Let’s fund something impactful together! Announcing Octant’s Epoch Zero

We’re happy to announce Octant’s Epoch Zero: a special pre-launch event for a new project funded and developed by Golem Foundation.

Octant is an upcoming, community-driven platform for experiments in decentralized governance, which gives users a chance to have a say in how rewards from staking up to 100,000 ETH are distributed between eligible public good causes. The platform is designed to test various hypotheses around community engagement, participatory funding, and user-centered governance, while rewarding user participation with ETH.

During Octant’s Epoch Zero, we will unite diverse communities interested in the regenerative potential of the Ethereum ecosystem to distribute $1M worth of ETH among eligible web3 public goods projects.

How can I participate in Epoch Zero?

As this is a pre-launch event, the distribution of Octant’s Epoch Zero reward pool will take place outside of the Octant app. Instead, a gated Snapshot poll will be conducted to determine how the $1M worth of ETH will be divided among potential beneficiaries. The poll will be held from July 21st until July 28th, 2023. To participate, you need to receive an Epoch Zero Token (EZT) from us.

The EZT is a POAP token that will be handed out to active members of the early Octant community, those at Funding the Commons (July 15-16) and visitors to Octant’s booth at ETHCC (July 17-20) in Paris. If you can’t attend these events, we’ll be hosting Twitter spaces with our partners and sharing info about how you can participate otherwise.

This token will grant recipients voting access to the Snapshot poll, enabling eligible participants to choose which projects they would like to support from Octant’s Epoch Zero reward pool. The poll will use a weighted voting method, allowing voters to distribute their voting power across any number of choices.

Why should I get involved?

There are several reasons to participate in Epoch Zero. First of all, it’s an opportunity to make a real impact and support your favorite projects in the decentralized space. Keep in mind that you will be contributing to the distribution of $1M worth of ETH!

If you’re new to decentralized governance and regenerative cryptoeconomics, this is the perfect opportunity to get involved. In Epoch Zero, there are no costs associated with participation. All you need is a crypto wallet to store a free POAP token that you can obtain from us.

Everything takes place on Snapshot, which is a user-friendly platform. If you encounter any difficulties, you can seek support by asking us anything on our Discord server.

What projects can I support in Epoch Zero?

In this special round of funding you can choose from a curated list of ten different projects, listed here in alphabetical order:

  • Clr.fund Clr.fund (Commons Library of Resources Fund) is a decentralized funding platform that focuses on supporting public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem. By using quadratic funding, the voting system allows for rewarding projects with the most unique demand and not just based on the wealth of its backers.
  • DAO Drops DAO Drops is an experiment in retroactive public goods funding - a system in which you reward efforts that have already yielded a public benefit. It supports projects that have done good in the community (in education, building tools, UX etc.) but have not received proportional funds and recognition.
  • Drips Drips describe themselves as a platform for “continuous drip-down funding”. They enable token streams of any ERC-20 to any Ethereum address and let users donate to their favourite projects and individuals by automatically forwarding a set percentage of funds they receive.
  • EthStaker EthStaker is a community providing education and support for existing and potential solo stakers. EthStaker is committed to helping any interested person learn the fundamentals of staking and evaluate their best way to start participating.
  • Ethereum Cat Herders The Ethereum Cat Herders are a group of individuals who aim to organise the Ethereum space to make its evolution smoother. This means helping the Ethereum core developers with project management and other aspects of communication and coordination through offering support and resources, organising meetings, surveys and running a podcast.
  • Giveth Giveth is a zero-fee, community-driven decentralized platform which allows for direct donations towards impactful causes. They promote philanthropy by rewarding donors with GIV - a token that grants access to the Giveth community as a voting member and offers other rewarding opportunities.
  • Gitcoin Gitcoin motto is “Fund, build and protect what matters”, and what matters to them is the future of open source software and public goods. Over the years they have helped raise funds for over 3 thousand projects, thanks to 3.8 million unique donations. They continue to help build and sustain digital public goods through their Grant Program.
  • Kernel Kernel is a custom peer-to-peer web3 educational community which facilitates learning, questioning, playing and discovering the decentralized space. Whether you have no idea what a blockchain is, or have been building all the decentralized things since 2009, Kernel community will help you learn what you need to know to participate in building a better web, together.
  • Protocol Guild Protocol Guild is a collective of folks involved in the Ethereum community working to enhance the managing of the core protocol. They achieve this by keeping a record of their members on the blockchain and enabling sponsors within the ecosystem to directly support them and their efforts.
  • Supermodular Supermodular.xyz is a project driven by the aim to build supermodular software and cultivate a more regenerative digital frontier. They run the SuperModular Incubation Program that supports the discovery, facilitation and deployment of impactful solutions through cultivating new regenerative web3 projects.

Where can I read more about Octant?

Want to learn more about Octant? Curious about why we’re building it, how it will be funded, and the experiments we’ll be conducting? Visit the Octant website and check out our documentation page. Don’t forget to join our Discord server and to follow us on Twitter for the latest updates on the project.

Let’s fund something impactful together!