$75,000 prize pool: GCC x Pagoda kicks off the first Gitcoin Asia Round

The Chinese-speaking Common Goods Fund (GCC) has partnered with Pagoda, the Asian Ethereum network, to launch the first-ever Asia Round in Gitcoin's history. This round features a $25,000 grant from GCC and an additional $50,000 matching fund from Gitcoin, creating a total prize pool of $75,000! Individual projects can receive up to $7,000 in matching funds.

Why launch an Asia Round?

Asia is home to 4.6 billion people and over 2,300 languages. It boasts vast markets, vibrant developer communities, robust infrastructure, high internet penetration, and a young, innovation-driven population—making it undoubtedly the next frontier for expansion in the crypto world.

The open-source and permissionless nature of cryptocurrency protocols aligns naturally with digital public goods. As the only public goods donation fund in the Chinese-speaking region, GCC has already launched four community rounds for Chinese-speaking public goods on Gitcoin, mobilizing approximately 8,000 donors, raising over $58,000, and unlocking more than $100,000 in matching funds.

However, across Asia as a whole, the concept of digital public goods remains unfamiliar. The region's linguistic diversity and cultural differences present additional challenges to the promotion, development, and expansion of digital public goods.

This time, GCC is partnering with Pagoda and numerous local Asian communities and media outlets from over ten countries and regions—including China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines—to co-launch the first-ever Asia Round in Gitcoin’s history. We aim to unlock the potential of innovators, builders, and projects within Asia's public goods ecosystem through this pioneering initiative.

Application Period: July 24, 12:00 UTC – August 14, 23:59 UTC

Donation Period: August 7, 12:00 UTC – August 21, 23:59 UTC

Apply here

Join our Telegram group (after joining, please post in the GG21 Task Group channel)

If you submit your project before August 6, you will receive feedback on selection status before the donation period begins. Submissions between August 6 and August 14 will receive feedback by August 15 at the latest, which may affect your fundraising progress.

What kind of projects are we looking for?

Our definition of public goods primarily follows the Public Goods Report released by GCC in December last year, emphasizing permissionlessness and positive externalities. To participate in this Asia Round, projects must meet the following basic criteria:

1. The project must support or directly advance the Asian public goods ecosystem; or at least one core founder identifies as Asian and is advancing public goods in a specific region or domain
2. The project must clearly articulate the problem it aims to solve, its solution, financial plan, and have a strong team or community to execute it
3. The project must have been active for at least three months, demonstrate tangible progress toward its goals, and have at least one publicly accessible minimum viable product (MVP)
4. Projects found to encourage or facilitate Sybil attacks or other forms of malicious manipulation of funding platforms or the Gitcoin community will be disqualified
5. The project must comply with Gitcoin's core rules and eligibility requirements.

5. The project must comply with Gitcoin's core rules and eligibility requirements.

Projects expanding in the following areas will be prioritized:

1. Building Asian developer communities

Projects and activities aimed at cultivating local Ethereum ecosystem developer communities

1. Policy advocacy and improvement

Efforts to improve the blockchain policy environment in Asia through lobbying and government public relations

1. Innovative protocols and tools for public goods funding allocation

Tools that raise and allocate funds for Asian public goods builders and projects in a trust-minimized, neutral, and efficient manner

1. Privacy and censorship resistance

Projects aiming to enhance users' ability to protect privacy and resist censorship in the digital world

How does matching work?

What is Quadratic Funding?

Quadratic Funding matches funds to projects based on their donations and subsidies. The calculation formula is unique: for a given project, take the square root of each individual donation amount, sum these square roots, then square the total sum to determine the final matched funding amount.

What is Signal Booster?

To balance public opinion with expert judgment, this Asia Round introduces an innovative Signal Booster mechanism. From the $75,000 matching pool, $5,000 will be evenly distributed among 10 Signal Booster members—selected from GCC’s investment committee, partner communities, and media representatives. Each member will independently decide how to distribute their $500 donation and publicly share their donation strategy on social networks.

How is matching impact calculated?

1. For this Asia Round, we set a minimum threshold of $3. Donations below $3 will still reach the project, but won't count toward matching calculations
2. Starting from GG20, Gitcoin updated the rules for using Gitcoin Passport in Gitcoin Grants donations. Instead of calculating influence scores based on various on-chain credentials, Gitcoin now evaluates wallets based on their transaction and donation history. Wallets without prior donation records may not have their contributions counted in matching calculations, though the donation will still reach the project

If your project meets the above criteria, don’t hesitate—apply now to receive up to $7,000 in matching funds! (Apply here)

If you'd like to join as a partner media outlet or community, please join our Telegram group and inquire in the GG21 Task Group channel.