviction voting, we've allocated funding to 13 projects tackling critical infrastructure needs. These aren't speculative bets. They're teams building live integrations with shared primitives like EAS, Hypercerts, Safe, and Karma GAP.
Projects are shipping composable infrastructure that other projects can build on:
- Silvi (allocation $100k+ in global reforestation campaigns)
- TrustGraph (building bidirectional trust signals for Safe and Gardens).
- EcoCerts (creating strong impact certificates for ecological action)
- Regen Atlas (building a coherent model to navigate the regenerative space)
What makes this cohort special is the density of collaboration. Nearly every funded project integrates with multiple ecosystem protocols, creating network effects that compound impact far beyond individual tools. We're seeing novel interoperability patterns emerge, embedded attestation workflows, cross-chain governance primitives, and shared impact measurement standards that become queryable infrastructure for the entire ecosystem.
How Retro Works
Retro funding flips the traditional grant model. Instead of paying for promises, we're rewarding demonstrated outcomes. The 13 funded projects are now in execution mode, building toward their January 27 impact reporting deadline. They're shipping live integrations, generating adoption metrics, and documenting their work using the Common Impact Data Standard framework.
Our evaluation council, domain experts from protocol teams, funding operations, and ecosystem building will review impact reports against a clear rubric:
- live integrations (30%)
- usage and adoption (30%)
- peer evaluations (20%)
- documentation quality (10%)
- sustainability (10%).
This creates a powerful flywheel. Builders who ship meaningful work get rewarded. Those rewards attract stronger teams to future rounds. The ecosystem gets better tools, and public goods communities get more reliable infrastructure to fund their work.
Funded Projects
Growth Pool Projects ($70,800 allocated)
- Giveth as a Base Mini App - 10,900 DAI
- Gas Killer: Super Scaling Ethereum Computation - 10,000 DAI
- The Commons: A Builder Residency + Pop-Up Cities Platform - 9,900 DAI
- Silvi SDK: Open and Permissionless Reforestation Infrastructure - 13,000 DAI
- Solidarity Fund - 7,000 DAI
- TrustGraph: An Interoperable Trust Layer For Ethereum - 7,000 DAI
- Enhancing Ecocerts: From Creation to Cross-Chain Funding - 7,000 DAI
- The Regen Atlas - Actions View - 6,000 DAI
Pilot Pool Projects ($13,000 allocated)
- Funding Readiness Framework by CARBON Copy - 3,500 DAI
- Relay Funder - Aid to Refugee Communities - 3,000 DAI
- Impact Cards - Interoperable, Attested - 2,500 DAI
- Taiwan Hypercerts Dashboard - See the act. Track the fact - 2,000 DAI
- Gyralis - 2,000 DAI
Impact & Deliverables
This 2.5 ETH contribution from Public Nouns will join $50k already committed to the retro pool, including funding from Gitcoin, Celo Public Goods, Ethereum Foundation, Allo Capital, and 1Hive.
Public Nouns will be highlighted as a funding partner in the retro ceremony and final round retrospective, and the funding will help secure confidence in the Public Goods Funding ecosystem that valuable work will be rewarded.