Season 10. Episode 2: Deep Funding: The Future of AI-Powered Public Goods Allocation with Devansh Mehta
Description
New @greenpillnet pod out today! π±
Kevin chats with Devansh Mehta about Deep Funding β an AI-powered mechanism combining human judgment and prediction markets to fund open-source projects.
They dive into how it scales evaluations, prevents Sybil attacks, and builds a fair "price feed" for public goods ahead of Gitcoin Grants 24 (GG24).
Links:
πgrants.gitcoin.coΒ
π deepfunding.org
π deep.seer.pm
π greenpill.network
π¦ @owocki @greenpillnetΒ
β±οΈ Timestamps
00:00 β Intro: Welcome to the Greenpill Podcast β exploring tech, coordination & Protopia
00:45 β Introducing guest Devansh Mehta, AI & Public Goods Lead at the Ethereum Foundation
01:20 β What is Deep Funding and why it matters
02:00 β How Deep Funding scales human evaluations with AI models
02:45 β Overview of the pilot run and what was tested
03:20 β How the mechanism works: human jurors + model builders
04:30 β The White Hat Sybil attack and what it revealed
05:40 β How Deep Funding integrates data science competitions and prediction markets
06:50 β Results of the pilot: weighted funding for 45 open-source repos
07:30 β Creating a credibly neutral funding system with unequal weights
08:40 β Comparing Deep Funding with Protocol Guild and other mechanisms
09:20 β Building a strong community of AI developers and human jurors
10:30 β The role of jurors and models in fair evaluation
11:10 β What's next: expanding to 90 repos in Gitcoin Grants 24 (GG24)
11:50 β Funding pool: $350K from Ethereum Foundation & Gitcoin
12:30 β Challenges of distributing capital efficiently and fairly
13:20 β Moving to GitHub repo-level governance: who controls the funds?
14:40 β Two models of spending: splits contracts vs counterfactual wallets
15:40 β Lessons from past Gitcoin funding rounds
16:20 β Why Deep Funding focuses on units of work, not organizations
17:20 β Avoiding distortions and improving fairness in funding
18:10 β The vision: creating a live price feed for public goods
19:10 β How prediction markets price open-source value
20:30 β Self-correcting market behavior and real-time adjustments
21:20 β Subsidies and liquidity: bootstrapping active participation
22:10 β Balancing liquidity levels to prevent manipulation
23:00 β What's next for Deep Funding: refining future iterations
23:40 β Shoutout to the model builders and competition winners
24:20 β Where to learn more: deepfunding.org
Β & deep.seer.pm
25:00 β Closing: the future of AI, governance, and funding what matters























