We're community-governed and we're using the technology of our industry to build a crypto-native political organization.
For the 2022 election cycle, HODLpac will be unveiling a quadratic funding application that will amplify the crypto community's political giving and lay the groundwork for HODLpac to become a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
How it Works
There are two ways of donating money to crypto-friendly candidates (and against unfriendly ones) with HODLpac. See the "Donating to HODLpac" page for more information.
Starting in late 2021, HODLpac will launch an application that allows members of the crypto community to donate directly to any candidate they want to support. We will do this during live "Donation Rounds."
During HODLpac's Donation Rounds, donations made by individuals to candidates will be matched according to a quadratic funding algorithm. Funds donated directly to HODLpac will act as the matching pool. Like Gitcoin Grants but for politics.
When individuals make donations during Donation Rounds, three things happen:
1.
These donations are counted towards one's individual contribution limits to each candidate. The Federal Elections Committee (FEC) caps donations from individuals to candidates at $2,900 per election. Primary elections, general elections, and runoff elections (when applicable) each count as different elections for FEC contribution limits. HODLpac will have active Donation Rounds during the primaries and general elections (and runoffs if applicable).
2.
Donations from individuals are matched by HODLpac. In conjunction with providing an easy way for individuals to donate directly to candidates, HODLpac itself is also raising funds from the crypto community. Funds raised to HODLpac act as the matching pool that amplifies donations by individuals to candidates they want to support. Check out wtfisqf.com for more detail on the benefits of quadratic funding.
3.
Individuals earn HODLvote tokens, HODLpac's governance token. Participants in HODLpac Donation Rounds will earn HODLvote tokens, which will be used for HODLpac community governance. See the Community Governance page for more detail.
HODLpac will release a blog post soon explaining the lessons learned from 2020 and why we think the structure explained above is the best way forward in 2022.
For now, here's a rundown:
1.
Bigger Impact. We can get more money to candidates that deserve it by using this structure. HODLpac combines "earmarked donations" with a quadratic funding matching pool to vastly increase the amount of money we’re able to raise for candidates. Candidates can receive up to $2,900 from each individual donor per election cycle + the $5,000 max contribution from HODLpac per election cycle (rather than only $5,000 from HODLpac itself).
2.
Avoid Partisanship. HODLpac is a nonpartisan PAC, having donated to 5 Republicans and 5 Democrats in 2020 as decided by community vote. Nonetheless, something we observed during the 2020 election cycle was that most community members voted along party lines when helping decide who HODLpac should support. HODLpac’s new quadratic funding design avoids this potential source of friction by allowing individuals to donate only to candidates they are willing to support (while having those funds amplified by the matching pool). HODLpac will also have separate matching pools for each political party, giving matching pool donors the ability to support one party over another.
3.
Progressive Decentralization. Gitcoin DAO has laid out a model road map for HODLpac to follow for its own progressive decentralization. Donors to HODLpac’s matching pool and participants in HODLpac donation rounds will be airdropped governance tokens to steer the direction of the organization, e.g. setting matching pool amounts in future donation rounds or allocating independent expenditure funds from the Super PAC.