Potlock is building the open funding stack. We're developing open-source funding primitives, contracts, tools, and applications. Our goal is twofold: to reduce friction in giving and receiving funding, and to accelerate iteration on mechanism design.

In July, we launched AI-PGF, a proactive grants program designed to be replaced by the AI-enabled funding agents it supports. AI-PGF is more than just a program—it's a movement and a new field exploring ways to automate funding at the intersection of Web3 and AI. This initiative aims to reduce overhead and realize the vision of builders automatically receiving funding for impactful projects. Our ultimate goal is to develop a "funding AGI" capable of contextually initiating funding programs, evaluating projects, and redistributing funds more effectively than even the most skilled grant manager.

For more on AI-PGF: aipgf.com/explained and bento.me/aipgf

Learn more about Potlock: bento.me/potlock

Currently, Potlock serves as a go-to funding platform on NEAR, developing public goods products.

In 2024, we have:

• Launched a direct donation and project discovery platform
• Initiated 6 of the first quadratic funding rounds on NEAR
• Distributed over a quarter million dollars in funding through our platform
• Attracted more than 200 project sign-ups
• Shipped nada.bot, our identity solution
• Built our entire product using on-chain front ends (distributed across 100+ gateways automatically)
• Developed lists and campaign contracts
• Launched a proactive grants program for AI-PGF and an on-chain forum
• Created donation agents

Upcoming Endeavors:

• AI-PGF agent & ecosystem building — AI-powered Grants
• Launch of GrantPicks on Stellar and NEAR
• Launch of Campaigns on NEAR
• No-Code Agent Builder (TBA)
• Potv2 Upgrades (Beyond just QF)
• Expansion into EVM ecosystem, especially with AI-PGF
• More Funding Rounds — User Owned AI FOCUS
• Improvements to Sybil resistance; Gitcoin Passport Integration

Impact to the Funding Ecosystem

We are novel in that we are advancing public goods funding mechanisms and infrastructure on PG-underrepresented chains starting in NEAR. We believe in building a truly open and composable funding stack. We are building composable solutions under MIT License. We are also pioneering the intersection of AI x Public Goods Funding as a field and also a program to fund.

In the upcoming year, beyond AI, we'll focus on building Chain Abstracted Accounts through Chain Signatures. This will enable Public Goods Funding (PGF) solutions for ecosystems like Bitcoin and other "untapped" chains in the PGF realm, as well as unified accounts for multiple EVM accounts under one NEAR account.

Funding from this round will be allocated to AI-PGF. We'll use it to develop bounties and builds with Karma, Gitcoin, OSO, Farcaster, and other EVM tools. We're particularly keen on expanding into the Arbitrum (ARB) ecosystem, as they are the funders and we believe in diverse funding mechanisms.