Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency exchange, has committed $1 million for digital public goods in partnership with Gitcoin, a community of builders, creators and protocols at the center of open web ecosystems.
The exchange announced the support on Wednesday in a statement.
Digital public goods are open-source software that support open-source protocols.
Coinbase said the monetary support is “one of the largest single donations to the public goods treasury in Gitcoin history.”
The American firm noted that the fund was jointly provided by Coinbase Giving, its charity arm, and Coinbase Cloud, a service that provides secure and reliable blockchain infrastructure to power the next generation of software builders.
With the funding, the exchange explained it had joined a growing list of popular platforms, such as the Ethereum Foundation, ENS, Optimism, NounsDAO and Polygons as one of the largest donors supporting the crypto economy's infrastructure.
Additionally, the exchange reiterated its commitment to building a crypto economy with equitable access for all, adding that investing in and backing secure public infrastructure was a critical component of this task.
“Our efforts are spread across a variety of teams at Coinbase, including Coinbase Giving, Coinbase Cloud and developer relations, all of whom share the goal of improving digital public goods for the cryptoeconomy,” Coinbase said in the statement.
Gitcoin’s QF Round
Coinbase said in its bid to advance economic freedom around the world that $200,000 from the donation would be allocated to Gitcoin’s upcoming Grants Round 14 Quadratic Funding (QF) match pool.
“Thanks in part to Coinbase’s contribution, the upcoming Grants Round main will include a new pool specifically dedicated to funding and scaling Ethereum protocol development,” the exchange said.
QF is a funding model that complements the traditional grant programmes in multiple blockchain communities. This model, which often occurs in ‘rounds’ during a set period of time, allows everyday members of a community to decide where the funding goes.
‘If Web3 Was a City’
In his reaction to the development, Scott Moore, the Co-Founder and Head of Ecosystem Development at Gitcoin, praised Coinbase’s commitment to funding and empowering developers in the ecosystem to build for the public good.
“If web3 was a city, then open source software is its infrastructure: the roads, bridges and electrical grids it relies on,” Moore said.
“But, just like a city, to create the kind of thriving interconnected web3 we want to see, we all need to do our part to maintain it,” he added.
Meanwhile, in its recent moves, Coinbase became the official cryptocurrency partner of Seattle Storm, an American professional basketball team; and launched the Coinbase Institute, a global crypto-native think tank.
