2023-02-10T18:30:00Z→2023-02-16T18:30:00Z
Title : RFC Delegated Domain Allocation by Questbook
Author : ruchil
Submission date - 11/02/2023
Firstly, thank you @knightsemplar , @Raslambek , @BlockEnthusiast, @nikita , @vadym , @allthecolors , @Shippooor , @patria , @river0x and @Carebbear for reviewing the proposal. It would not have shaped this way, if not for your valuable inputs and feedback.
Summary
- We propose the launch of Euler ecosystem growth fund of $2M (~2.16% of the treasury and ~7.3% of stables as on Feb 11th, 2023) spread across 2 quarters to fund a wide variety of teams building apps on top of Euler in a transparent manner. Questbook is leading Compound grants program through delegated domain capital allocation model, a community run grants program
- We additionally propose that this budget be managed by 5 individuals called Domain Allocators - chosen from the community, by the community. These domain allocators would manage grants for a domain. These domains are strategic areas of focus for which the Euler DAO wants to disburse grants
- The performance of each of these domain allocators will be publicly viewable and auditable using rich dashboards. At the end of every quarter, the Euler community can vote to replace, continue domain allocators or increase budgets for each domain allocator.
- We (Questbook.xyz) will help facilitate setting up these domain allocators and provide the tooling to run the grants program in an efficient and transparent way. We have previously set up or currently setting up the grants process for Compound, Polygon, Solana, Celo, and Aave
Motivation
As we continue to experience the depth of the bear market, it is increasingly important for Euler to retain the mindshare of key ecosystem contributors and incentivize builders to build on top of it. Grants program is a great way to attract high-quality builders and grow the ecosystem more quickly. This proposal details the benefit to all the stakeholders involved - token holders, builders and DAO members.
Problems
Based on our experience of running grants programs for multiple ecosystems and after speaking to key ecosystem contributors of Euler DAO, we have identified the following key problems:
- Dearth of high-quality proposals - Since the submission of the first grant proposal (July ‘22), Euler DAO has received only 14 grant proposals till date. This is an average of 2 proposals per month. To contrast, the number of proposals received by Aave is more than 50 per month.
List of proposals
Multi chain and cross-chain Strategy
[RFC] Deploy Euler to Polygon
[eIP 49: Deploy Euler to BNB Chain]
RFC: Deploy Euler on Arbitrum
Deploy Euler on XDC Network
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Tokenholder’s blind spots - It is unfair to expect any token holder and community member to have expertise across various domains. It becomes impossible or inefficient to judge projects that may lie outside their expertise and may still be valuable to the Euler ecosystem. By delegating capital and decision-making to experts, we can empower domain experts to make informed decisions within a certain domain
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Lack of Impact Measurement - Measuring the impact of the grants program is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of the allocated capital and ensuring that the resources are being used effectively. In the absence of a thorough impact measurement, grants team is unable to identify the areas of improvement and is prone to repeat the same mistakes.
Screenshots of comments from Euler’s active community members
Solution
Giving domain allocators the capital and decision-making powers can increase the efficiency of the grants program, without compromising on accountability:
- Individual expertise instead of collective blindspots
- Distributed load instead of committee backlogs
- Accountability instead of diffusion of responsibility
The proposed structure will lead to the following outcomes:
- Increase in quality proposals - measured by the number of proposals received per month and % of proposals accepted by the domain allocators. Questbook (https://www.questbook.app) is a desired destination for 20,000+ builders each month. We also have a dedicated team who is responsible for builder engagement and reviewing draft proposals before they are submitted to ensure high quality
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Delegate capital allocation - Identify, attract and fund projects/builders that the current grant structure would otherwise not have funded by delegating capital allocation to members of the community rather than a central disbursing committee or a large diverse community
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Consistent and timely communication - between the domain allocators, builders and community members is a key part of any successful grants program. This will be measured by impact metrics such as turnaround time to give feedback on the proposal and make a final decision, the number of projects completing all the milestones. The data and performance across key metrics will be visible to the community
Specification & Implementation
The program structure focuses on having community members as domain allocators. Euler DAO will be required to set a budget of $2M to be disbursed by 5 domain allocators. Each domain allocator will be an expert in their specific domain and will run their domain on-chain for full transparency. The data and performance across key metrics will be visible to the community in order to evaluate the domain allocator’s performance.
The disbursement of the grant will take place on-chain from a multi-sig wallet for each domain controlled by the program manager & the domain allocator. The domain allocators will approve or reject proposals based on their evaluation. The program manager will then coordinate with the Euler community to ensure that the proposal is aligned with Euler’s growth before making the disbursal. The sole purpose of the multi-sig is to make sure capital is not being siphoned. However, the allocators are encouraged to make independent decisions regarding the approval of the proposal based on their expertise.
Every quarter, the grants committee and the Euler community shall evaluate the performance of each domain and domain allocator using the publicly available data. The outcomes could be as follows:
- Change the domain
- Change the allocator/program manager
- Change the budget
Active community members can also initiate a no-confidence motion to initiate a review off-cycle. This can be initiated by one of the active delegates on Snapshot. The program manager can coordinate this, if the situation arises, along with the active community members. The unused funds from every domain will be returned to the treasury at the end of 2 quarters.
Product Screens
Invite proposals to your grants program
Anyone from the community can view and comment on the proposals
Invite community members to review proposals based on an evaluation rubric
Make milestone-based payouts directly from the multi-sig
Track the performance of the grants program
Euler Grants Committee
The program will consist of
- A Program Manager
- 5 Domain Allocators
A Grants SAFE, with 4/6 multi-sig, between the program manager and 5 domain allocators will be setup. We will then have 5 SAFEs for each of the domains with a 2/2 between the program manager and the specific domain allocator.
The funds for the grants program will flow from the treasury into the Grants SAFE. This SAFE will hold the funds related to operational costs, committee compensation, and the grants budget. Funds that will be disbursed to the proposers will reside in the domain-level SAFEs. The program manager will be responsible to update the community about approved proposals and their details through bi-weekly community calls and reports over discord.
We have identified the following domains that are relevant to Euler and domain allocators who are best suited to evaluate proposals after evaluating them on axes such as community participation on forums, discord and social media.
We propose the following set of individuals to run one domain each. We are open to adding more domains and incorporating changes based on the feedback of the community.
Domain | Credentials Needed | Individual / Orgs | Why it is relevant | Examples of Proposals from Euler Discourse |
---|---|---|---|---|
Multichain and Crosschain Strategy | Experience with managing multi-chain strategy for popular borrowing and lending protocols. | Jun, Penn Blockchain (Franklin DAO) | This will help Euler roll out to multiple chains and increase its market share | eIP 49: Deploy Euler to BNB Chain |
Developer tooling | Core contributor to popular web3 Defi applications | Inviting applications Apply Here | This will help Euler ecosystem build essential tools, libraries, and dapps and streamline the development process | Grant Proposal - Alternative Liquidation Bot Implementation - #2 by river0x |
New Protocol Ideas | Core contributor to Euler protocol | allthecolors | Encourage more people to propose and run experiments for improving the Euler protocol | [Grant Proposal] Euler Finance Integration In Texochat |
Community growth and events, Miscellaneous | Experience in builder community growth and bootcamps | Bobby, Stable Labs | This will help Euler attract quality builders through community growth activities such as bootcamps, hackathons and sponsoring events | [RFC] DAO Global Hackathon Grant Proposal |
Education for new user onboarding | Demonstrated experience in creating educational content, managing large communities, and new user onboarding | jengajojo, DAOstewards | This will help Euler onboard new users to its ecosystem and Defi primarily through educational content | [RFC] Bankless Academy: Lending and borrowing lesson ft. Euler.finance - #2 by river0x |
Domain Allocator Roles & Responsibilities:
The following will be the roles and responsibilities of the selected domain allocators.
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Time commitment per week: Maximum of 25 hours per week for the program manager and 15 hours per week for the domain allocator, which might vary based on the number of applications. The program manager will ensure that the workload is evenly distributed
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Program Manager:
- Communication:
- Coordinate between Euler team and the community regarding funding requirement
- Communicate the information regarding approval/rejection of proposals to the Euler community regularly
- Attend community calls, actively participate in the community forum, and keep the community updated and take their feedback on the program
- Regularly update the progress of the grants program to the Euler community over Discord and community calls
- Grants Program:
- Source good-quality proposals from developer communities
- Sign the transactions for the approved projects
- Ensure a quick turnaround time for proposers regarding their proposal decision
- Coordinate between the domain allocators to ensure that the workload is evenly distributed and take their feedback consistently
- Communication:
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Domain Allocator:
- Review proposals received for their domains based on the rubrics set by the domain allocator
- Reject/Approve proposals and coordinate consistently with the program manager
- Source applications by reaching out to developer communities in their network
- Discuss program improvements with the other domain allocators and program manager during scheduled meetings
Compensation:
The grant budget will be $1.7M with $340k for each domain. The compensation for the committee comprised of 5 domain allocators and 1 program manager will be paid on an hourly basis. The domain allocators and program manager are required to clock their hours and submit weekly reports which can be publicly viewed. The hourly rates for both roles are mentioned below:
Note: All unused funds will be returned to the treasury
P.S:
- We are inviting applications for dev tooling domain allocator. All interested community members and delegates can apply here https://forms.gle/PQSiAwGcP4JGX7rRA
- All payouts will be made in EUL
Conclusion
What does success look like?
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Objective
- The prime objective of this model is to have domains that align with Euler’s priorities. This way the contribution of the projects as part of the grants program is directly adding value to the DAO and the token holders.
- Increase in the number of builders, proposals, and funded projects
- Increase in the homegrown leadership to run grant programs (measured by the number of people running grant programs)
- Increase in the community members’ participation to keep grant programs accountable (measured by the number of people looking at the dashboard and participating in the program)
- Diversity in projects being funded across technologies, geographies, and demographics, to name a few. We encourage the community to regularly review the project domains during Euler’s community call
- Increased engagement in builder community’s
- Discourse
- Discord, Telegram
- Social media (Twitter, Reddit)
- GitHub
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Subjective
- Improved community involvement in the grants program
- Strengthened builders’ sentiment towards Euler
- Enhanced Euler’s brand recognition in builder circles
About Questbook:
Questbook’s role in Euler’s Grant Program
- Ruchil Sharma from Questbook will be the first program manager. Thereafter, the program manager will be elected from the community. Ruchil was the program manager for Polygon facilitating the disbursal of ~ $1M in grants. He works with the Solana foundation and ecosystems within Solana on a daily basis to help them design their grants program. He has received a grant of $250K from the Solana foundation for the same. He also works closely with Compound Grants Programs 2.0’s program manager. He has spoken to more than 100 builders and teams over the last 6-8 months and understands what it takes to make a grant program successful – from both program manager and builder perspectives
- Questbook Grants tool will make sure the workflows are systematic and transparent.
Product Flows
- Posting a grant - Link
- Reviewing and Funding Proposals - Link
- Settings - Link
- Communicating with Builders - Link
- Funding Builders - Link
Credentials
- Questbook (YC-W21) is a decentralized grant orchestration tool, currently being used by Compound, Polygon, AAVE, Celo & Solana Ecosystem
- Ruchil Sharma from Questbook will be the first program manager. Thereafter, the program manager will be elected from the community. Ruchil was the program manager for Polygon facilitating the disbursal of ~ $1M in grants. He works with Solana foundation and ecosystems within Solana on a daily basis to help them design their grants program. He has received a grant of $250K from the Solana foundation for the same. He also works closely with Compound Grants Programs 2.0 program manager. He has spoken to more than 100 builders and teams over the last 6-8 months and understands what it takes to make a grant program successful – from both program manager and builder perspectives
Product Compensation
- We are happy to let Euler DAO use Questbook tool for free
- However, for any specific asks from the grants team in order to run the process more smoothly, we charge for the additional features based on the development overhead. From our previous work experience: We propose a budget of $50K to be kept aside for specific features
Community buy-in and next steps
This proposal is to gather interest and invite comments from the community to figure out what should be the budget of such a grant program if it were to be set up.
What should be the budget for this grants program?
- $2M
- $1.5M
- $1M
- Others
0 voters
- Yes, in favour of the proposal
- Modify the proposal
- No, against the proposal
0 voters