Quadratic Funding - Revision history

Archipelago: heading formatting

2025-09-07T18:27:44Z

heading formatting

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:27, 7 September 2025
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	In general, I see practical implementations as heuristic approximations for the theoretical Budgeted variant, which do seem overall good enough, though some are better.		In general, I see practical implementations as heuristic approximations for the theoretical Budgeted variant, which do seem overall good enough, though some are better.

	=== Budgeted in practice ===		==== Budgeted in practice ====

	====== Only scale down matching if budget reached ======		====== Only scale down matching if budget reached ======
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	In the proper implementation, if the matching amount is 0, the yellow area is scaled to 0, and this calculation still works. Individual contributions are basically duplicated, which strays significantly from the theory.		In the proper implementation, if the matching amount is 0, the yellow area is scaled to 0, and this calculation still works. Individual contributions are basically duplicated, which strays significantly from the theory.

	=== Discrete rounds vs continuous ===		==== Discrete rounds vs continuous ====
	Some implementations have discrete rounds, where donations are only for that specific round, and happen infrequently - Gitcoin did theirs 4 times a year, for example, with donations only being open for a few weeks, to give people time to iterate and adjust their inputs based on the inputs of others, and with significant downtime inbetween funding rounds. Once the deadline is reached, funds are sent all at once.		Some implementations have discrete rounds, where donations are only for that specific round, and happen infrequently - Gitcoin did theirs 4 times a year, for example, with donations only being open for a few weeks, to give people time to iterate and adjust their inputs based on the inputs of others, and with significant downtime inbetween funding rounds. Once the deadline is reached, funds are sent all at once.

Archipelago: lots of writing about implementations in theory and practice

2025-09-07T18:26:59Z

lots of writing about implementations in theory and practice

Show changes

Archipelago: added info to header

2025-09-07T15:48:46Z

added info to header

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:48, 7 September 2025
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	Quadratic funding is a system used for situations where you have a large pool of money and want to allocate that to various public goods projects in the most "optimal" way (optimized wrt some "it's an economics paper, fine, assume homo economicus" assumptions, and calculus)		Quadratic funding is a system used for situations where you have a large pool of money and want to allocate that to various public goods projects in the most "optimal" way (optimized wrt some "it's an economics paper, fine, assume homo economicus" assumptions, and calculus)

			It's a matching funds tool, so individuals donate to different projects, and matching funds are drawn from some big pile of money, allocated according to the equation. The big pile of money can come from wherever is suitable for whatever organization is using it, so, donations from wealthy individuals, or government expenditure, or something else.

			It relies upon being able to distinguish between individuals. This means the implementations on blockchains have not been scaled past a few $M a year due to difficulty scaling sockpuppet resistance.


	This is a decent overview of it: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html, but it does not explain exactly why the equation is the way it is. It has been hard to find good explanations, because in the original paper it very much reads as the result of some calculus.		This is a decent overview of it: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html, but it does not explain exactly why the equation is the way it is. It has been hard to find good explanations, because in the original paper it very much reads as the result of some calculus.

	If you'd like to read the original paper it's here https://www.radicalxchange.org/media/papers/liberal-radicalism.pdf. The derivation is written somewhat unintuitively.		If you'd like to read the original paper it's here https://www.radicalxchange.org/media/papers/liberal-radicalism.pdf. The derivation is written somewhat unintuitively. There are multiple variants, with different constraints and assumptions.

	=== Implementation differences ===		=== Implementation differences ===
	All existing Quadratic Funding implementations differ some amount from the original paper. It is the opinion of the main author of this page (archipelago) that these differences are small enough that existing implementations are still useful, but may require some caution to use effectively.		All existing Quadratic Funding implementations differ some amount from the variants in the original paper. It is the opinion of the main author of this page (archipelago) that these differences are small enough that existing implementations are still useful, but may require some caution to use effectively.

	~~(to be continued)~~		The first variant in the paper assumes all individuals ignore impact on total spending aside from their own contributions.

Archipelago: first draft

2025-08-27T07:38:48Z

first draft

New page

Quadratic funding is a system used for situations where you have a large pool of money and want to allocate that to various public goods projects in the most "optimal" way (optimized wrt some "it's an economics paper, fine, assume homo economicus" assumptions, and calculus)

This is a decent overview of it: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html, but it does not explain exactly why the equation is the way it is. It has been hard to find good explanations, because in the original paper it very much reads as the result of some calculus.

If you'd like to read the original paper it's here https://www.radicalxchange.org/media/papers/liberal-radicalism.pdf. The derivation is written somewhat unintuitively.

=== Implementation differences ===
All existing Quadratic Funding implementations differ some amount from the original paper. It is the opinion of the main author of this page (archipelago) that these differences are small enough that existing implementations are still useful, but may require some caution to use effectively.

(to be continued)