How to use Gitcoin with your Argent Layer 2 account

You can now use your Argent Layer 2 account to fund public goods via Gitcoin. Public goods are projects that benefit everyone.

What is Gitcoin?

Gitcoin is an open-source, community-led project to help fund 'public goods'. This can include projects such as open-source software, journalism, education and community engagement. Gitcoin matches funders to people and projects looking for funding.

Gitcoin was founded to better align incentives in open-source development. Previously, many vital actors in the open-source ecosystem, from coders to designers, were not properly rewarded for the economic value they generated. Gitcoin wants to change that.

So far, Gitcoin has managed to raise over $58 million USD in public good funding. You can see how the grant funding is broken down here.

Why use Gitcoin?

With Gitcoin you can support the growth of projects that you believe offer value to others regardless of how big or small they may be.

Gitcoin uses a process called 'Quadrating Funding' (QF), which matches your donations with contributions from sponsors of Gitcoin's QF fund. This means lots of small donations can more impact than larger single donations. Watch this video to learn more.

There are also Gitcoin bounties, which allow people to explore various open projects and earn bounty rewards for their completion. Finally, there are Gitcoin quests that let you explore the Ethereum ecosystem in a gamified way to win prizes while learning.

How to get started with Gitcoin

To use Gitcoin, you first need a Github account. To keep funding fair, Gitcoin uses a number of checks to determine a 'trust level' of a user. The more trusted a user is, the greater the impact their donation will have. You can do a number of things to maximize your impact, like uploading a video of yourself, joining BrightID, holding a POAP or having an ENS.

Here's a full list of things you can do to become trusted.

How to find grants to fund

You can find Gitcoin Grants here. And if you're unsure of where to start, you can find other people's curated 'Collections' of projects, like funding DeFi adoption in non-English speaking countries or supporting women in blockchain.

You can also get inspiration on what to fund from others by checking their profile page.

Once you've found the grants you want to support, simply add them to Cart (max of 20 at a time). You'll be able to adjust how much you want to give and in what crypto. Gitcoin supports most ERC-20 tokens and DAI is the default giving option.

How to connect your Argent L2 account to Gitcoin

When you're ready to checkout to fund public goods, here's what you need to do:

Click 'I'm Ready to Checkout'
Click 'zkSync Checkout' & then click 'Proceed'
Select Argent (if you can't see Argent, select 'WalletConnect')
Open Argent, tap 'Scan QR' & scan the QR code displayed
Tap 'Connect' on the pop-up in your Argent Layer 2 account
Click 'Complete payment' & approve the payment in app

Once the transaction goes through, you've helped fund public goods! If you're using iOS, please make sure your app is updated, otherwise, there will be an issue.

How to qualify as a recipient

If you are a developer or creator in the Ethereum space, Gitcoin encourages you to create a grant so you can start receiving funding! You can check out how to get started by using this link, and choosing "Start a Grant".

If you are technically-minded, you can also contribute to the Gitcoin project code itself - a guide on this is available here.