Before reading the following, I’ll clarify that I would like for the Archimedes’ Lever to be included in this round because I believe our Gitcoin community is ground zero for sourcing ideas that retain merit and can genuinely impact the world for (public) good.

After participating in my first Monthly Stewards Sync today, I better understand what can serve the Gitcoin DAO to continue growing. Partnerships with organizations like the American Cancer Society were mentioned, and this resonated with my aims to collaborate with the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) and the Clinical TMS Society (CTMSS). As you can see in the project image, Neuromodulation is one of the core inputs from the periphery that will mobilize the Archimedes’ Lever. 

This has been on my radar for some time now, and it just so happens that Neuromodulation and web3 (Gitcoin & Public Goods) face the same challenges: lack of awareness, misinformation & dis-information, and limited funding. But herein lies the solution, as both sides can benefit from coordinating. There is a Co-Incidence of Wants. Gitcoin 🤝 Neuromodulation. Gitcoin stands to gain by onboarding more people to web3 through its portals like the Gitcoin Passport, by spreading awareness about Public Goods, QF, and Gitcoin Allo, and also financially by drawing in more sponsors. Neuromodulation community finds a platform to surface awareness about neuromodulation interventions, help a new group of people learn about this technology, and to use Gitcoin Allo for future rounds to source and fund innovative Neuromodulation ideas. And so much more that web3 has to offer.

But before we can facilitate such organization wide moves, it’d be prudent to begin at the individual level. This is where my Private Practice comes into play. I’d like for this to mark the beginning of IRL to web3 healthcare bridgooors. Similar to the way in which dApps like Hop or Orbiter scaffold cross-chain bridging, trusted individuals & entities can facilitate IRL to web3 bridging. Physicians who have demonstrated 12+ years of Proof-of-Work & Proof-of-Stake to their profession fall in this category. This is as close as it gets to trust absent any contractual obligations.

There is no easy way to state this b/c healthcare is expensive, so the ask is: $100,000 for working capital. 

This will give me runway for a few months until the bull market returns, and fund the purchase of an EEG machine which will be used to generate biomarker profiles for patients & community members. Combined with the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation machine at my clinic, therapeutic response can be monitored objectively. Some of the capital will be used to incentivize Gitcoin Passport and Decentralized Identity acquisition as well. Previously, I offered to onboard the patients in my community for a fee of $150 circa Gitcoin Citizens Round – imagine the surprise when the dynamic flips! Instead of paying (via health insurance) and being forced to take psychotropic medications that don’t work and damage health with side effects, patients will experience something truly life-transforming: earning some cash to learn about web3, while simultaneously receiving TMS. Above all, it will offer people renewed hope for the future. For $500, “I’m willing to do anything that will allow me access to that money,” was the message relayed to me by a former patient who is also a medical resident in training.

The system is broken.

Following the enormous support I received in the Gitcoin Citizens round, I’ve been working on educational content about web3, Gitcoin, and Public Good. This is almost ready to go. I plan to begin publishing it after reinstating my clinic website. I’ll be merging my web3 & IRL identities to legitimize presence as a Psychiatrist.

If this funding request is approved, then I can invite people to my clinic for web3 onboarding sessions AND mental health optimization. Elsewhere on our forum I’ve introduced how innovations in Elastic Decentralized Finance can be integrated so that GTC, Hypercerts, and other Proofs of Impact can be configured to accrue value. This can be extended to the work done at my clinic as well, and the floodgates open for a better healthcare system to be designed through a framework of Public Good. That is to say, this investment WILL make its way back to our Gitcoin DAO down the line (I hope we have established such mutual trust by now). Neuromodulation is not limited to in-person settings; e.g., remotely supervised tDCS can be made available to Gitcoin citizens.

I wrote at length about this while I was filling out the Arbitrum DAO Grant. But I hesitated to submit it because I’m just not sure if the Arbitrum community is values aligned with Public Good in the same way that Optimism, PGN, and Gitcoin are. It’s also why I’m reticent to publicly broadcast these ideas to other communities on governance forums – because I want to make sure we do this right. Pharmacotherapy has already fallen into the wrong hands; we cannot allow this to happen with Neuromodulation. No VCs or mercenary capitalists otherwise, whatsoever.

In closing, if this message is better suitable for a different audience, please feel free to pass it along and put me in touch with them. 

Right now, it’s Time vs. Money. If web3 can front me the capital, then I can expedite the process instead of waiting a few more months until the numbers go up again. 