a collective funding mechanism for +170 Ethereum L1 R&D maintainers 🌿 stewarding our commons infra


1/ new piece! ↓ link + thread below ↓

"​Protocol Guild: a funding framework for the Ethereum commons"

an exploration of the commons scale resources that make Ethereum (network, asset, media), what underpins their integrity, and how 
@protocolguild can help with that

2/ Thanks to @barnabe, John, @tbsocialist, @polar and @tim for review.

(summer of) protocol {support | guild | fellowship} ☀️


Robust Incentives Group @ Ethereum Foundation

https://rig.ethereum.org

Blockchain Radical: How capitalism ruined crypto and how to fix it

https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

political organizer → 
@protocolguild

arts and crafts → 
Stateful Works

2/ Thanks to @barnabe, John, @tbsocialist, @polar and @tim for review.

https://trent.mirror.xyz/Lehny46ZMdxMEow0XE_RgowV2ntkp30chJRWPCEYbGQ

3/ Ethereum is a commons like the natural + digital ones that precede it: fisheries, forests, the internet, Linux, etc

Commons are productive systems which create resources for collective benefit

4/ Ethereum's three shared resources: network, asset, media

their confluence produces what we call Ethereum mainnet: they are deeply interdependent here, but altered forms make the edges of the broader commons

5/ these resources are produced through protocols: technical, legal, economic, social, political

complete ownership of each resource is not desirable, as it destroys their integrity. therefore, actors engage in production for influence extraction

6/ @protocolguild gives us a transparent, legible, sustainable and accountable funding allocation mechanism for software media production

7/ there are 5 main threads which make it unique:

1. narrow mandate
2. broad self-curation
3. members are individuals
4. 4yr onchain vesting contract
5. designed with time in mind

it holistically funds stewardship of the entire watershed - not rivers in isolation

8/ Commons have had a rough go under capitalism - but there is hope in long-lived natural precedents: irrigation, fisheries, farming.

blossoming digital commons should practice the posture and develop the mechanisms necessary to ensure uncaptured longevity

9/ read the full piece here!

https://trent.mirror.xyz/Lehny46ZMdxMEow0XE_RgowV2ntkp30chJRWPCEYbGQ