Impact Attestations: Revolutionizing Public Goods Funding in Web3

Imagine a visionary developer building something valuable, but only a few people know their work. They apply for RetroPGF, but without broad recognition, their chances seem slim. How could they increase their odds?

Impact attestations change the game. 

Those who trust their work can issue on-chain attestations—verifying its usability, trustworthiness, and ecosystem value. These attestations add context and credibility that raw data alone cannot capture, increasing funding potential. Many projects rely on grants, but these funding streams fragmate funding resources and communities.

Using attestations for a fragmated industry of Public Goods Funding, with different criteria and metrics focuses, begs the question:

How do we measure impact effectively?

Current funding models struggle with inconsistent metrics, ambiguous self-reported data, and a lack of standardized evaluation frameworks. By combining qualitative attestations with quantitative data, impact attestations create a transparent, verifiable data points that encourages resources go to projects with real contributions, not just hype.

In this article, we’re going to be diving into why impact attestations are becoming such a critical part of the granting and public goods funding landscape. We’ll also be highlighting some of our favorite tools and communities that are having a big impact in this area.

Impact attestations are standardized, on-chain records that capture insights about the outcomes and contributions of Web3 projects. Unlike traditional metrics that focus heavily on quantitative data (like GitHub stars or wallet activity), impact attestations add qualitative context - helping funders understand not just the “what” but the “why” and “how” behind a project’s performance.

By leveraging tools like the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS), these attestations allow projects to:

• Standardize data collection: Ensuring all projects report outcomes in a consistent format.

• Leverage reputation: Validating the credibility of data based on who submitted it.

• Enable interoperability: Creating neutral datasets that can be shared across ecosystems.

The need for impact attestations stems from three core challenges in Web3 funding:

1. Limited and Biased Data
   Github contributions and transaction volume are great quantitative metrics. But, these metrics don't include the lots of types of impact which enrich the ecosystem –– giving an incomplete picture.

“When I asked developers what a GitHub star means, each had a different answer,” says LauNaMu, founder of Metrics Garden Labs. “It’s clear we need more nuanced metrics that capture context.”

2. Lack of Visibility on Value Creation
   Repos and fees fail to capture intangible outcomes, such as user satisfaction or community benefits. Impact attestation addresses this by allowing stakeholders to highlight impactful metrics about what's happening to the ecosystem.

3. Inconsistent Evaluation Frameworks
   Without a standardized approach, ecosystems struggle to assess whether their funding strategies align with their goals. Community can shape impact attestations to enhance relevant grant programs.

A new wave of tools is transforming how impact is measured and rewarded in Web3, making funding allocation more transparent and reliable. These platforms are helping ecosystems verify contributions, build reputation systems, and ensure that resources go to projects with real, demonstrable impact.

Metrics Garden helps you understand the impact of your contributions by showing who benefits from your work and how. The platform allows you to claim your contributions onchain, providing transparency and insights into the effects of your efforts. 

Impact Reef is a platform transforming impact evaluation for public goods in Web3. It utilizes the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) to capture qualitative attestations and endorsements, making funding decisions more transparent and community-driven.

Hypercerts are a new token standard designed to track and reward positive impact. Each hypercert represents a claim of impact, including details like the scope of work, its impact, the contributors behind it, and any rights that come with owning the hypercert. 

Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) is an open-source tool for making on-chain or off-chain attestations, providing a standard for verifying trust and authenticity. It enables decentralized reputation systems, governance processes, voting tools, social media integrations, and more. 

Praise is a community tool for governance used to foster a culture of appreciation and contributions traceability through attestations.

DeVouch is a reputation-based attestation platform that helps funders identify trustworthy projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. By allowing members of reputable organizations to vouch for or flag projects, DeVouch leverages on-chain attestations to provide transparent, community-driven validation. 

Several leading Web3 ecosystems are already experimenting with impact attestations to enhance their funding strategies:

Optimism recently partnered with Metrics Garden to pilot an attestation-based evaluation for its governance tooling. Delegates and badge holders were asked simple yet powerful questions, such as:

• How likely are you to recommend this tool?

• How would you feel if this tool ceased to exist?

This experiment, which ran for just two weeks, yielded over 700 high-context data points and informed funding decisions.

“We saw three different platforms leveraging this data to display insights for their users. It’s amazing what just two weeks of data collection can achieve,” said LauNaMo.

Known for its quadratic funding model, Gitcoin has started exploring attestations to validate the impact of funded projects. By integrating qualitative data from users and builders, Gitcoin can ensure grants are supporting projects that truly benefit the community.

Giveth

Giveth has integrated DeVouch into its project verification system, enabling a decentralized, community-driven approach to verifying public goods projects. By using on-chain attestations, reputable members of the Ethereum ecosystem can now vouch for or flag projects.

Focusing on environmental impact, Regen Network uses attestations to verify on-the-ground data for its regenerative projects. Collaborations with organizations like GainForest allow them to store qualitative data on-chain, such as field observations and satellite imagery, adding a layer of credibility to their evaluations.

Lens leverages attestations to create rich social graphs, enabling ecosystem participants to build reputations based on peer-to-peer validations. These reputations play a crucial role in identifying key contributors and fostering trust in the ecosystem.

The potential for impact attestations extends far beyond simply improving funding allocation. They open the door to new opportunities for ecosystem growth and sustainability. One of these opportunities is reputation-based funding, where social and skill-based attestations are used to assign weight to evaluations, ensuring that input from trusted and knowledgeable contributors carries more significance.

Another exciting development is the use of data-driven simulations. By leveraging neutral datasets generated through attestations, ecosystems can test various funding scenarios and refine strategies to optimize their outcomes.

Finally, impact attestations enable seamless integration by embedding attestation mechanisms directly into project websites and platforms. This allows for continuous data collection, ensuring that ecosystems have access to real-time, actionable insights without adding friction to users or contributors.

What do you think?

Are you bullish on impact attestations as a tool to improve our industry's funding mechanisms? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so let us know in the comments!

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