Service Provider Name: Balancer Maxis
Leader(s): Solarcurve, joined by the returning cast of Mike B, Zekraken, Xeonus, Zen Dragon, and Danko.
Pledge to abide by the DAO’s Code of Conduct (or link to your own): Yes
Pledge to abide by the Accountability Guidelines: Yes
Domains of Operation + Key Objectives & Success Metrics:
As Balancer pursues its path for further decentralization, the Balancer Maxis workgroup presents community contributors aligned with the protocol’s future and long-term sustainability. Whether proposing and executing innovative ideas, or gatekeeping the ecosystem and helping third-party projects, Maxis were proven to be a key component of Balancer.
Our Q4 proposal is effectively asking veBAL Governance the continuation of this decentralized collaboration group, and reading on previous Q3 funding post might bring some additional context to the present proposal.The following will be kept brief and at a high level with some reflections on Q3 and the path ahead of us. More granular metrics can be found in our monthly updates for July, August, and September.
Multisig Management
- Linear (boosted) pool settings
- Swap fee and amplification adjustments
- Adding newly approved gauges to veBAL
- Adding new reward tokens to gauges
- Withdrawing and distributing protocol fees
- Verifying and queuing all transactions before execution by the DAO Multisig
- Together with Balancer Labs we operate the Emergency subDAO Multisig
These are some of the basic functions required to ensure smooth operation of the Balancer Protocol for all its end users. We believe the best metric for success is that most users are not even aware that these tasks exist – they simply observe a new gauge being approved by voters then appearing on the voting list or find protocol fees in the claim section every week, etc. The Maxis ensure that the various multisigs and their relevant functions are used properly and promptly, and all transactions are verified for accuracy by at least two people. Our Q3 track record in this regard is excellent and we’ll continue in the same manner for Q4.
Governance
- We serve on the Governance Council and ensure continuity of Balancer’s Governance Process
- Active participants in Discord and the Forum on governance topics
- Several of us are delegates
- Advise projects on Balancer’s governance process
- Manage admin of the Governance Forum
- We will pursue various strategic initiatives (such as BIP-19) at our discretion, either individually or as a group.
- In the cases that voting power in other protocols from tokens held in Balancer’s Treasury has been delegated to us, we will represent Balancer’s interest in these votes.
During Q3 Balancer governance was exceptionally busy. The Maxis ensured that proposals were put up for a vote according to the schedule in BIP-9 and followed through on execution of each approved vote. It is a testament to the resiliency of Balancer’s governance process that despite many proposals and long forum threads, the process of proposing, voting, and implementation continued unhindered. We believe active governance is a good thing for Balancer – we will continue to make proposals, engage in constructive dialogue, and represent Balancer’s interests both on our home forum and elsewhere.
User/project support
- We manage Balancer’s Discord and ensure questions or concerns are addressed
- Help projects use Balancer by offering advice or answering questions
- We often deploy new pools for other projects
- Whitelisting and maintaining token lists
- We help with UI testing for Balancer
The Maxis are involved in many chats with many projects seeking to use Balancer in some way. There are several success stories worth highlighting during Q3, perhaps most notably being the close relationship with Hidden Hand as a result of BIP-19. We continue to be in regular contact to ensure smooth operation of Balancer’s markets, and they even deployed to Optimism to support our growth there. Rocket Pool deciding to begin incentivizing Balancer liquidity is also a major milestone in Balancer’s push for yield bearing liquidity. During Q4 the Maxis plan to continue supporting projects and users, so they can have a positive and productive experience with Balancer.
The final point on UI testing is also worth highlighting. It is often a thankless job, but Zekraken leads the weekly testing effort and doesn’t compromise or cut corners. Not all heroes wear capes.
Community
- We manage a monthly Coordinape circle, open to all DAO contributors
- Onboarding framework for new contributors
- Offboarding for contributors transitioning from the DAO or between SPs
- Regular health-check on SP and community contributors with recurrent feedback
- Study groups to invest in contributors growth
Having an open community for new contributors wanting to join the Balancer ecosystem is a great concern for us. By adopting an easy and seamless onboarding framework, every applicant is being reached through discovery calls and monthly follow-ups. We help contributors understand the DAO operating framework (BIP-1) and set in motion their ideas for Balancer. By keeping contributors engaged, we aim to retain talents in the Balancer ecosystem as Ballers, Grantees or shaping their own Service Provider.
Record Keeping
- We will maintain a notion page detailing the activity of each of our controlled multisigs. Included will be documentation on how to use the powers of the multisig so a future SP can easily take it over in case we are off boarded.
- Maintaining, updating, and improving official Balancer documentation as a bridge between the greater community and core development team.
Length of Engagement & Budget:
3 months.
Budget of 9,350 BAL per month for salaries (1,700 per person, Danko at 850) which will be max locked in veBAL by contributors. This represents $10k/mo for each contributor (Danko at half) at today’s BAL price (~$6). Additional monthly allocations of 100 BAL for gas costs and 4,000 BAL for Coordinape.
Total for 3 month engagement: 40,350 BAL
Impact on the Treasury: The Treasury currently holds ~5M BAL. Funding the Balancer Maxis for Q4 would cost around 0.8% of the treasury’s BAL holdings, which annualizes to ~3.2% of the treasury’s BAL.
ETH Address to Receive Funds: 0x166f54F44F271407f24AA1BE415a730035637325
Link to SLA (if going through the Foundation: N/A
