Beyond the Tech

Cody and I have recently spent time talking about the medium-term roadmap of the Geo Web. We still have plenty of work to do on the core protocols, smart contracts, Cadastre, and browsers. That won’t be our exclusive focus going into 2021 though. 

We’re excited about the direct applications created by our protocols and property rights for anchoring digital content to physical land (anything “metaverse,” and we’re in). We’re just as excited, if not more so, about the “business model” innovation that we believe this network can unlock. The Geo Web can redefine how participants in a network interact, govern, and premissionlessly create/receive value. 

So, in 2021 we’ll begin experimenting and implementing those aspects of the vision. We’ll be launching the Geo Web DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) in Q1 2021. It will initially serve as a multi-sig with Cody and I as the only members. Membership will grow as we gain contributors, users, and stakeholders. 

In the long term, all financial decisions should be made through open democratic processes (not necessarily one vote per member, but equal votes—quadratic voting). Core technical decisions will be made through different processes that distribute decision making powers to a wide subset of technical stakeholders. BrightID is a leader in public good governance that we can emulate and build upon. 

The Geo Web’s SALSA system creates additional possibilities (and responsibilities) for the network. SALSA fees can be collected and controlled by the protocols and smart contracts rather than by a rigidly defined entity. These funds can be programmatically allocated to functions that grow and reward value on the network like to a permissionless salesforce onboarding new land owners (think: sales commission) or to creators of popular “free” content in a Geo Web marketplace. This is where we can really lean into the unique capabilities that a blockchain-based network + autonomous organization offers over traditional forms of public goods + legal entity (for- or non-profit). 

We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible with the Geo Web technically and organizationally. We can’t wait to start exploring and building out the network on both fronts.

On to the updates...

Technical

• We launched a private alpha version of our Cadastre testnet on the xDAI network. It contains the same functionality as our Kovan testnet Cadastre, but transactions are much cheaper and can be executed with a single token (xDAI is used for gas and land). Those are two potentially huge advantages for the Geo Web UX/onboarding, but they come with trade-offs. Our base position is to stick with the security and stability of Ethereum, but we’ll continue to explore.
• We created a fun, speculative proposal for fractionalizing ownership of Geo Web land parcels for a Gitcoin #GR8 Hackathon Bounty sponsored by NIFTX. There are a lot of complications with our SALSA system and fractionalizing ownership and we’re a ways off from implementing something like this. The use cases of collective ownership are intriguing, so eventually we’ll eventually see something like this on the Geo Web.

Community

• Gitcoin’s Grant Round 8 officially wrapped up last Thursday 12/17 (although the Apollo category is still open). It’s been a huge success for the Geo Web: we’ve raised over $6k (at the time of writing) to continue our work! The support we received goes beyond just money. This community support is a huge morale boost and has definitely given us a lift in visibility.
• The total funding (donations+matches) for public goods in #GR8 was over $1M! That’s a record round for Gitcoin and a great sign for the sustainability of open source freelancers and projects. Check out the Grant Round 8 Finale with the Gitcoin team and a few big name friends for all the stats, learnings, and thoughts on the round.

On Deck

• Adding auction functionality (2 weeks, Dutch auction) to land parcels that have expired
• Beginning to add UX guidance and an explainer tab to the Cadastre UI
• Short weeks this and next week for Christmas and New Year's Eve, so no blog next week. Happy holidays!