WeTrust, a decentralized platform for financial apps built on the Ethereum blockchain, has announced the release of CryptoUnlocked, a new platform for milestone-driven (aka Proof of Impact) fundraising.
By leveraging the decentralized oracle powers of Augur, CryptoUnlocked allows for crowdfunding pools to be awarded to developers or organizations according to the outcome of real-world events. It is a fundraising platform that enables accountability to be built-in to the grant-making and funding of public goods/non-profit/open-source initiatives.
Conditional contribution, or the ability to fund aspirational goals with the condition of being refunded if the goal is not met, is a vital missing piece in the puzzle of funding for a diverse array of projects. Metamask acts as the bridge for interacting with CryptoUnlocked.
Mechanics of CryptoUnlocked
An Augur market arbitrates the resolution of a publicly verifiable milestone, such as the release of Prysmatic Labs’ Beacon Chain testnet. In this case, the Augur market serves as an oracle for whether or not Prysmatic Labs has delivered Beacon Chain testnet, a highly anticipated milestone for the Ethereum community.
In order to incentivize a timely and determined delivery of the Beacon Chain testnet by Prysmatic Labs, Ethereum stakeholders of all stripes may want to contribute Ether to the Prysmatic campaign. Upon contribution to the campaign, the Ether is locked in a smart contract address until the Augur market is resolved YES or NO.
Example campaign for Prysmatic Labs:
Upon the Augur market resolving YES (Prysmatic successfully releases a public Beacon Chain testnet by X date), the smart contract forwards the contributions to Prysmatic’s public address. If the Augur market resolves NO, contributors can reclaim funds using their contributing addresses.
CryptoUnlocked’s initial lineup is nicknamed Move Ethereum Forward, and is entirely focused on funding Ethereum 2.0 development. As WeTrust is built upon the Ethereum blockchain, its mission to build innovative economic tools can only ever be as strong as the blockchain it’s built on. Therefore, the WeTrust team believes it is “extremely important to support some of the most critical (and critically underfunded) teams building the Ethereum ecosystem.
List of introductory campaigns:
- ChainSafe team to release a Beacon Chain testnet for public use by July 1, 2019.
- Prysmatic Labs releases a Beacon Chain testnet for public use by March 31, 2019.
- Uniswap 30-day total volume (measured in ETH) exceeds 100,000 before July 1, 2019
- Vitalik Buterin, Co-Founder of Ethereum, to wear a traditional Western Suit in public by May 31, 2019.
- Cryptoeconomics.study releases chapters 1–4 of their free course on Ethereum development by July 1, 2019
“Some of the most important projects in the digital economy are the most chronically underfunded. And, beyond the open source pillars upon which cryptocurrency is founded, we believe that CryptoUnlocked can one day be useful in philanthropy, campaign finance, business, and the general funding of public goods. Many of you have expressed the desire to create your own fundraising campaigns based on real-world events, and we may soon enable anyone to create their own. For the time being, please submit your ideas here and we will follow up shortly. After the launch of Move Ethereum Forward open source projects, we expect to quickly expand to additional blockchain projects, general philanthropic nonprofits (leveraging the directory we’re building on spring.wetrust.io, and user-created campaigns.”
