Author(s):
Jack Clancy (@0xjack_)
Benji Cohen (@benjicohen421)
Status: Temperature Check
Date Posted: 2022-10-31
This is a temperature check, in line with current Hop governance processes, where DAO members vote off-chain on Snapshot prior to the vote going on-chain for formal execution
As per the instructions in Phase I (RFC), the question posed is: “Should Hop governance fund a grants program?”
Motivation:
Hop is an emerging protocol with a large community of developers and users. It is one of the most used crypto apps in the last few months due to its utility and support for many of the most popular blockchain networks.
Establishing a grants program that funds independent developers to build on top of HOP will increase developer interest. Protocol developments could be alternative frontends, in depth analytics sites or dune dashboards, or sdks that make it easier to integrate with HOP, just to name a few. There have been several successful grants programs like Uniswap grants, Liquity, and Maker, which this proposal attempts to emulate.
Renewal/Sunset:
This program is intended to be reviewed after 6 months. After the trial period ends, if the program is not renewed, any unused $HOP token will be returned to the treasury.
Funding
The initial grants program will allocate 750k HOP to the grants program (~$75k). This should give the grants program enough funding to allocate several sizable grants to the HOP development program. The intention of this funding amount is not to definitely allocate all funds, but to have enough funds to give out several sizable grants if there are worthy candidates. As stated previously in this RFC, any unused funds will be returned to the treasury or rolled over into a more formalized grants program after the 6 month trial period.
Grants larger than $15k will have to go through a full governance process (RFC-> Temp Check Vote -> On Chain Vote) before being funded.
Reporting and administration:
Developers wishing to seek a grant from the HOP grant program will have to apply via a forum post here, outlining what they plan to build, milestone deliverables, and the amount of funding they require to develop in line with their specifications.
Grants under this program will receive a maximum of 150k HOP, which is ~$15k USD given current market pricing for HOP. The grants committee will allocate funds to developers as they see fit. The grants committee members will be as follows:
Lito - Hop Growth
Getty - GFX Labs
FourPoops - HOP Delegate & Activist
Jack - Developer and DAO contributor
Chris Winfrey - Hop founder
The grants committee have beeen added as admins to a Gnosis Safe that holds the funds allocated to the grants program. They will vote with a simple majority quorum whether or not to fund grants. The Gnosis Safe is already deployed at 0x1ECC9Ee9980348a2373c1F2EFbfDF520a389f35C
Grant submissions will come via forum postings with a lightweight template developed if/when this proposal passes. There will be an expectation that developers applying for grants articulate the value added to Hop DAO in their proposals and certain milestones may need to be reached for all grant funding to be released. There may also be an additional reporting requirement to keep Hop community up to date of how grants develop. This will be determined on a proposal to proposal basis.
