Sharing my experience of missing out on GG18

Sep 3, 2023

The first mistake I made was not focusing on Web3 current affairs in time; the second mistake I made was not knowing the withdrawal limit of the exchange in advance; the third mistake I made was not knowing the operation mechanism of the cross-chain bridge in advance an error.

At 11:16 on August 29, 2023 (UTC+8), I learned about the news of "Gitcoin's 18th round of public fund raising" (GG18) from the special article of @高construction teacher.

Being curious about Web3, and perhaps a bit curious, I decided to give it a try.

At this time, there are less than 9 hours left before the end of GG18.

Not focusing on Web3 current affairs in time was the first mistake I made.

First, get more than 20 points on Gitcoin Passport to prove your status as a Web3 citizen.

Referring to the teaching of @0xYCL on HackMD, after getting the guaranteed score of Web2 community accounts from Github to Linkedin, I chose Coinbase and Civic as the sprint items, but I didn't expect to encounter problems at the beginning.

“Country not supported currently. Try Coinbase Wallet instead!”

It seems that this may need to be solved by calling a VPN. When I was thinking about quitting, I accidentally discovered that registering through the verification window that popped up in Gitcoin Passport could bypass regional restrictions.

This level of hardship is naturally just a foretaste. To pass the Civic Pass, you need a little Web3 foundation: you must have enough money in your wallet to pay the Gas Fee.

I recently read in an article by @豆奶师 that the centralized exchange MaiCoin began supporting the transfer of NT$ deposits to XTZ in May last year. Due to my own interest in "South", I applied for it in mid-July this year, and was upgraded to level 2, in case the future may be necessary to cast the Tezos chain on the NFT. This time it came in handy very temporarily and just right.

The Polygon chain with low Gas Fee has become the first choice for verification.

MATIC's minimum trading volume on MaiCoin is 2.4, so I spent NT$44 first.

Warm reminder, buying coins impulsively like this is a bad example. Regardless of short-term or long-term speculation, if you want to invest, please always pay attention to the market. As a newbie in the currency circle, I still lack some skills.

Not understanding the withdrawal restrictions of the exchange in advance was the second mistake I made.

When I wanted to transfer the MATIC in MaiCoin to Little Fox, I discovered that the minimum withdrawal amount is 20.4MATIC. Compared to Little Fox, which is about to cost a child, it’s less than half the price, but it still requires another deposit. But the really tricky part is the high-risk notifications that come with it.

I contacted MaiCoin customer service by email. I was worried about being scammed. After two hours of exchanging information, I got a reply that "the review will take 3-7 days, please wait patiently." : "Your MATIC withdrawal has been completed."

What a twist. I can't help but sigh.

At this time, there are still more than 3 hours left before the end of GG18.

So I hurried home and turned on the computer, including face scanning. Finally, with the addition of Coinbase and Civic, I scored 20.88 points in Gitcoin Passport and passed at a low altitude.

However, when I pressed "Submit your donation!" on the GG18 page, I discovered that this donation did not support the Polygon chain. Regardless of whether it is Ethereum or Optimism, I happen to have no assets.

Not understanding the working mechanism of the cross-chain bridge in advance was the third mistake I made.

I have tried Stargate and cBridge, but it seems that they cannot directly convert MATIC to ETH, but will be cross-chain in the form of stable coins. Therefore, I converted part of MATIC to USDC in the hope of converting again. But in the end it was impossible to break through the bottleneck within the time limit.