Gitcoin Announces Hackathon Alumni Round Funding Opportunity

**Gitcoin community discussion** featuring @owocki and @sovereignsignal goes live in one hour. Key highlights: - Forum insights and decoding session - **GG24 vibes** and community updates - Interactive discussion format The session builds on recent active forum discussions covering various ideas, tradeoffs, and community questions. **Join the live conversation** to engage with Gitcoin's latest developments and community initiatives.

**Gitcoin takes a contrarian approach** to grant funding by backing experimental projects before they prove themselves, rather than funding already-established successes. This strategy enables **asymmetric betting** - small investments in unproven ideas that could yield massive returns if successful. While most grant programs play it safe with proven concepts, Gitcoin's model: - Funds early-stage experiments - Takes calculated risks on emerging ideas - Creates opportunities for breakthrough innovations This approach has historically produced significant results, with many Gitcoin-funded projects becoming essential crypto infrastructure used ecosystem-wide.

The crypto space demonstrates a stark funding paradox: **$50 million flows into dog-themed meme coins** over a single weekend, yet the essential open-source infrastructure enabling these very trades struggles to find basic funding. This highlights a critical gap in crypto's priorities: - Speculative assets receive massive capital instantly - Core infrastructure projects remain chronically underfunded - **Gitcoin emerges as a solution** to bridge this funding disconnect Gitcoin's mission focuses on **funding the unglamorous but essential** - the protocols, tools, and infrastructure that power the entire ecosystem. While traders chase quick gains on meme tokens, the platform ensures developers building foundational technology can pay their bills. The irony is clear: without robust infrastructure, those weekend meme coin trades wouldn't be possible. Yet the market consistently overlooks these critical building blocks in favor of flashier investments. **This funding imbalance threatens long-term ecosystem health** - sustainable growth requires supporting both innovation and the infrastructure that enables it.

**Gitcoin community discussion** scheduled for Wednesday, September 10th at 6pm CET / 4pm UTC. - Forum threads have generated **lots of ideas, tradeoffs, and questions** lately - Discussion will be brought to the floor with @owocki and @sovereignsignal - Community members invited to join the conversation [Join the Twitter Space](https://x.com/i/spaces/1YpJkkbyqqZJj) **Mark your calendars** for this community-driven discussion on Gitcoin's future direction.

**Gitcoin 3.0** focuses on three core principles: - **Fund what matters** - Supporting meaningful projects - **Do it well** - Executing with quality - **Stay aligned with Ethereum** - Maintaining ecosystem focus This represents a *back-to-basics approach* for the grants platform, stripping away complexity to concentrate on being the **best funding platform for Ethereum projects**. The simplified mission emphasizes quality execution over feature bloat, positioning Gitcoin as the go-to destination for Ethereum ecosystem funding.