In May something special happened. Svelte, a popular open source JavaScript framework with over 75k stars on GitHub, received more than $30k in funding. It’s not the size of the donation that was exceptional - large grants to Open Source Software (OSS) developers are increasingly common. What made the donation unique was the way it was handled. Thanks to a collaboration between Drips and Open Source Collective, although the donation was made in cryptocurrency, the Svelte developers received it without ever needing to interact with crypto themselves.
This exciting integration provides a new way for web3 projects to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional OSS developers making it easier than ever for projects to support the critical OSS infrastructure they depend on the most.
The Rise of Public Goods Funding in Web3
Public goods funding (PGF) programs have become a major theme in web3 over the last several years, showcasing how new crypto-economic designs can benefit the real world. One inspiring example comes from the Optimism Collective, which in late 2021 introduced Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF), a program that has distributed more than $100M in funding to OSS developers. The sheer scale of funding deployed is huge and the amounts are beginning to rival OSS support from traditional sources, such as the Linux Foundation, which by comparison gave about $177M in 2023.
Another example is Protocol Guild, which enables anyone to support the core protocol developers of Ethereum. Since 2021, Ethereum core devs have received more than $30M through Protocol Guild thanks to projects like ENS, Uniswap, and Nouns. Protocol Guild’s simple and straightforward process makes it easy for anyone to provide direct support to what is arguably Ethereum’s most critical public good.
Despite the success of these programmes, one limitation is that relatively little funding has made its way to OSS projects not directly related to crypto. We believe this represents a missed opportunity. Software packages like Svelte with no direct connection to crypto or web3 are also important public goods that are heavily depended on by many projects. By spreading funding to these projects, web3 funders have an opportunity to financially support their development efforts, while at the same time starting to bridge the gap between the web3 and traditional OSS communities.
A better on-ramp: Open Source Collective and Drips
One of the challenges for web3 PGF programs has traditionally been that developers may not know how to receive cryptocurrency or are hesitant to claim it. But this is changing fast. An exciting new offering from Open Source Collective and Drips makes it easy for funders to donate crypto and devs to receive, without the need for prior crypto knowledge.
Through Drips, it’s possible to send cryptocurrency directly to GitHub repositories, not just to crypto wallets. This feature dramatically expands the scope for PGF funders and enables them to easily provide financial support to any open source software developer anywhere in the world. On the recipients’ side, Open Source Collective through their Fiscal Host offering enables OSS devs to claim the funds without ever needing to interact with crypto. By designating Open Source Collective as a Fiscal Host, OSS developers authorize OSC to claim any funds sent and take care of off-ramping those funds and converting them to fiat.
Svelte is not the only non-crypto-related OSS project to have benefitted from this system. Other notable projects like, Rollup, a JavaScript module-builder with more than 14M users on GitHub and libgit2, a cross-platform implementation of Git, have also received crucial funding to support their development.
Building bridges to the OSS community for a better Web3
Many OSS devs are still on the sidelines when it comes to crypto and web3. While some appreciate the open source ethos of web3, many developers continue to know little. Concerns over crypto-related scams and controversies have also kept some developers on the sidelines.
For web3 projects, providing direct support to the non-crypto-native OSS developers is a unique opportunity to enhance their impact. Funding these developers offers all of the usual benefits that come with ecosystem-based public goods funding, including better maintenance and security of core libraries, as well as new features and improvements based on the funder’s needs. But they also have the opportunity to build bridges to OSS communities outside of crypto and show them the potential that crypto has to do good in the world.
For example Ratatui, a leading open source library for building terminal interfaces in Rust, received more than $35k in funding. The lead developer of Ratatui, wrote a blog post about the experience, highlighting the gratitude that web3 funders can expect to receive when they support open source software projects they depend on the most.
By funding non-crypto OSS projects you have the opportunity to help to legitimize the potential of Web3, strengthen the infrastructure that underpins your own projects, and potentially attract new contributors to web3!
If your web3 organization has a treasury or recurring revenues, consider funding your critical non-crypto OSS dependencies. The integration between Drips and Open Source Collective makes this easy for both funders and recipients while providing a unique opportunity to help bridge the gap between Web3 and traditional OSS - because a thriving, secure, and collaborative open-source ecosystem benefits us all.