GitCoin is a platform that allows open-source developers to come and ask for bounties that are fulfilled by the community. The platform’s mission is to grow the open-source scene and help developers to fund their projects.
Andre Cronje, creator of Yearn Finance and YFI, has provided several grants on this platform. This article will cover the grants that Cronje has provided and quickly describe what type of projects they are building.
Most of these grants were provided in $DAI, but the last grant mentioned occurred off the platform and was in Ethereum.
1. 1inch.Exchange
Granted: 4,999 DAI/$ on 22/01/20
1inch.exchange is a DEX liquidity aggregator that routes trades from different protocols in the DeFi world. As a result, it allows users to conduct decentralized swaps between ERC-20 tokens with the best prices, lowest slippage, and the largest selection of tokens to trade between. In addition to this, it uses its GAS token to reduce Ethereum transaction fees, and it can split trades amongst all of the different protocols it has integrated.
2. Zapper.fi
Granted: 1,500 DAI/$ on 22/01/20
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 25/06/20
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Zapper.fi is an interface to help users manage their DeFi assets in one location. They offer a clean UI that allows users to see the entire value of their DeFi portfolio. On top of this, it will enable users to easily add/remove funds to liquidity pools directly from the dashboard and easily steak ERC-20 tokens.
3. White Hat Hacking
https://samczsun.com/research/
Granted: 3,000 DAI/$ on 25/02/20
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
White Hat Hacking is a blog run by samczsun. He does vulnerability research on Ethereum based smart contracts and posts information regarding any of his findings. He has researched Smart contracts on DeFi protocols such as yVault, Aragon Court, Synthetix, Nexus Mutal, Kyber Network, Curve Finance, and bZx Network.
4. Curve and Vyper Research
Granted: 5,000 DAI/$ on 29/02/20
Curve.fi is the non-custodial automated market maker (AMM) for stablecoin assets. The contracts written on Curve are coded in the Vyper coding language. This grant aims to fund the engineering work that goes into the Vyper coding language and conduct further research.
5. Rotki
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 18/09/20
Rotki is an open-source cryptocurrency portfolio tracker, accounting, and financial analytics tool. The application protects users’ privacy as all their financial information is encrypted and stored locally, allowing users to keep ownership of their financial data. The application is available on iOS, Windows, and Linux.
6. Gelato
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 18/09/20
Gelato Finance is described as an “Ethereum Automation Protocol.” It allows developers to automate smart contract execution on Ethereum by defining a set of conditions that are executed when a trigger point is met. The project is designed to save weeks of development time, save money, and it has no single point of failure.
7. Dune Analytics
https://www.duneanalytics.com/
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Granted: 500DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Dune Analytics is a dashboard that allows users to track Ethereum based metrics and share them with everybody on the platform. The data, taken from the Ethereum blockchain, is collated and made easier to digest through visual charts. There are thousands of dashboards to keep track of your favorite ERC-20 projects created by users on the platform.
One thing worth noting about Dune Analytics is the fact that they raised $2 million in a seed round led by DragonFly Capital. Well, during that seed round, one of the investors was Yearn Finance who insisted to do it as a no strings attached grant;
8. Vyper Smart Contract Language
https://github.com/vyperlang/vyper
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
This is the second grant given by Cronje for the Vyper Smart Contract language. Vyper, a Python-like language created to write Ethereum Virtual Machine smart contracts that run on the Ethereum blockchain.
9. EthHub
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
EthHub - Ethereum Information Hub - is designed to be a fundamental-focused resource that is community-driven and aims to provide research and information for Ethereum based tokens. It was launched to resolve the issue of information asymmetry in the Ethereum ecosystem.
10. Bankless
https://bankless.substack.com/
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Bankless is DeFi focused blog that was created by Ryan Sean Adams in December 2018. The blog posts regular posts regarding the latest happenings in the DeFi ecosystem. The blog has a separate premium channel for in-depth information, and it also runs a weekly podcast through their YouTube channel.
11. The Defiant
https://thedefiant.substack.com/
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
The Defiant is a DeFi blog started by Camilla Russo, a financial journalist with posts at Bloomberg, and launched in June 2019. The blog posts regular articles on DeFi with news briefings, op-eds, interviews, and weekly recaps.
12. Defiprime.com
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
DeFi prime is a digital media and analytics service for the DeFi sector. They provide information, blogs, and tutorials to educate the community on the latest happenings in DeFi. They have a resource that allows users to compare the best DeFi lending rates against traditional finance on their site.
13. Tenderly
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Tenderly is a real-time monitoring, alerting, and troubleshooting software for Ethereum Smart Contracts. It allows developers to speed up smart contract development with error tracking, a visual debugger, and a state inspector.
14. DeFi Saver
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
DeFi Saver is a one-stop dashboard that allows users to manage their decentralized finance positions. The platform allows users to automatically keep their positions at a specific ratio to protect it from liquidation. It also allows users to manage leverage, covert positions, and earn through various DeFi Protocols.
15. DeFi Dad
Granted: 500 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Everybody loves DeFi dad! Who couldn’t? He has been involved with Ethereum for over three years and decided to create a blog and a Youtube channel to understand DeFi further. He provides information, tutorials, and resources for users to conduct DeFi transactions such as lending, borrowing, and trading. This particular grant was created to buy himself the right tools (MacBook Pro + Final Cut Pro) so he can continue with his work.
16. Snapshot
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
Snapshot is an off-chain multi-governance client that is gasless. It allows users to create governance proposals and vote for free. The platform is open-source, and there are no tracking cookies or adverts on the website.
17. RDAI
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
RDAI (redeemable DAI) allows users to invest DAI in an interest generating pool used for collateralized loans. The interest generated can be granted to a community fund, a charity, a specific dApp, or be kept by the user.
18. ParaSwap
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
ParaSwap aggregates liquidity from different DEXs to provide users with the best market rates. It is similar to 1inch.exchagne as it can split orders across other exchanges to offer the best possible rates. On top of this, they also use their GAS token to make transaction fees cheaper.
19. GoodGhosting
Granted: 2,000 DAI/$ on 15/09/20
GoodGhosting is designed to help users build better financial habits and introduce more people to DeFi savings. Users join different savings pools and make regular payments to stay inside the pool. At the same time, his assets earn interest. At the end of the pool period, all the accumulated interest is split amongst users still in a pool. If a user forgets to make a payment, they are removed from the pool but are still able to receive their principle.
20. DeFiPedia
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 18/09/20
DeFi Pedia is a free education resource to help users understand DeFi better.
21. DeFi777
Granted: 1,000 DAI/$ on 18/09/20
DeFi 777 allows users to wrap Ethereum Tokens (such as DAI, USDC, MKR) and DeFi Products (Such as Uniswap, Aave) to use them in any wallet. Using ERC-777 tokens, it enables users to make simple token transfers.
22. $SAFE ($COVER)
https://medium.com/@coverprotocol
Granted: 25,000 $ on 14/09/20
$SAFE (now rebranded as $COVER) gave birth to the concept of "Insurance Mining". DeFi Farmlands can be insured through platforms such as Yearn Insure and Nexus Mutual. $SAFE was developed to build on top of this by allowing these insurance tokens to be farmed to yield $SAFE tokens. Andre Cronje granted Alan (lead developer) $25,000 in September for him to be able to take a year out of University and work on the project full time.
After an internal conflict, $SAFE has rebranded into $COVER and is set to launch in November 2020 with advisors such as Andre Cronje, Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX CEO), and BlueKirby on-board. In addition to this, they have also brought in two extra full-time developers to work alongside Alan.
Who's Andre Cronje?
https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech
Andre Cronje is the developer who single-handedly put together the entire Yearn Finance ecosystem. Located in Cape Town, South Africa, Cronje originally studied law at Stellenbosch University but went on to study Information Systems at CTI in 2005. Cronje had held roles as a mobile developer and a software architect before moving into the Blockchain space.
When creating Yearn Finance, Cronje was jobless and on the verge of turning bankrupt. According to some reports, he spent over $40,000 building yEarn (Yearn Finance) and almost double that on smart contract audits and server costs. To finance this project, Cronje took out loans against his home and went into around $20,000 debt.
Luckily, Cronje persevered and, hopefully, managed to farm enough YFI to cover any of his previous debts.
What's Yearn Finance?
Yearn Finance is a yield aggregation platform, built on Ethereum, that takes user's deposits and automatically switches between a range of DeFi Lending platforms to find the best rates of return. Initially, the project was designed to be a personal tool for Cronje as he developed it to make his life more comfortable as he was manually switching between lending pools at the time.
Eventually, he decided to open the platform up to the public but was transparent with his warnings that it was never intended to be a public tool. The response to his platform was quite staggering as deposits started to mount as users found it easier to use the automatic switching tool.
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