Plural Funding
Plural Funding (also known as Quadratic Funding or QF) is a more democratic and scalable form of matching funding for public goods, i.e. any projects valuable to large groups of people and accessible to the general public.
“Matching funding” is a model of funding public goods where a fund from governments or philanthropic institutions matches individual contributions to a project. Plural Funding optimizes matching funds by prioritizing projects based on the number of people who contributed. This way, funds meant to benefit the public go towards projects that really benefit a broad public, instead of things that only have a few wealthy backers. In Plural Funding, [total funding] for a proposal is [the square root of each contribution to it → summed up, then squared.] Plural Funding strongly encourages people to make contributions, no matter how small, and ensures a democratic allocation of funds meant to benefit the public.
Further Reading
A flexible design for funding public goods - Vitalik Buterin, Zoë Hitzig, E. Glen Weyl
The Handbook for Radical Local Democracy - Matt Prewitt, Paul Healy
How Soulbound Tokens Can Make Gitcoin Grants More Pluralistic - Leon Erichsen
Liberal Radicalism: A Flexible Design for Philanthropic Matching Funds - Vitalik Buterin et al.
Pairwise coordination subsidies: a new quadratic funding design - Vitalik Buterin
Plural Funding - E. Glen Weyl, Leon Erichsen
Quadratic Payments: A Primer - Vitalik Buterin
WTF is Plural QF - taka
WTF is QF - Gitcoin
Tools
Clr.fund - Clr.fund is a protocol for Quadratic Funding of public goods projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. Using a combination of exclusive cryptography and mechanism design it aims to prevent Sybil-attacks, bribery, and collusion in the Quadratic Funding process.
Gitcoin Grants - Gitcoin Grants is a Quadratic Funding platform for public goods projects, primarily, in the Ethereum ecosystem. Beyond that, it featured matching funds for public Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter causes. Its enchanting interface is the go-to-place for radical public goods pilots.
Downtown Stimulus - Downtown Stimulus is a Quadratic Funding based aid program for small businesses in Boulder, Colorado, that suffered as a consequence of Covid-19. Get in touch and bring the magic of Quadratic Funding to small businesses in your locality, too.
Municipal Quadratic Funding Initiative - This project is the first implementation of quadratic funding mechanism for prioritising and funding of municipal public goods. The goal of the project is to replace the old ways the cities and citizens have funded local public goods with quadratic funding and web3 tools. This pilot will take place in Split, Croatia. Partners in the project are BlockSplit, Funding The Commons, Gitcoin and City of Split.