According to Blockworks, as voting comes to an end on Optimism's public goods funding, a backlash has emerged against projects set to receive the funding. Critics argue that projects with solid financial backing should not receive these tokens and advocate for their distribution to contributors without financial backing. The Optimism Collective is retroactively disbursing approximately $53 million in OP tokens to reward people and projects who have contributed public goods to the popular layer-2. Voting on applicants ends on December 7.
Public goods in crypto are services, projects, or individuals that provide free services to chains or ecosystems, such as Ethereum's MEV relayers or protocols that allow forks of their code. The Optimism Collective, the governance and community arm of Optimism, is giving out 30 million OP, worth around $53 million at current prices, to those behind public goods in the third round of its retroactive public goods funding (RPGF).
Some Optimism community members want the layer-2's RPGF to support those who work for free while excluding public goods providers with other funding sources, particularly venture capital money. Among the most criticized RPGF applicants is the Web3 development platform Alchemy, which has raised over $500 million over multiple funding rounds with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Pantera Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The Optimism Collective's documentation states that VC-backed groups are eligible for funding, with voting based solely on potential impact to the collective. However, the debate continues as altcoin prices rise ahead of a possible bull run, and requests for native token-denominated DAO funds face increased scrutiny.