dYdX Grants Program - v1.5 Extension

Proposals
42

I am writing to express my strong interest in nominating myself to become a trustee for the dYdX Grants Program.
First of all, I am glad to see the grant program’s transition towards a more community-driven approach and to see other community members rise to the challenge. I am sure that the extension of the Grants Program V1.5 will be a success.

What’s your background? What previous work have you done?

As an endorsed delegate and an active community member, I have been deeply involved in various aspects of the platform. I am passionate about the decentralized nature of dYdX and its potential to become the biggest decentralized exchange in the world. Being part of the community has allowed me to gain insight into the needs and aspirations of the community.

In addition, I have participated in the EpicWeb3 sponsored event as a grantee, where I was one of the speakers. This experience gave me a first-hand understanding of the importance of the dYdX Grants Program in supporting new projects and initiatives that contribute to the growth and development of the protocol.

Why are you an ideal fit for the role?

I am an active user on Discord and Discourse, and I make it a point to be responsive to the questions and concerns of the community. I believe in the power of open communication, transparency, and accountability, which are essential values for the success of any decentralized ecosystem.

My experience in chemistry, particularly in quality assurance, has sharpened my analytical and problem-solving skills. These skills are crucial for evaluating grant applications, assessing their potential impact, and ensuring the responsible allocation of funding.

What should the DGP prioritize as part of this extension?

If given the opportunity to serve as a Trustee, I would prioritize the following:

  • Ensuring Fair and Transparent Evaluation: I will strive to ensure that all grant applications are evaluated in a fair and transparent manner, with a focus on supporting projects that align with dYdX’s long-term vision.

  • Community Engagement and Participation: I will actively engage with the community, seeking feedback and ideas to improve the Grants Program and better serve the needs of the ecosystem.
    Maximizing Impact: I will work diligently to allocate funding in a way that maximizes the impact of the grants, supporting projects that have the potential to make a significant contribution to the dYdX protocol.

  • Accountability and Reporting: I will be committed to providing regular updates and reports to the community, maintaining transparency in the decision-making process.

In conclusion, I am eager to contribute my skills, knowledge, and dedication to the dYdX Grants Program as a Trustee. I truly believe that a strong and vibrant Grants Program is essential for the growth and success of dYdX, and I am excited about the opportunity to play a part in shaping its future.

I am looking forward to the possibility of working with the dYdX community as a trustee for DGP V1.5.

6 Likes
43

Hi, this is Felix Lutsch, a long-term participant in various crypto ecosystems including the Cosmos and other staking-related projects such as the Lido DAO. With this post, I would like to put up my application as a Trustee for the extension of the dYdX grant program managed by Reverie.

What’s your background? What previous work have you done?

I have recently transitioned from my full-time leadership role in Chorus One, one of the leading staking providers in the space that has also received a grant for MEV research on dYdX to refocus and explore expanding my contributions to the crypto ecosystem as an individual.

While at Chorus One, I initially kickstarted (in 2018) and later oversaw most of the business operations and interactions within the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem, including e.g. forming the Liquid Staking Working Group and writing the initial research on the topic, as well as scaling our validator operations to over 40 different networks and securing over $1bn of stake across our infrastructure. In addition, I’ve managed and participated in various ecosystem in governance, including e.g. as an active member of the Lido DAO as well as publishing analysis of Cosmos governance and staking economics in general, as well as commentary and research on particular issues arising in these networks. My contributions can be found under my name or FelixLts handle e.g. on Medium as well as on various other platforms. In addition, I’ve instantiated the Chorus One Podcast and have been a co-host of the Epicenter podcast, where I have e.g. co-hosted the dYdX episode with Antonio.

Why are you an ideal fit for the role?

I have experience in governing decentralized protocols and an extensive network across the most relevant ecosystem such as Ethereum, Solana, and of course Cosmos. With dYdX v4 moving to a decentralized infrastructure, I believe that my expertise in the staking ecosystem and especially the Cosmos SDK stack will be valuable to help make dYdX v4 an interoperable, successful, and decentralized platform for trading.

As part of my role in Chorus One, I have already worked with Reverie and members of the dYdX team and foundation and would be excited to increase my participation and involvement in the discourse and in the ecosystem whose product-focus and technical leadership has been inspiring to me since inception.

What should the DGP prioritize as part of this extension?

I believe strategic funding in tooling and research around the dYdX v4 chain to be the most important focus for the grant program extension.

This should include:

  • fostering a resilient and performant node operator community via funding for validator tooling related things like key management, infrastructure setup, as well as community initiatives, documentation, and public dashboards
  • solutions and research to make visible and mitigate negative externalities to the protocol arising from MEV
  • funding around core infrastructure related to interoperability and scalability of the protocol such as Cosmos IBC and ABCI++ VoteExtensions
  • solutions to transition to a decentralized governance process based on modules provided by the Cosmos SDK

Looking forward to responses and engaging more in this forum and community at large. And thanks Reverie for ideating and putting together all of this!

4 Likes
44

Trustee Application

Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m Abra – the Governance Lead at the Interchain Foundation (ICF). The ICF is one of the founding organizations of the interchain ecosystem that dYdX v4 has chosen to call home. We work closely with the teams building out core components of the Interchain Stack (CometBFT, IBC, Cosmos SDK).

I wanted to pop in here to express interest to participate in the v1.5 extension as a trustee.

Role Fit

I’m extremely excited about the prospect of being more deeply involved with the cutting-edge product that dYdX is building with the tech stack that we steward, and would like to nominate myself as a trustee to:

  1. leverage the context that I have about the ecosystem in the assessment, accountability, funding allocation, and approval process of grants

  2. ensure that the dYdX Grantors and community have an opportunity to meaningfully connect with various categories of builders in the ecosystem to effectively disseminate RFPs, as well as assess and address product needs

  3. gain a deep understanding of the dYdX product to facilitate a feedback loop that reflects a forward-looking, product-first mentality in the way that the Interchain Foundation approaches its own strategy for funding allocation (and thus ensure that the tech stack is accurately reflecting the needs of the communities that use it).

Background and Work

A bit more about my work thus far at the Interchain Foundation, which I joined in March of 2023:

  • I’ve played an instrumental role in the reporting and transparency process such as the release of our 2022 Annual Report
  • I engage deeply with every layer of interchain communities (end-users, blockchain developers, core-stack developers) to gather feedback and help guide the strategic direction of the organization
  • I am working closely with others in the organization on updating the delegation policy, which requires a deep understanding of network infrastructure operations and network needs
  • Currently – I spend about half my time as a liaison between the Cosmos Hub community and the Foundation. This work entails working closely with various stakeholders including the end-user community, validators, and core teams in order to launch new chains that use the Cosmos Hub’s shared security. Specifically this entails strategic and tactical input in the launch process at the levels of governance, network operations, comms, and documentation. Chains that I’ve helped with the launch process include Neutron, Stride, and Duality. Other notable impacts from this work include organizing two way feedback between the validators and core teams (running public retros), and drastically improved chain upgrade speed

Before I was at the ICF:

I’ve been involved in the ecosystem for about 3 years now. Some of my more notable work as a community member includes facilitating the proposal process to fund the CosmWasm smart-contract framework as a public goods initiative. If you’re curious about how I think about grants programs, you can also gain some understanding of my thought process here: Funding The Cosmos Hub Grant Program - #123 by ala.tusz.am - Community Spend - Cosmos Hub Forum

Would like to wrap up with a reiteration of what @robomcgobo said here:

Closing

I’ll further add the caveat that as distinctions between ecosystems fade away and interoperability steps to the fore-front, the road to success lies with enmeshing the deep and diverse knowledge of teams from different parts of the industry alongside the mindshare of the community in a transparent and healthy way. Thanks for the opportunity to travel on that road together, and I’m hopeful that if I’m added as a Trustee I can facilitate a meaningful connection between ecosystems, and also within the community.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and consider my application! If you have any questions for me or would like to connect, I’ll plan on attending the upcoming AMA, you can find me here on twitter, or you can reach out to me on tg @abratusz.

A Note on Conflicts of Interest: The Interchain Foundation is a non-profit foundation. Additionally, I have no vested interests in any of the development teams in the ecosystem.

4 Likes
45

Just wanted to express my support for Abra as a trustee for this program! I’ve known him for a while and find him to be an extremely diligent contributor to every project he has a hand in. The Cosmos ecosystem is better with him in it! I know he would be an excellent fit for the trustee role!

4 Likes
47

Hello, I am Bora from Keplr wallet. I am interested in applying as a trustee because I wanted to contribute to the dYdX ecosystem and to help out to maintain a healthy governance. By contributing as a trustee I believe it is one of the best ways to support dYdX ecosystem.

What’s your background? What previous work have you done?
I manage protocol partnerships for Keplr wallet. Working for Keplr made me have relationships with diverse projects within the interchain and led me be interested in dYdX ecosystem. I led partnerships and sales for a B2B SaaS startup in Korea, partnering with Facebook APAC and leading outbound sales in expanding the product to North American market. Before that i was managing contents for 1M+ users in an 3D avatar app.

Why are you an ideal fit for the role?
I am ideal for this role because I have good relationships with different protocols within and outside the interchain, and I have several experiences in organizing events and hackathons so I believe these skills would be helpful. So in this extent I think I can collaborate with DGP in supporting dydx ecosystem to be more sustainable and thriving.

What should the DGP prioritize as part of this extension?
I think dYdX should focus on growing its own ecosystem.
This includes:

  • Organizing dYdX branded hackathons, conferences
  • Partnering with other chains and protocols in the interchain

Looking forward to what dYdX and the DGP will be building! Thank you.

4 Likes
48

Hi everyone,

Sharing an update on the proposal. The final candidates for the extension have been selected, and legal amendments have been initiated - which would be finalized should the proposal pass. Below, we’d like to share more information on the candidates and a few operational items ahead of the proposal going live this Sunday.

DGP Candidates

We would like to thank everyone that participated in the application process for their time and commitment to improving the DGP. We are lucky to have such a strong set of applicants to choose from.

Since a few of the positions had more applicants than openings, the existing DGP contributors conducted the following selection process:

1. Forum Applications
Any interested candidates were asked to submit a comment on the forum sharing their background and interests in the DGP.

2. Interviews
We conducted interviews with the applicants to get a better understanding of their interests and qualifications for the position.

3. Trustee Vote
The existing Trustees, with access to the above information, submitted their preferred candidates through a voting form. The candidates with 3 or more votes were selected to proceed.

Below is the final list of candidates to be included in the proposal:

Trustees*

  • Felix Lutsch (Lead Trustee)
  • Abra Tusz
  • 0xCChan
  • Bora

*Matthew Dobel will also be stepping down from the Trustee position. Wintermute Trading will be remaining as the fifth Trustee on the dYdX Grants Trust.

Community Grantor
RoboMcGobo

Enforcer
Cliffton

Operator
Lemma Solutions

Operational Items

Ahead of the proposal, we would like to confirm a few operational details.

Start Date
We propose that the DGP v1.5 extension start on September 1st, 2023. Starting on the first of the month will improve coordination, and give us some time to perform all the necessary changes ahead of launch.

DYDX Conversion
The DGP currently holds, after outstanding payables, 900,896.71 DYDX and 276,967.65 USDC. We propose diversifying up to an additional 75% of the DYDX remaining to further secure our runway and ensure adequate funding for U.S. based grantees.

The snapshot proposal will be submitted this Sunday August 20th. We look forward to any questions or feedback on these additional items ahead of the proposal.

5 Likes
49

Just to confirm for the history:
1. GFX labs
2. Scalar Capital
3. Matthew Dobel
4. Wintermute Trading
Have decided to keep Alexios Valonasis as grantor in a community bucket. After having all the information that was provided to them.

50

The situation with Alexios has reached an impasse.

The community does not accept @Alexios for the position at hand. This is detrimental to the overall development of the protocol. I propose that all parties come to a reasonable compromise and conduct elections for two community grantor positions with community participation. I believe that all parties can develop and agree upon a mechanism for such elections in the coming days. Transparent elections will help alleviate this conflict and move forward.

1 Like
51

First, I’d like to thank all the community leaders that have chimed in on the other post.

Moving forward, I’d suggest for the new trustees deliberate and appoint a new Grantor through a process that the enforcer reviews. Looking forward to having the other trustees chime in, and I hope that the community emerges from this saga holding the values of transparency and accountability to a higher regard.

2 Likes
52

~ In my personal capacity as a community member ~

Thanks to the team for selecting me to be a trustee for DGP v1.5.

  1. Regarding the recent discussions, @RealVovochka has done a great job in finding the relevant evidence on the issue and this definitely highlights the ethos of transparency and integrity.

  2. However, I concur that the tone of these discussions and discourse could be better managed. Alexios has been an integral part of grants for the first iteration. While it is unfortunate that he has decided to resign, we thank him for his contributions.

  3. Nonetheless, I do recognize @RealVovochka frustrations as well. There should have been appropriate/private channels for the escalation of these issues. These public discussions could have been easily avoided as this is definitely bad optics for the protocol.

  4. Moving forward, I hope that the community can come together and be collectively focused on restarting DGP and supporting v4. To source for a new grantor, there are possible alternatives:

  • Continue with the previous pool of candidates that applied for the role. Naturally, the new group of trustees can select from this group, and avoid the whole hassle of organizing another process, effectively delaying DGP1.5 for transition to v4.

OR

  • The community bucket can have 1 grantor at the moment with RoboMcGobo. The Cauldron was single-handedly helmed by Alexios. Should there be a need later on, the trustees can convene to organize another selection.

Once again, these are my own views as a community member as the new group of Trustees have yet to be formally elected through a vote.

1 Like
53

Hi everyone,

A quick update on the proposal.

To avoid delaying the extension any further, we are submitting the snapshot today using the existing set of candidates and changes to the Trust.

Since there is now an open Community Grantor position, we propose that the new set of Trustees decide on the appointment of an additional Grantor once the extension is live (if approved). A selection process can be run with Cliffton’s help as Enforcer. As @0xcchan mentioned, the Trustees may also choose to not immediately appoint an additional Grantor based on what they think is best for the DGP going forward.

1 Like
54

We should get these things sorted out first. Before anything proceeds. Personally I am still of the opinion three grantors is ideal so we can have majority 2/1 decisions without stalemates on applications.

Why not get this ironed out first so it’s clear as to exactly what we are voting on?

55

Concerns About Community Grantors Position Formulation

I am expressing my dissatisfaction with the way the position of community grantors has been formulated. It seems unjust that only one person was chosen for this role. I believe there should be at least two positions @CipherLabs suggests three which is also makes sense, to ensure a fair representation.

The initial process of selecting the grantor was shrouded in secrecy. Moreover, there was an issue with one trustee (Alexios) being compromised during this process. To make matters worse, the voting procedure was overseen by the former Enforcer, who has yet to acknowledge the breach of trust. It’s only the new Enforcer @Cliff who has shared his perspective on this matter.

To address these concerns and to make community bucket independent I propose the following steps:

  1. Maintain Two Community Grantor Positions: The most appropriate solution is to have two positions for community grantors. This will allow for a more diverse and balanced representation.

  2. Hold New Elections: I suggest announcing new elections to fill the vacant grantors positions. This time, ensure that the community is actively involved in the selection process.

  3. Organize an AMA Session: Conduct a comprehensive AMA session to address any doubts or queries the community may have. This will foster transparency and inclusivity.

  4. New Trustees Decision: Allow the new trustees, under the guidance of the recently appointed Enforcer, to make decisions regarding the entire process. This will help regain trust in the selection procedure.

I am confident that if these steps are taken, there will be a more substantial pool of candidates, far beyond just two. Let’s work together to create a fair and transparent environment that benefits the entire community.

56

While I understand the points made by @CipherLabs and @RealVovochka, we are in favor of having the snapshot with the current selection of candidates to be ratified soon because we believe it’s more important to get started with the new DGP v1.5 first and focus on the smooth release of v4 than delaying the whole process until the whole things are to be sorted out.

However, we strongly recommend the soon-to-be-elected Trustees to hear opinions from the community members and make decisions to the additional Community Grantor position. Furthermore, whatever decisions are made, as described in the responsibility for Enforcer, we will demand the clear and transparent explanations on why those decisions are made to the community members.

2 Likes
57

I fully agree with Takeshi’s @tane point. The grants program should be up and running. It’s been on hold for over a month now. I hope @Reverie keeps their word this time about making the community bucket independent.

Here are my final thoughts on this proposal:

Why doesn’t the snapshot proposal include all the things we talked about in this discussion?:

  1. What about the rest of the budget? Why isn’t it mentioned?
  2. Salaries are not mentioned.
  3. Reverie didn’t say how they’ll divide the budget (90:10?).
  4. Second community grantor possible position is not mentioned
  5. Even the Open Post in this discussion hasn’t been updated.

How can anyone vote without knowing all this important information?

1 Like
58

hey @RealVovochka, happy to address these questions:

  1. The budget for this extension is outlined in the Budget section of the proposal.
  2. Compensation for contributors involved is outlined in the Budget section.
  3. As mentioned in the proposal, the initial guidance is for the Trustees to follow a 90:10 split across the buckets. We don’t constrain the budget since things could change. The Trustees will have the option to adjust allocations based on protocol developments and funding opportunities.
  4. As discussed above, the Trustees will run a new process for appointing an additional Grantor once it’s live.
  5. I’ll update the post now to reflect the changes on the Community Initiatives bucket. But these changes have been reflected in our comments.

Hope that helps!

59

Don’t take it as useless nagging, @carlbergman.

People who vote shouldn’t search for information on the whole topic. 57 posts in the topic
In the open post there was still Alexios and two community grantors.

60

dYdX is an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange that allows users to open long and short positions with up to 10x leverage.

You can trade margin or trade perpetual contracts on the dYdX exchange. There are also spot markets on the platform where you can trade without leverage.

Besides trading, you can borrow ETH, USDC and DAI on the platform and earn interest by depositing supported assets into your account.

61

@carlbergman , it’s been over a day and you still haven’t updated the post.

62

Discourse is not letting me update the post for some reason. I pinged the Ops team for help!

1 Like