Case Study: How ECF Uses Sablier to Power Transparent, Accountable Web3 Grants

Overview

The Ethereum Community Fund (ECF) launched Pensieve, a decentralized, community-powered knowledge base for crypto projects. Built to strengthen accountability and transparency across the ecosystem, Pensieve enables communities to record, verify, and track project histories.

To complement this mission, ECF introduced a 10-week open grant campaign that rewards the most accountable projects validated through Pensieve. To make this process fully onchain and continuous, ECF chose Sablier as its streaming infrastructure for real-time payouts.

Challenge

Traditional grant disbursements are opaque, slow, and prone to coordination inefficiencies. ECF wanted a way to:

• Reward projects gradually based on measurable accountability,
• Increase transparency for both funders and recipients,
• Align incentives between project milestones and payments.

Solution

Using Sablier Lockup, ECF now streams funds directly to weekly grant winners — providing:

• Automated onchain disbursement: funds are streamed continuously, no manual payouts.
• Instant visibility: anyone can verify ongoing funding streams onchain.
• Incentive alignment: projects earn over time, encouraging sustained accountability.

"Public goods deserve sunlight. Too often, early projects — the ones without tokens, hype, or venture backing — are left unfunded and unseen. The Perennial Grant Experiment aims to change that by putting every decision, profile, and payout in the open via Sablier. No hidden judges. No closed-door committees. Just an ecosystem that learns together and funds in public." — Cathy, Researcher, Lead of Operation and Comms at ECF

The most validated projects receive a Sablier stream from ECF’s treasury, visible to both community members and auditors. This setup turns the grant process into a living, transparent ledger of trust.

Results

• Radical transparency: Each grant stream is publicly verifiable, aligning perfectly with Pensieve’s ethos of open accountability.
• Improved efficiency: No more batch payments — Sablier automates everything.
• Community engagement: Sablier’s integration encouraged stronger participation from ECF’s network and Web3 builders.