We've been following Octant for a while now, and we'll say it plainly: It's one of the most genuinely exciting experiments in public goods funding that web3 has produced. If you're new to it, check out our Octant Hub for the full picture.
Octant is built on top of the Golem Foundation's ETH staking rewards. Users lock GLM tokens, earn a share of those rewards, and decide how to allocate them: keep them, donate to vetted public goods projects, or both. Donated funds get matched by the Foundation, amplifying the impact of every contribution.
Over 11 epochs, the community has collectively directed over 2,800 ETH toward open-source projects, public infrastructure, and some of the most important work happening in the web3 ecosystem. That's not a small thing.
After 11 epochs on v1, Octant is migrating to a new version of the platform and it's a meaningful upgrade to how the whole system works.
Until now, everything ran on a strict 90-day clock. Miss the allocation window, and your ETH rewards are gone, with no second chances until the next cycle. Octant v2 removes that entirely.
With v2, rewards now accrue continuously over rolling 30-day periods, so there's no more waiting around for a quarterly window to open. Funding rounds can also run at different intervals and even at the same time, giving projects a lot more flexibility in how and when they get supported.
Perhaps most exciting is that the platform is being rebuilt as a shared primitive serving open infrastructure that any community or DAO can eventually deploy to run their own funding rounds, with their own token and their own rules.
Under the hood, v2 introduces Funding Vaults that deploy capital into DeFi yield strategies, alongside new allocation mechanisms including quadratic funding and quadratic voting.
The core idea is simple: your principal stays intact, and only the yield your assets generate flows toward funding. You're not giving anything up (aside from the risk associated with fluctuations in the price of the principal asset). Your money is just working harder.
As the Octant team put it: "Maybe this time next year, you'll be participating in multiple Octant v2 implementations across different ecosystems, proving that sustainable funding and high-quality preference aggregation can co-exist in web3 and beyond."
Epoch 11 is where it starts.
Epoch 11 is the final allocation window on v1 and it's open now through March 4. After that, v1 is being sunsetted.
To keep earning rewards and participating in future funding rounds, you'll need to move your locked GLM over to the new v2 contract. It's a one-time process, and it only takes a few minutes (we tested it ourselves!).
A couple of things are different this time: there are no matching funds (those are reserved for future v2 rounds), and the only donation recipient is Protocol Guild. Keep your ETH rewards, donate to Protocol Guild, or split between both. Entirely your call.
Once you've allocated, the migration itself is straightforward. The app walks you through three wallet transactions:
1. Unlock your GLM from the v1 contract: this releases your tokens from the old system
2. Approve the token allowance for v2: this gives the new contract permission to receive your GLM
3. Lock into the new contract: your GLM is now in v2 and will start earning rewards on April 1
Make sure not to close the migration modal until all three steps are done, and always verify the v2 contract address before signing: 0x7bee381d8ea5AE16459BcCD06ee5600bD0F1E86f.
One thing worth noting: the minimum lock for v2 is 100 GLM. If you have less than that, skip the in-app modal and head directly to glm.octant.app to lock it there instead.
Migration stays open until April 1. After that, only GLM locked in v2 earns rewards. Anything left in v1 stays safe but stops generating anything new. The earlier you move, the more you earn.
Nico from Octant put together a lovely step-by-step visual walkthrough of the full migration process which is worth a look before you start. The team is also very responsive on Discord and X if anything feels unclear.
We're genuinely excited to see where v2 takes things. Go migrate and be part of what comes next!
Support thoughtful, independent crypto journalism and help us continue highlighting blockchain’s potential for social and environmental impact.
cryptoaltruists.eth
