Season 1 of our Thrive Polygon partnership has closed, and we’re excited to share early results. By optimizing grant allocations through Thrive Protocol, we’re unlocking new efficiencies and growth for grants in Polygon. With many projects having just launched, we are excited to see growing with this first set of grants impact in the coming months and years!
Project Overview
Thrive Protocol was chosen as the first grants allocator by Polygon. Our role in Season 1 was to quickly and efficiently deploy 800k MATIC to boost consumer crypto in Polygon.
Our vision for our collaboration with Polygon and the CTB (Community Treasury Board) is to create and scale the most capital-efficient long-term grants initiative in the history of Polygon.
In Season 1, we laid the groundwork for our ambitious goal, establishing a robust infrastructure, funding strong projects, and leveraging Thrive Protocol to ensure value.
Season 1 Overview & Key Achievements [June 11th to today]
23 Grantees Funded from 255 Applicants
- We implemented an RFP process that yielded 255 applications
- We leveraged Thrive Protocol’s social graph of decentralized reviewers to identify 25 teams and projects best fit for the consumer grants track
- After further scrutiny, 23 top-tier projects were chosen to receive funding
49% of all projects selected via Thrive outreach. 100% via Thrive Protocol.
- 49% of applications came via Thrive outreach
- 29% from word of mouth
- 22% from Polygon
*Source
100% of rewards paid when reviewers independently agree value achieved
Thrive Protocol is the most efficient tool to ensure all rewards are allocated at milestones of value creation.
Thrive allocates evidence for milestone achievement to qualified reviewers who independently review and validate. When a threshold of reviewers agree, the evidence is either accepted and payment happens, or the milestone is rejected, and the project creator must resubmit:
- Of 69 milestones submitted by project creators, a threshold of agreement that the milestone was achieved occurred with 58 of the milestones.
- The impact of that is 16 of 23 Projects have now fully completed their milestones, unlocking all payments, and 5 more have until Oct 25th to submit their final milestones.
- 100% of the funds Polygon has paid out have been for milestone achievements aligned with the commitments of the projects.
- Where milestone achievement hasn’t yet occurred, $128,000 in Polygon funds have been conserved, waiting to be allocated when desired value occurs.
- ** At scale, Thrive Protocol drives even more efficiencies. Our protocol can support evaluating hundreds or even thousands of grants and milestones at a time, always ensuring the most efficient capital allocations for Polygon. Source
14k+ contributions from 7k Unique Contributors
- Using Thrive Protocol we launched 54 “contributions” designed to incentivize the Polygon community to engage with our grantees and their infrastructure.
- We achieved 140% of our shared ambitious goal of 10,000 contributions in Season 1
- We achieved 232% of our shared goal of 3000 unique contributors in Season 1
332k impressions / 60k engagements on ThrivePolygon Twitter
- X/Twitter follower count: from 0 to 4,821
- X/Twitter Spaces + attendees: 11, 4,130
- Impressions: 363K
- Engagements: 62k
- Pukecast grantee spotlight videos: 100,000+ impressions
- Community Crypto Award Vote: 44,000+ votes through JokeRace
On-chain Metrics: Thousands of New Users and New Channels
In collaboration with Forse PolyMatch (one of our grantees), Thrive Polygon measured the on-chain impact of Season 1 grantees through September 3, 2024.
Eleven grantees provided smart contract addresses for their projects. Three projects, Smart Layer, DEFIT, and Unitap, have generated over 30,000 active users. We expect the remaining projects to generate thousands more users in the near future.
In addition, we found only .7% of users interacted with more than one grantee, suggesting that over 99% of users are new and non-overlapping. This means that each new grantee is driving engagement and excitement for Polygon in entirely new channels, and it is also another strong signal that there is no farming or botting across Thrive’s Projects.
Future Outlook: Maximize Polygon’s Grant Allocations
Thrive Polygon is committed to continue supporting the Polygon community by maximizing the impact of Polygon’s grant allocations.
We achieve this by pinpointing high-impact projects that drive value for the Polygon ecosystem and amplifying our support for them over time while cutting initiatives that don’t meet our rigorous standards.
Using Thrive Protocol and our network of decentralized reviewers, we evaluated each project to determine which we recommend to grow or cut.
Findings: Overperformers / Underperformers
Thrive Protocol’s review process confirmed that 16 out of 23 Season 1 projects successfully completed all three of their milestones, as evidenced by sufficient proof submitted by the project teams. Five more have until Oct 25th to submit their final milestones.
Reviewers evaluated each milestone using a nuanced grading system, assigning scores ranging from -3 to +3 to indicate not only whether the milestone was achieved but also the strength of the evidence provided.
Milestones with an average score above 0 were deemed successful, while those with negative scores were deemed unsuccessful. Projects with greater overall scores were eligible for “best of” awards.
- The Top 5 performing projects are 3Look, DEFIT, Xerberus, FANitum, and Smart Layer.
- The Bottom 5 performing projects are Uppfirst, Space Misfits, Brianknows AI, Wootzapp, and SONGS.
- Source
Grant Recipients
The grant selection process focused on identifying projects that demonstrate a strong potential to contribute to the growth and sustainability of the Polygon ecosystem.
Key criteria for selection included innovation, technical feasibility, impact potential, alignment with Polygon’s strategic goals, and the team’s ability to execute effectively
Here are three projects we’ve funded, each from different categories, we recommend to further support within the Polygon ecosystem:
3Look:
Project Impact: Onboarded 15 Polygon projects, attracting 3,000 users, and launched a dedicated Polygon community used by over 800 MATIC holders.
Funding amount: $24,000 in MATIC
Description: The SocialFi Meme Platform. Engage, create, and earn with memes
Website: 3look.io
Category: Decentralized Social
Testimonial: "The resources and support provided by Thrive Polygon enabled us to allocate the necessary resources for Polygon technical integration, significantly broadening our user and partner base by opening up opportunities with Polygon communities and projects. This expansion allowed us to launch a dedicated Community Area for Polygon, which, thanks to Thrive, was actively used by over 800 MATIC holders to create branded Polygon content. " Video Testimonial
Intraverse: Onboarded 60 Projects and their Communities
Project Impact: Onboarded over 60 projects and their communities onto Polygon. In just three days post-launch, more than 28,000 on-chain transactions were achieved.
Funding amount: $24,000 in MATIC
Description: Intraverse is a platform creating engagement through cross-community, cross-chain and cross-platform gaming experiences.
Website: intraverse.io
Category: Gaming-as-a-Service (GaaS) platform designed to enhance user acquisition, engagement, and retention through cross-community gamified experiences.
Testimonial: "It was a pleasure working with the Thrive Protocol team for Polygon grants. Their support is exceptional, and they are always readily available. I believe Thrive Protocol is the best option for any blockchain looking to optimize grant distribution and truly thrive.” Video testimonial
Toaster Finance:
Project Impact: Went from 20-40 DAUs prior to collaborating with Thrive Polygon to over 1500 DAUs with a total transaction volume reaching $6.8M.
Funding amount: $24,000 in MATIC
Description: DeFi made as easy as making toast.
Website: www.toaster.finance
Category: Decentralized Finance
Project Testimonial: “Without this funding, it would have been incredibly difficult to scale our platform as quickly as we did. Since participating in the program, we’ve grown our daily active users from just 20-40 during the MVP phase to over 1,500 and increased our transaction volume from $770K to over $6.8M in just a few weeks. This funding enabled us to build real traction and validate our product in ways we couldn’t have otherwise.”
Grantee Statistics (original 25 accepted projects)
Grantees Per Consumer Crypto Category
- AI x Crypto: 6
- Decentralized Social: 1
- Gaming & Autonomous Worlds: 5
- NFT Innovation: 3
- Content Co-Creation: 1
- Digital/Physical Intersections: 5
- Scenecoins/Distributed Communities: 2
- Gamified Commerce: 2
Team Size
- 1-2 people: 5
- 2-5 people: 7
- 6-10 people: 9
- More than 10 people: 4
Stage of Development
- Idea (No MVP): 2
- Early (MVP): 6
- Mid-stage (on mainnet): 11
- Scale (some traction): 6
Ecosystem status
- 16 new projects deploying on Polygon
- 9 projects adding capability to existing Polygon deployments:
Financial Overview (to date)
Total Budget: $800,000 in MATIC
Spent/Allocated: $785,890 (estimate)
Available: $14,110 (estimate)
Conclusion and Future Plans
Three months ago, Polygon chose Thrive Protocol as the first grants allocator to support the growth of the Polygon ecosystem through strategic grant-making. We took this role and honor seriously and have been determined to prove your belief in us and our technology.
In deep collaboration with Polygon, we’ve successfully allocated $800,000 in MATIC to 23 promising projects, many of which have already begun to demonstrate considerable traction, and will create value for Polygon long into the future.
Our partnership has laid the foundation for a more sustainable and efficient grants program for Polygon. We’re proud of our shared achievements and look forward to continuing our work helping to build a more thriving Polygon ecosystem.
