Really glad I am part of this experiment for usage of Hedgey’s RetroPGF funds! Especially like how Lindsey has basically zero discretion in choosing which projects receive a grant 
I am an investigative reporter by training, currently working on a retroactive funding model for in-depth journalism that creates tangible impact beyond eyeballs or clicks.
Very briefly, we allow journalists to mint positive outcomes from their stories as Hypercerts on Optimism (a standard for impact certificates that creates a feedback loop between impact creation and funding). Donors can either support these newsroooms by directly purchasing their Hypercerts or giving to a central pool of funds that is distributed programmatically to purchase Hypercerts according to the quantified impact of each cert (using the benefit cost ratio metholodogy developed by Robin Hood Foundation).
I saw the need for investigative newsrooms to have impact = profit after working with the journalists behind the Panama Papers investigation and citizen journalism media outlets in India, who had to devote considerable time to fundraising and writing grants despite the self-evident impact of their stories. Letting them sell positive outcomes from their stories as Hypercerts, with a public blockchain ensuring only a single sale of that impact, starts a virtuous cycle where they get money for their next story, whose impact can again be sold ad infinitum.
Demo video here:
In the one month sprint, we managed to launch on Sepolia testnet! As one of the first dapps to launch with the Hypercerts marketplace, we had to build the UI from their smart contracts, develop a methodology for using LLMs to quantify impact and create a content management system from the open source tool Directus for us to upload impact reports.
Demo link: app.voicedeck.org
Photos of our UI
We have pre-orders for several of the certificates once we go live! We received extensive feedback during EthDenver, where many said they appreciated a system where they donated based on not just the reputation of an organization but on the specific impact that they like, such as the Hypercerts we created for women being allowed to pray at a temple after 400 years of being denied or media outlet stories resulting in arrest of ‘witch killers’ in rural India.
The 3 citizen journalism newsrooms in India we are working with for our pilot (Video Volunteers, CGNet Swara and Gram Vaani) are quite excited about coming onchain and putting their foot in our world. They have a private database of impact from their stories (over 10k entries) that they have been curating over 10 years and are super excited about porting over to Optimism.
We see a cultural alignment with Optimism as we are building a new form of RetroPGF that takes it out into the real world. Many of the smart contracts we use, such as Hypercerts and Deresy, are only on Optimism. So we see the superchain as our base and ground zero, now and in the future.
We are creating a fundamental new use case for Optimism, which lets people own journalism impact that they like. We anticipate this will create positive buzz around Optimism and also generate some sequencer fees from purchase.
We also expect other projects building on the Hypercerts marketplace after it is live to fork our open source repo
We want to bring the Panama Papers onchain! The reporters I spoke with who were involved in the investigation asked us to do a pilot, which we are currently doing with citizen journalism newsrooms. If that goes well, I hope to bring the impact of the Panama Papers to Optimism as Hypercerts.
We are currently on Sepolia testnet, with a mainnet launch expected this summer.
With the funding, we will
- Register a legal entity
- Integrate our evaluation system with the DeReSy smart contract, as quantifications are currently done offchain in our CMS.
- Build out a new strategy on the Allo protocol so that any funds raised through QF, direct donations, Octant Staking, RetroPGF and other mechanisms can programmatically purchase journalism Hypercerts from highest to lowest Benefit Cost Ratio.
- Reach out to contributors and well-wishers for purchase of journalism Hypercerts after launch on OP Mainnet in the summer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VoiceDeckDAO
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/B7Gs95naev
Website: voicedeck.org
Twitter post announcing testnet launch - https://x.com/TheDevanshMehta/status/1771551794096705839?s=20
Twitter Post laying out problem statement: https://x.com/TheDevanshMehta/status/1644417910713065500?s=20