If the world’s land ownership records were reset and you had the first choice of a parcel to claim, what would it be and why? What is that first claim worth?
On Thursday, December 15th, 2022 at 17:00 UTC, the Geo Web goes live with a global Dutch auction that will answer those questions—for digital land.
The Geo Web is an open geospatial information network. Its digital land property rights create consensus for browsing digital media anchored to physical locations.
The land market is fairly and productively administered with a partial common ownership system (aka Harberger taxes). 100% of the network’s fair launch auction and ongoing PCO market proceeds (“Network Funds”) will be used to fund public goods via democratic and credibly neutral mechanisms.
It’s the Geo Web’s mission to create a sustainable funding engine to help the open, public goods ecosystem outcompete the advertising- and app-store-intermediated metaverse that corporate giants envision for the next area of the internet. We can do it, but only if it’s the path we choose together.
Fair Launch Details
Network: Optimism (EVM ChainID 10)
Claim Interface: Geo Web Cadastre (https://geoweb.land or https://cadastre.eth.limo)
Auction Type: Dutch auction (linearly decreasing)
Start Time (claims allowed): Thursday, December 15th, 2022, 17:00 UTC
End Time (minimum claim price reached): Saturday, January 14th, 2023, 17:00 UTC
Starting Price 100 ETHx (Superfluid wrapped ETH for streaming)
Ending Price: .005 ETHx (less than the price of a standard domain name)
Land Available: The whole Earth—user-defined parcels must be rectangular, not overlap an existing parcel, and be less than or equal to 3,000 Geo Web coordinates.
Detailed Auction Schedule: Plan your claim by time or price
Market Structure: Auction bid payments are made in addition to the ongoing PCO market requirements.
Payment Token: If you don’t have ETH on Optimism yet, you can bridge funds via the Optimism Bridge or alternatives. You can also directly purchase ETH on Optimism via Ramp or transfer it directly from one of these exchanges (no affiliation, not an endorsement, DYOR).
Bonus for Early Minters: See the Citizen NFTs section below.
Test Before You Buy: If you're not ready for the real thing just yet, you can explore the Geo Web testnet accessible at https://testnet.geoweb.land/.
Why a Dutch Auction
One of the most powerful features of the Geo Web is its free market approach to land market prices and efficient allocation. A centralized power doesn’t need to have a perspective on prices, so why initialize the network with one?
The Geo Web’s Dutch auction will provide efficient price discovery and avoid an unfair first-come-first-serve race to mint.
Also, let’s also face it… Not that many people know about the Geo Web yet.
With the end of the year and holiday slow-down imminent, the Dutch auction will serve as a soft launch that allows us to build interest before too many high-value parcels are snatched up. We also just prefer to ship before we talk.
Who knows? Maybe someone will make a statement with a 90+ ETHx claim (NFTs without utility go for more 😛), and we’ll get the public goods funding flywheel started with a bang.
Citizen NFTs
Some intrepid regen will become the first citizen* of the Geo Web by making the first land parcel claim—aka The Genesis Parcel. Where will it be? What will they choose to anchor to the parcel? How much will it raise for public goods funding?
We want to commemorate that initial choice to coordinate with a special NFT that isn’t subject to partial common ownership.
After the launch is complete, we’ll work with an artist from the community to design and mint a series of NFTs for all those that participate in the fair launch auction:
- Genesis NFT (1) - Claim #1
- Founder NFTs (10) - Claims #2 - #11
- Explorer NFTs (open edition until auction end) - #12+
*In the end, Geo Web citizenship is more like a state of mind. If you're a coordinatoooor, you're in.
Use of Funds
Geo Web Network Funds are public funds.
They are not the property of the core contributors or any other centralized entity. Funds escrowed in the protocol treasury will be allocated according to the will of network participants with trusted community members initially stewarding the administrative process.
To minimize governance overhead and maximize early participation in allocation decisions, Network Funds will be primarily allocated to matching pools for quadratic funding rounds to start. These early QF rounds will likely be limited to Geo-Web-related public goods projects, but the scope can expand as the ecosystem and governance mature. Other QF funding round decisions (cadence, QF protocol, geographic rounds, etc.) will be made in consultation with the community when sufficient funds have accumulated.
Beyond quadratic funding, the core contributors also suggest allocating 25% of the collected funds (up to 100 ETH initially) to a security audit and a managed bug bounty program. Smart contract security is a public good that benefits all Geo Web citizens. A community temperature check will be taken prior to committing the funds.
Governance at Launch
The founding team of the Geo Web is committed to responsible, progressive decentralization.
It is being launched with a 3 of 4 multi-sig with co-founders Cody Hatfield and Graven Prest as the initial signers. The Safe and signing addresses are as follows:
- Gnosis Safe - 0x8FC4308da9310479dF48ef77142Eef05c363e099
- Cody’s Addresses - 0x4dc45eAc9eE25Af88958c94461fd46175C47744a, 0x539cd8406b255d4b77753e5ADA02436312B47624
- Graven’s Addresses - 0xd5c0ee4d0a1833192471be968ec068d5a9f15b39, 0x161f9100C2aB2B4447f2ac0E50d245b709599F65
Changes to the multi-sig (signer additions, signer removals, the scope of responsibility, etc.) will be made over time. We encourage you to participate in discussions on the Geo Web forum to make your voice heard and help shape the direction of Geo Web governance.
Eyes Wide Open
The Geo Web contracts are upgradable via the Diamonds, Multi-Facet Proxy pattern (EIP-2535). Our contracts have not been externally audited yet (too expensive for our bootstrapped budget of open-source grants).
We have been working on this project for quite some time and avoided shortcuts through bear and bull markets. We’ve put our best effort toward implementing sound game theory, smart contract functionality, and security. But we’re human. There could be mistakes, and we definitely expect there to be changes to the protocols over time (hopefully with strong community input).
Don’t put more money into Geo Web parcels than you’re willing to lose–especially because the partial common ownership system is intended to limit wild speculation. Your auction bid payments and network fees aren’t TVL. They will be allocated to public good, open source projects without profit expectations. We only expect that the projects will strive to build a better, open digital future. We believe sustainable public goods investment can generate a positive flywheel of value, but network effects are notoriously difficult to start. We’re playing the long coordination game.
We hope you choose to join us in this journey, but you do so at your own risk. The frontier isn’t for everyone.
Links Down the Rabbit Hole
- Geo Web Discord - https://discord.com/invite/reXgPru7ck
- Cadastre - https://geoweb.land/ or https://cadastre.eth/ (testnet = https://testnet.geoweb.land/)
- Spatial Browser - https://geoweb.app/ (testnet = https://testnet.geoweb.app/)
- Twitter - @thegeoweb
- Newsletter Signup - https://bit.ly/geowebsignup
- Github - https://github.com/Geo-Web-Project
- Docs - https://docs.geoweb.network/
- Forum - https://forum.geoweb.network/
- SourceCred Dashboard - https://geo-web-project.github.io/sourcecred-instance/#/explorer
- Safe Address (admin multi-sig) - 0x8FC4308da9310479dF48ef77142Eef05c363e099
- Beneficiary SuperApp (where Network Fees accumulate) - 0x5aD276439E3772FDb6696B6cB61401902D4e8b72
- Louper Diamond Inspector Views - RegistryDiamond, PCOLicenseDiamond
Acknowledgments
Thank you to all of the contributors, inspirations, and supporters that have made this project possible. There are many, but here is an inevitably incomplete list: Gitcoin (the initial team, the DAO, & the 14,000+ funders of our grant), RadicalxChange (Matt Prewitt, Glen Weyl, & team) 10dimensions, Brian Rossetti, SuperFluid (Fran, Yao, Sam, Vijay, Sunny & team), The Filecoin Foundation, Sonia John, 3Box Labs (Danny, Joel, Michael, & team), Cryptorado (Dan, Taylor, and more), ETHDenver, Panvala, Niran Babaloa, CodinMaster, Will Holley, jgreen7, Colin Neilsen, Aaron Soskin, Kevvles, zhyd1997, Alexa Jaime, nickziats, 0xtekgrinder, schuylerVS, RaidGuild (Dekan, Sam, Tae, & Cohort IV), and of course so many friends and family that supported us along the way.
-Cody, Graven, & Stefano
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