Vitalik Buterin has a NFT collection? Quadratic funding drop pulls in millions

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin is a Web3 luminary, so today’s rumor of an NFT collection bearing his apparent seal of approval has set Crypto Twitter on fire—and led to a surge in sales of multimillion-dollar NFTs.

The NFT collection, which celebrates Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin’s contribution to a popular Web3 funding model, was made of Metal label in collaboration with Web3 funding platform Gitcoin. The open edition was launched on March 1st, but NFT traders may have missed the memo until today when the secondary sale was suddenly torn after the end of the initial sale period.

From publication, The Quadratic Funding Collection has gathered around 4,692 ETH (7.3 million USD) in trading volume in the last 24 hours as the floor price rose to 0.58 ETH (905 USD).

Each NFT in the collection – known in Metalabel parlance as a “disc” – looks like an album cover and includes a digital version of the 2018 whitepaper “Liberal Radicalism: A Flexible Design for Philanthropic Matching Funds” signed by Buterin and his co-authors, economists Glen Weyl and Zoë Hitzig. It is the first “Quality Drop” project from Metalabel.

The NFT project commemorates the creation of the concept of square funding, a model that seeks to maximize contributions to projects by providing matching funds to individual donations. The mathematical formula “prioritises projects based on the number of people who have contributed”, according to RadicalxChangewhich Weyl founded to promote decentralization and plurality in governance and governments (Buterin sits on the board).

In practice, this means that a few whales cannot decide how matching funds are delegated based on the size of their contribution – the breadth of support for particular projects is also a factor. Gitcoin, a platform that funds open source Web3 tools and projects using square funding, has allocated around $70 million across the Ethereum ecosystem to date.

Each NFT also comes with two essays on square funding from Gitcoin co-founders Kevin Owocki and Scott Moore. Standard NFT was released last week in an open edition that ended today, at a price of just 0.05 ETH ($78 today). In the end, 9,209 of the standard NFTs were minted.

A further 12 limited edition “signature” editions of the NFT came with signed physical copies of the white paper and were sold via a Dutch auction format. Ultimately, Metalabel said the overall drop raised over $781,000 for public benefit projects. Funds from drop and secondary royalties will be channeled back into Gitcoin’s matching pool and to The Plurality Institutea research organization led by Weyl.

A Metalabel representative confirmed to Decrypt that Buterin “agreed to release the white paper he co-authored” for the NFT release, and hand-signed the 12 physical copies of the white paper that accompany the signature editions.

Metalabel was established by Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler, Etsy founder Rob Kalin and other Web2 pioneers as a way to help creators monetize their work with Web3 technologies.

The project combines elements from DAOs and NFTs; “metal labels” are groups of people who release work together. It’s a new framework designed to allow artists to create and collaborate on a shared newsletter, music releases, or other work without starting a new company.

“We are blown away by the response to Quality Drop 01 and what it means for the future of creative collaboration,” said Strickler Decrypt. “Helping to generate more than $700,000 in public good funding and a newfound appreciation for great creative work using the record format says this is an exciting new way for creators to publish and fund their work.”