Overview
This is a proposal outlining a Conditional Funding Market (CFM) to fund the most promising information defense technologies. It is an example of what could be designed as part of the Ethereum Growth CFM at Edge Esmeralda.
Context
Vitalik’s ‘My techno-optimism’ captured the spirit and imagination of many Ethereum builders with his vision of d/acc. Information defense is one area of d/acc Ethereum is uniquely positioned to lead in, showcasing its value as an open and permissionless system.
Ethereum has $60b staked to secure information stored onchain. Information defense extends this security into the world of objective and intersubjective truth, strengthening Ethereum’s ability to reason clearly and act effectively. Being able to distinguish truth from noise in adversarial conditions matters to everyone in Ethereum, for example:
- Builders can understand the impact of code before it’s deployed
- DAOs can evaluate a proposal’s impact before making a decision
- Individuals can cut through misinformation
How it works
The Accelerate Info Defense CFM will distribute capital to teams building meaningful information defense technology on Ethereum.
The key phases of a Conditional Funding Market (CFM), timelines are included as an example.
| Step | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Deployer defines a clear objective for the market. Butter translates the objective into a robust and manipulation-resistant target metric. | Advancing meaningful information defense technology. |
| Submissions | Projects submit proposals to achieve the objective. The deployer can select which projects are eligible to participate. | Any information defense technology. |
| Predictions | Forecasters predict the expected impact of each proposal on the target metric if they are each funded. | “Which information defense technology should we fund to maximize their increase in DAU?” |
| Funding | Funding is allocated to proposals based on the markets’ forecasts. | The top outcome(s) with the highest predicted impact receives the funding amount. |
| Resolution & Payout | Later, the markets resolve based on the actual change in the metric. Forecasters realize a profit or loss based on their forecast accuracy. | Outcome C increased DAUs by 33,000 which is used to resolve the metric. |
Draft market requirements
Overview
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Market Owner | Butter |
| Tentative Launch Date | June 1, 2025 |
| Objective | Advancing meaningful information defense technology |
| Target Metric | Daily active users of an information defense technology |
| Total Capital | $100,000* |
| Allocation per Proposal | Variable |
| Market Collateral | Play money |
| Proposers | Any information defense technology including: - Prediction Markets & Futarchy - Provenance & Authenticity - Oracles & Adjudication - Crowd Annotation & Deliberation - Sybil-resistant ID & Rep - ZKP & Privacy-Preserving Tools |
| Market Duration | Decision Period: 1 week Evaluation Period: 3 months |
*The total amount of capital and allocation per proposal will depend on the total funding commitments received.
Outline
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| Question Type | Scalar [0, 100,000] |
| Display Question | “Which information defense technology should we fund to maximize their increase in DAU?” |
| Decision Market | “Which information defense technology received [Allocation per Proposer] in funding during Accelerate Info Defense CFM Round #1?” |
| Conditional Scalar Market | “Between 0 and 100,000, what was the increase to DAU for funded_outcome between start_date and end_date?” |
Functions
| Rule | Description |
|---|---|
| Decision Rule | 1. Order outcomes by highest predicted metric, e.g., Outcome_1: 80k DAUs, Outcomw_2: 60k DAUs, etc. 2. Select top x outcome(s) 3. Cancel all markets for outcomes that do not receive funding |
| Funding Rule | Deployer distributes funding to outcomes as advised by the decision rule |
| Resolution Rule | Metrics Oracle reports DAUs achieved by the funded outcome(s) at a date approx. 3 months after the market concludes |
Market preview
How to contribute
If you believe in the promise of info defense, join the Accelerate Info Defense CFM. We are looking for individuals, DAOs, and teams for:
-
Compelling proposals to accelerate info defense
-
Financial contributions to fund winning proposals
-
Infrastructure support to track impact
-
Champions to help spread the word
If you are interested in supporting in any of the above capacities, join the Ethereum Growth CFM, comment below or get in touch with the Butter team.