Optimism RetroPGF

Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) is Optimism's pioneering approach to ecosystem grants, based on the principle that 'it's easier to agree on what was useful than what will be useful.' Rather than traditional prospective grants, RetroPGF rewards projects, builders, and contributors who have demonstrably provided value to the Optimism ecosystem and Ethereum community. The program operates in rounds, with each round distributing 10-30 million OP tokens to hundreds of recipients. Funding decisions are made by the Citizens' House, a governance body of community members who evaluate impact across categories including developer tooling, infrastructure, education, community building, and OP Stack contributions. The model has been revolutionary in crypto funding, inspiring similar programs across Web3. Recipients range from individual developers and educators to established protocols and infrastructure providers. The program emphasizes public goods - projects that benefit the ecosystem broadly rather than extracting rent. RetroPGF complements Optimism's Grants Council which provides traditional prospective funding for new initiatives.