---
title: Allo Protocol
description: What is the Allo Protocol?
---

<div className="mb-12 mt-16 flex flex-col items-center">
  <a href="https://allo.gitcoin.co/">
  <img src="/Allo Header-1.png"
  alt="Allo Protocol: A general protocol for the efficient allocation of capital" />
  </a>
</div>

Allo Protocol is a set of smart contracts that enable the democratic allocation
and distribution of capital. The protocol was developed by [ Gitcoin
](https://www.gitcoin.co/) to power the Grants Stack, but is useful beyond
grants and [quadratic funding](https://allo.expert/mechanisms/quadratic-funding).

### Why a Protocol for Capital Allocation?

Web3 has provided an incredible set of tools for forming capital. But the processes
controlling the flow of a treasury, fund pool, or some other capital is too often
heavily manual, and friction filled. We have the technology to do better.

**Allo** gives communities a toolset to experiment with capital allocation. Pick
a mechanism (like [Quadratic Funding](https://allo.expert/mechanisms/quadratic-funding)),
eligibility criteria for projects and voters, and a way to distribute the capital
(lump sum, milestone-based payments, etc).

We charge communities to ask - "If our funding mechanism could look like anything,
what would we want?"

<div className="mb-12 mt-4 flex flex-col items-center">
  <a href="https://allo.expert/builds">
  <img src="/Use Cases - 1.png" 
  alt="Allo sample use cases" />
  </a>
</div>

### Learning More

You can use this documentation to get an [overview of the
protocol](/overview). We also welcome contributions, and would love to 
[get you involved](development/getting-involved.md). Finally, you can head to
[@alloprotocol](https://x.com/alloprotocol) to keep up with protocol releases.

### Community

- [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/alloprotocol)
- [ Telegram ](https://t.me/+2OHfGICIvPQxODFh)
- [ GitHub discussion ](https://github.com/orgs/allo-protocol/discussions)
- Discord (see [Getting Involved](development/getting-involved.md))

### Current Status

Allo v2 is live on mainnets ([supported networks](https://github.com/allo-protocol/allo-v2/blob/main/contracts/README.md)).

Allo 2.1 is in preview on Sepolia ([address](https://github.com/allo-protocol/allo-v2.1/tree/dev/contracts#deployed-contracts)).


## Allo Protocol vs  Grants Stack

In addition to Allo Protocol, Gitcoin has built platforms to utilize it such as
[Grants Stack](https://www.gitcoin.co/grants-stack).

Allo Protocol is for building applications with novel capital allocation
mechanisms, like quadratic funding. The protocol contains a registry of
recipients ([Project Registry](https://docs.allo.gitcoin.co/overview/registry)), a way to create
pools of capital ([Pools](https://docs.allo.gitcoin.co/overview/pool)), and a strategy
for allocating that pool of capital ([Allocation
Strategy](https://docs.allo.gitcoin.co/overview/allocation-strategy)). Anyone building
custom tools for communities to allocate capital or for projects to receive
capital should use Allo.

The [Grants Stack](https://www.gitcoin.co/grants-stack) is a product layer built
on Allo for operating grants programs. It powers fully-featured self-serve funding 
rounds utilizing a [variety of mechanisms](https://support.gitcoin.co/gitcoin-knowledge-base/gitcoin-grants-program/mechanisms).

### Next Steps

import { Card, Cards } from 'nextra-theme-docs'

<Cards>
  <Card title="Conceptual Overview" href="/overview" />
  <Card title="Contracts" href="https://github.com/allo-protocol/allo-v2/tree/main/contracts" />
  <Card title="Getting Involved" href="/development/getting-involved" />
</Cards>