Staking Rewards first got exposed to <a href="https://www.stakingrewards.com/earn/meta-pool/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta Pool</a> during their launch as the first <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIT0T2LWkmY" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">liquid staking token on NEAR Protocol</a>, you can see the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZNCCPH_NQA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview</a> we did with their co-founder Claudio Cossio.



They announced last year that they were supporting Ethereum staking through a partnership with <a href="https://forum.ssv.network/t/ssv-x-meta-pool-grant-proposal-liquid-staking-platform/904" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SSV Network</a>, working on delivering on their vision to deliver a Liquid Staking platform on a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) for the blockchain community. Last week they went live with their <a href="https://blog.metapool.app/2023/07/17/meta-pool-eth-mainnet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">liquid staking platform on ETH</a> mainnet.



Fast forward and they have recently announced their  <a href="https://blog.metapool.app/2023/05/11/meta-pool-dao/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">V.0.1 of the Meta Pool DAO</a>, having now closed one round of voting and a second round about to finalize. As Meta Pool makes a transition to a full DAO, now they want to support projects in the Ethereum ecosystem who are currently building public goods and Regenerative Finance projects. 



And they have partnered with one of the leading platforms that are spearheading the funding of public goods. That is why we are keen to see how liquid staking can support the ecosystem.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Collaborating with Gitcoin to support public goods projects. </h2>



Meta Pool DAO was built by a decentralized team in Latin America, their cofounders are from Argentina and Mexico. We understood from their interviews in Staking Summit Lisbon that we wanted to build a protocol that would help everyone learn how to be custodians of the value they created through Decentralized Finance, check out the videos from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj8iQhS5rnk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Claudio</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8z1iNQTGYU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lucio at Staking Summit 2022</a>.



They are partnering with Gitcoin in order to support projects through the Meta Pool DAO protocol fees. The staking reward fees from the first 1000 ETH will be allocated to the community to benefit projects in emerging markets.That is how Meta Pool will fund the Summer Round focused on Latin American projects which will be part of the <a href="https://grants.gitcoin.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gitcoin Grants</a> round 18.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Proactive funding through education initiatives.</h2>



Projects that are eligible for funding will focus on helping educational initiatives around staking, decentralization and governance, since without an educated audience it is naive to expect adoption of any kind in emerging markets such as Latin America. This is what blockchain represents &#8211; a new way of building digital value and sovereign custody of the value created.



Some of the education themes are:



<ul>
<li>Proof of Stake</li>



<li>Decentralization</li>



<li>Governance &amp; Decentralized Autonomous Organizations</li>



<li>Decentralized front ends with NEAR Blockchain Operating System</li>
</ul>



There will be an official post on <a href="https://community.gitcoin.co/gitcoin-grantee-portal" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gitcoin Grantee portal</a> with all the LatAm Summer Round funding criteria, more information on that soon.



An important date to consider is August 1st is when submissions will be open and proactive funding of projects will start on September 1st.



This will be an interesting step forward towards DeFi protocols supporting common goods and allowing a wider adoption of blockchain technology in emerging markets.



With proactive funding work to spark educational content in the Latin America region and measuring the impact will be key challenges that the partnership will need to address.



For now bullish on PoS blockchain adoption globally, wishing <a href="https://www.gitcoin.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gitcoin</a> and <a href="https://www.metapool.app/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta Pool</a> a successful campaign on making that happen.

Proactive funding for ETH projects through the Meta Pool LST