Badgeholder learning materials

Retro Funding Missions 🔴
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I was just watching this retrospective from the RPGF1 round (January 2022):

I really enjoyed it. It gave me important insights into the history of RPGF, put faces on some of the early contributers to the process, allowed me to reflect on some of the questions that they considered - and so, to better understand this thing that I have just recently been invited to become a part of.

And that made me think: What other resources might it be beneficial for new (or future) badgeholders to have a look at in order to educate themselves and get up to speed?

Please share your best recommendations in this thread.

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Optimism co-founder and CEO, Jing Wang, on millennial dreamers and defectors, public goods and incentives, being open to change and having a reason to get out of bed in the morning (December 2022):

“How do we allow iteration in the protocol and in the governance design AND prevent capture? How do we make sure that each change that’s made still adheres to the starting values - impact equals profit, capture resistance, decentralization?”

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GM @joanbp! Thank you for sharing, I didn’t watch the video yet. but this article came to my mind: Review of Optimism retro funding round 1

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Hey @joanbp, I particularly enjoyed this episode and have featured a summary on my little Op Vision Reservoir. If you like this kind of content, feel free to take a look.

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@brichis

Thank you!

This was a great read, and a very apt follow-up to the retrospective I linked to in my first post.

Vitalik touches on many great questions. Like:

  • What types of impact should RPGF support?
  • What are the unconscious biases of the badgeholder?
  • What is a high-quality (impactful) project?
  • Should government be democratic or technocratic, or is there an ideal way of combining both?
  • Why is diversity desirable, what is true diversity, how do we attain it, and what does it cost?
  • What are some pros and cons of means testing RPGF applicants?
  • Should VC investors be encouraged to make massive investments in public goods in the hopes of being rewarded retroactively? (I can feel the ground shake under me, asking this)
  • What consequences are there of nomination vs. self-nomination?
  • When are secret votes preferable to public votes?
  • More generally: When does transparency become a liability?
  • What are some ways to encourage more discussion, among badgeholders or in general?

The article has some cool links to further explorations, too. :slightly_smiling_face:

@latruite.eth

Awesome. Thanks!

I very much like this kind of content, yes, and I love that you have included both an invitation for others to contribute to your reservoir, and an ‘about’ page to introduce yourself and explain your own stake in this. I like to have at least a basic sense of the people I entrust to curate my experience.

I look forward to going through your suggestions in the time to come!

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Thanks for the insiught; wish all a great week ahead!

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Official sources of information

Before sharing any more specific articles, podcast episodes etc., there are a few places to go that we should probably all know about.

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Main Optimism landing page

Have a good look at the menu. This is a great place to find official information about the Superchain, the OP Collective, RetroPGF, delegation, apps and integrations, developer docs and more!

I want to highlight the Help Center and - for badgeholders - especially its section on the Optimism Foundation and Government.

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The Optimism blog on mirror.xyz

This blog is worth binge reading at your own pace.

I’m not sure who writes these posts, but I’m guessing someone from the Foundation? If you have any information on this, please share!

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The old Optimism blog on Medium

The Mirror blog is the continuation of this older blog on Medium:

…where it is actually specified that the writers/editors are Jinglan Wang and Karl Floersch. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Optimism Agora

Finally, I want to mention the Optimism Agora, which is supposedly the home of the Optimism delegates (ie. Token House representatives). This may be in the process of changing? At any rate, it is also the place to find the list of current RetroPGF3 applications!

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Basic RetroPGF History

The idea behind retroactive public goods funding seems to have been first succinctly formulated (in the context of Optimism) in July 2021.

Would you like to understand why Vitalik Buterin thought public goods funding should be retroactive, and how any group of badgeholders could be seen as a “results oracle”? Read this seminal blog post.

…And then go read or re-read the Optimism Vision and Ether’s Phoenix.

(If you prefer audio-visuals, you can also check out Karl Floersch’s wonderfully enthusiastic explanations here and here.)

Then you’re off to a great start. :slightly_smiling_face:

RPGF Round 1

Round 1 took place in Q1 of 2023. 24 badgeholders were appointed, and 22 of them seem to have actually participated in the distribution of $1M among 76 nominated projects. 58 of the projects received funding.

Round 1 announcement

Round 1 results

Round 1 review

Round 1 badgeholder manual

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RPGF Round 2

Round 2 took place in Q4 of 2021. 90 voting badges were offered, 71 badgeholders selected, and of these 69 actually voted on the distribution of OP 10M among 195 nominated people and projects. All nominees received funding.

RPGF2 was launched alongside with the first iteration of the Citizens’ House. You can read about both events in the announcement below.

Round 2 documentation

Round 2 announcement

Round 2 nominated projects

Round 2 results

Round 2 results - spread sheet

Round 2 learnings and reflections

Round 2 badgeholder manual

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RPGF Round 3

Round 3 is taking place now, in Q4 of 2023. OP 30M will be distributed. 145 badgeholders will be voting. More on the selection of badgeholders can be found here.

Projects are this time self-nominated. By the end of the application window there were a grand total of 1596 applications. A separate application review process has been introduced to filter out applications that violate the application rules.

I will add to the info below when more is known about how this round turned out…

Round 3 documentation

Round 3 announcement

Round 3 call for applications

Round 3 self-nominated projects

…TBC :seedling:

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