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The 14th edition of Funding the Commons brings together builders, researchers, and funders to explore a critical frontier:
How do we design infrastructure that meets real needs—where systems are broken, unreliable, or simply don’t exist?
Set in Argentina
a country building through constraint—this edition grounds public goods innovation in the urgency of the present. We are focusing on RealFi: infrastructure for the real world and tools designed to be used.
What to expect?
Talks and panels with builders, researchers, funders, and policymakers
Demos from the Funding the Commons Argentina Residency
(Oct 24 – Nov 14)
Unconference and workshop tracks
Office hours with civic partners, mentors, and aligned funders
Strategic conversations on funding pathways, governance models, and real-world pilots
The Funding the Commons community has blown me away. To have such a unique, talented, smart group of people all in one room—people from very different walks of life and organizations who deeply care about the mission and advancing the space forward—is incredible.
Jarrod Barnes
Head of Ecosystem, NEAR Foundation
RealFi meets Argentina
RealFi Meets Argentina
Argentina has long been a proving ground for financial and civic innovation. Builders here respond to economic uncertainty, capital controls, and institutional fragmentation with real tools designed for everyday use.
From early experiments in digital democracy like DemocracyOS, to crypto-native financial platforms like Ripio and Buenbit, to public interest initiatives like Quinto Impacto and Open Collective, local teams have consistently developed infrastructure grounded in practical need and collective purpose.
At Funding the Commons: Buenos Aires, we’ll explore problems that matter to everyday life—how to send money across borders, coordinate shared treasuries, participate in governance, verify identity with privacy, build open AI for the public good, and protect shared environmental resources. Hosting the event during DevConnect is a chance to connect these challenges with global builders.
RealFi Hack Tracks
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Funding Systems
Transparent, flexible ways to allocate shared resources.
Financial Access:
Savings, payments, and money tools for people outside traditional rails.
Coordination Infrastructure:
Tools for groups to act, govern, and respond—online or off.
Identity & Trust:
Privacy-first systems for verification, reputation, and credentials.
AI for Public Use:
Auditable, small-scale models that serve real community needs.
Climate and Commons Governance:
Bioregional governance and climate-aligned infrastructure.
Conference
Tracks
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Funding Systems
New ways to move and allocate shared resources: grants, treasuries, quadratic flows, and programmable funding.
Financial Access
Payments, savings, remittances, credit, and stablecoin tools designed for everyday use where traditional rails fall short.
Coordination & Governance
Tools for collective action, civic participation, shared ownership, and bottom-up governance in both digital and physical communities.
Identity & Trust
Verification, credentials, and portable reputation systems that prioritize privacy and autonomy.
AI for Public Use
Auditable, open AI models built to support coordination, decision-making, and public infrastructure.
Climate & Commons Governance
Systems for tracking, managing, and protecting shared environmental resources through open data and collaborative governance.
What to expect as a builder
You’ll join a remote cohort of developers, designers, and researchers all building toward one goal: deployable infrastructure. To get there, we’ve designed the hackathon to be structured but flexible, with just enough scaffolding to help you ship.
Teams of 1–5 builders
Join solo or with a small team. If you're coming in alone, no problem—many people are. You’ll have chances to connect with others before and during the hack if you want to team up.
Weekly office hours with experienced builders
Talk through your challenges, get unstuck, or pressure-test an idea. You'll have access to people who've built core infrastructure, launched projects, and navigated the edge cases.
Hands-on workshops from supporting organizations
Expect sessions on technical tools, design principles, real-world use cases, and emerging coordination patterns—from people building in the open and learning as they go.
Midpoint check-in to share progress and get feedback:
Halfway through the hack, we’ll bring everyone together to share early demos, ask for help, and exchange ideas. It's a moment to recalibrate, connect, and build momentum heading into the final stretch.
All coordination through DevSpot:
DevSpot is going to be our home base. It’s where you’ll share updates, ask questions, post deliverables, and stay in sync with mentors, teammates, and the rest of the hack community.
Community partner highlight
Crecimiento is Argentina’s leading Web3 ecosystem catalyst—bringing together builders, investors, and institutional partners to co-create the country’s onchain future. Their Aleph pop-up city activates a vibrant network of civic technologists, startup founders, and public infrastructure thinkers shaping the next wave of decentralized tools. As a key partner for Funding the Commons: Buenos Aires, Crecimiento helps ground the event in local insight, talent, and momentum.
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
This is your Testimonial quote. Give your customers the stage to tell the world how great you are!
Areas of Focus
We supported teams working on projects in areas including (but not limited to) the areas described below. See links for examples of projects our grantee community has worked on.
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Coordination and Funding infrastructure
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Stealth Donations & Meta-Addresses
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Aggregation indexer for civic and public data
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Sybil Attack Detection AI/ML Tool
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Trustless apps
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Quantitative and qualitative Impact Evaluators
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Hypercerts: Impact Certification
Projects & Achievements from Berlin Residency
Residents contributed to the public goods funding ecosystem through their projects. The outputs included an open-source software tool, library, or system, along with a well-documented repository. We also encouraged participants to share their knowledge through blog posts or presentations at future Funding the Commons events
Past Hackathon
Virtual Hackathon 2023
From 1-30 September 2023, Funding the Commons hosted its first-ever Builder Residency — a transformative, month-long, immersive experience that took place in Berlin, Germany.
Attendees experienced the power of collaboration and innovation as builders and hackers came together to focus on the advancement of public goods funding infrastructure, impact evaluators, impact certification systems, and other elements of the public goods funding stack in both Web2 and Web3 applications.
We value open-source and the outputs of the residency are accessible and usable by the wider community, which is why we invited and accepted highly collaboration-minded individuals into our first (but certainly not last) residency program.
Testimonials
Community Love
Robert Rose
Speaker
This is your Testimonial section paragraph. It’s a great place to tell users how much you value your customers and their feedback.
Alex Smith
Robert Rose
This is your Testimonial section paragraph. It’s a great place to tell users how much you value your customers and their feedback.
Drew Carlyle
Robert Rose
This is your Testimonial section paragraph. It’s a great place to tell users how much you value your customers and their feedback.
Jessica Davis
Robert Rose
This is your Testimonial section paragraph. It’s a great place to tell users how much you value your customers and their feedback.