Retro Funding 4: Impact Metrics, a Collective Experiment

Optimism's Retro Funding 4 round shifts from badgeholders voting on individual projects to selecting and weighting impact metrics, built through surveys, a May 7th workshop and a post-workshop survey. The first survey found balanced interest in quantitative growth and qualitative impact, a strong preference for sustained engagement over one-time actions, and concern about gaming the system. Open Source Observer (OSO) is working to expand the trusted user model, which currently uses three trust signals (Farcaster IDs, Passport Scores and EigenTrust by Karma3 Labs), and will test options such as Optimist NFT holders and ENS ownership. Badgeholders will test the metrics in the week of June 3rd before a final session decides the set used in the round.