The 1% that matters.

I’m writing this on my way back from an amazing two-day conference in ETHPorto.

Now picture it with me: 1000+ assistants. More than 15 conferences, 10 workshops, hundred of small talks, thousands of first-time introductions like “Hello, I know you from…” and “nice to meet you too”. This was the monumental effort of a community that built something remarkable even in a bear market.

Front door of the HardClub Porto where the event was held.

ETHPorto made sure that everyone had access to the conference (and lunches), all while being a non-profit organization. In essence and practical ways, they are a Public Good. Like in many other ETHevents, it’s hard to quantify the economic, innovation, and human impacts that they have, but they are definitely there. In fact, they even extend beyond the web3 world, creating an impact in a city like Porto. This was the first major Ethereum conference to be held there.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of these events before, maybe you even streamed them and were suddenly inspired by an idea you’d never heard before. These events are kind of like an improved version of TEDx, but they also create a sense of belonging to a community for people who spend most of their time behind a computer, living a nomadic lifestyle..

So, how do we scale this sense of belonging, the blazing results, and the seemingly endless possibilities and consequences that come out of these events? We can oversimplified, by stating (and allowing me the creative freedom to claim this) that by having more of these Public Goods in different ecosystems, economies, projects, cities, and communities, the web3 innovation will reach a wider audience and have an even greater impact.

Griff Green states in his 2022 Devcon talk , that Public Goods are going to be the next great economic opportunity: with 25 trillion dollars a year spent on them — that’s more than 25 times the total crypto market cap! Not DeFi, Airbnb, or a Golden Unicorn from an undeveloped country. Nope, the next generation of Public Goods is where it’s at.

Kevin Owocki states in his 2021, that it is all about coordination. Then in his ETHDenver talk from 2023, he expanded on this idea:

“I think that web3 is the ultimate coordination power tool. Legacy institutions for supporting public goods are opaque, inefficient, and have high overhead costs”.

So while I am still sitting on this airplane trying to write this, the following question came to my mind: how can we effectively coordinate the current and next generation of Public Goods? Are we shying away from that term because we’re stuck in the legacy NGO concept? Or do we simply not see the opportunity that Public Goods present? Maybe it’s because we don’t even know what a Public Good is!

It is incredibly hard to find Public Goods talks in mainstream crypto events, DeFi events, or Cefi events. But here’s the thing — chances are, the entry point of the next million users of this protocol will probably be people who were attracted to a Public Good that was beneficial to their community. It’s kind of frustrating to see millions of dollars being poured into VC-backed protocols while Public Goods get little to no funding. In fact, I’ve even been asked to pay up to 20k just for a 30-minute chance to talk about Public Goods at some events.

Do you see it too? With less noise and marketing, people engaged on the main hall of the venue.

It’s kind of like being asked to buy an encyclopedia when Wikipedia is available at the click of a button on your computer screen — it just doesn’t make sense.

Even if Griff and Kevin aren’t completely right about everything, there’s no denying the power of Public Goods. Just last week, EthGuatemela event used the 1 ETH they received from ENS Public Goods grants to reach out to 100 attendees. Statistically speaking, at least one person there will go on to share that 1 ETH in the form of knowledge, excitement, and hope with their community. That 1% is all we need for a Public Good to have real meaning and your support.

1%.

So, I just want to take a moment to thank Sara and the whole team at ETHPorto for welcoming us and giving us the opportunity to present the dm3 protocol. But even more important than that, thank you for believing in that 1% and recognizing the power of Public Goods.

Who knows, maybe it’s just the high altitude syndrome talking, but I truly believe that we can make a difference by investing in Public Goods.