Stake to Upvote
2025 · Product, research, and branding
Overview
Stake to Upvote was a fast, experiment-driven feature designed to create meaningful utility for Gitcoin’s native token, GTC. Built for Gitcoin Grants Round 23 (GG23), the tool allowed users to stake GTC on grants they believed in, boosting a project's visibility within the round and earning a share of a 3% rewards pool. Inspired by curation models like Giveth’s GIVbacks, this experiment aimed to encourage early support of high-quality grants while testing lightweight mechanisms for token-based participation. By introducing real-time staking, social visibility, and a clear value exchange, the feature helped Gitcoin explore how GTC could play a larger role in grant discovery and community curation.
Problem
Despite Gitcoin’s success with quadratic funding, there was a growing need to give GTC more practical utility within the product. Up until this point, donors could fund grants using stablecoins and other tokens, but GTC holders had no way to participate meaningfully beyond governance. With increased community pressure to demonstrate GTC’s value and limited treasury resources to build something large-scale, the product team proposed a lean experiment: use staking as a way to surface promising grants, reward early supporters, and signal quality to other users.
However, staking is traditionally complex and intimidating, especially to non-technical users. Communicating how rewards worked, what risks existed, and how staking affected visibility in the round required a thoughtful, well-scaffolded UX. The challenge was to balance clarity and speed, so users could understand the benefit of staking without derailing the broader donation experience.
Solution
Stake to Upvote was designed as a lightweight, standalone feature embedded into the grants round experience. Users could stake GTC on any grant they supported, which would:
Increase the grant’s visibility on the round page (sorted by total GTC staked)
Earn the user a proportional share of a 3% rewards pool
Signal support to the broader community
The product introduced an upvoted grants leaderboard, a streamlined staking modal that redirected to the transaction, and clear microcopy explaining that staking was only available during GG23. To support engagement, the system also displayed top stakers, trending grants, and individual dashboards with pending rewards. Users were encouraged to either claim their rewards or donate them back to the matching pool at the end of the round.
Design process
The design process focused on building trust, simplifying mechanics, and motivating participation, while designing for experimentation and iteration.
Research and Discovery
To inform the design, we:
Studied staking models from Giveth, Optimism, and Lido to understand what drove engagement
Analyzed previous grant discovery behaviors to identify the right surfaces for staking visibility
Conducted stakeholder interviews to understand technical constraints, reward logic, and risk factors
We identified that the primary blockers for adoption would be confusion, friction (e.g., acquiring GTC), and a lack of clear impact—all of which needed to be addressed with copy, visuals, and lightweight flows.
Ideation and Prototyping
With insights in hand, we:
Designed a new “Upvoted Grants” surface where projects were ranked by GTC staked
Created grant cards that clearly displayed GTC totals, reward potential, and funding data
Developed a staking modal with redirect logic, warnings, and value-based copy like: “Staking is only available during GG23” and “Earn rewards from a 3% pool”
Built a lightweight dashboard where users could view staked grants, projected rewards, and donation options
Incorporated social proof with real-time staking feeds and top curator displays
All of this was done while collaborating closely with product and engineering to ship the MVP quickly, without over-investing in tooling that might not persist beyond the round.
Impact
The launch of “Stake to Upvote” during Gitcoin Grants 23 marked a major shift in how capital and attention are allocated in web3 funding.
We saw clear signs that staking created signal:
234 projects were staked on across 3 open-source rounds
719 unique stakers participated, helping distribute attention more democratically
357,086.73 GTC was staked in total
Each round received $6,000 in matching rewards, with staking helping guide their distribution:
Developer Tooling and Libraries: 245 stakers across 37 projects
Web3 Infrastructure: 302 stakers across 56 projects
dApps and Apps: 267 stakers across 142 projects
This experiment paved the way for new governance and curation mechanics that go beyond voting, inviting the community to participate in shaping funding outcomes more meaningfully.
Next steps
Stake to Upvote was a lean experiment, but it laid the foundation for future token utility on Gitcoin. Key takeaways are now informing a broader token roadmap, including:
Deeper integrations with discovery and reputation
More seamless in-app GTC acquisition (bridging/swapping)
Reward models that factor in stake quality, timing, and fraud protection
This experiment also highlighted the power of fast, incentivized participation mechanics, something the team is eager to explore further as Gitcoin expands beyond grant funding into protocol-level coordination.