# Proposal for NounsDAO to Fund its Critical FOSS Dependencies Using Drips


## Summary

Greetings Nouns community! @earthwindfirewater here from [Drips](https://www.drips.network/).

This proposal is an invitation to the Nouns community to directly fund the free and open source software (FOSS) projects you depend on the most. By providing direct financial support to your most critical open source software dependencies, the Nouns community can go beyond fostering innovation within its ecosystem by ensuring the sustainability of the projects you depend on, creating an interconnected and symbiotic relationship between you and the FOSS projects that make your work possible.

Specifically, we are inviting the Nouns community to allocate 100 ETH to be continuously streamed to these projects over a 1 year period using [Drips](https://www.drips.network/).

## Context

Over the last few years, the Ethereum community has established a cultural norm of *funding public goods*. Platforms like Gitcoin and Optimism have been at the forefront, introducing groundbreaking funding models such as quadratic funding and RetroPGF, ushering in a new era of support for public goods.

However, current public goods funding mechanisms are **round-based**, come with a **lot of overhead** (especially for reviewers) and are **hard for recipients to plan their future around**.

## What is CDF?

[Continuous Dependency Funding](https://cdf.works/) (CDF) -- the funding mechanism implemented by Drips -- offers a different take on the problem, empowering DAOs like Nouns to **continuously** allocate a percentage of assets to their critical software dependencies. Instead of one-off funding rounds, Continuous Dependency Funding centers on the idea of **maintainable, publicly-fundable lists.**

#### How CDF Works

* *As a DAO accumulate fees, revenue, or assets, its members choose a percentage to be continuously allocated to its critical software dependencies.*

* *DAO members collaboratively curate a list (or many) of critical software dependencies that are impactful to their operations.*

* *Decisions on modifying the list(s) or adjusting allocation percentages can be made dynamically via governance (onchain or offchain) based on changing priorities and needs.*

* *As dependencies are onboarded to the system, they create their own lists for their dependencies. This creates a network of dependencies, a dependency graph, curated by people in real-time.*

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## Hear It From the Devs

*"This is *the* funding model I’ve been so excited about for so long. I’ve always supported my dependencies with what I could afford to, but Drips has made it so much easier. <3"* - [Ricmoo.eth](https://twitter.com/ricmoo/status/1752391525378437504)

*"🤔 i think this is the kind of thing that will turn developers on to ethereum
💵 when you are an open source dev and an upstream app starts streaming to you
🧘‍♂️ since day one I've been dreaming of eth addresses in package.json files"* -- [Austin Griffith](https://twitter.com/austingriffith/status/1752140687015920109)

*"Sooo... @dripsnetwork / cdf.works is living rent free in my head right now. I can't stop thinking about it. I've been aware of it for a while now, but it only just dawned on me how impactful this idea could be if it reaches some kind of critical mass."* -- [Auryn Macmillan of Gnosis Guild](https://twitter.com/auryn_macmillan/status/1755638339741368556?s=20)

*"wagmi now has drips enabled — and is sending 40% downstream
💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧"* -- [Wagmi](https://twitter.com/wevm_dev/status/1752132002952741018)

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## Why Fund FOSS?

**Your project’s success & security depends on the health of the greater FOSS ecosystem.** Investing in your dependencies means investing in your own success.

* Ensuring the ongoing maintenance of software is crucial, yet financial incentives often favor new development because of potential upside and available funding.

* While open source within crypto is very well-funded, open source outside of crypto is still underfunded.

* Underfunded dependencies can lead to maintainer burn-out, security exploits, and corporate capture.

## Why Drips?

[Drips](https://www.drips.network/) is a decentralized toolkit that enables any organization to continuously fund their critical software dependencies, without any platform fees. Here are the things that make Drips unique:

**The Simplest Way to Fund An Open Source Project** -- Drips enables funders to send funds directly to the owners of public software repositories on Github, even if the developers do not yet have an Ethereum address. Project owners can easily claim the funds at a later time, by adding a FUNDING.json file on the default branch of their public repository with their preferred Ethereum address. The contents of the file are verified by a Chainlink-based oracle and funds are delivered to the repository owners. This saves DAO contributors the time and effort of having to track down wallet addresses for every recipient in advance.

**Splitting Makes It Easier Than Ever to “Pass It On”** -- As recipients are onboarded to Drips, they define their most critical dependencies. Therefore your funds will not only support Nouns' direct dependencies but also cascade to their own most critical dependencies as well. With Drips, funding cascades to where it matters the most, organically flowing to the most impactful projects in your ecosystem.

**Continuous Funding With Streams** -- In addition to supporting ordinary one-time transactions, Drips offers funders the capability of supporting their FOSS dependencies continuously using steams. Streaming represents a major advance over mechanisms that require new funding rounds to be manually executed every few months and is a powerful way for organisations to align incentives with recipients over longer periods of time. This provides them with complete control and the freedom to adapt their support based on evolving circumstances.

**Lists Are Public and Native** -- With most funding mechanisms and solutions, as soon as the round is complete, the list of projects that were funded (often just a spreadsheet or text document) begins to fade away into obscurity. With Drips, lists are a public, native and reusable on-chain components that others in your ecosystem can build on or even directly fund themselves. By being public and persistent, Drip Lists act as long-term showcases for the important public goods funding work the DAO has done, as well as signaling mechanisms to other prospective funders.

**No Service Fees** -- 100% of the funds sent using Drips go to the recipients (apart from gas costs).

## See Drips in Action

### Radworks
In September of 2023, the Radworks [became the first DAO to directly support its FOSS dependencies](https://www.drips.network/blog/posts/radworks-gives-1m-to-foss-dependencies-with-drips) using Drips, by committing to [stream $1M in USDC and RAD](https://www.drips.network/app/drip-lists/50330452048867519181028275890986093327647919805766323166158196453514) to the dependencies of its three orgs -- [Radicle](https://www.drips.network/app/drip-lists/34625983682950977210847096367816372822461201185275535522726531049130), [Drips](https://www.drips.network/app/drip-lists/48495160997488293670723292622742268320163565037397170198477469637178) and [Radworks Grants](https://www.drips.network/app/drip-lists/32993835193273751671076155179370862074156612583830856606728028834762), over the course of a year.

### Octant
In November of 2023, [Octant](https://octant.app/projects), a public-goods-focused spinoff of Golem, [became the second community to directly fund its FOSS dependencies](https://www.drips.network/blog/posts/octant-teams-up-with-drips-to-fund-its-dependencies) with Drips. Octant is currently distributing more than 23 ETH from its 2023 "epoch 0" and "epoch 1" funding rounds to a [list of its critical dependencies](https://www.drips.network/app/drip-lists/30178668158349445547603108732480118476541651095408979232800331391215), with more ETH to come from Epoch 2 soon.

## Proposal
**We are inviting the Nouns community to contribute 100 ETH (~2% of the treasury) to continuously fund a list of its most critical FOSS dependencies, streamed over 1 year using Drips.**

The Nouns community will have the opportunity to build its list of critical dependencies in whatever way it chooses. Our proposal is to work with the core team to specify a list (or many) of their most critical software dependencies before this proposal goes up for a vote. We are also happy to support any other curation mechanism that the Nouns community will propose.

We are excited to hear your thoughts and feedback. 😎💧