The Optimism Ethos – Optimism

We are writing software that scales Ethereum technology. We are also scaling Ethereum values by creating the rails for highly impactful projects that don’t have a business model to succeed.

Retroactive Public Goods Funding

The core principle behind the concept of retroactive public goods funding is simple: it’s easier to agree on what was useful than what will be useful.

The Vision

The Optimism Collective is a new model of digital democratic governance optimized to drive rapid and sustained growth of a decentralized ecosystem. The Collective is a band of communities, companies, and citizens united by a mutually beneficial pact to adhere to the axiom of impact=profit — the principle that positive impact to the collective should be rewarded with profit to the individual. This axiom serves as a North Star, motivating the creation of a more productive and empathetic economy.

The Optimism Collective will dispel the myth that public goods cannot be profitable. The Collective will consistently provide massive retroactive incentives for public goods which benefit Optimism, Ethereum, and the Collective as a whole. These public goods act as a propellant for the growth of the Collective economy. Growth which yields profit for the Collective and profit which funds more investment in public goods, all together producing a virtuous cycle of impact driven expansion.

We expect that as the Collective grows, the scope of what falls under the umbrella of Collective public goods will grow along with it. We imagine a future in which the Collective expands beyond the digital realm and into the physical world. The idea that a decentralized ecosystem could reliably provide for basic human needs at scale may seem idealistic today, but it will seem commonplace tomorrow. We start small out of a sense of pragmatism, but we aim big out of an overwhelming sense of Optimism.

This is outlined in depth in the Optimistic Vision.

Retroactive Public Goods Funding

The Vision

Related articles