Gitcoin Privacy Round

The project behind gitcoin.privote.live was the GG24 Privacy Round, a funding round focused on privacy public goods. It was created to address a simple problem: privacy projects are often valuable, but hard to fund through standard crypto or venture channels. The goal was to test whether funding for this sector could be allocated through a process that was itself more privacy-preserving. The round used quadratic funding together with private voting. Builders working on privacy research, infrastructure, dApps, and education could apply, and the allocation process was shaped by community participation. Voting was run through Privote and MACI, with Human Passport used to verify that participants were real people. The round received 121 applications, accepted 93 projects, and recorded 7,427 votes. A total of 35.41 WETH was distributed, alongside around $13,000 in community donations. The result was not only a funded set of projects, but also a real-world test of private grant coordination at ecosystem scale.