[BIP-635] Business Development SP Proposal for Q3 2024

PR with Payload

Background

The establishment of the Business Development Service Provider (BDSP) took place in Q1 2024 under BIP-525 with the intent of forming a dedicated working group focused on business development and growth-oriented activities.

During Q2, the primary goals for the BDSP focused on growing the Balancer ecosystem and creating new partnerships. Please find updates from April and May in the links attached.

Key Objectives for Q3-2024

Lead Contributor: lipman

  • Execute the launch of Mode and Fraxtal
    • Build liquidity on new chains
    • Implement, monitor, and adjust incentive strategies on new chains
    • Establish a comprehensive partnership network and ecosystem on the new chains, encompassing liquidity providers and networks, yield-bearing assets, lending protocols, etc.
    • Complete governance requirements for various activities (e.g Frax for PoL deploying on Balancer)
  • Enhance presence on existing chains
    • Develop, coordinate, and execute growth initiatives on Layer 2 solutions for existing chains, focusing on Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base networks.
  • Expand the yield-bearing thesis initiative.
    • Continue developing liquidity for Eigenlayer LSTs and LRTs
    • Develop liquidity for yield bearing assets within the Karak and Symbiotic ecosystems
    • Introduce new pools for yield-bearing stablecoins.
    • Bring LST/LRT partners to new chains where Balancer is deployed
  • Execute and explore grant programs
    • Execute the STIP Bridge program on Arbitrum (e.g. finding partners, managing incentives, seeking co-incentives, etc.)
    • Support existing grant programs (e.g. Balancer’s OP LST/LRT incentive program being managed by Beets, etc.)
    • Apply for new grant programs
  • Prepare for v3 launch:
    • Seek integrations and partnerships in anticipation of the v3 launch.
    • Continue supporting engineering to onboard aggregators
    • Collaborate on GTM and BD-related materials (e.g. pitch deck, website, docs, etc.)
  • Extend the ve8020 governance initiative.
    • Explore ve8020 collaborations with pre-token projects or tokens with recent TGEs, such as LRT projects.
    • Promote ve8020 to projects with existing tokens.
  • Develop leads and opportunities for Balancer ecosystem projects (e.g. Gyroscope, CowAMM, Xave, QuantAMM, etc.)
  • Continue ad hoc outreach to projects exploring new partnerships and opportunities.

Pledge to abide by the DAO’s Code of Conduct: YES

Pledge to abide by the Accountability Guidelines: YES

Adhere to [BIP-372] and the SP standards: YES

Length of Engagement & Budget: 3 months (July 2024 - September 2024)

  • Lipman
    • $10,000 USDC per month ($30,000 total for the quarter)
    • 1,462 locked BAL per month
      • ~$5,000 in USD value as of the $BAL price of $3.42 as of Jun 11, 2024
      • 4,386 BAL for the quarter
  • Discretionary budget
    • $6,000 USDC for the quarter

Of note, Json will no longer be contributing to the BDSP in Q3. However, the BDSP would like to retain the $6k USDC used for Json’s Q2 comp as a flexible discretionary budget, which would be distributed in agreement with the Maxis. Potential examples for uses of this discretionary fund could include compensating a part-time replacement for json, expenses for events not covered by BIP-612, or other BD related activities.

Overall, the budget in USD terms for Q3 has decreased $22,500 compared to Q2.

Impact on the Treasury

The Treasury wallets currently hold ~3.95M BAL. Funding the BDSP for Q3 2024 would cost around 0.11% of the treasury’s BAL holdings, which annualizes to ~0.44% of the treasury’s BAL. The Treasury wallets currently hold ~$5.34M in stables. Funding the USDC portion would cost around 0.56% of the treasury’s USDC, which annualizes to ~2.25%.

The Balancer DAO multisig 0x10A19e7eE7d7F8a52822f6817de8ea18204F2e4f will interact with USDC 0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48 by writing transfer passing the BDSP Safe 0xC7E84373FC63A17B5B22EBaF86219141B630cD7a as recipient and amount 36000 USDC as 36000000000.

The Balancer DAO multisig 0x10A19e7eE7d7F8a52822f6817de8ea18204F2e4f will interact with BAL 0xba100000625a3754423978a60c9317c58a424e3D by writing transfer passing the BDSP Safe 0xC7E84373FC63A17B5B22EBaF86219141B630cD7a as recipient and amount 4386 as 4386000000000000000000.

6 Likes

Thanks for this proposal @lipman!

I can testify that everyone I know in the community has very much enjoyed working with you and appreciates all the effort and initiatives you are spearheading for Balancer. I personally would love to see you working with the DAO in the long term!

Like mentioned in the Marketing’s and Maxis’ proposals though, I think the moment we are in is highly uncertain and we should all strive to extend the runway of the DAO.

$12,500 + $5,000 = $17,500 per month, this is a very high salary of $210k USD per year. It’s quite a bit above what other SPs are being paid on average per FTE.

If we do a comparison to the Maxis’ proposal and apply a 1.25 factor to locked BAL + the current lower value of BAL of $3.10, the ask would be of $12500 + $3,625 = $16,126.

I would be much happier and think this proposal would be much more likely to be approved if you could get to an amount closer to the Maxis by reducing the USDC ask to $10k per month, which would mean a total of $13,625 considering a $3.10 value of BAL (could bump back up after the drop of the last 12h) and the 1.25 factor. This would still be higher than the maxis and all other SPs and IMO still a very good comp.

1 Like

Have made the edit to reduce USDC per month to $10k.

3 Likes

Karpatkey supports this funding proposal because it’s crucial to establish a solid business development setup given the upcoming launch of the v3 protocol and all of the upcoming activities. Karpatkey aims to enhance its presence in Balancer Treasury and Financial Management, ensuring all expenses are meaningful. We appreciate @lipman 's thoughtful structure and agree with slightly reducing the USDC portion to benefit the runway, aligning with our strategy for sustainable growth and effective resource allocation.

2 Likes

https://snapshot.org/#/balancer.eth/proposal/0xcb7e2ff7c8dd1a8273a7a2ec6297710d4e42238d2b2557cc18d82a0736815896