[2508 Grant Proposal] All-or-Nothing Crowdfunding with Rootstock - Milestone 1

Grants & Incentives
21

Update: Proposed Adjustment Before Submitting Milestone 3

Before submitting Milestone 3 onchain, I’d like to get feedback from the community on a proposed adjustment to how part of the budget is deployed.

In addition to the existing Milestone 3 scope, I’m proposing to allocate an additional $2,000 toward supporting live All-or-Nothing campaigns that are close to reaching their funding goal, bringing the total requested amount for Milestone 3 to $6,000.

The reasoning is straightforward: the success of All-or-Nothing crowdfunding is tightly tied to visible, real-world successes. Early completed campaigns become the strongest proof points for this model. They create the first credible success stories, strengthen future promotion and documentation, and make it much easier for new creators and platforms to trust and adopt AON.

This funding would be used selectively, only for campaigns that are already near completion and where a small push can turn a near-miss into a successful example.

I’d love to hear:

  • Whether this approach makes sense to you

  • Any concerns around how this support should be structured

  • Suggestions on guardrails or criteria for allocating these funds

Appreciate the feedback, and thanks again for the continued support. :folded_hands:

3 Likes
22

From my side, I’m supportive of the proposed +$2k adjustment to Milestone 3. At this stage, All-or-Nothing adoption is best driven by real completed campaigns, and using a small, targeted amount to help near-complete campaigns cross the finish line makes sense as part of a go-to-market milestone. It’s also worth noting that the recent AON launch already shows solid early signal (around 18k views, 100+ likes, 40+ reposts), which reinforces that leaning into M3 now is timely.

More broadly, this grant is shaping up as a strong example of what infrastructure grants should look like: open-source, reusable code, shipped and deployed to mainnet, with clear documentation and consistent public updates. In that context, extending M3 slightly to capitalize on real-world traction feels reasonable.

4 Likes
23

I don’t see an issue with allocating an additional $2k to supporting campaigns that are close to reaching their funding goals. Great job so far with your first 2 milestones.

I would encourage delegates to take a look at this tweet (and amplify!) from Geyser. Make sure to watch the video in the comment where the wesatoshi card is used to pay for a beer in Sicily. https://x.com/geyserfund/status/2011830072924115231?s=20

3 Likes
24

Stelios, thanks for asking for feedback before submitting Milestone 3 onchain, and congratulations on what’s been delivered so far.

A few thoughts that may be worth considering:

  • Signal & trust: Crowdfunding works best as a market signal. Creating “artificial success” risks blurring the line between organic demand and subsidized outcomes, which can weaken credibility if not handled carefully. False validation of projects that miss their ALL objective may mask real issues for both backers and creators — sometimes NOTHING is the right signal.

  • Incentives: If creators expect near-complete campaigns to be rescued, this could unintentionally shift incentives toward weaker planning or outreach.

  • Process & transparency: How would campaigns be selected (objective criteria, % funded, number of backers)? Who would decide, and would allocations be public and transparent?

If this were considered, possible guardrails could include:

  • Top-ups clearly labeled as “Platform-Seeded”

  • A tight cap (e.g. ~10% of the goal), and only after ~90% organic funding is reached

  • Clear disclosure of any related-party interests

  • Considering a fee waiver from Geyser instead of (or alongside) direct cash support

Thanks again — hope this is helpful.

3 Likes
25

Thanks for the great insights here, and appreciate you asking for feedback before submitting Milestone 3.

From our side, we’d only support this approach under very tight conditions, specifically to avoid artificial success signals and preserve the integrity of All-or-Nothing.

In practice, that means:

  • Support would only apply to campaigns that have already reached ~90% organically and are close to closing (1-2 days away) and need no more than $1k per project (maximum).

  • The intent is not to rescue weak campaigns, but to help strong, community-backed projects cross the finish line

  • Any support would be positioned as community amplification at the very end, not a substitute for creator outreach or demand

  • Also important to note: success begets success, and we want to help support success to have those success stories needed to create more creator demand for great projects.

The key test for us is whether the community has already clearly spoken. If a project cannot get close to the finish line on its own, then “nothing” is still the correct signal. We would not want to blur that line.

So it’s really about converting near-complete, community-validated efforts into visible, real-world successes that can serve as credible proof points for AON.

We agree on the importance of transparency and guardrails - so we can add comments to this Post whenever these funds get allocated. If they do not get used for this use case, the funds will be used for other marketing endeavors - such as more marketing content or amplifying the mini-documentary.

Thanks again for the great points.

Based on the feedback, I feel confident to submit this project onchain tomorrow morning. Wish us luck! :handshake:

2 Likes
26

Stelios,
Thanks for your reply on the additional $2k request.

As Milestone 3 is currently up for vote, could you please share the links to the completed Milestone 3 deliverables as originally scoped (prior to the proposed adjustment)?

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I did see a presentations link shared by @Kaf_Anode — please confirm whether that is intended to count as the Milestone 3 mini-documentary.

Thanks — this would be helpful as we consider the vote.

Edit / clarification: Upon reviewing further, see that Milestone 3 vote is intended to approve the disbursement based on commitment to deliver, rather than proof of completed deliverables. Will be glad to track progress

1 Like
DAOstar Delegate Thread (rev)
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Hi @Stelios,

We are glad to see the progress your team has made and multiple successful campaigns on your platform. We just voted for the milestone 3 proposal, but we have one concern on a milestone 2 deliverable.

As @Axia briefly touched on this topic, from our perspective, this milestone should aim for achieving an integration with platforms other than Geyser. Have you discussed any potential integrations with other platforms?

1 Like
28

Hi Tane, thanks for the good wishes.

The Milestone 2 deliverable states: “:white_check_mark: At least one platform integrates this AON functionality through a live project launch” - here Geyser is not mentioned or excluded. We are sorry this was a source of confusion. The reason for this is that the Grant was not submitted by Geyser per se but by Stelios and Mick as individuals (as per Rootstock Collective request). This was then open sourced in order for anyone to use this functionality.

Milestone 3 is similarly focused on spreading the word about this Open Source AON functionality broadly and mentioning any platform that will integrate it.

As Geyser, we’re working on ways to make it easier to implement for other platforms, but are currently prioritizing helping creators to on-board and launch AON projects.

Hope this helps, and happy to answer any further questions.

1 Like
29

Understood. Thanks for the clarifications, @Stelios. Looking forward to the successful campaigns and the growth of Geyser and the AON tool usage!

2 Likes
30

Clean execution on Milestone 1, @Stelios.

The open architecture here sets a good precedent. Instead of building a single integration, you’re building infrastructure that can compound across the ecosystem.

I hope the extra marketing funds help fostering visibility and adoption.

Curious to see what other platforms pick this up alongside Geyser.

2 Likes
31

Milestone 3 Progress update

We’re progressing with a video explainer for All or Nothing powered by Rootstock, working with a strong creator to bring it to life.

On the creator side, we didn’t find enough high-quality partners for announcement campaigns, so we came together as a team and thought of alternative approaches - where the aim was ‘how can we spread the word of All or Nothing crowdfunding to the people that need it most and currently lack the tools and knowledge”

So, we came up with the idea of focusing on fund grassroots activation through ~5-6 circular economies globally - and make them our distribution network!

Each will host a Bitcoin crowdfunding workshop introducing All or Nothing, with funds directly seeding projects that come out of the workshop. So the funds would be sent directly to the projects on Geyser created within the Bitcoin Crowdfunding workshops in the circular economies hubs.

This shift channels value directly into the ecosystem while driving education of these tools. More updates coming soon.

This grassroots approach will take us in the right direction rather than focusing acquisition via content.

Current status: we identified the 5-6 circular economies in Africa, South America and Asia, prepared the slide deck for them to use to present about Bitcoin crowdfunding and gave them an introduction to the content. We have 3 committed partners already!

In terms of overall All or Nothing progress updates, projects are being funded successfully with AON, with both these projects crossing 100% mark:

A new important project just launched: Proof of Work by Paco de la India, he’s looking to raise $10k, so this will be the most important project, and the first book.

Help us share his announcement here: https://x.com/RunwithBitcoin/status/2039362440748728406?s=20

Let me know if you have any questions!

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Thanks for the update, @Stelios. Good to see both Tools for Bitcoin Study Hubs and Love is the Cure crossing the 100% funding mark, and the Proof of Work book project is a promising test case for AON at a higher funding target.

We have a few questions on the Milestone 3 progress. The approved deliverables were (1) at least 7 multilingual content pieces and (2) a mini-documentary about Bitcoin crowdfunding via AON. The pivot to grassroots workshops is an interesting alternative, but it’s a materially different approach from what was approved, so it’s worth getting clarity on the scope change and what success looks like.

On the original deliverables: is the video explainer intended to fulfill the mini-documentary deliverable? (The X link shared is for Paco’s book campaign, not the AON explainer itself.) And are the 7 multilingual content pieces still planned in some form, or do the workshop materials fully replace them?

On the workshops: the concept has potential, but we’d like to understand the expected impact on the Rootstock ecosystem specifically. A few questions:

  • What are the target metrics for each workshop? For example: number of attendees, number of AON projects launched on Geyser as a result, and total funding volume routed through AON from those projects.
  • How will you measure whether workshop participants continue using AON after the initial session, rather than it being a one-time activity?
  • What is the timeline for the first workshops to run? With 3 of 5-6 partners committed, is there a target date for the first one?

The original M3 was scoped for October 2025, so we’d appreciate a revised timeline that lets us track progress going forward.

33

Thanks @Stelios

Thanks for the update and great to hear about projects being funded successfully.

Two points from our side:

On the $2k campaign top-up fund: Could you confirm whether the $2k was deployed, and if so, which campaigns received support and in what amounts?

On Milestone 3 scope: Echoing @Tane ‘s concerns. The approved deliverables were specific — 7 multilingual content pieces and a mini-documentary — with a mention of a comparable and thus improving on tens of thousands of impressions for roughly $200 per content piece.

The grassroots workshop model may well be a better approach, but it is a material change from what was approved. What is the expected reach of the workshop strategy, and how does it compare to the impact the original content approach was projecting? In essence, what is the path to impact?

Thanks again.

34

Thanks for the update @Stelios, makes sense to stay flexible if the original plan isn’t working.

Like others mentioned, the current direction is different from what was originally approved, especially after the $2k top-up. How does this grassroots approach connect to that?

On measurement, the original content plan had clearer KPIs (e.g. impressions, CTR), while the grassroots model is harder to quantify , would be good to get more clarity on how success will be measured here.

And I also curious, how long did it take to decide the content strategy wasn’t working and move to this new direction, given it’s already been ~2 months since M3 was approved? From the update, it seems things are still mostly at the prep stage (identifying hubs, preparing materials).

Would it be possible to share the slide deck (if it’s ready)? And which partners have committed so far?

Thanks!

1 Like
35

Thanks for the thoughtful questions, this is helpful.

You’re right this is a slight pivot. We couldn’t find enough high-quality creators to execute multilingual content at the level we want, and high quality creators are too expensive for this small budget. So instead of forcing low-quality output, we shifted to something higher impact: activating real users through workshops.

Importantly, the target market has not changed. We are still focused on people in developing markets who previously lacked access to Bitcoin crowdfunding. The difference is we’re now reaching them directly on the ground instead of through content. We believe this is a positive change.

The video explainer will fulfill the mini-documentary deliverable. So yes this is still happening. For multilingual content, we’re embedding it into workshop materials that can be reused and translated locally, rather than producing standalone campaigns.

For workshops, we’re targeting 20 attendees per workshop, and we’re tasking the Hub workshop presenter to host a pitch competition of ideas to launch as fundraisers or All or Nothing Campaigns. The participants will then be converting into Rootstock creators. We expect around 3-5 new AON or Open Fundraiser projects per workshop, and $2k-$5k in funding per workshop. We’ll track whether participants continue using AON beyond the initial session and stay closely engaged with each hub. We’ll be providing impact reports once these take place (see first one here) .

We have 4 partners confirmed, with most confirmed to be taking place in April. Over the next 4-6 weeks we’ll run workshops, deliver the video, and start reporting on results.

In short, we moved from content about AON to actual usage of AON, within the same target market. We believe this drives more meaningful adoption and we’ll report outcomes clearly.

See updates on how funds are being deployed transparently here: Rootstock Milestones - Google Sheets

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On the $2k top-up fund: this was not deployed to campaigns like Tools for Bitcoin Study Hubs or Love is the Cure. Funds were used for the viral AON campaign (BN Media) and the AON explainer video (in progress).

Note: funds were received after BTC dropped from ~$6,000 to ~$4,695, and deployment was delayed due to the Rootstock treasury being empty. As a result, the top-up fund is now effectively exhausted, and we may need to use our own resources to continue supporting campaigns.

On M3 scope and impact: agreed this is a shift. Content at this budget would likely drive low-quality reach with weak conversion.

The workshop model focuses on depth. Instead of paying creators for reach, we are onboarding users directly into the flow, helping them create and launch campaigns. This creates a much tighter link to actual conversion and usage of AON.

Per workshop we’re aiming for ~20 participants, 3-5 projects, $2k funding each. Across 5-6 workshops: ~100+ participants, 15-30 projects, $10k-$40k via AON.

37

On the connection to the original plan and the $2k top-up: the intent was always to drive adoption of AON. Initially we explored content + distribution via creators, but it became clear fairly quickly that with this budget, we wouldn’t get the quality or reach needed for meaningful conversion. Rather than continue down a low-impact path, we pivoted to a model that directly drives usage.

On measurement: agreed it’s different, but still measurable. Instead of impressions and CTR, we’re tracking number of participants, projects created, funding raised, and whether creators continue using AON after the workshop. The focus is on actual usage and retention rather than top-of-funnel metrics.

On timing: it took us a few weeks of outreach and evaluation to realize the content approach wasn’t viable at the quality bar we want. Since then, we’ve been setting up the workshop model, confirming partners, and preparing materials. We now have 6 partners that are going to be finalizing the workshops within the next week or two - latest this month. See first one here: https://x.com/NodeNationSV/status/2042000073505055055?s=20. The beautiful thing is that this approach can scale into the future.

Also, we had some big delays with the funds deployment as we waited 1-2 weeks or so to receive the funds, that were stuck in an empty Rootstock Treasury. This also resulted in the funds we received dropping from $6,000 to $4,695, due to the price of Bitcoin.

Happy to share the slide deck, will send it over. Current partners include circular economies across El Salvador, Kenya, and others we’re finalizing.

Slide decks (in different languages): Impact Fund - Google Drive

Transparent Funds deployment and list of hubs: Rootstock Milestones - Google Sheets

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Milestone 3 and Grant Completion Update

Hi everyone,

We’re sharing this update to close the loop on Milestone 3 and mark the completion of the All-or-Nothing crowdfunding grant on Rootstock.

Completing the All-or-Nothing grant

This grant started with a clear goal: build an open-source All-or-Nothing crowdfunding primitive on Rootstock, deploy it in production, and drive real-world adoption. Across the three milestones, this has now been completed:

  • Milestone 1 delivered the open-source contract, CLI tooling, local development environment, tests, documentation, and cross-chain integration support.

  • Milestone 2 brought the contract to mainnet through Geyser’s production integration, including security review, deployment instructions, documentation, and live project usage. The open-source repo is available here.

  • Milestone 3 focused on promotion, go-to-market, creator education, and grassroots adoption.

Milestone 3 completion

For Milestone 3, we originally planned to focus more on creator-led content. As shared in previous updates, we adjusted this after realizing the available budget would not produce the quality or conversion we were aiming for.

Instead, we shifted toward grassroots activation through Bitcoin circular economies. The goal remained the same: drive adoption of All-or-Nothing crowdfunding. The method became more direct: teach communities how to use Bitcoin crowdfunding tools, help them launch projects, and seed real campaigns through workshops.

The Milestone 3 budget was originally $6,000 after the approved top-up. Due to BTC price movement and treasury deployment delays, the actual amount received and deployed was around $4,695.

These funds went toward grassroots workshops, creator and awareness content, the All-or-Nothing explainer video, and ecosystem activation around live Rootstock-powered campaigns.

Most funds have now been deployed, and most workshops have been completed successfully. There is one remaining workshop/project flow where the workshop has happened and the project has been created, but the final project setup is not complete yet. Because of this, the payout for that specific flow is still pending. You can see the live dashboard here

Once this is finalized, we’ll be happy to share a short follow-up if useful to the community. For the purpose of this grant, however, this post closes the process. The core deliverables have been completed, the adoption work has been carried out, and the remaining item is an operational follow-up rather than an open grant milestone.

Beyond All-or-Nothing: Prism contract

Building the All-or-Nothing contract and going through the Rootstock grant process helped us better understand Rootstock’s value as the smart contract layer of Bitcoin, and gave us deeper familiarity with the stack.

This directly contributed to us building the Prism contract, which was later deployed by Geyser as part of its Rootstock payment infrastructure. Together, AON and Prism have made it easier for Geyser to integrate Rootstock into live funding flows, and we hope these primitives can support more platforms over time.

Impact

Looking only at Geyser’s Rootstock activity in May 2026:

  • 1.164 RBTC in total monthly movement, including funds received and withdrawn

  • 0.7 RBTC through All-or-Nothing crowdfunding

  • 0.46 RBTC through open fundraising / Prism flows

  • 0.428 RBTC received

  • 0.736 RBTC sent

  • 197 total transactions

Rootstock is now part of the wider Geyser funding journey through All-or-Nothing crowdfunding and open fundraising via Prism for every project.

We appreciate the Rootstock Collective community’s support, questions, and feedback throughout this process. That feedback helped us improve the go-to-market approach.

What’s next

The Rootstock Collective team has also encouraged us to apply for the Builders grant. In the coming days, we’ll submit a draft proposal to continue this work and deepen our role as Rootstock builders.

As we close this grant and prepare the next proposal, we’d welcome any final thoughts, feedback, or suggestions from the community.

1 Like
[2606 Builder Activation] Stelios & Mick (Geyser Team)
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Thanks for seeing this grant through to completion, @Stelios. The build side has been a strong example of how to deliver: open-source contracts shipped, a mainnet deployment with a live integration, and consistent updates throughout. The funds dashboard is appreciated too; the workshop, participant, and spend detail there fills in most of the delivery picture.

Before we do a full review of the Milestone 3 closure on our side, could you complete the record on three points?

  1. The projects created through the workshops: links to them on Geyser and the amounts raised so far, so the results can be read against the funding targets you set when outlining the pivot.
  2. The AON explainer video: the dashboard marks it done and paid, but we could not find a link to the finished video. Could you share it?
  3. The May figures you shared are platform-wide. Roughly what share traces back to workshop-launched projects?

Since the Builders grant proposal is around the corner, having these on the record will let delegates evaluate the new ask against a complete delivery baseline rather than open questions.

1 Like
40

Thanks for the review and for recognizing the build delivery, mainnet integration, updates, and funds dashboard.

To complete the record:

  1. AON explainer video

Completed video: https://x.com/geyserfund/status/2050161146661916847/video/1, which is also displayed on our website, guides and is evergreen material that will keep being used as an explainer of the power of All-or-Nothing built on Rootstock.

Other content produced: Lightning News on X: "5 Powerful Websites https://t.co/3ssSmebevY" / X

  1. .Workshop-launched projects

Based on the current dashboard, the projects that were on-boarded raised the following amounts:

The dashboard currently records around 100 workshop participants and 12 projects created or in progress. Full description is in the dashboard.

  1. Workshop share of May figures

The workshop share of May volume is small compared to the total, at roughly 1% of total Rootstock movement on Geyser.

The May volume was driven mainly by Geyser’s broader organic usage of AON and Prism, while the workshops served as a targeted creator-onboarding and grassroots adoption channel. This was also an important learning from Milestone 3: the strongest traction came from product-led growth and direct relationships with users, rather than broad paid promotion.

In hindsight, the workshops did not yet translate into large immediate volume, partly because there was limited promotion around them from both the local partner side and our side. However, they produced valuable learnings about the importance of strong local partners, direct onboarding, and repeatable creator education - this lead to the upcoming product release of Geyser Field Partners (to be released next week). So learnings that came from this growth approach have directly informed new product developments on our end that can unlock more capital for creators and communities.

Overall, we see the grant as a strong success: it delivered the open-source AON primitive, brought it into production through Geyser, expanded into Prism, generated real Rootstock volume, and helped us learn which adoption channels work best.

We’ll keep the dashboard updated as pending workshop projects go live and funding results develop. We’d also welcome any feedback from the community on these learnings as we prepare the next proposal.