diff --git a/claims/can-solve-public-goods-problem.md b/claims/can-solve-public-goods-problem.md index 9ba25c8..c41fd13 100644 --- a/claims/can-solve-public-goods-problem.md +++ b/claims/can-solve-public-goods-problem.md @@ -10,6 +10,43 @@ claim: - evaluation: NN - confidence: HH --- +## Evaluation: False (High Confidence) + +## Evidence of claim being made + +Buterin, Vitalik. ‘Quadratic Payments: A Primer’, 7 December 2019. [https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html](https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html) : + +> Quadratic funding is starting to be explored as a mechanism for funding public goods already; Gitcoin grants for funding public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem is currently the biggest example, and the most recent round led to results that, in my own view, did a quite good job of making a fair allocation to support projects that the community deems valuable. + +> one can look at it [quadratic funding] through the "fixing market failure" lens, a surgical fix to the tragedy of the commons problem. + +Commons Stack. ‘Commons Stack’. Accessed 20 September 2022. [https://commonsstack.org](https://commonsstack.org): + +> We are building commons-based microeconomies to sustain public goods through incentive alignment, continuous funding and community governance... Token engineering has the potential to address many of the problems facing humanity by giving us the power to realign economic incentives. + +KlimaDAO. ‘Manifesto’. Accessed 20 September 2022. [https://docs.klimadao.finance/klima.fi-manifesto](https://docs.klimadao.finance/klima.fi-manifesto). + +> To deliver the change required, we need immediate and widespread mobilisation and coordination of those who can contribute, and those who want to participate. The change needs to be managed laterally and cooperatively, rather than top-down by unaccountable "leaders.” Web3 can enable this: +> +> • DeFi delivers a step change in the way we collectively pool our capital to deliver impact. +> • Smart contracts disintermediate, facilitate and automate, and enable novel reward systems. +> • Web3 technologies enable coordination, collaboration and innovation, with transparency and accountability. +> • Open source software and composability enable rapid scaling of this vision. +> +> Blockchain technology can and will open up new ways for managing our resources and collaborating across networks in the coming years. It will be the foundation for us to efficiently coordinate resources, outpace stale bureaucratic and political processes, and remove the need to jump through hoops to get exposure to the low carbon economy. + +Owocki, Kevin. ‘Introducing GTC – Gitcoin’s Governance Token’. Accessed 14 October 2022. [https://go.gitcoin.co/blog/introducing-gtc-gitcoins-governance-token](https://go.gitcoin.co/blog/introducing-gtc-gitcoins-governance-token). + +> why we built Gitcoin: A platform to fund builders looking for meaningful, open source work. We’ve pioneered Quadratic Funding, a novel, democratic way to fund public goods in our quarterly Gitcoin Grants rounds. Since its launch in November 2017, Gitcoin Grants has now provided nearly $16M of funding to public goods. This is in tandem with $3.54M in bounties which have been paid to open-source developers from all around the world. + +> Today, Gitcoin allocates millions of dollars of funding to thousands of public goods projects. Tomorrow, Gitcoin will allocate billions of dollars. + +Wiblin, Robert, and Vitalik Buterin. ‘Vitalik Buterin on Better Ways to Fund Public Goods, the Blockchain’s Failures so Far, & How It Could yet Change the World’. Accessed 14 October 2022. [https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/vitalik-buterin-new-ways-to-fund-public-goods/](https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/vitalik-buterin-new-ways-to-fund-public-goods/). + +> the big problem that quadratic funding is solving is this public goods problem + +> So quadratic funding is basically trying to make a sort of more market-like alternative that encourages the production of public goods that basically says like, we’re going to be neutral, we’re not going to have our own kind of specific opinion about what is a real public good and what isn’t. We’re just going to say, people can donate money and stuff. And if a lot of people are donating money to the same thing, then that’s clearly a project that benefits a lot of people. So that’s a public good. And so we’re going to detect that and we’re going to automatically subsidize it based on a formula. + ## Sub-claims: @@ -51,40 +88,6 @@ Blockchain-based innovation in governance has facilitated more effective methods Blockchain is decentralized, is an immutable, public ledger, and creates the potential for tokenization. These contribute to blockchain based solutions in a number of ways. Firstly, blockchain can enable democratized investment which does not require one to trust an intermediary such as a broker. Anyone can buy a token in a public goods project, and be sure of its existence via reference to the chain. The removal of third parties can also remove prohibitive costs which might otherwise prevent retail investment[^6]. These mechanisms can also facilitate better participatory decision-making; token holders can easily vote in how their resources are allocated, and be confident in the veracity of the outcomes because they are recorded immutably on the blockchain[^7]. Finally, tokenization itself is a means of creating instruments which can better capture and financialise the full range of social value versus traditional money or other financial products[^8]. -## Evidence of claim being made - -Buterin, Vitalik. ‘Quadratic Payments: A Primer’, 7 December 2019. [https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html](https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html) : - -> Quadratic funding is starting to be explored as a mechanism for funding public goods already; Gitcoin grants for funding public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem is currently the biggest example, and the most recent round led to results that, in my own view, did a quite good job of making a fair allocation to support projects that the community deems valuable. - -> one can look at it [quadratic funding] through the "fixing market failure" lens, a surgical fix to the tragedy of the commons problem. - -Commons Stack. ‘Commons Stack’. Accessed 20 September 2022. [https://commonsstack.org](https://commonsstack.org): - -> We are building commons-based microeconomies to sustain public goods through incentive alignment, continuous funding and community governance... Token engineering has the potential to address many of the problems facing humanity by giving us the power to realign economic incentives. - -KlimaDAO. ‘Manifesto’. Accessed 20 September 2022. [https://docs.klimadao.finance/klima.fi-manifesto](https://docs.klimadao.finance/klima.fi-manifesto). - -> To deliver the change required, we need immediate and widespread mobilisation and coordination of those who can contribute, and those who want to participate. The change needs to be managed laterally and cooperatively, rather than top-down by unaccountable "leaders.” Web3 can enable this: -> -> • DeFi delivers a step change in the way we collectively pool our capital to deliver impact. -> • Smart contracts disintermediate, facilitate and automate, and enable novel reward systems. -> • Web3 technologies enable coordination, collaboration and innovation, with transparency and accountability. -> • Open source software and composability enable rapid scaling of this vision. -> -> Blockchain technology can and will open up new ways for managing our resources and collaborating across networks in the coming years. It will be the foundation for us to efficiently coordinate resources, outpace stale bureaucratic and political processes, and remove the need to jump through hoops to get exposure to the low carbon economy. - -Owocki, Kevin. ‘Introducing GTC – Gitcoin’s Governance Token’. Accessed 14 October 2022. [https://go.gitcoin.co/blog/introducing-gtc-gitcoins-governance-token](https://go.gitcoin.co/blog/introducing-gtc-gitcoins-governance-token). - -> why we built Gitcoin: A platform to fund builders looking for meaningful, open source work. We’ve pioneered Quadratic Funding, a novel, democratic way to fund public goods in our quarterly Gitcoin Grants rounds. Since its launch in November 2017, Gitcoin Grants has now provided nearly $16M of funding to public goods. This is in tandem with $3.54M in bounties which have been paid to open-source developers from all around the world. - -> Today, Gitcoin allocates millions of dollars of funding to thousands of public goods projects. Tomorrow, Gitcoin will allocate billions of dollars. - -Wiblin, Robert, and Vitalik Buterin. ‘Vitalik Buterin on Better Ways to Fund Public Goods, the Blockchain’s Failures so Far, & How It Could yet Change the World’. Accessed 14 October 2022. [https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/vitalik-buterin-new-ways-to-fund-public-goods/](https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/vitalik-buterin-new-ways-to-fund-public-goods/). - -> the big problem that quadratic funding is solving is this public goods problem - -> So quadratic funding is basically trying to make a sort of more market-like alternative that encourages the production of public goods that basically says like, we’re going to be neutral, we’re not going to have our own kind of specific opinion about what is a real public good and what isn’t. We’re just going to say, people can donate money and stuff. And if a lot of people are donating money to the same thing, then that’s clearly a project that benefits a lot of people. So that’s a public good. And so we’re going to detect that and we’re going to automatically subsidize it based on a formula. ## Evaluation: False (High Confidence) @@ -203,7 +206,49 @@ So, even if there _were_ plausible mechanisms by which Web3 was meaningfully con While it may be the case that traditional mechanisms for resolving the public goods problem are inadequate, we find that Web3 has so far not provided a more effective mechanism for raising significant revenue for funding public goods. In addition, excitement currently surrounding experiments in governance within the Web3 space actually has little to do with the underlying technology, seeing as innovative approaches such as quadratic voting are not reliant on blockchain technology. -## Notes +## Related Content + +### Deep Dives and Notes +* [Deep Dive: Collective Action Problems & Climate Change](/notes/collective-action-problems-and-climate-change) +* [Richard D. Bartlett, Stephen Reid & Rufus Pollock on Critical Exploration of Web3](/notes/richard-bartlett-and-stephen-reid) +* [On the Potential of DAOs & Web3 with Jordan Hall & Rufus Pollock](/notes/on-the-potential-of-daos-and-web3) +* [Stephen Reid & Rufus Pollock on Worker Cooperatives and DAOs](/notes/on-worker-cooperatives) +* [Open Collective, Steward Ownership & Exit to Community with Pia Mancini](/notes/pia-mancini-open-collective-dialogue) +* [Regenerative Finance and Web3 for Public Goods](/notes/jeff-emmett-on-regenerative-finance) +* [Samer Hassan on Decentralization, Platform Monopolies and Web3](/notes/samer-hassan) +* [Deep Dive: Web3 and Post-State Technocracy ](/notes/post-state-technocracy) +* [Notes on Jeff Emmett's 'Rewriting the Story of Human Collaboration'](/notes/emmett-2018-rewriting-story-human) +* [KlimaDAO & Life Itself in Conversation](/notes/in-conversation-with-klimadao-part-one) +* [Making Sense of KlimaDao](/notes/klimadao.finance) + +### Concepts + +* [Distributed Autonomous Organization](/concepts/dao) +* [Technosolutionism](/concepts/technosolutionism) +* [Techno Collectivism](/concepts/techno-collectivism) +* [Hyperfinancialization](/claims/is-hyperfinancialization) +* [Decentralization](/concepts/decentralization) +* [Externalities](/concepts/externalities) +* [Free Rider Problem](/concepts/free-rider-problem) +* [Public Goods Problem ](/concepts/public-goods-problem) +* [Governance tokens](/concepts/governance-token) +* [Smart Contracts ](/concepts/smart-contracts) +* [Post-state Technocracy](/concepts/post-state-technocracy) +* [Consensus algorithm](/concepts/consensus-algorithm) +* [Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)](/concepts/ico) +* [Regulatory Arbitrage](/concepts/regulatory-arbitrage) +* [Crowdfunding](/concepts/crowdfunding) + +### FAQs + +* [Is the underlying technology of “blockchain” useful for non-monetary purposes?](/claims/is-blockchain-tech) +* [Is Web3 decentralized?](/claims/is-web3-decentralized) +* [Is Web3 a well-defined term?](/claims/is-well-defined) +* [Is Bitcoin a currency?](/claims/is-bitcoin-currency) +* [Can I do a crowdfunded equity raise for my company? ](/claims/is-raise-company) + + +## References [^1]: Pettinger, Tejvan. ‘Definition of Public Good’. Economics Help, 28 July 2019. https://www.economicshelp.org/micro-economic-essays/marketfailure/public-goods/.