Introduction

What is Kickflow?

Kickflow is a decentralized platform that enables community funding for projects on Tezos. Through the concept of Quadratic Funding, it gives the community the power to take the best projects forward!

Besides being a general crowdfunding platform, Kickflow conducts periodic match funding rounds, where entries receive an optimal share from a sponsor-funded pool.

Lifecycle of a Matching Round

Kickflow is governed by a DAO that manages the funding rounds and operates on a token voting mechanism using the Kickflow Governance Token ($KFL).

The need for Quadratic Funding

Match funding schemes for public goods suffer from a fundamental weakness- the match amount for a project is proportional to the sum of contributions it receives during a stipulated period of time. This has its benefits, but it entirely rules out individual preferences.

Think of a situation where two projects A and B have received a contribution of $1000 from the community. A has received it from 10 unique contributors, whereas B from just 2 unique contributors. Even though it signifies A has a better reach and preference than B, both of them end up receiving an equal amount of match from the funding pool.

To solve this problem, we bring in CLR* matching. Here, instead of being linear, the match is calculated as the square of the sum of the square roots of the individual contributions.

$$M_{i} = ( \sum_{j = 0}^n \sqrt{C_{j}} )^{2}$$

Let's say A received $100 each from 10 contributors whereas B received $500 from 2 contributors. If we use CLR matching, A's match would be $10,000 whereas B's match would be $2000. Here clearly the individual preferences have been factored in.

For a more in-depth study of Quadratic Funding, view the original paper by Vitalik Buterin.

*CLR refers to Capital-constrained Liberal Radicalism. It brings about a democratic essence to capital distribution amongst public goods.