Solana, a high-performance blockchain known for its speed, ecosystem, and low transaction costs, continues to lead in DeFi and Web3 innovation. We’re excited to announce that POTLOCK now supports Solana donations through NEAR Intents, allowing users to donate using SOL directly to POTLOCK campaigns.

What is Solana?

Solana is a high-performance blockchain designed for decentralized applications and crypto projects. With NEAR Intents — the leading cross-chain interoperability protocol — Solana is seamlessly connected to multiple chains. This means you can now perform native swaps between Solana and chains like Zcash, Dogecoin, Bitcoin, Stellar, XRP, Monad, Litecoin, Sui, Aptos, Arbitrum, Base, and Ethereum at near-intents.org. This functionality is also available through ecosystem apps including Bitget Wallet, SwapKit, and Zashi. Developers can easily integrate native cross-chain swaps using the simple 1Click API — no API key required, start building today.

Solana NEAR Intents Ecosystem Yapper Fund

To celebrate Solana’s integration with NEAR Intents, we’re launching the Solana Ecosystem Yapper Fund. This campaign will reward content creators who produce high-quality content about Solana’s integration into NEAR Intents, focusing on:

We are specifically seeking content that achieves one or more of the following:

• How developers can integrate Intents using the 1Click API
• Highlighting applications that have integrated Solana through Intents via blogs, short-form content, and more (e.g., POTLOCK for creating campaigns and cross-chain donations, NEAR Intents, Bitget Wallet).
• Compelling educational content targeting Solana ecosystem projects. This content should clearly explain how to integrate NEAR Intents to access cross-chain liquidity (e.g., for wallets, swaps, etc.).

Duration: The Fund is designed to be raised indefinitely to support continuous ecosystem growth.

Selection: Winners for the current campaign cycle will be chosen based on the best submissions within 2 weeks by the NEAR Legion team via NEARN submission. (taking into account reach, quality, novelty, & SOL eco penetration). Join NEAR Legion to submit and amplify your yap submission today

How to Use It: Donating with Solana

To make a donation, navigate to any campaign on app.potlock.org/campaigns and follow these simple steps:

1. Select a Campaign: Go to your chosen campaign and click the “Donate” button to start the process.
2. Choose SOL: In the currency dropdown menu (which usually defaults to NEAR), select Solana as your donation currency.

1. Input the desired Solana amount you wish to donate.
2. Click “Proceed to Donate” to generate the unique deposit QR code and address for your transaction.

1. Use your preferred Solana wallet (e.g., phantom or solflare) to scan the QR code or manually copy the deposit address. Send the exact specified Solana amount to this address.
2. Confirm the payment in your wallet. Your Solana has now been swapped via Intents and successfully donated to the campaign once all the checks turn green!

How It Works on the Backend

Since 1ClickAPI only handles swaps — automating any asset-to-asset conversion on intents balance or to external accounts — executing function calls in POTLOCK donate contracts (learn more at docs.potlock.org) required some engineering automation.

1. Solana Conversion: SOL is automatically converted into NEAR via the 1ClickAPI. This handles the cross-chain liquidity component.
2. Donation Execution: A backend automation layer is triggered immediately after the swap. This automation executes the final function call to place the newly converted NEAR into the specific POTLOCK donation campaign.

Learn more at docs.potlock.org

For more on how to work with NEAR Intents, contact devrel at t.me/near_intents and support issues on POTLOCK go to potlock.org/community

Content Ideas

The following are content ideas you can easily leverage on X, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram

• How to Bridge from Solana to Stellar Using NEAR Intents
• How to Use Solswap to Bridge from Base to Solana
• Using 1 Click API to build Cross Chain Deposits into Solana Apps, Bridges, Swaps and Wallets
• If a NEAR Intents ecosystem project hasn’t turned on Solana support then urging them to add it. i.e., Zashi add Solana Deposits
• How NEAR Intents Will Supercharge Internet Capital Markets

For all content ideas check out this doc and make sure to amplify with NEAR Legion and Submit on NEARN

gSOL and gNEAR yappers.

Solana Donations on POTLOCK & The Solana NEAR Intents Yappers Campaign was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why Stake With Us?

• All proceeds support open source builders and founder programs on NEAR
• We are fully open source, backing projects that enhance the NEAR ecosystem

Meta Pool x POTLOCK

This partnership marks a significant evolution in our collaboration with Meta Pool, as we transition from our Retroactive Builders Round to launching our own Meta Pool node. We’re thankful to Meta Pool and the mpDAO staking collective for their generous support of over 70,000 NEAR to our validator.

Our previous RetroPGF mpDAO round successfully funded various projects within the Meta Pool ecosystem, demonstrating our dedication to supporting builders.

https://docs.metapool.app/master/contribute-to-meta-pool/retroactive-public-goods-funding-rpgf

This new Node strengthens our strategic alignment with Meta Pool as both organizations expand their multichain/cross-chain capabilities, supporting NEAR’s vision of a Chain Abstracted future.

Validator Details

• Pool ID: potlock.pool.near https://near-staking.com/validator/potlock.pool.near
• Fee: 5% (entirely directed to NEAR public goods funding)
• Track our earnings through our wallet at metapool.potlock.near

How to Delegate

Delegating to the POTLOCK node is simple:

1. Click the stake feature on your wallet
2. Search for validators
3. Select “potlock.pool.near” from the validator list to choose the Potlock v2 pool
4. Click “Stake” and enter your desired delegation amount
5. Confirm your transaction and begin earning rewards while supporting public goods

View our validator here: https://near-staking.com/validator/potlock.pool.near

For more information, visit the Meta Pool Docs or reach out to our team on Discord.

How We Allocate Funds

We will query POTLOCK donations for active campaigns and allocate funds based on projects with the most unique donors, while excluding clear cases of fraud and internal POTLOCK projects. To learn how to create a campaign, visit potlock.org/campaign-docs

Run Your Own Node

Interested in operating your own node? Meta Pool has made it accessible — you can run your own node for under $30 a month with no coding experience required. Learn more here: https://docs.metapool.app/master/node-studio/run-a-node-in-3-clicks

About Meta Pool

Meta Pool is NEAR’s leading liquid staking protocol, allowing users to stake their NEAR while maintaining liquidity through stNEAR tokens. The protocol supports decentralization through MpDAO, making staking more accessible on many chains, and distributing stake across trusted community nodes like POTLOCK.

POTLOCK Validator Launched & Supported by Meta Pool was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The POTLOCK UX Program is a NEAR ecosystem-subsidized initiative (free for founders) that provides lean founders with UI and UX resources through direct product design, UX, and testing support — whether they’re building a new product or already have one live. This program aims to create a polished ecosystem and raise the quality and proliferation of apps within the NEAR Ecosystem .

potlock.org/ux-help

😢 Problems

• 🚀 Evolving Complexity: The NEAR ecosystem is rapidly advancing, but many teams lack the expertise to tackle blockchain-specific UX challenges, such as chain abstraction and AI-driven interfaces.
• 🎨 Limited Design Resources: Product designers in our ecosystem need expert guidance to craft seamless, user-friendly experiences that drive adoption and engagement.
• 👨‍💻 Solo Developer Struggles: Many NEAR projects are led by solo developers or lean teams focused on building MVPs quickly, often sacrificing UX quality.
• 🔄 Subcontracting Pitfalls: Teams outsourcing to external designers or dev shops sometimes receive products misaligned with their vision or NEAR's technical requirements.
• 💬 Lack of Honest Feedback: Many founders struggle to receive genuine feedback. Often, friends and colleagues avoid being critical, offering only positive comments instead of constructive criticism.

🎯 Objectives

• 🌱 Foster a Thriving Ecosystem: Support 15+ NEAR projects in the next 12 months to create a vibrant, user-centric blockchain ecosystem.
• 🏆 Ensure High-Quality Standards: Help all NEAR projects meet best-in-class UX and technical standards to boost user trust and adoption.
• 💪 Empower Lean Teams: Provide solo founders and small teams with tailored resources to launch MVPs efficiently and scale successfully.
• 🚀 Reduce Barriers to Mainnet: Streamline design and integration processes to lower costs and accelerate mainnet deployment for NEAR projects.
• ✨ Inspire New Founders: Equip individuals and lean teams with mentorship and tools to launch innovative projects, growing the NEAR founder community.
• 🔍 Leverage our Experience: Use our product-building expertise to provide not only product insight, but market research and competitive advantages.

What are our motivations?

• 🏗️ Building Ecosystem: We are all about building use cases and helping founders focus on building
• ⚡ Agile Approach: We hate paperwork and program timelines—we move quickly, and we know founders like to move quickly as well. The faster you go to market, the faster the NEAR Ecosystem benefits.
• 🎨 Design Commitment: We love designing and are in NEAR for the long haul; a rising tide lifts all boats. We like the challenge of designing across DeFi, Governance, Stablecoins, Consumer Apps, Marketplaces and more. The more problems we solve, the better we feel about life.
• 🔄 Comprehensive Support: We are tasked with supporting the NEAR Ecosystem through funding, but founders need other resources beyond funding to be capital efficient

💎 Principles

• Provide quick feedback and streamlined processes
• Coordinate ecosystem resources and services
• Track progress and maintain ecosystem accountability
• Industry context: we’ve seen many projects and can provide valuable insights

🤝 Services We Provide

• Requirements Facilitation: Although we can help frame designs and requirements, we often advise that technical integration considerations be handled through NEAR Dev chat.
• Design Support & Prototyping: Access our expertise for designing and prototyping mobile-responsive products, helping you create seamless user experiences.
• Expert UX Reviews: Get comprehensive UX evaluations of your NEAR ecosystem projects, helping you identify and solve usability challenges in wallets, bridges, and DeFi applications.
• Innovation Lab: Collaborate with us to explore and validate cutting-edge blockchain UX concepts through rapid prototyping. Learn how to integrate NEAR's latest tech stack and simplify your integration to reduce costs.
• User Research & Testing: Benefit from our structured approach to user feedback, including interviews, testing sessions, and comprehensive reporting systems.
• Data-Driven Insights: Leverage our analytics expertise to measure and improve your design effectiveness through both on-chain and application metrics.
• Strategic Consultation: Get help translating complex stakeholder needs into clear, actionable product requirements.
• Educational Resources: Access workshops, guides, and direct mentorship on blockchain UX best practices to level up your team's design capabilities.
• Community Building: Training ecosystem to provide valuable feedback and guidance with design principles.
• Documentation Writing and Tutorials: Writing user guides and making PRs to open source documentation, as well as creating video walkthroughs.

🌱 Program benefits

• 🚀 Fast-Track Product Development: Access rapid UX evaluation and design expertise to accelerate your development cycle, allowing you to launch faster while maintaining quality.
• 💰 Cost Savings: Leverage professional design resources without the expense of hiring full-time designers or contracting expensive agencies, reducing your burn rate.
• 🔍 Expert Ecosystem Knowledge: Benefit from designers who understand NEAR-specific UX challenges and have worked across multiple projects in the ecosystem.
• 🧪 User Testing Access: Connect with our pool of experienced beta testers who understand Web3 interfaces and can provide quality feedback.
• 🤝 Networking Opportunities: Join a community of founders and designers, creating opportunities for collaboration and cross-promotion.
• 📈 Higher Adoption Rates: Create more intuitive user experiences that reduce friction and increase user retention in your applications.
• 🔄 Ongoing Support: Receive continued guidance throughout your product journey, not just a one-time consultation.
• 🎓 Skill Development: Learn UX best practices directly applicable to blockchain applications through hands-on collaboration with our team.

📬 How to Apply

potlock.org/ux-apply

Step 1: Create Your Profile & Demonstrate Support

• Create a profile on POTLOCK
• Get at least $100 in donations through a campaign to demonstrate community support (all funds go directly to you)

Step 2: Submit Your Application

Apply on potlock.org/ux-apply with the following:

• Project information (stage, pain points, specific feedback needs)
• Technical resources (beta links, testing environments)
• Design assets (Figma designs, branding, template graphics)
• Documentation (requirements, user testing feedback, instructions)

Step 3: Amplify Your Request

• Tag POTLOCK on Twitter requesting feedback
• Contact t.me/codegoon sharing your project + campaign on chain

Eligibility Requirements

Teams must have:

• A working MVP, proof of concept, or detailed requirements
• A technical team ready to implement changes
• Social media presence, branding, and a landing page
• Content calendar and go-to-market strategy

What Happens Next

After approval:

• A group chat will be created with POTLOCK, Web3Plug, a NEAR Foundation representative, and the POTLOCK Ecosystem designer
• You'll be added to public UX Program potlock.org/tg-ux-help

🏎️ How to Streamline The Process

To help us provide the best support, please share materials based on your project stage:

1. Initial Concept

• Project brief and vision document
• Target audience analysis
• Initial feature wishlist
• Competitive research

2. Design Phase

• Requirements documentation
• Feature specifications
• Figma/design files
• User flow diagrams
• Wireframes or mockups

3. Development Stage

• MVP scope document
• Technical architecture
• Development timeline
• Testing strategy

4. Live Product

• Analytics dashboard setup
• User feedback system (Canny/Notion/Intercom)
• Existing user reviews and testimonials
• Performance metrics

Additional Resources to Include

• Brand guidelines and assets
• User research findings
• Accessibility requirements
• Integration documentation
• Security considerations

This Program is Brought to You by POTLOCK

POTLOCK is the open funding stack, by venture studio COOKED LABS

• Support us by donating to our campaigns to scale design resources
• Donate today at potlock.org/ux-donate
• Put in a good word
• Refer other designers in the ecosystem to us or yappers / users wanting to get better at feedback

Want to help out? Join our POTLOCK UX Program to support projects as they come in, test applications, give feedback on designs, and support teams early on pre-launch. Be early. potlock.org/tg-ux-help

NEAR UX Support Program by POTLOCK was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Overview

What if you could rally support for your favorite cause, project, or idea — and guarantee your supporters get refunded if you don’t reach your goal? POTLOCK is the open funding stack that helps ideas, people, and projects grow from zero to one. As part of this stack, we are proud to announce the alpha for POTLOCK Campaigns. POTLOCK campaigns function like GoFundMe-style fundraisers, allowing anyone to create fundraising initiatives with built-in refund protection through minimum funding thresholds. Early ecosystem projects are already using these campaigns for marketing, developer bounties, and contributor stipends as a non-dilutive way to bootstrap their ideas.

👋 Why Start a Campaign on POTLOCK?

• Raise for Anything: Launch campaigns for funding ideas, product features, marketing incentives, grant pools, conferences, nonprofit initiatives, or anything you believe in
• Built-in Protection: Set minimum funding targets with automatic refunds if goals aren’t met, protecting both organizers and donors
• Community-Powered: Supporters can raise funds for their favorite projects and earn optional creator fees, with built-in social referral system that incentviizes donor share to earn
• Transparent & Easy: Create and share campaigns in minutes with full visibility of progress, donors, and donation history
• On-Chain Features: Automatic donations through public profiles, NFT integration, and token-based fundraising with future airdrop capabilities
• Full Integration: Connect with the POTLOCK ecosystem including NadaBot identity, project profiles, grant funding rounds, and direct donations for a comprehensive view of a project’s funding history.

How It Works

1. Create: Set your campaign’s target, description, image, and duration.
2. Share: Spread the word- anyone can donate or even tip campaigns.
3. Succeed or Refund If you meet your minimum, funds are released. If not, all donations are returned.

Ready to make an impact? Start your campaign or support an existing one today: 🔗 staging.alpha.potlock.org/campaigns

Use Cases & Case Studies

📣 Use Case 1: Marketing & Incentives

One of the biggest pain points for projects after building a product is driving users to it. Many projects are experimenting with marketing and incentives — whether through giveaways, Twitter Spaces hosting, liquidity incentives, or thread competitions — and any project can benefit from a budget for strategic giveaways. Whether it’s through NEAR Intents gifting, incentives for curation, early testing, or Shitzu-based thread contests, projects need marketing incentives. POTLOCK campaigns immediately saw people raising for giveaways and incentives to fill gaps that Marketing DAO used to support. Now, super fans and supporters are doing this themselves, and community members are earning for raising on behalf of their favorite projects.

Case Study: Monza Uses for Marketing Incentives in Firehouse https://x.com/monzaNFT/status/1927817261185659290

🎉 Use Case 2: Event Crowdfunding

Organizing events comes with significant challenges: early booking requirements, vendor payments, and meeting minimum costs. In the NEAR Ecosystem, where event strategy and DevRel staffing are limited, event crowdfunding empowers ecosystem evangelists to launch events efficiently.

• Rapidly crowdfund and pool community interest
• Cover initial costs with refund protection
• Use for event accounting
• Easily add extra benefits with higher target amounts

Case Study: PhoDAO — donations via NEAR Social, leveraging sponsorships https://staging.alpha.potlock.org/campaign/12/

• Successfully captured mindshare at Super Vietnam and Solana APAC events where NEAR presence would have been missed. Established brand, website, social presence, and community managers stemming from initial campaign. Secured venue booking for Da Nang event in less than 1 week

Upcoming initiatives in Latin America and Africa strategy soon.

🛠️ Use Case 3: Dev Bounties

Many projects have roadmaps but struggle to deliver features on time. While some have received grants, their funding often covers only specific deliverables. At the same time, protocols frequently present opportunities for external developers to build on their infrastructure. Projects are now using Campaigns to raise the minimum funds needed to attract outside developers, support existing dev teams, or secure funding for their next product phase.

• Make sure you have the minimum funding to ship the MVP
• Use campaigns for customer validation and developer recruitment
• Leverage direct feature funding

Case Studies

• Crosspost Farcaster Integration https://x.com/open_crosspost/status/1923461045349179662
• POTLOCK Campaigns Agent Bounty https://x.com/potlock_/status/1925074046410256697
• GenaDrop NFT Agent Bounty (boosting back NFT ecosystem by funding agent) https://staging.alpha.potlock.org/campaign/13/leaderboard

👔 Use Case 4: Contributor Stipends

One thing we see is that many teams lack capital for rewards. At the same time, many web3 communities and fast-paced companies have amazing individual contributors eager to work, but there’s no budget for them. New organizations are raising campaigns on POTLOCK to fund their desired contributors. Taking an even more grassroots approach, people seeking employment are raising funds for their own salaries at no upfront cost, demonstrating their value to organizations from day one by setting their minimum required stipend to work with ecosystem resources.

Case Study

Afrobeats DAO, a new community leveraging campaigns to pay its initial contributors. In this case, a potential contributor is raising funds for their own salary while providing value https://staging.alpha.potlock.org/campaign/6

• Curate and fund using direct contributor payouts

Contract Overview

The POTLOCK Campaigns contract, MIT Open Source Licesne at https://github.com/PotLock/core/tree/feat/campaigns/contracts/campaigns, implements a sophisticated fundraising system on the NEAR blockchain. Currently awaiting audit, this singleton contract architecture was chosen over a factory model due to cost considerations on NEAR, though this design choice requires careful security considerations.

The contract supports two primary campaign types: pass-through and escrow-based. Pass-through campaigns immediately transfer donations to recipients, while escrow campaigns hold funds until meeting specific conditions. A key security feature is the automatic conversion to pass-through mode once minimum funding targets are reached, which minimizes the amount of funds held in the contract at any time.

Campaign creation requires several mandatory parameters including name, description, target amount, and an IPFS-linked image. Optional parameters provide flexibility in campaign configuration — creators can set start dates (defaulting to current time if unspecified), end dates (mandatory for minimum-amount campaigns), maximum funding goals, and minimum funding requirements. Each campaign receives a unique identifier and maintains an approval status, with automatic approval granted when the creator and recipient are the same entity.

The contract implements sophisticated state management through helper functions that track campaign status: COMPLETED (successful completion), RETURNED (minimum not reached), ONGOING (active campaign), ESCROWED (accumulating minimum), and NOT STARTED (future start date). For funding tracking, the contract uses a target amount for frontend display, which can work in conjunction with maximum caps and minimum thresholds.

Security is a primary concern, as the contract directly handles funds. The contract as it moves to prod must be locked and requires redeployment for updates. Campaign creators can edit their campaign settings, and recipients have control over campaign approval status. The system also supports optional referral fees and platform fees (reccomended 5%), providing flexibility in fee structure while maintaining security.

Key contract functions include campaign creation, status updates, fee management, and various getter methods for accessing campaign and donation information. The contract also handles escrowed donations through a structured system, with payouts based on donation records and associated fees carefully managed to account for gas costs.

The escrow system operates in two primary modes: immediate pass-through upon reaching minimum targets (with the next donation triggering payments), and campaign completion holds (where funds are held until the end date). This dual approach provides flexibility while maintaining security and proper fund management.

Read more at https://docs.potlock.io/contracts/campaigns-live

How to Use

For full user guide see the docs

Campaign Discovery Page

On the Explore page, users can discover and explore all campaigns through a comprehensive filtering system. The page features both curated campaigns highlighted by POTLOCK and a powerful search functionality. Users can filter campaigns based on various criteria including approval status, active/inactive status, minimum funding targets, and amount raised. Each campaign is displayed as a card showing key information about the associated project (which can be accessed in a new tab) and funding targets. In the future, we’re enhancing our search capabilities and adding new indexer endpoints to enable both better discovery and programmatic allocation to relevant campaigns.

Campaign Page

Individual campaign pages provide a comprehensive view of campaign information and direct donation options. The page features a progress bar showing the funding target, which appears yellow if not yet reached. For campaigns with minimum funding requirements, this is indicated by a hover tooltip. These campaigns must have an end date, after which funds are either distributed or returned.

When the minimum funding amount is reached, donations automatically pass through to the beneficiary. However, escrowed funds need a transaction to trigger their release. This same mechanism applies when a campaign ends with funds still in the contract — anyone can trigger the payout process to return the funds.

The page includes multiple tabs featuring a donor leaderboard, donation history, and campaign settings for administrators. Campaign managers can easily share referral links, track donations and campaign status, and modify campaign parameters through the settings panel.

Looking ahead, NEAR Intents integration will enable multi-currency donations that automatically convert to the campaign’s specified tokens, plus the ability to incentivize donors with token airdrops, NFTs, and other rewards. When sharing the campaign, logged-in users receive a unique referral link — anyone who donates through this link generates a referral fee for the sharer (unless they opt out).

Create Campaign

Creating a campaign on POTLOCK is straightforward and open to anyone. Users can easily customize their campaign page with a banner image, detailed description, and relevant external links. What makes POTLOCK unique is that anyone can create a campaign for any project — this means your community can raise funds on your behalf while earning creator fees, and donors can earn through referral fees.

When setting up a campaign, creators have full control over their fundraising parameters. They can set start and end dates, choose which currencies to accept (NEAR or other fungible tokens), and configure funding goals. For projects requiring specific funding thresholds, creators can set an optional minimum target amount, creating an escrow-based campaign where funds are only released once the minimum is reached. Additionally, creators can set a maximum funding cap that automatically ends the campaign when reached, and they have the flexibility to specify whether others can bypass creator fees.

Project page

Also, from your POTLOCK page, you can now see campaigns raised on behalf of projects, updates, direct donations, and past funding rounds, and even self-reporting funding information from a project to get full context of updates and support up to date.

Future Roadmap

The POTLOCK platform creates a comprehensive ecosystem for user engagement and growth across multiple channels. By integrating with NEAR Social, NEAR Intents, and various fungible token communities, POTLOCK provides diverse entry points for users to discover and participate in campaigns. The platform’s on-chain tracking system creates a powerful feedback loop, where user activities are recorded and rewarded through a sophisticated system of incentives and retroactive benefits. This approach, combined with built-in social sharing features, not only drives user engagement but also naturally expands NEAR’s presence and community reach, creating lasting value for the entire ecosystem.

POTLOCK Campaigns has an exciting roadmap ahead. Through NEAR Intents integration, we’re building a cross-chain decentralized fundraising platform that will allow donations and escrow functionality across multiple blockchains. We’re also developing a robust donor rewards system to incentivize community participation, and expanding our agent program to help facilitate campaign creation and management. For more details about our agent requirements, check out our Campaigns Agent Bounty.

Looking to create a campaign, build your own campaign strategy, and get involved in the open funding ecosystem? Join the POTLOCK community and explore campaigns today

Fundraise for Anything: Introducing POTLOCK CAMPAIGNS was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Duplicate List

Duplicating a list on POTLOCK is a feature for quick refinement, allowing users fork (Copy and paste) settings, admins and accounts all and update as needed.

Access the List Details Page

Navigate to List tab on POTLOCK: Web: Visit POTLOCK website, select list tab and locating the specific list you wish to duplicate and select. Ensure you are logged in on Potlock.

Mobile: Visit POTLOCK website, select the menu button (Top right) and select lists tab. Then locating the specific list you wish to duplicate and select. Ensure you are logged in on POTLOCK.

Click on the Three Dots

Locate the Options Menu: On the list details page, find the three dots (•••) located beside the “Apply to List” button. Clicking on these dots will reveal additional options related to list management.

Choose Duplicate List

From the options displayed, choose “Duplicate list”. Another shortcut is https://alpha.potlock.org/list/duplicate/22 replacing the number with listID

Edit List name

Provide a Concise, Descriptive Title: In this field, enter a title that clearly reflects the focus of your list (e.g., “Sustainable Energy Projects”). This title will help users quickly understand the purpose of your list.

Edit List Description

Offer a Brief Overview: Write a short description that outlines the goals and scope of your list. This could include the types of projects included, the target audience, or any specific themes. A well-crafted description helps attract potential donors and participants.

Edit accounts on the List Directly — Select “Change Accounts”

Optional: Add more accounts: if you want more accounts on the list, enter the NEAR wallet IDs of the projects you wish to include. This feature allows for quicker assembly of your list and ensures that key projects are immediately recognized as part of your collection.

Optional: Remove accounts: If you want less accounts or new accounts profiles on the list, manually click on remove on each account profile or select the account profiles as they appear and select remove all selected.

Edit Permissions — Select “Change Admins”

Optional: Add more admins: If you want additional administrators to help manage the list, enter their NEAR account ID here. These admins will have the ability to approve applications and manage the list alongside you.

Optional: Remove admins: If you want less administrators or new adminstrators to help manage the list, manually click on remove on each admin profile or select the admin profiles as they appear and select remove all selected.

Upload List Cover Image

Optional but Recommended: Choose a distinctive cover image that represents your list visually. This image will make your list more recognizable and appealing to users. If you do not upload an image, a default one will be used.

Duplicate On-Chain Lists Easily was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re thrilled to announce the inaugural NEAR YEAR Annual Awards, celebrating outstanding achievements and contributions within the NEAR ecosystem throughout 2024! This groundbreaking initiative features over 40 award categories, recognizing individual achievements, project milestones, notable features, and 2025 predictions. From the most anticipated NEAR token launch to the biggest Degen on NEAR, this exciting event will determine who holds the 2024 on-chain bragging rights.

Powered by POTLOCK’s new voting contracts and Sharddog Human Voter NFTs, this initiative is immutable & community-driven. We are proud to work with NEAR Foundation, Sharddog, NEAR Catalog, NEARWEEK, & Blackdragon to make this happen!

Go to NEARYEAR.com, the official portal for seeing the nominees, which nominees have made it to the on-chain list, and the voting portal once the voting period is live in a few weeks. Want to improve the dashboard? Check out our github.

Timeline

ANNOUNCEMENT — JAN 10

• Launch of official nominations, announcement article, and NEAR Year website

SUBMISSIONS — JAN 10–17

• Community members submit nomination lists
• Special founder debates (details coming soon)

VOTING JAN 17–25

• Open voting period (requires Sharddog I AM HUMAN Voter NFT)
• Awards ceremony at the end of January showcasing winners

How to Participate

Here’s your guide to participating in the NEAR YEAR Awards:

Nomination Process

For Projects:

• Create a project profile on POTLOCK (https://alpha.POTLOCK.org/register) using your project’s named account
• Apply to list or contact @plugrel on X (x.com/plugrel) with your POTLOCK profile and desired category

To Suggest Nominees:

• Duplicate the list on POTLOCK while maintaining the original name (go to nearyear.com/nomination and click copy button to be taken to a page to duplicate the list to make your own nominee list for that category
• Include project account names (searchable on near.social using the People widget). If a project doesnt exist you need to get that project onboard to a POTLOCK Profile
• Share your list on Twitter, tagging @POTLOCK_ @nearweek @nearprotocol @nearcatalog

Selection Criteria:

• Top 5 nominees will be chosen based on:
• Number of authentic user nominations
• Alignment with category-specific criteria

Voting System

nearyear.com/vote

To ensure fair voting:

• Voters must hold a Sharddog “I Voted” NFT for verification part of the voting flow when live
• List creators receive 2x voting power

To self-nominate, create a POTLOCK profile, apply to list entry (if open), and notify plugrel on Twitter.

As your curator-in-chief, Plug, I’ve crafted some pretty lit categories and made a shortlist since I’m super tapped into the NEAR streets. I even put myself on the list — because I’m corrupt on-chain! But these aren’t the final lists. Learn how you can apply for a category or use on-chain lists to nominate your favorite projects and people of 2024.

Award Categories

Here are all the categories for the 2024 NEAR Annual Awards:

Overall Concepts

Overall Categories that promote concepts over people and projects.

• MOST EXCITING THING ON NEAR for 2025: Exploring groundbreaking developments on NEAR for 2025, including Chain Abstraction, AI, and Apps.
• BEST EVENT for NEAR in 2024: Key events that shaped NEAR in 2024, including Eth Denver, Consensys, Token2049, and Eth CC.
• Best Tech Innovation: Notable technological advancements on NEAR, including Chain Signatures, NEAR DA, NEAR Intents, and Nightshade 2.0.
• BEST JOKE in NEAR: Memorable humorous moments in the NEAR community, including Jensen touching Illia and the NEAR is a Doge L2 meme.

Projects

Awards highlighting the achievements of projects on NEAR.

• BEST NEW PROJECT: Projects launching major products on mainnet or starting from scratch in 2024.
• BEST DeFI Project: Live projects evaluated on activity, unlock, and handling of funds or wallet integration.
• BEST NEW TOKEN: Top new ecosystem token launched this year.
• Best NEAR Token 2024: Leading ecosystem token natively deployed on NEAR.
• Best New PFP Collection: Outstanding generative PFP collection launched in 2024.
• BEST NEW Non-PFP NFT: Leading NFT Collection based on utility and community traction.
• Best Existing NFT Collection: Pre-2024 NFT projects maintaining excellence throughout 2024.
• Most Anticipated NEAR Mainnet Launches: Promising projects preparing to launch on NEAR mainnet.
• Best New Smart Contract: Most impactful smart contract deployed in 2024.
• Strongest Community: Most engaged and active builder community on NEAR.
• MOST ANTICIPATED NEAR TOKEN LAUNCH: Most promising upcoming token launch from a NEAR origin project.
• Best NFT PLATFORM: Most impactful NFT platform advancing the NEAR ecosystem.
• BEST Multichain Expansion: Excellence in expanding to other chains through partnerships, liquidity, and user growth.
• BEST DAO on NEAR: Most active and effective DAO with an address on NEAR.
• BEST OPEN SOURCE PROJECT: Outstanding open source project with visible contributor activity.
• Best Wallet: Excellence in user onboarding, NEAR integration, and ecosystem adoption.
• BEST Pivot: Most successful strategic pivot with demonstrated or potential impact.
• BEST INFRASTRUCTURE: Leading infrastructure solution based on ecosystem impact and technical excellence.
• Best Privacy Project: Excellence in privacy tools using ZK, TEE, or MPC technology.
• Best Consumer App: Most valuable consumer application driving mass adoption.
• Best AI Project Live on NEAR: Leading AI integration with direct NEAR L1 interaction.

Downbad

Notable setbacks in the ecosystem, transparently recorded on the blockchain.

• BEST DRAMA: Most significant dramatic events in the NEAR ecosystem.
• Projects that we want to see back on NEAR: Most missed projects that left the NEAR ecosystem.
• BEST FAILED DAO: Notable DAOs that ceased operations in 2024.
• Saddest Project Shutdowns: Most impactful project closures in 2024.
• BEST NEAR REGIONAL COMMUNITY WHILE IT LASTED: Outstanding regional hubs and communities before closure.

Future Look in 2025

Predictions for project performance in web3.

• MOST Likely to generate the most DeFI Revenue: Projects positioned for significant DeFi revenue generation.
• Most Likely App to Get A Billion Users First: Apps with highest potential for mass user adoption.

People

Awards celebrating individual NEARIANs shaping our ecosystem.

• COOLEST FOUNDER ON NEAR: Most influential and innovative founders.
• BEST YAPPER: Most effective ecosystem communicators.
• Best Content Creator: Most consistent and impactful multimedia content producers.
• Most Likely to Never Leave NEAR Eco: Most dedicated ecosystem contributors.
• WHO FROM NEAR NEEDS TO START YAPPING MORE: Underutilized voices from NEAR OGs.
• BEST AT NEAR Foundation 2024: Outstanding NEAR Foundation contributor.
• BADDEST BADDIES ON NEAR: Most impactful ecosystem influencers.
• Best Data Analyst: Leading data analytics contributors.
• BEST ARTISTS: Most talented active artists in 2024.
• Most Helpful NEARIAN: Most supportive community member.
• Most Likely to Be involved with the most projects on NEAR: Most actively engaged ecosystem participant.
• BEST BD at NEAR: Top business development contributor.
• BIGGEST VIBE ON NEAR: Most positive ecosystem influence.
• Most Cracked NEAR Dev: Most skilled technical developer.
• Biggest Degen on NEAR: Most active ecosystem participant.
• BEST DEV REL: Excellence in developer relations, support, and ecosystem growth.
• BEST NEAR ECO LAWYER: Leading legal representation for NEAR projects.

Well, that’s all folks. For support, join the POTLOCK community channel. Let the best NEARIANs win.

Announcing NEAR YEAR: 1st Annual On-Chain NEAR Awards 🏆 was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What is pump.fun?

Pump.fun is a revolutionary platform in the Web3 space that has rapidly gained prominence since its launch in early 2024. Users can create and trade meme coins on the Solana and Blast blockchains with minimal upfront costs. The platform utilizes a bond curve mechanism to determine token prices, rewarding early investors as demand increases.

Pump.fun’s metrics has been substantial:

• Daily revenues reaching as high as $1.54 million
• Total revenue exceeding $368 million in just eight months
• Processing 1,527,143 SOL in fees
• - Averaging 388 million monthly transactions

Significance

Pump.fun is not just changing the meme coin narrative, but transforming how projects are funded. From the points to meta airdrop, pump.fun is bringing the fair launch, where users actually pay for an asset. This will only be exacerbated with favorable regulatory environments in the US.

At its essence, pump.fun allows for fair launches through bonding curves. These curves represent a revolutionary mechanism for launching tokens by establishing a dynamic relationship between token price and supply through smart contracts.

Innovation since then

Just like anywhere in Web3, forking is the best form of flattery. Although Solana receives criticism for its extractive pump and dumps, there is no doubt that as a primitive, memecoins attract new users, volume, and wealth that trickles back down to the Solana ecosystem. Naturally, other projects are building on this technology to gain distribution and liquidity, with some creating similar platforms in other ecosystems to capture respective market shares.

Customizations include:

• Deployment to other chains
• Agent launchpads attached to tokens
• Different bonding curve mechanisms, including calculations, price, reserve ratio
• Locked liquidity
• Investment DAOs
• Tokenization of assets across different verticals, music, time

Why we built this

We believe in Chain Abstraction. To build a truly chain-abstracted world, we must start tapping into these different platforms. Literally new projects are coming every week to each ecosystem, and it’s hard to understand the difference between them. Much of the knowledge is gatekept by insiders and those in the trenches.

By creating an open-source ecosystem aggregator for pump.fun, we aim to provide better visibility to open-source alternatives so we can build the emerging ecosystem of tools around this concept. This not only helps builders and investors navigate the complex landscape but also promotes transparency and innovation in the space.

Soon we will have a major announcement with our open spin on pump that takes this concept of AI agents and combines it with funding programs..

Call to Action

At POTLOCK, we’re excited for yall to help us impropve awesomepump.fun, the go-to ecosystem aggregator for pump.fun-inspired projects. We invite you to contribute to our open-source repository at https://github.com/PotLock/awesome-pump/ and help us enhance the platform with new features. Our vision includes enabling easy token deployment across multiple chains, creating AI agents for automation, implementing a streamlined feature suggestion system, and building a comprehensive database with analytics and market share insights. We aim to improve contract and token accessibility, highlight product differentiators, and allow direct token deployment from the site.

Your contributions can help prevent duplicates, emphasize innovation, and increase discoverability of unique projects. By participating, you’ll help identify gaps in ecosystems lacking pump.fun alternatives and improve the platform’s overall functionality. Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or enthusiast, your input is valuable in shaping awesomepump.fun into a more robust, user-friendly, and innovative resource for the Web3 community. Join us in building a transparent and accessible ecosystem that fosters the next generation of decentralized token launches and funding mechanisms.

Why We Built the first pump.fun Ecosystem Aggregator was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Potlock Updates 🔔

• Potlock sponsors [REDACTED] Virtual Hackathon with a $5K bounty for creating AI-powered funding agents to automate grant workflows and stack rewards with other sponsors. Full details
• We’ve partnered with ViaPrize to co-sponsor an AI-PGF RFP to build this on top of the world’s only crowdfunded prize protocol. For more details, click here | Tweet
• Through the mpDAO Grants Program, Potlock received an allocation of $15,000 for a Retroactive Round in the Meta Pool ecosystem. We’re seeking community feedback on voting mechanisms to improve alignment & governance. 🔄 Read more here. Check out the upcoming twitter space
• Explore AI-PGF Agents, See what the AI-PGF ecosystem is building (new Grantees, Dead Project Sniper, Budgetoor, Time Estimate Agent) — https://www.aipgf.com/explore
• New Vite Starter template for deploying a social app with Tips powered by Potlock https://github.com/NEARBuilders/decentralized-social
• Plug on Devhub Live Explaining AI-PGF https://x.com/neardevhub/status/1831413104548130927?s=46
• Plug presents AI PGF NEAR Africa Redacted City Node Node — https://x.com/nearafrica_/status/1848719639494131769
• alpha.potlock.org is now live, featuring an open-source Next.js repository for our quadratic funding app
• The start of Potlock templates and open source repo allowing anyone to easily build on the open funding stack templates.potlock.org | Tweet
• Plug will officially in Redacted to speak on AI-PGF — https://x.com/potlock_/status/1849679366252265757
• The Create./Dev Movement: QF Round Applications is Live, Read more! | Tweet | Blog

Soon TBA

• Launch of ActivitiyDAOs in Chiang Mai Archipelagos with POTLOCK house
• AIPGF playground coming soon
• Docs on v2 customization
• Launch of GrantPicks

NEAR Highlights

• Grayscale Research Insights: Crypto Sectors in Q4 2024 — Read more here
• Funding the Commons Online Hackathon kicks off on October 7th — November 7th) 🤑 $86K in Prizes & $17.5K in NEAR Prizes 🔗 https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/ftc-2024/tracks
• NEAR Mega Issue ⋈ Coverage on Network Update, Consumer, DeFi, Stablecoins & Governance — Read more here
• NEAR Foundation and Delphi Labs Partner to Launch New AI Accelerator — Read more here

Public Goods News

• Funding the Commons upcoming Conference in Bangkok — Register here | Tweet
• GG22 Gitcoin Quadratic Funding rounds have started now with minting donation with EAS. Donate here
• Optimism Grants — Apply here | Tweet
• Retro Funding 5 results released from Optimism
• Arbitrum R&D Collective V2 Proposal Gains Strong Community Support for $1.73M Funding — More details
• Crypto Gets a Lift from Fed Rate Cuts — Read more here
• Flows.wtf releases governance on splits for streaming distributions as an mvp for nouns holders
• Epoch 5 for Octant allocation window is Live now
• Worldcoin App nows supports donations through Endaoment
• Q/Acc announces first Cohort for Quadratic Accelerator
• First Ever Network School by Balaji post Token 2049
• A movement of popup cities between Token2049 and Devcon is under the way. Learn more here
• Glo Dollar turne $1million swap from Mento Labs that will generate $40k per year revenue to fund Celo Public Goods.
• On Chain Capital Allocation Book now has an explorer edition
• Filecoin RetroPGF Round 2 Applications are open
• Unichain (Uniswaps new OP L2) testnet launches and their Developer Grants Program
• Gitcoin Contemplates Swapping $2.5M USDC for Glo Dollar to Boost Public Goods Funding
• Questbook Arbitrum DDA Program Phase 2 Approved with $4M Budget for Ecosystem Development
• Gitcoin has been selected to build a new grants claiming tool for Optimism
• Binance Airdrops $1,000,000 in BNB tokens for Typhoon Yagi Relief in Vietnam via the Giving Block
• Winklevoss Father Donates $4 million in Bitcoin to Grove City College
• State of Crypto Report 2024: New data on swing states, stablecoins, AI, builder energy — Read more here
• State of Web3 Grants Report
• OpenSea, a16z, and Stand With Crypto Launch Creator Legal Defense Fund with Open Sea pledging $5 million
• Celo Public Goods shares Retro on GG21
• Molecule Launches Pump.science on Solana

Case Studies:

• Gitcoin Checker: A tool to help you evaluate projects for your Gitcoin rounds. — https://checker.gitcoin.co/
• Wtf is Grant Ships — https://x.com/grantships/status/1848797340674757058
• 🆕 Metrics Garden**: Evaluating Non-OSS Projects with Optimism and Community Involvement** https://www.metricsgarden.xyz/

For more public goods and impact news check out Web3 For Good and Crypto Grant Wire

Overview with Tweets 🐦

• The Road to Funding AGI — https://x.com/potlock_/status/1829177106707947996
• The AI-PGF ecosystem is expanding! Explore our new directory of agents, grantees, and case studies here: AI-PGF Update.
• Donation Agent Idea on AI-PGF Ideas — https://x.com/ai_pgf/status/1833468003846910084
• The RFP Agent: an AI-powered tool designed to automate the creation and management of Requests for Proposals based on ecosystem needs and available funding — https://x.com/ai_pgf/status/1830533630118035763
• AI-PGF partnership with ViaPrize — https://x.com/ai_pgf/status/1829870083503763604
• Blueprint for Builders in Web3 — https://x.com/ai_pgf/status/1828689623607890058
• MPDAO — Retroactive Round | Voting Mechanisms Feedback — https://x.com/potlock_/status/1842481739773423649
• Potlock Bounty for the [REDACTED] Virtual Hackathon — https://x.com/potlock_/status/1841404706612248582
• $15,000 has been allocated for a Retroactive Funding Round in the Meta Pool ecosystem- https://x.com/potlock_/status/1839255169701208550
• The following projects are grantees: Dead Project Sniper, Time Estimate, and Budgetoor. However, Gitcoin funding for Public Goods.ai, x23.ai Governance Bot, and Grantorb is not included. You can explore more details at aipgf.com/explore.
• Solving Grant Application Challenges: Streamlined Project Estimation Tool — https://x.com/ai_pgf/status/1838420590018826618
• AI-PGF Ideas — RFP Agent/ Inverted Proposals — https://x.com/ai_pgf/status/1830533630118035763
• Top 10 Projects by TVL on Near Blockchain — https://x.com/CryptoRank_io/status/1846357554667937974

Events 🎫

Public Goods & NEAR Events — Road to Devcon

• Funding the Commons Online Hackathon kicks off on October 7th — November 7th. Get tickets here
• The Near Alpha Show, with Calimero Network & Keypom https://x.com/NEARWEEK/status/1846219844452073521
• BuilderHaus Edition 2 Bangkok🇹🇭: Data Privacy and Use Cases of zkTLS https://x.com/CalimeroNetwork/status/1846509103604220352
• The REDACTED Hackathon AMA ft Aurora https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/1846497956196684106
• Public Goods Builder Town hall — Register here
• Regen Learnings Quarterly Call 10/22
• Edge Lanna (Oct 10 — Nov 10) Popup City Chiang Mai Thialand https://www.edgecity.live/lanna
• Octant Accelerator Demo Day

Post Devcon

• ZuThailand (Nov 18 — December 18) https://www.zuthailand.com/
• ZuGramma — India — (Jan 5 — Feb 16) zugrama.org
• ZuGarden (Nov 18–30) https://www.zu.garden/

Media

• New Greenpill Episodes: Season 5 Episode 1 2 3 4 and Season 6 Episode 1 2 3 4 5 and 6
• Crypto Altruism Episodes
• ReFi Podcast — Ecoweaving with Tony Lai | S4E4: Regeneration Nexus
• DeSci Labs: Why Novelty Scores for science are a game changer
• DeSci Podcast: Knowledge as a Public Good: Joshua Bate on DeSciWorld’s Proof of Knowledge Protocol

📞 Keep in Touch

All Links bento.me/potlock

Twitter: @potlock_

Telegram: potlock.org/community

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@potlock

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/potlock/

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/potlock.global

BOS App: https://bos.potlock.org/

App: app.potlock.org

Docs: docs.potlock.io

Newsletter subscribe.potlock.org

ROAD TO REDACTED 🚀 | POTLOCK Fall Updates was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re excited to introduce you to the Create./Dev Movement, a fresh initiative born from the heart of the CreativesDAO community. As they transition away from Trust, they’re utilizing the remaining treasury of 1995 NEAR to support innovative projects that beautifully blend technology and art. With the help of Potlock, they’re ready to empower creators like you!

Why Create./Dev?

The Create./Dev Movement aims to provide financial support for innovative projects that may struggle to find backing in traditional tech or art circles. It seeks to create a vibrant ecosystem where creativity meets technology, attracting diverse talents and groundbreaking ideas to NEAR and beyond.

The Create./Dev Movement marks the second round of support for our vibrant creatives community, building on the momentum from our previous round. Excitingly, the Create./Dev initiative supports innovative projects and lays the groundwork for our upcoming Next.js app on alpha.potlock.org

What’s Cool About Quadratic Funding?

One of the standout features of this initiative is Quadratic Funding, an innovative capital allocation mechanism provided by Potlock. This approach amplifies the impact of community donations by using a unique formula that matches individual contributions with funds from a larger pool.

Important Dates to Keep in Mind

Mark your calendars! Here are some key dates you don’t want to miss:

• Application Deadline: October 31, 2024
• Matching Round Start: November 1, 2024
• Matching Round End: November 16, 2024

Who Can Apply?

They’re looking for individuals or groups with an artist’s heart and a developer’s mind — those who embody the true spirit of Create./Dev. To keep things high-quality and valuable, here’s what you need to know:

• Candidates must have open-source projects with a documented portfolio.
• Applications are welcome from individuals (artists or developers) or DAOs.
• Projects should creatively blend innovation in technology, art, and culture.

Meet The Accepted Applicants

We’re thrilled to welcome the following approved applicants who have been accepted into the Create./Dev Movement:

• 🐶 Shitzu Community
• 🎵 The Beat DAO — Music producers collective supporting beatmakers and music initiatives in Asia, Africa, and the USA.
• 🎨 GFX vs Community -is a public good as it provides an open, accessible platform for artists and audiences to engage in creative battles. It fosters community participation, rewards both creators and voters, and promotes shared creativity, benefiting the entire ecosystem.
• 💻 Peter Salomonsen — The project is open source, and it is a music creation application in the Web browser that you can access from anywhere. It empowers also sharing of music and instruments by sharing code.
• 🌱 Vegan Friends DAO — 🌎 Uniting vegans globally for collective action, education and creative collaboration. Vegan Friends believe in a sustainable future and collaborative approach powered by blockchain technology and its smart contract capabilities.
• 🌍 Survival Is Near — They support ecosystem growth, promote Near dApps & Projects and stimulate transactions through a fun and immersive game experience for the community
• 🔗 DAO Ashe — Is set to nurture diverse people’s self-expression and participation on the blockchain, alongside offering a community for marginalised and isolated individuals, is aligned with unlocking the universal potential of blockchain technology.
• Proof of Vibes -A Global Community of Tastmakers focused on -Curating Great Vibes 🪩 -Discovering New Vibes 🗺️ -Producing World Class Events 🕺🏾 -Producing Dope Swag 👕
• Omega Digi-World DAO — This dao is focused on creation of digital arts through creation of NFTs and conversion of existing arts into NFTs.

These innovative projects have been officially accepted into the movement, and we can’t wait to see what they accomplish!

Want to directly support Create./Dev Movement

• If you are building an Open Source project, apply before this Thursday deadline (October 31st)
• If you are looking to support your favorite open source projects, donate when the round is live from November 1st, donate and verify your humanity with @nadabots to get your contributions quadratically matched!
• If you want to continue to sponsor the round potlock.org/how-to-sponsor

For direct support, join the Potlock telegram community and subscribe to updates here.

Earn While You Share

Want to get involved even more? Potlock has an exciting opportunity for you! By sharing a referral link for the matching round, you can earn 5% of the donations made through your link. It’s a great way to support your favorite projects while earning some rewards! Visit potlock to share and earn referral fees.

The Create./Dev Movement: QF Round Applications Are Live! was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are excited to announce that the AI Public Goods Funding Round has officially concluded, and payouts are complete! 🎉 A total of 22 projects have received funding from the matching pool of over 11,140 $NEAR. Big shoutout to the NEAR Foundation for Sponsoring and Edge Intelligence for facilitating this round.

🔗 Check it out on chain at https://bos.potlock.org/?tab=pot&potId=ai.v1.potfactory.potlock.near&nav=payouts

The round spanned a diverse range of AI projects, including data analytics, AI-powered funding, deep fake detection, on-chain agents, research, foundational models, domain-specific languages, AI coders, search engines, and even AI memes!

Learnings & Feedbacks

As this is part of the first series of rounds on Potlock V1 on BOS, there was much room for improvement. Immediate actions were taken to ensure a fairer distribution of funding, awarding a wide variety of projects and preventing pot monopolization.

Issues Faced During this Round

• Timing & Alignment with Cohort: Extended timelines to accommodate custom payouts, challenge periods, and delays in starting the round for the original @EdgeAGI Cohort. Extensions to the matching period led to significant delays in round payouts.
• Challenge Periods: On-chain challenge periods extended timelines and highlighted the need for more robust payout dashboards and infrastructure. There was also a lack of UX for understanding the stages of challenge periods.
• Lack of Robust Customization for Bot Flagging & Payouts: Round managers lacked a streamlined way to flag bots and customize payouts. This led to delays in Potlock’s development of a customized dashboard for judge overrides and multiple challenge periods. An error in one challenge period further extended payout times. Additionally, judges couldn’t flag individual bot accounts in Potlock’s UX, only on nada.bot as a whole contract.
• UX & Time Issues: Quadratic funding made it difficult for those inside and outside the ecosystem to onboard new donors. As project profile information was updated, the quality of profiles changed.
• Current Teams: Over-participation from teams already familiar with Potlock. Also, a lack of native AI builders in NEAR (the round started before NEAR HZN cohort and NEAR AI Announcement).
• Incentive Misalignment: The incentives weren’t aligned for very experienced teams, leading to broader distribution to projects. NEAR Native teams dominated.
• Ecosystem Alignment: While this round was for more top-of-the-funnel, general AI Public Goods, native integration wasn’t as common. This round didn’t specifically exchange funding for integration. Originally, it was advertised as AI Public Goods rather than Open Source AI on NEAR.
• Price: The price of NEAR during this round significantly dropped, reducing the pot’s value from $90,000 USD to about half that.

As a result of these challenges, the Potlock team is working on “Forging Better Pots,” outfitting Pots v2 to support payout customization, compliance, robust sybil detection, and voting & funding strategies beyond quadratic funding. https://potlock.notion.site/Forging-Better-Pots-3551e9cfc15a442f9c3b11dacfacd047

Changes Introduced

This round introduced changes to address previous issues. The most significant was the introduction of a Judges weight and a QF override that slightly reduced the allocation for top native teams and redistributed funds to other projects. To encourage a wider distribution of funding, especially to newcomers in the ecosystem, the outcomes ultimately rewarded a broader range of projects. To view the on-chain reports for challenge period airound.near.social

To address these issues, several measures were implemented:

• Quadratic Funding Decrease in Weight QF went from the only factor to becoming 50% with an override, considering, only five projects had over 20 donors due to reasons stated before.
• Judges Weight Introduced: A Judge weight was introduced as 50% based on a variety of factors, like impact to User Owned AI, quality of shipping something NEAR. Based on all these factors judges would split a percentage from 100 points amongst their projects. Points were deducted from projects with little to no information, no plans to integrate NEAR, recent venture backing, and unclear open-source code. .
• Reduction for Recurring Projects: The top projects' quadratic funding scores were reduced based on community feedback regarding pot monopolization and disincentivization for other projects to compete, as well as repeat participation in OSS & Retro Builder Rounds. A 25% reduction was applied to Forefront Tak, and a 30% reduction to AI Funding (now combined with Magic Build) due to additional challenges.
• Combining Projects: Projects with the same founders were combined like AI Funding +Magic Build & DevBot + Traders Tookit.
• Boost for Participation: A 300-point boost was added for projects with 20+ donors (e.g., NEAR Chan and AI Models Land) & were building natively on NEAR
• Redistribution to Other Projects: The remainder was redistributed evenly across all projects except the top three.

Conclusion

Since then, the NEAR Ecosystem has introduced a wide variety of ways to support AI builders. From the upcoming Redacted Hackathon to the NEAR HZN AI Cohort, NEAR.AI, Bitte Agent Bounties, NEARDevHub libraries, the Infrastructure Committee, and AI-PGF, along with soon-to-be-announced programs. We were absolutely thrilled to present one of the first AI initiatives in the NEAR ecosystem helping push forward the vision of User Owned AI!

AI Public Goods Payouts Are Complete was originally published in POTLOCK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.