Balancer Grants DAO Service Provider Proposal Q2 2023
Overview
This proposal is to continue Balancer Grants within the Balancer DAO, as an independent community-owned grants program for the Balancer ecosystem as a Service Provider (SP). The program aims to accelerate the development of the BAL ecosystem while optimizing contributor rewards in the Balancer ecosystem. Grants are an alternative pathway for projects aimed at funding smaller, short term or one off projects up to $100k USD that don’t fit the Foundation Service Provider funding model.
The current Balancer Grants team has been working together under the previous snapshot proposal passed on Jan 9, 2023. To date, the grants program has successfully delivered 7 waves of funding and mentoring, expanding the Balancer ecosystem by encouraging building to increase TVL and bring more quality teams into the Balancer ecosystem. This proposal is to continue the operation of the grants program as per BIP-76 and BIP-144.
Only significant changes to the previous proposal are:
- Co-lead positions changing to Burns as a single lead due to Zen Dragon’s external commitments. Zen Dragon’s contributions as a co-lead have been invaluable to the grants program’s success to date. Fortunately, he will be remaining on the grants team as a highly valuable committee member.
- Addition of Steve0xp in place of ZeKraken. ZeKraken stepped down in Q1 with other commitments and Steve0xp has shown immediate commitment and value to the grants committee over the previous 2 months through knowledge as a smart contract dev and creation/publication of marketing materials. As a long standing committee member with vast Balancer and DeFi knowledge generally, ZeKraken will be a welcome contributor in the future if circumstances change.
Due to rise in BAL price since previous funding proposal, no funds are requested to top up the treasury (currently 65,469 BAL uncommitted) for 55,719 BAL to future grantees and 9,750 BAL for committee/support.
As always, we welcome comments and recommendations from the community on how to better develop the Balancer grants program.
Previous Performance
Managing between 16-18 live grantees providing cross-functional support between BLabs, Orb and grantees.
Championed co-funding arrangements with Aura Grants (Notional and Sturdy)
Two TWAMM implementations, one in Beta (longswap.xyz) and a second due to be live next quarter
Notional Finance adding >$3m TVL from $70k grant. More pools to be launched with Aura co-funding
Funding custom managed pools controller development with novel use cases. (Kassandra, Autonolas)
Bringing Yearn’s yBAL into Balancer ecosystem
Funding development of Xeonus’ analytics site
Expanding Balancer docs and SDK
Dedication to transparent approvals process and reporting
Recovered Funds from stale grantees to redistribute to new projects.
Domain of Operation
The grant program provides support and funding (up to $100K USD, paid in BAL) to projects committed to supporting Balancer Protocol in achieving its mission to become the number one source of liquidity for DeFi. This program is made for groups and individuals that aspire to run a project that builds on the Balancer Protocol or supports the development of the Balancer ecosystem. While the Foundation SP model is aimed at long term engagements or those with a cost beyond $100k USD, grants are an alternative pathway aimed at funding smaller, short term or one off projects.
The Balancer Grants DAO Service Provider will be operated by the Grants Committee, a group of diverse and experienced Balancer contributors. More details on the Grants Committee are below
Grants Committee
The Grants Committee consists of dedicated Balancer contributors with strong analytical and support backgrounds. One major change is moving from co-leads to a single lead due to external commitments. With this change, the committee remains an equal democracy. While we rely on individuals expertise in different areas to help make informed decisions, no individual has a greater authority on what is approved or not.
Burns - Committee Coordination Lead
Zen Dragon - Committee Member/Mentor
Jay Napier - Committee Member/Mentor
John Grant - Committee Member/Mentor
Mike B - Committee Member/Mentor
Steve0xp - Committee Member/Mentor
Xeonus - Committee Member/Mentor
The committee has the ability to onboard/offboard members as individual circumstances change throughout the quarter between funding proposals. Given the authority to approve and distribute grant funding, the committee can also self manage members within the approved budget.
The Grants Committee will continue to work closely with Balancer Labs, Orb Collective and Ballers to amplify and support grantees.
By having a dedicated and diverse group of committee members and proactively working together with other ecosystem partners, Balancer Grants are set out to be one of the most effective grants programs in DeFi.
Length of Engagement and Budget breakdown
This budget contains all costs for the full operations of the Balancer Grants DAO for the period January 1st, 2023 until March 31st, 2023. At the end of this cycle (March 31st), any unallocated resources will be sent back to the Balancer Treasury or kept to offset the next quarter budget request. A new proposal for the next cycle will be submitted at the end of this cycle.
Compensation will continue to be paid out in BAL to assist the DAO in becoming sustainable from protocol fees. Due to the inconsistent nature of grants and the associated workload, grants team members will self-assess their level of contribution against defined Tiers each month to determine their compensation which is reviewed by the grants co-leads and committee.
Tiers are:
Committee Lead - $7,500 USD paid in BAL - significant administration of grants docs, prepare and present monthly reports/community calls, wave round up, grantee announcements, budget preparation and SP proposals, .
High Level Contributor - $3,500 USD paid in BAL - as per Low Contributor plus mentor 5+ low assistance grantees or 3+ high assistance grantees.
Medium Level Contributor - $2,500 USD paid in BAL - as per Low Contributor plus mentor 2-4 low assistance grantees or 1-2 high assistance grantees.
Low Level Contributor - $1,250 USD paid in BAL - contribute to weekly grants meeting, follow up call for 1-2 grant applications, mentor at least 1 grantee with low level assistance required (generally self-sufficient grantee with no major coordination with BLabs).
| Name | Amount in BAL/USD | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 Grants | 55,719 BAL ($334k USD @ $6.00 USD/BAL) | To be rewarded to grantees based on milestones following the full Grants review process. For sub $5k USD contributions a light review process will be utilized. |
| 1 Grants lead | $7.5k x 3 months @ $6.00 USD/BAL= 3,750 BAL | The Grants Lead Role takes ownership of the establishment and operations of the Balancer Grant processes. The lead is responsible for coordinating with Committee Members, scheduling and hosting meetings, maintaining Medium and Notion pages and producing the post grants report. |
| 6 committee members | $1.833k average x 6 x 3 months @ $6.00 USD/BAL = 5,500 BAL | Review grant applications, contribute to decision making process, participate in follow-up calls, Mentor/support grantees as per tiers above |
| Other Program Expenses | 500BAL | Any other program expenses that may be required for the smooth execution of the grants program. This may include (but is not limited to) to design, media, PR, research, legal, gas fees or any other specialized functions outside the skillset of the committee |
| Uncommitted Treasury | 65,469 BAL | |
| Total request for quarter | 0 BAL |
Service Provider Pledge
The Grant DAO service provider agrees to operate under the existing Balancer DAO’s Code of Conduct, as listed here
The Grant DAO service also pledges to be held accountable by the Balancer Token Holder in accordance with the Balancer DAO Accountability Guidelines. This will include the Grant’s Committee:
- Holding an open community call quarterly and keeping a recording available for 3 months
- Developing a monthly report detailing key objective progress which is posted to the Balancer Forum
- Attending and presenting during the Baller weekly meeting (mandatory attendance by a least 1 representative)
Specification
There is no on-chain action required. If approved, the Grants Committee multi-sig (currently 3 out of 7) will continue to operate with the remaining funds in the Grants treasury (0xE2c91f3409Ad6d8cE3a2E2eb330790398CB23597) carried over and approved to be delegated to the grantees.
All transactions will be recorded in a Sheet maintained by the committee and on chain.
ETH Address to Receive Funds
Grants Treasury - 0xE2c91f3409Ad6d8cE3a2E2eb330790398CB23597
Current Treasury Balance ~172,082 BAL + 20,236.61 USDC
Committed BAL ~106,612 BAL + 20,000 USDC (@$6.00 USD/BAL)
Uncommitted BAL in treasury ~65,469 BAL + 236.61 USDC