@nounishprof

The first round of Clanker Ecosystem Fund grants will be announced on Thursday so we wanted to share some thoughts on how we as the stewards are thinking about this. Below see our guiding principles and information about the different categories of grants 🧵 Mission: The mission of the CEF is to distribute protocol fees to creators and communities who positively contribute to the Clanker and Farcaster ecosystem. Philosophy & Guiding Principles: 1) The Clanker Ecosystem Fund (CEF) exists to strengthen the Clanker and Farcaster ecosystem by supporting the people and projects that make it better. 2) Mission first. Be rigid about the mission and flexible about everything else. Processes and frameworks will evolve over time. The guiding question is simple: does this meaningfully improve Clanker and/or Farcaster? 3) Human judgment over strict systems. The CEF is opinionated and human-directed. While algorithmic or KPI-based approaches can be useful, early ecosystems are too nuanced for purely formulaic allocation which can be easily gamed. Many of the most valuable contributions (culture, community, creativity) are difficult to quantify. Broad eligibility, selective allocation. Anyone contributing meaningfully to the ecosystem may be considered, including builders, creators, and community leaders. Not all contributions will be funded. Allocation decisions are inherently subjective and based on impact, alignment, and quality. 4) Grants are a supplement, not a business model. CEF distributions are not intended to replace sustainable revenue. They are best used for recognition, bridging support, or covering costs for valuable work, not as long-term funding for teams. 5) Default toward self-sustainability. The strongest projects in the ecosystem generate their own revenue. Clanker and crypto-native primitives make this more achievable than on traditional platforms. As a rule of thumb: it is better to earn your own fees than receive grants - you keep 100%. 6) Reinforce the right behaviors. The fund should reward meaningful, original, and positive-sum contributions. We aim to support people building real value and avoid incentivizing short-term or extractive behavior.

10 replies

38 recasts

73 reactions