FAB DAO Grant is Great [en/cn]
- Published on
This article was co-written with mashbean, and the Chinese version is available here.
"FAB DAO Grant is Great!" marks Taiwan's first experiment in non-profit quadratic fundraising, entirely on-chain community-initiated with diverse proposal teams. In just 25 days, we've demonstrated that Taiwan's community has the ability to create an ecosystem capable of independent operation, donations, and proposing initiatives.
Introduction
FAB DAO (Formosa Art Bank DAO), Taiwan's first non-profit-centric decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), has, in two years, executed over 20 NFT-based non-profit actions. These range from self-initiated projects to collaborations with Taiwanese cultural institutions, non-profits, advocacy groups, and schools. Through “Project Percentage,” the DAO partners with Taiwanese generative artists to raise funds and recruit its members. It has transitioned to a decentralized governance model with various subgroups focusing on non-profit actions, public goods research, and collections. FAB DAO's active contributors number around 20, with a general following of about 200 and a Discord server community of approximately 2300. Participants include non-profit workers, engineers, researchers, creators, teachers, business professionals, retirees, first responders, and civil servants, showcasing the diversity of its members.
In 2023, FAB DAO joined the GreenPill Network, operating under the alias GreeSofa and managing GreenPill Taiwan affairs. Between November and December 2023, the DAO conducted its first fully on-chain quadratic funding experiment using the Gitcoin-developed "Grant Stack." This marked Taiwan's first local team-led web3 quadratic funding campaign. The Taiwanese web3 ecosystem, themed around public goods, includes about three groups with overlapping memberships, such as da0 (part of the g0v ecosystem), focusing on civic technology, Volume DAO centered on digital art, along with informal study groups, self-media, and academic research teams, forming a vibrant web3 ecosystem.
Podcast about this experiment with Blocktreand (in Chinese): 黑箱作業、中文不友善？Gitcoin 平方募資法的理想與現實
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| Podcast recording on-site. Provided by MN Hsu. |
Results
This experiment signifies Taiwan's first foray into non-profit quadratic fundraising, led entirely by the community. The participating donation teams were diverse, including influential Taiwanese blockchain media like Blocktrend, projects focused on elderly care, art and cultural event organizers like Volume DAO, individual researchers like Frank Hu, and DAO's internal activities such as year-end gatherings. In just 25 days, we completed an entire fundraising cycle. This success demonstrates the Taiwanese community's capability for autonomous operations, donations, and quadratic funding proposals. This was also a stress test for Grant Stack in Taiwan.
Mission
Our initial goal was to localize Gitcoin Stack's tools for native public interest projects, thereby minimizing participation barriers. We weren’t concerned about Sybil’s attacks on resource distribution issues in this experiment due to the limited matching fund pool. Regarding this initial goal, we are successful. Notably, this quadratic funding campaign did not experience sybil attacks, possibly due to the small public funding pool size.
Duration
The promotional phase began on November 5th, followed by a 10-day preparation period involving image creation, drafting press releases, hosting two AMA sessions, mobilizing publicity, and collaborating on a podcast with Blocktrend. The proposal period ran from November 14th to 30th, spanning 16 days, with the donation period lasting from November 24th to 30th, a total of 6 days.
Funding
FAB DAO initiated the “Grant is Great!” experiment. Matching funds were derived from the previous Gitcoin Grant Round 18 (GG18) and the Global Chinese Community (GCC). In GG18, 95 individuals donated a direct sum of $294, resulting in a total of 1212 DAI (approximately equal in USD). In the GCC, 17 individuals donated $58, with the matched capacity reaching 136 DAI. The combined matching funds amounted to 1369.6 DAI.
Manpower
The human resources involved three individuals: mashbean responsible for initial planning, promotional materials, podcast recording (invited by Blocktrend's Astro Hsu), and two AMA sessions (one for proposers and one for sponsors, each lasting about 1 hour on Discord); Gimmy handled Grant Stack setup and co-hosted the AMAs; Stanley focused on writing promotional text. This final report was jointly completed by mashbean and Gimmy.
Distribution
Ultimately, 32 individuals participated in donating, with a direct donation sum of $93.57 across 166 donations. Among the 13 proposal teams, matching funds ranged from a low of $35 (2.61% of the pool) to a high of $191 (13.97% of the pool).
Grantee
There were 13 teams or individuals involved in this experiment. One team, Wagami Fund, was an unfamiliar proposal not affiliated with any DAO member. Due to the nature of quadratic funding, this team also received $35. The rest of the teams were DAO members or their acquaintances, resulting in an equitable distribution.
Donor
Considering the Gitcoin Passport scores, all 32 donors were familiar with wallet operations. Specific data on the teams was limited, but we attempted to lower the participation threshold for project teams and donors through two educational sessions. The average Passport score was 21.9, mainly between 15 and 30. Although we didn't set a Passport score threshold, all donors scored above 15, indicating no evident sybil attacks. As GG18 used the OP chain, most participants were familiar with cross-chain operations, with only a few newcomers involved.
Discussion
The event leveraged $93.5 in direct donations into a $1370 matching fund pool, demonstrating a significant amplification effect. Donors made 166 donations, averaging $0.5 per donation and $2.6 in total donations per person to 5.2 projects. On average, each recipient received 12 donations.
This experiment faced challenges, including imperfections in the "Export Results" feature, issues with Gitcoin Passport Scores, Metamask plugin detection errors, and unintuitive UI operations. Despite efforts, the campaign only extended up to the DAO and Gitcoin regulars. The community's robust connections played a significant role in participation, with little involvement from unfamiliar members. To lower barriers for willing first-time donors, we offered small airdrops of about $3 in ETH, with three participants receiving them during the second AMA. However, one failed due to using a centralized wallet address.
We suggest that traditional Chinese-speaking DAO contributors and civic tech communities jointly propose translating Gitcoin-related interfaces like Grant Stack, Gitcoin Grant, and Gitcoin Passport into Chinese, collaborating with official bodies. This would reduce barriers for Chinese-speaking users, embracing the spirit of internet internalization (i18n) and continuing to attract non-English speakers interested in digital public goods.
Conclusion
The "FAB DAO Grant is Great!" campaign was Taiwan's first non-profit quadratic funding experiment, entirely community-led, with diverse proposal teams. In 25 days, we've shown that Taiwan's community is now an ecosystem capable of independent operations, donations, and proposing quadratic funding initiatives. Quadratic funding is still in a pioneering phase, not yet reaching mass adoption. It's essential to motivate proposal teams and sponsors through intangible rewards like reputation systems or tangible incentives like tokens and to continue strengthening local community connections to enhance participant engagement. Despite some areas for improvement in the tools, this campaign was valuable.
Detail Raw Data: https://bit.ly/fabdao_grantisgreat_data
FAB DAO 補助讚
簡介
FAB DAO（Formosa Art Bank DAO）是台灣第一個以非營利行動為主體的分散式自治組織（DAO），FAB DAO 成立二年來，已完成 20 餘項關於 NFT 的非營利行動，除了自身自主發起的行動，也與台灣文化館舍、非營利組織、倡議團體或學校等機構合作。FAO DAO 藉由發起「百岳計畫」（Project Percentage），與台灣生成藝術家合作，募集 DAO 資金，並募集成員，目前已經進入去中心治理狀態，有非營利行動小組、公共財研究小組、收藏小組等。FAB DAO 活躍貢獻人數約有 20 人，常態關注人數約有 200 人，Discord 伺服器人數約有 2300 人。參與者包含非營利工作者、工程師、研究者、創作者、教師、商務人士、退休人士、警消、公僕等等，成員多元。
FAB DAO 於 2023 年加入國際綠藥丸網絡（GreenPill Network），以綠沙發（GreeSofa）名義執行 GreenPill Taiwan 事務，並於 2023 年 11 月到 12 月期間，使用 web3 公共財平台 Gitcoin 所開發之工具「補助棧」（Grant Stack）完成第一次全鏈上平方募資法（Quadratic Funding, QF）嘗試，這是台灣第一次由本地團隊實際執行的 web3 平方募資行動。實際上，相較於國際鏈結，台灣本土的團體間合作非常緊密，以公共財為主題的台灣 web3 生態系約有三個團體，成員互相交疊，包括以公民科技為題目的 da0（是 g0v 生態系的一員），以數位藝術為題目的眾聲道（Volume DAO），此外還有非正式的讀書會、自媒體與學校研究型團體混雜其中，是一個生猛的 web3 生態系。
本文盤點結果與討論觀察，並期望相關經驗可提供其他綠藥丸網絡本地團體作為經驗。
結果(Result)：這次實驗標誌著台灣首次進行非營利平方募資，是完全由社群主導的一次實驗。參與捐贈的團隊涵蓋了多元的類型，包括台灣最具影響力的區塊鏈自媒體——區塊勢、專注於高齡照顧的非營利組織專案——星雲計畫、藝術文化活動組織——Volume DAO，以及個人研究者如傳 DAO 士 Frank Hu，也有 DAO 內活動本身，如年末聚餐基金、海盜行動等，此外也有經成員介紹首次參與的兒童藝術、教育專案等加入。在短短 25 天內，我們完成了一整個募資循環。此次的成功，證明了台灣的社群能夠自主進行操作、捐贈及提出平方募資（QF）提案。同時，這也是 Grant Stack 在台灣的一次壓力測試。
目標（Mission）：本次實驗的初始目標是將 Gitcoin Stack 的工具，透過本土的公共性專案進行落地，所以我們最大化的降低參與門檻。在此次實驗中，我們並不擔心女巫攻擊或資源分配的問題，主要是因為資源相對有限。針對此最初設定的目標，我想我們是成功的。另外此次平方募資行動並沒有遇到女巫攻擊，可能是因為公共資金量體少，沒有攻擊的誘因。
時程（Duration）：整個實驗的宣傳期從 11 月 5 日開始，持續了 10 天的籌備期。籌備期間包括製作圖片、撰寫兩個版本的新聞稿、舉辦兩場 AMA（Ask Me Anything）、動員宣傳以及與區塊勢合作的 Podcast 節目。接著，提案期從 2023 年 11 月 14 日開始，持續至 11 月 30 日，共 16 天。捐款期則是在 2023 年 11 月 24 日至 11 月 30 日，為期 6 天。
區塊勢：《黑箱作業、中文不友善？Gitcoin 平方募資法的理想與現實 ft. FAB DAO 黃豆泥》
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| Podcast 錄製現場 ． 許明恩提供 |
資金（Fund）：這次「補助讚！」活動是由 FAB DAO 發起。配對資金來源於上一輪 Gitcoin Grant Round 18（GG18）與 Global Chinese Community（GCC）的資金。在 GG18 中，共有 95 人捐贈，直接捐贈金額為 294 美金，配對後的總額達到 1212 DAI（約等於美金）。而在 GCC 中，17 人捐贈，直接捐款為 58 美金，加上配對金額後的總額為 136 DAI。兩者加起來的總配對資金為 1369.6 DAI。
人力（Manpower）：人力資源方面共有三人，豆泥負責前期規劃、文圖宣傳、Podcast（經區塊勢許明恩邀請錄製）、AMA 教學兩場（提案者教學一場，贊助者教學一場，各約 1hr 時間，發生於 Discord 伺服器語音頻道）；Gimmy 則負責 Grant Stack 建置操作與協同 AMA 教學；Stanley 則專注於宣傳文字的撰寫。此份結案報告則由豆泥與 Gimmy 共同完成。
資金分配（Distribution）：實驗最終，共有 32 人參與捐款，直接捐款額為 93.57 美金，總共 166 筆捐款。在 13 個提案團隊中，配對資金的分配範圍從最低的 35 美金（佔配對資金池的 2.61%）到最高的 191 美金（佔配對資金池的 13.97%）。
資金配對結果
提案團隊（Grantee）：在本次實驗中，共有 13 個團隊或個人參與。由於「補助讚！」是公開於 Gitcoin 社群活動頁面的活動，因此有一個團隊（Wagami Fund）是陌生團隊提案，並非 DAO 內部任何成員的朋友。但由於平方募資法的緣故，該團隊也拿到 35 美金。其他團隊均為 DAO 成員或成員的朋友，最後分配情形平均，皆有所得。
贊助者（Donor）：從 Gitcoin Passport 分數來看，所有的 32 名捐款者都是熟悉錢包操作的使用者。關於團隊方面的具體資料雖然不足，但我們透過兩場教學會試圖降低專案團隊與捐款者的參與門檻。Gitcoin Passport 分數的分佈平均為 21.9 分，主要集中在 15 到 30 分的範圍內。即便我們沒有設置 Gitcoin Passport 分數的門檻，但由於所有捐款者的 Passport 分數都大於 15，因此我們判斷沒有出現明顯的女巫攻擊行為。由於 GG18 使用 OP 鏈，參與者幾乎都已經熟悉資金跨鏈等複雜操作，因此除了少數新進參與者（約為個位數），參與者多是熟悉 Gitcoin Grant 的 UI 操作介面。有趣的是，在「補助讚！」活動期間，Gitcoin Grant 19 也同時正在進行，由於 GG19 這次使用 Public Good Network（PGN）區塊鏈進行，反而讓參與者不熟悉資金的跨鏈操作。GPN 是一個基於 OP Stack 技術誕生的 Layer2 EVM 公共區塊鏈，由 Gitcoin 領頭開發。
結案：我們並未設定結案需求，也沒有要求提案團隊進行事後分享，團隊無需接受資金而產生標的或結案的義務。
討論
此次活動中，用 93.5 美金的直接捐款撬動了 1370 美金的配對資金池，顯示了顯著的放大效益。捐贈者共進行了 166 筆捐款，平均每筆捐款為 0.5 美金，平均每人捐給 5.2 個項目，平均總捐款為 2.6 美金。在受款者方面，平均接收捐款筆數為 12 筆。
這個實驗也不是沒有阻礙的，以下是一些身為 Round Manager，我們在實際操作中遇到的問題：
- 「導出結果」功能的不完善：後台的 “Round Saturation” 功能不明確；在系統中，contributionsCount 的數值發現有誤；Matching amount 的計算與手動計算存在落差，導致所有數據最終都需使用原始捐款資料重新手動計算。
- Gitcoin Passport Score 問題：即使已經關閉 Gitcoin passport score 的門檻設定，但表格內仍然會顯示 passport score 的判斷結果。
- Metamask 外掛軟體偵測問題：有時候 Metamask 在前端被錯誤地偵測為「未安裝插件」的狀態，需重新整理頁面來解決。
- UI 操作不直觀：需要先創建完專案，然後使用該專案再次填寫一份申請，這使得許多參與的團隊感到困惑。
另外，根據本次參與結果，很明顯可以確定這次行動並沒有出圈，參與者仍為 DAO 成員以及 Gitcoin 熟悉者為主，即使「區塊勢」已經是台灣知名科技類 Podcast，並沒有帶動更多參與者募捐支持，這與 FAB DAO 過去的非營利行動經驗一致。參與者實際行動需要強健的社群鏈結，參與者會因為議題、朋友與餘裕選擇是否參與本次活動，陌生成員參與的比例並不大，這是 Gitcoin 與 GreenPill 各地社群為了做活動時，需要考慮的現象
另外，為了進一步降低有意願贊助的初次使用者門檻，我們有提供小額空投（Airdrop）服務，每一筆約等值 3 美金的以太幣（ETH），並於第二次 AMA 期間進行空投，約有三位參與者獲得空投，但其中一位因為使用中心化錢包地址，而沒有操作成功。
最後，我們建議由繁體中文語區的 DAO 貢獻者與公民科技社群，聯合提案進行 Gitcoin 相關介面的中文化翻譯工作，如 Grant Stack、Gitcoin Grant、Gitcoin Passport 等，並與官方單位進行協作。這可以進一步降低中文使用者的使用障礙，達成網路的國際化（internalization, i18n）精神，並且持續吸引有志於參與數位公共財的非英語使用者參與其中。
結論
「FAB DAO 補助讚！」是台灣第一次的非營利平方募資實驗，完全由社群發起，且提案團隊多元。在 25 天內，我們證明了台灣的社群已經成為一種生態系：可以獨立操作、捐贈、提案 QF。我們認為平方募資法在這個階段，仍是先鋒使用者測試與使用的階段，尚未進入大規模應用期（Mass Adoption）。此時應有效給予提案團隊、贊助者更高的動機，無論是聲譽系統等無形獎勵，還是代幣等實質獎勵，並持續有效強化在地社群鏈結，有效提升參與者黏性。即使工具上還有些待改善之處，但無論如何已經是一次有價值的行動。
註：關於原始數據，可以參考這邊