[TEMP CHECK] dYdX Community Grants Program through Delegated Domain Capital Allocation Model

[Questbook]

Summary

• We propose that dYdX launch a community grants program with a budget of $1 million spread across 2 quarters through delegated domain capital allocation model. The proposed grants program will be a pilot to fund proposals that are aligned with dYdX’s roadmap in a transparent, accountable and community led manner.
• To ensure efficient fund utilization, we propose that the budget allocated to these domains be managed by community members with expertise in that domain. The selection of the domains as well as their allocators will be done from the community, by the community
• The performance of every domain allocator will be publicly viewable and auditable using data rich dashboards. At the end of the quarter, the dYdX community can vote to replace or retain domain allocators or increase the budget for each domain
• We (Questbook.xyz) will facilitate & provide domain allocators the tooling to run the program in an efficient and transparent way. We have previously set up or are currently setting up the grants process for Arbitrum, Compound, Polygon, TON, etc
• We believe that dYdX community should adopt a pluralist approach to grants funding and experiment with different funding approaches. This will play a crucial role in promoting experimentation, decentralized decision-making, and improved measurement of the impact of allocated resources

Motivation

• As we move closer to the launch of dYdX v4, it’s important that the dYdX ecosystem attracts and retain high quality contributors as well as support initiatives that leads to a successful v4 launch. A community led grants program will enable dYdX to identify these initiatives and attract, fund proposals in a transparent manner.
• The proposed model ensures that the domains are aligned with dYdX priorities and roadmap and that the proposals are funded in a transparent and accountable manner. Furthermore, the proposed model minimises diffusion of responsibilities and consensus-based decision-making.
• A transparent evaluation process and grant disbursal system will ensure that the domain allocators are accountable and allow active community participation in the grants program. Moreover, at the end of two quarters, community can vote to replace, continue the tenure of domain allocators or increase budgets for each domain based on the performance of the domains and respective domain allocators.
• We believe that dYdX will benefit from running multiple grants programs simultaneously. This approach will enable a better assessment of impact of allocated capital as well as operational efficiency under various funding models.

Rationale

Adopting the Delegated Domain Allocation (DDA) model will empower respective domain allocators the capital and decision-making powers to fund quality proposals in high priority focus areas efficiently without compromising on community participation, transparency and accountability. Some of the many advantages of the proposed model are:

• Individual expertise instead of collective blindspots
• Distributed load instead of committee backlogs
• Accountability instead of diffusion of responsibility

The proposed model will lead to the following outcomes:

1. Aligned allocation of funds: By leveraging the DDA model, dYdX can ensure that funds are allocated to projects that align with the domain (selected by the dYdX community), promoting efficient and effective use of resources. Questbook will also support the domain allocators with sourcing, engagement and review of draft proposals before they are submitted to ensure a high quality, impact focused & cost effective proposal pipeline.
2. Increased transparency: Echoing Antonio’s words to decentralise through transparency, we believe that a transparent review process and funds disbursals will lead to enhanced community participation and better assessment of the impact of the grants program. Questbook, a decentralized grant management platform, provides a transparent space for teams to showcase their backgrounds and experience. In addition, Questbook’s reporting features will allow the dYdX community to generate monthly reports on the allocation of funds along with the funding outline for each grant proposal.
3. Increased accountability: With a dedicated group of stakeholders responsible for allocating funds, DDA model promotes increased accountability, ensuring that the funds are used effectively and efficiently. Domain allocators can be replaced through a community vote if their performance is not up to the mark.
4. Lower Turnaround Time (TAT): The Delegated Domain Capital Allocation model will help improve proposals’ turnaround time and subsequent quality of resubmissions. An example of this is Compound who’s already leveraging the DDA model and has a communication TAT of less than 48 hours. The performance of domain allocators will be measured using objectives and key results to ensure goals are achieved efficiently and effectively.

5. High Brand Recognition : Questbook is a desired destination of 20,000+ builders each month. We will also assist the domain allocators in marketing the grants program & sourcing high quality proposals.

Specifications

The program structure focuses on having community members as domain allocators. dYdX will be required to set a budget of $1M to be disbursed by 4 domain allocators and for committee compensation. Each domain allocator will be elected by the community. Interested community members can self-nominate themselves to be considered for becoming a domain allocator. The domain allocator for each domain will be selected via a community-wide vote. Domain allocators 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 rubric. Domain allocators will take independent decisions for their respective domains based on their evaluation rubric. If deemed necessary, they may choose to consult the dYdX core team and members of the foundation to ensure alignment with the dYdX roadmap and gain additional insight into the considered proposal.

The grants committee & the dYdX community can evaluate the performance of each domain and domain allocator using publicly available data. The various decision flows could be as follows:

1. Change the domain
2. Change the allocator/program manager
3. 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 through an on-chain vote. 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 the quarter.

Product Screens

Please find below Questbook’s product screens that demonstrate how the community can seamlessly oversee & actively engage in the grants program in a transparent manner:

Invite proposals to grants program

Community members can view and comment on the proposals freely

Invite community members to review proposals based on an evaluation rubric

Make milestone-based payouts directly from the multi-sig through Questbook

Track the performance of the grants program

Steps to Implement

The committee will consist of

1. A Program Manager
2. 4 Domain Allocators

A 3/5 Grants multi-sig wallet that includes the program manager & domain allocators will be set up. We will consequently have 4, 2/2 multi-sig wallets set up for each domain between the program manager and the respective domain allocator. The purpose of using this multi-sig wallet flow is to guarantee that capital is not siphoned.

Interested community members can self-nominate themselves via a separate domain allocator nomination forum post after this proposal is successfully passed.The domain allocators will be selected via a community-wide vote. The program manager will be responsible to update the community about approved proposals and their details through community calls and reports over community forum.

We have identified the following domains based on our thorough research and the feedback from the dYdX team, foundation and active community members. We’re open to adding more domains, alterations to the suggestions and prioritisation :

Domain	Credentials Needed	Why it is relevant
Protocol Infrastructure	Experience in protocol development	This initiative will fund essential infrastructure & tooling efforts that eases the transition to dYdX v4.
Trading Solutions & Tooling	Experience building trading solutions & tooling/core contributor to dYdX protocol	This will fund integrations that help solidify the user experience of traders using the dYdX platform & attract traders away from CEXs.
New Asset Listings	Experience with asset listings dev support Experience with risk management research & tooling Core contributor to dYdX protocol	This will help dYdX sustain interest & engagement of traders & LPs till the launch of v4. This will also fund initiatives that enable resilient, community driven risk management frameworks & tooling that bolsters the launch of v4.
Community Run Initiatives For Ecosystem Growth & Engagement	Rich experience in DeFi and in running builder community growth and technical bootcamps	This will aid dYdX maximize engagement with developers through initiatives such as hackathons, workshops, bootcamps etc. This domain will also fund initiatives that support the onboarding of new users to the dYdX ecosystem through: a)Educational Offerings b)Events

Committee Roles & Responsibilities

The following will be the roles and responsibilities of the selected Domain Allocators and the Program Manager.

1. 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 proposals. The program manager will ensure that the workload is evenly distributed

2. Program Manager:
   A. Communication:

   1. Coordinate between dYdX team and the community regarding submitted proposals, announcements and funding requirements
   2. Work with the dYdX team and the elected domain allocators to create and list out the necessary RFPs for each domain
   3. Identify key areas and relevant ecosystem partners who will co-fund grants alongside dYdX
   4. Create marketing content for communicating RFPs to the builders
   5. Coordinate between dYdX team and the community regarding cohort announcement and funding requirements
   6. Communicate the information regarding approval/rejection of proposals to the dYdX community regularly
   7. Attend community calls, actively participate in the community forum, and keep the community updated, take their feedback on the program
   8. Regularly update the progress of the grants program to the dYdX community over Discord and community calls
   9. Bi-weekly reporting of key metrics of the grants program and each selected proposal such as:

Metric	Details
Names and summary of accepted proposals	Total number of proposals that have been accepted by each domain allocator along with the proposal summary
Grant Amount Disbursed	Names of the proposal that have been awarded a grant amount along with the proposal summary and grant amount
Milestone Completion Rate	Each team should have a clear set of milestones and deliverables that they need to achieve. Program manager will share the status on milestone completion for each project
User Engagement	Number of users on boarded by a grantee onto their project
TVL	TVL (if applicable) of selected projects
Project Completion Rates	Number and names of projects who have completed all milestones
Growth in community engagement	Measured by number of followers of the project across different social media platforms, Discord community members
External Funding	Number of projects that have raised follow on capital after getting a grant from dYdX

b. Operations:

1. Source high quality proposals
2. Sign multi-sig transactions for approved projects
3. Ensure quick turnaround time for proposals
4. Coordinate with domain allocators to ensure that the workload is evenly distributed and iterate operations based on their feedback

Domain Allocator Responsibilities:

1. Review & accept/reject proposals received in their respective domains based on rubrics set by the domain allocator
2. Source applications by reaching out to developer communities in their network
3. Discuss program improvements with the other domain allocators and program manager
4. The domain allocators & the program manager will be required to actively engage with high-quality builders and share actionable feedback. This will involve key activities such as guided sessions, workshops, and demo days.

Legal Compliance Duties

We propose that the BLG - Blockchain Lawyers Group undertake all legal compliance efforts for the pilot grants program. BLG has provided invaluable legal compliance support at Compound Grants Program 2.0. BLG will provide their expertise in contractual drafting, application of KYC standards, and address any potential legal issues during the grant disbursement phase.

Compensation Plan

To effectively support and fund exceptional teams, domain allocators and program manager will need to invest significant time in activities such as marketing, project research, calls with proposers, preparing reviews, exchanging info/feedback with other DAs, tracking teams’ progress, and coordinating milestone based payouts. These activities demand significant expertise and time commitment. It is crucial for dYdX ecosystem to attract top talent for the role of domain allocator, program manager and adopt transparent tooling to ensure that exceptional projects are funded.

1. Domain Allocators : $5,000/month for each domain allocator
2. Questbook will provide the Program Manager along with its decentralised grants orchestration product - $10,000 per month
3. Operational activities facilitated by the Program Manager. We propose using Synapse for KYC services and Docusign for all contractual agreements, as we have been using these services for running CGP 2.0 - $20,000

All non-allocated funds will be returned to the treasury at the end of two quarters.

Conclusion

What does success look like?

The prime objective of this model is to find and fund high quality proposals aligned with dYdX roadmap and priorities:

Objective

• Increase in number of builders, proposals, and funded projects for these domains
• 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)
• Number of projects directly contributing to infrastructure & tooling efforts for dYdX
• Number of new users and assets onboarded to dYdX.
• Increased engagement in builder communities
  • Discourse
  • Discord, Telegram
  • Social media (Twitter, Reddit)
  • GitHub
• Subjective
  • Improved community involvement in the grants program
  • Strengthened builders’ sentiment towards dYdX
  • Enhanced dYdX’s brand recognition in builder circles

KPIs

• Each domain allocator is required to work alongside the program manager and come up with domain-specific rubrics. If the identified rubrics are not in line with the domain or dYdX roadmap, anyone from the community can openly suggest changes or question them on the forum.
• Further KPIs that will be assessed are: Total number of proposals received, number of proposals received for each domain, number of proposals funded, turn around time to take a decision and for disbursal, milestone and project completion rates
• The program manager will share reports and conduct AMAs once every two weeks to ensure transparency and accountability. We welcome any suggestions for additional qualitative or quantitative metrics not included above
• The Questbook platform is a decentralized on-chain grants orchestration tool. Anyone from the community can view the data and create custom dashboards using on chain data relevant to the proposed grants program in a permissionless manner.

The proposed grants program will be the first ever community run grants program for dYdX, and we aim to ensure that the allocated funds are deployed in an efficient, responsible and prudent manner. We will request a larger budget if the proposed model is successful based on the key metrics specified in our proposal and community inputs.

Track the performance of the grants program

Anyone from the community can track the number of proposals, funding available for builders for a particular domain, and accepted proposals from the Homepage.

Third Party Audit

Questbook is open to having the performance and procedures of the grants program audited by the community members or a credible third party auditor at the end of the proposed grants program. Moreover, we encourage community members to actively participate in the process of delegating capital as the entire allocation process will be run by the domain allocators in a transparent manner on-chain.

About Questbook

• Questbook will be the program manager for the proposer grants program. Questbook has successfully led Compound Grants Program 2.0 through Delegated Domain Capital Allocation model. In addition to this, Questbook was the Program Manager of Polygon Grants Program, where they facilitated the disbursement of approximately $1 million in grants. Questbook team has received grants from Solana and IoTeX to establish its grant program. Questbook team is well-versed with the demands and needs that contribute to the success of a grants program. Their team has spoken to more than 200 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 (YC-W21) is a decentralized grant orchestration tool, currently, previously used by Compound, Polygon, TON, Aave, Celo & Solana Ecosystem

Timeline

We welcome any comments on our proposal from the dYdX community and seek their suggestions. After incorporating feedback from the community, we will share the proposal for community voting. Once this proposal is passed, community members can self-nominate themselves on a different forum post. Subsequently, domain allocators will be elected by the community members from the pool of nominees through an on-chain vote.

Community Feedback & Next Steps

We believe that the Delegated Domain Allocator model, offered by Questbook, will be a highly effective solution that aligns with the dYdX community’s values of transparency, decentralization, and accountability. We welcome any comments on our proposal from the community and would love to seek suggestions/answer any questions.

[CipherLabs]

We at Cipher Labs would like to extend our wholehearted support for the implementation of the Questbook-run grants program within the dYdX ecosystem. The proposed system brings forth innovative solutions to several challenges that have persisted under the current management by Reverie. We are particularly impressed with the following aspects of the proposal:

1. Community-Driven Domain Allocators: The introduction of Domain Allocators elected by the community is a significant step forward. It aligns perfectly with the values we have consistently championed and will lead to a more representative and democratic grant allocation process.
2. Expedited Turnaround Time (TAT): The improved, potentially 48-hour TAT, is a beacon of efficiency compared to our current experience with Reverie, where grant decisions can languish for up to two months. Our own ongoing wait for a simple decision regarding the Trading Journal upgrade to v4 data, now in its seventh week, underscores the necessity for this improvement.
3. Enhanced Transparency and Accountability: The lack of transparency and accountability with the current grants programme has been a recurring concern for us, one which we have previously voiced to no avail. Communication is slow and laborious, and simple responses often take a week. Questbook’s model promises to rectify this, ensuring that the processes and decisions are visible to the community.
4. Robust Community Involvement: Our calls for increased community involvement have been overlooked in the past. Questbook’s approach to integrate community feedback and participation is a welcome change that we believe will foster a more engaged and active ecosystem.

The proposed program by Questbook is not just an incremental improvement; it is a leap towards what we believe could be an ideal model for dYdX, one that other leading protocols have already adopted.

Additionally, we propose that if Questbook’s model is successful, dYdX should consider phasing out the current program and transitioning responsibilities, such as Protocol Infrastructure, to suitable Domain Allocators.

In line with the proposed structure, Cipher Labs intends to nominate itself as the Domain Allocator for Trading Solutions & Tooling. We are confident in our fit for this role and eagerly await the opening of the official nomination forum.

We are excited to witness this transformation and urge the dYdX community to rally behind this pivotal initiative. While our ultimate goal is to see a fully internalized and autonomous governance framework for dYdX, one that also encompasses an in-house grants program with features similar to those offered by Questbook, we believe Questbook’s solution represents a significant step toward that future.

[RealVovochka]

Hello, @Questbook

Thank you for the excellent and long-awaited proposal. I believe that the second parallel grant program will allow the project to decentralize the grant issuance process. The current grant program has numerous shortcomings, but at the same time, dydx cannot progress without grants, so a parallel alternative is currently the best solution. Healthy competition between the programs will make dydx better.
Reverie’s DGP program has been operational for over two months since its last extension. The total expenses after the last extension amounted to over $110k, and we have not seen a single new grant.

Questbook’s program meets the community’s requirements for transparency and Expedited Turnaround Time (TAT). I believe it would be simply criminal not to try this alternative and then compare both programs in six months to extend the better one or create a program that takes into account the strengths of both programs.

I fully support this alternative!

[Questbook]

Thank you for your wholehearted support of our proposal @CipherLabs & @RealVovochka!

We’re pleased to have you @CipherLabs express your interest for the Trading Solutions & Tooling Domain Allocator Role. We look forward to have other community folk come in & voice their interest to serve as a Domain Allocator in their preferred domains as well.

[luisqa]

Very supportive of this! We definitely need to have a transparent grant process and I think this looks like a good start. The total cost of <$20k/mo to run will also help benchmark it with the other concurrent grants program and we will be able to decide better in 6 months if two are really needed or we can run with one.

Question about Synapse. Is that expense one time only or every 6mo? Could you provide more information on it?

Curious to see @RoboMcGobo’s opinion on this, he has a lot of experience with grants programs.

[RoboMcGobo]

Thanks for the tag Luis!

I don’t want to overstep in weighing in here. I feel that given I help operate the existing grants program I may be a bit biased (despite this not being a competing proposal, per se).

But since you tagged me to weigh in, I do feel a bit concerned that this program seems to prioritize 48 hour turnaround times to such a high extent, and to the exclusion of other important factors in grant evaluation. In my experience, it is extremely difficult to do proper due diligence on a prospective grantee or the need for a specific grant in such a short period of time.

It’s possible that such short turnaround times will result in runaway funding of low priority or low value grants, as well as a high degree of incomplete grants that have already been fully or partially funded. It seems like a really good proposal for grantees looking to get funded with minimal operational overhead or friction. It is potentially not as good for dYdX holders that want a grants program they can hold accountable to screen applicants and say no to grants when they should reasonably be expected to in order to prevent frivolous spending that puts negative sell pressure on the token.

Grants programs have an obligation to spend wisely and not be wasteful with community funding. This obligation, imo, requires heavily due diligencing prospective grantees and in most cases takes longer than 2 days to do properly.

I noticed that this group posts quite a few of these proposals with many other protocols and some of them have been approved. Checking through the types of grants that get approved on those protocols, as well as follow-up on whether the grants were actually completed and to what degree of quality, may be instructive here.

[luisqa]

Appreciate your perspective! That’s exactly why I tagged you. Think it is a worthwhile experiment and I do agree 48h time seems fast, will be important that if this passes we get are diligent in holding the members accountable so indeed funds aren’t being spent incorrectly because of that quick response factor.

[RealVovochka]

@RoboMcGobo

dYdX holders that want a grants program they can hold accountable to screen applicants and say no to grants when they should reasonably be expected to in order to prevent frivolous spending that puts negative sell pressure on the token.

I know Robo that you are biased, and this program is a competitor. But c’mon DGP is not accountable at all in anything.
I will listen the tomorrows AMA before comparing DGP with this proposal because I would like to see some exciting new grants. I have only seen yesterday’s on chain txs and they are not as exciting at all. Skip $40K, Chaos $40K, Imperator $51K (All the old grants) and 3 new one for $4.25K in total

[Questbook]

Thank you for your support of our proposal @luisqa!

Question about Synapse. Is that expense one time only or every 6mo? Could you provide more information on it?

The $20000 you highlighted is a cumulative amount of the additional operational cost for running the program which includes Synapse & Docusign services for the program duration. It is not $20k/month.

Thank you for your comments about our proposal @RoboMcGobo

We would like to clarify a point here

But since you tagged me to weigh in, I do feel a bit concerned that this program seems to prioritize 48 hour turnaround times to such a high extent, and to the exclusion of other important factors in grant evaluation. In my experience, it is extremely difficult to do proper due diligence on a prospective grantee or the need for a specific grant in such a short period of time.

We agree that grants programs require ample time to evaluate & conduct due diligence on each proposal. We want to clarify that we have a communication TAT of 48 hours & a funding TAT of 2 weeks to ensure this period of comprehensive review. This 48 hour communication TAT ensures consistent lines of communication with potential grantees ensuring strong satisfaction & engagement with these builders as well, a factor which neglected leads to many builders being dissatisfied with the grants program.

[tane]

We are fully in support of having another grant program that has more community involvements, a battle-tested tool and the framework with clearly defined actors and reporting system to increase transparency on how we improve the protocol within the community. As other participants in this topic, we believe it’s good to respect the plurality of the key functions and have a healthy competition with the currently running grants program for the community initiatives.

A couple of detailed questions would need to be addressed if this goes to the next stage:

@Questbook

A 3/5 Grants multi-sig wallet that includes the program manager & domain allocators will be set up.

How would we set up a multi-sig wallet in the Cosmos SDK based chain? Does Questbook have any experience in dealing with one in Cosmos? If not, should we consider having a support role in this framework?

@Questbook

After incorporating feedback from the community, we will share the proposal for community voting.

How would we do the community voting in the v4 environment?

@Questbook

Protocol Infrastructure

This particular domain seems to be conflicted with the Strategic Initiative of the current DGP 1.5 extension. Considering other potential grants to be applied and grantors, how would Questbook and the DGP 1.5 extension program communicate clearly on how grantors select which grant they should apply for?

@Questbook

New Asset Listings

This domain is also something conflicted with a release of the permissionless market. We are not so sure if it’s effective to have the domain on the v4 environment.

[CipherLabs]

I respectfully disagree with Robo’s assessment. A 48-hour turnaround for grant approvals, although ambitious, can significantly accelerate innovation, contrasting sharply with the current two-month norm. With well-structured processes, it is feasible to achieve efficient and thorough due diligence. It’s crucial to find a balance between quick decision-making and responsible grant management, with a strong emphasis on accountability and transparency — aspects that are currently lacking.

[Questbook]

Thank you for your support of our proposal & we look forward to answering your questions below @tane !

How would we set up a multi-sig wallet in the Cosmos SDK based chain? Does Questbook have any experience in dealing with one in Cosmos? If not, should we consider having a support role in this framework?

There’re instances of multi sigs on Cosmos or other chains that we’re happy to deploy & make it user friendly on dYdX for the sake of the program.

We’ve just scoped it out & our dev team is willing to deploy it on dYdX Chain within a timeline of 2-3 weeks (including iterations after feedback from the grants council) after the proposal has been successfully voted in by the community.

How would we do the community voting in the v4 environment?

We understand the governance processes are still nascent especially and we’re happy to wait till we see stable governance processes and participation come in within a month or two. We would like to use the community on-chain voting process then to let the community decide the domains, its domain allocators or its budget accordingly & subsequently foster community oversight & decision making around our program.

This particular domain seems to be conflicted with the Strategic Initiative of the current DGP 1.5 extension. Considering other potential grants to be applied and grantors, how would Questbook and the DGP 1.5 extension program communicate clearly on how grantors select which grant they should apply for?

We recognize that effective coordination will be key with the respective grants programs. We will market this program effectively on social media in order to educate & ease the on-boarding of potential grantees into respective grants programs.

The grants council will draft & market RFPs on social media that stands out from the requirements of other grants council. We’ll also conduct monthly updates & community calls (AMAs) that can further spread clarity amongst potential clarity. And by chance there’s a proposal that may have an overlap, we’re ready to coordinate with dYdX Grants v1.5 & facilitate quick decision making & subsequent communication to the applicant about it. We also humbly reiterate that the community can suggest domains around the grants program that can deliver impact & is not considered as an overlap with the existing grants program, so do let us know your ideas for domains!

New Assets Listings - This domain is also something conflicted with a release of the permissionless market. We are not so sure if it’s effective to have the domain on the v4 environment.

We respect your comments & are willing to iterate domains based on similar feedback from the community. We also humbly reiterate that the community can suggest domains around the grants program that can deliver impact & is not considered as an overlap with the existing grants program, so do let us know your ideas for domains!

[luisqa]

@Questbook

There’re instances of multi sigs on Cosmos or other chains that we’re happy to deploy & make it user friendly on dYdX for the sake of the program.

We’ve just scoped it out & our dev team is willing to deploy it on dYdX Chain within a timeline of 2-3 weeks (including iterations after feedback from the grants council) after the proposal has been successfully voted in by the community.

The SDK allows management of multisigs through CLI. Here is another multisig tool for reference:
https://multisig.notional.ventures/

[Immutablelawyer]

Hello everyone,

A bit of a delayed response from my end but had a reply drafted that I forgot to send!

I am personally in favour of seeing this proposal in action. As a contributor within the Arbitrum Ecosystem, I have seen the great value-add offered by having mutilple Grants Programs operating in tandem (in the case of Arbitrum, there are community-run GPs, Foundation Run GPs etc.). This has resulted in a great attraction of contributors with different skill-sets that are now contributing within the Arbitrum Ecosystem. There are, coincidentally, quite a few contributors that were very active here currently doing great work within the Arbitrum Ecosystem due to the diverse opportunities available there from a Grants Perspective.

Hence, if our goal is to attract contributors from other Ecosystems and leverage our talent-pool so as to continue evolving & iterating several facets of the dYdX Chain, then I believe that this GP would naturally serve as a catalyst in achieving that goal & progressing our level of autonomy as a community.

Looking forward to seeing the next steps!

Kind regards,
Joseph
Axis Advisory

[RealVovochka]

Hello, everyone.

It seems to me that dydx v4 has confidently found its feet, even surpassing v3 in terms of volume.

We’re at a stage where the community needs to focus on user growth and also on attracting a greater number of contributors with fresh and innovative ideas.
As @Immutablelawyer mentioned, parallel initiatives have shown great outcomes in other ecosystems;

I’m convinced that an additional grants program would be a fantastic catalyst for all of the above.

I also want to invite the foundation in the discussion @BritAus

[CipherLabs]

Following the insightful comments by @Immutablelawyer and @RealVovochka, we at Cipher Labs want to reemphasize our strong endorsement of the Questbook-run grants program. We believe this initiative aligns seamlessly with our values and the broader objectives of the dYdX ecosystem, as echoed in our original statement.

The success of multiple grants programs in ecosystems like Arbitrum, as pointed out by @Immutablelawyer, further strengthens our belief in the potential of this program. Such initiatives not only attract diverse talent but also foster a more dynamic and collaborative environment, something we are eager to see replicated in dYdX.

@RealVovochka’s emphasis on user growth and attracting fresh, innovative contributions is precisely what we aim to support through our role as potential Domain Allocators for Trading Solutions & Tooling. Our commitment to expedite processes and enhance transparency and accountability remains unwavering.

We see this program as a significant step towards a more autonomous and community-driven governance framework for dYdX. It’s a move towards not just improving existing systems but transforming them for the better.

We are excited about the possibility of contributing more actively to this transformation and look forward to participating in the official nomination forum. Let’s work together to make this vision a reality for the dYdX community.