I really do not understand how this solves the free-rider problem, regardless of them stating the system does so. It looks more like a mechanism to efficiently allocate funds (originating from altruistic sources), among competing projects.
Anybody have firsthand experience with Gitcoin grants?
Yes.
In short, matching funds get distributed to a long tail of projects.
The projects are not necessarily competing.
My main issue is that it is mostly a popularity contest.
There was a (one-off?) FundOSS experiment that the Gitcoin folks ran. Problem was lack of options, I think, not the system itself.
I agree with @boris that the projects aren’t compelling. There’s a bit of a cold start problem.
Given how difficult it is to get things working using ETH (and getting ETH in the first place), I find what gitcoin has accomplished impressive. There are a lot of people donating to a lot of projects.
Gitcoin and the social movement around it has been the most powerful aspect.
The ecosystem as a whole has a high level of awareness around open source and concepts surrounding public goods.
EG “you are a Project which is making lots of money, where is the evidence that you are either producing public goods and/or supporting their production over time”