Cycle 25 Recap: In Cycle 25, we faced several challenges, particularly the fast-paced review process and technical issues with Charmverse that limited our ability to provide comprehensive feedback. Despite these challenges, we received 50 applications and managed to review 100% of them at each milestone. However, only three reviewers had full context for final decision-making due to time constraints. As a result, all non-approved applications were pushed to the next cycle, giving applicants time to incorporate feedback and refine their proposals.
Cycle 26 Progress: For Cycle 26, we made several improvements to address the issues from the previous cycle:
- Rubrics and Feedback: Rubric comments are now integrated directly into each application, allowing applicants to view scores and comments for each rubric section. This feature was swiftly implemented by the Charmverse team, and it will significantly enhance the transparency and clarity of the review process.
- Review Process: To improve the decision-making process, we divided the review into two groups of six Grants Council members each. This allowed for a more thorough and balanced evaluation of each application.
- DAB Involvement: The Developer Advisory Board (DAB) played a crucial role in this cycle by providing valuable feedback during the preliminary review. We acknowledge that incorporating their input within 24 hours was a challenge, so we have adjusted our timeline to provide preliminary review lists earlier in the process. Grants Council reviewers had a week to incorporate DAB feedback on each application and edit their scores.
- Application Review: We received 29 new applications in Cycle 26, along with 24 applications carried over from the previous cycle. We maintained a preliminary cutoff at 30 points and set the final cutoff for grantees at 40 points after analyzing two cycles of scores. This new threshold ensures that only applications with strong potential are considered for grants.
- Final Decisions: In Cycle 26, 12 new grants were approved using a top-rank priority and mission request budget limitation, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new review process. Applications that did not meet the 40-point threshold have been declined.
Looking Ahead to Cycle 27: We will continue to refine our processes to ensure that the review and decision-making are as thorough and fair as possible. Submission for Cycle 27 will remain open until Monday, 2nd at 7 pm UTC. We encourage applicants to use the additional feedback provided when re-applying, to strengthen their proposals and aim to meet the 40-point cutoff for consideration as finalists.
I’d like to extend special congratulations to Derive (formerly Lyra) and Fraxtal for being awarded the first-ever Superchain grants. Their applications have set a high standard for future grant recipients, and we look forward to seeing how they will further strengthen the Superchain ecosystem.
We extend our thanks to @devtooligan for serving as the audit application reviewer from the DAB for this cycle. The audit requests were thoroughly evaluated by 2 members from the Grants Council and 1 member from the DAB. Together, they scored 8 requests and approved 5 of them.
Below is the list of applications and you can find a detailed database here.
| Intent 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cross Chain Voting | ||
| 1 | OP Stack Cross Chain Voting | Declined |
| 2 | Cross chain voting with Snapshot and Herodotus | Asked reduction to acomodate |
| 3 | Aragon <> RISC Zero - Joint partnership on crosschain voting | Asked reduction to acomodate |
| Grants Claiming Tools | ||
| 1 | Hedgey application | Approved |
| 2 | Attestation-Based Grants Payouts Claiming | Declined |
| 3 | BootNode Grants Claiming Tool | Declined |
| Analysis of Grant Programs | ||
| 1 | bleu’s Analysis of Grant Programs | Declined |
| Farcaster Social Graph | ||
| 1 | CastRank: PageRank for Farcaster | Declined |
| Develop non-technical solutions for increasing both voter and token participation in the DAO | ||
| 1 | Lighthouse | Declined |
| 2 | Event Horizon Public Access Voter Pool | Approved |
| Decentralized alternative for contract attestation placeholder | ||
| No Application | ||
| Create and Distribute Videos about Optimism Collective Governance | ||
| 1 | OP Roundup | Declined |
| 2 | GovCheck – Create and Distribute Videos About The Optimism Collective | Declined |
| Integration of Optimism Gov and RPGF into University Courses | ||
| 1 | Integration of Optimism Gov and RPGF into University Courses | Declined |
| Intent 3A | ||
| Optimism Dominance in Yield-Bearing Assets 1 | ||
| 1 | OETH on OP (1 of 3) | Approved |
| Optimism Dominance in Yield-Bearing Assets 2 | ||
| 1 | OETH on OP (2 of 3) | Approved |
| Optimism Dominance in Yield-Bearing Assets 3 | ||
| 1 | OETH on OP (3 of 3) | Push until token launch |
| 2 | Extra Finance S6 Mission Application | Approved |
| 3 | Let’s Get HAI | Approved |
| 4 | dForce on OP | Declined |
| Optimism Dominance in Yield-Bearing Assets 4 | ||
| 1 | GFX Labs | Declined |
| Developer Tools | ||
| 1 | Optimizing Token Launches: Open-Source Crowdsale Factory | Declined |
| 2 | GhostTags - Open Source tagging, streaming and filtering transactions infrastructure | Declined |
| 3 | NFT HOOK | Declined |
| 4 | Wake arena | Declined |
| Research capital migration to the Superchain | ||
| 1 | Research capital migration to Super chain and strategies to attract sustainable liquidity - PYOR | Declined |
| Microgrants for Experimental Projects | ||
| 1 | Soulcial | Declined |
| 2 | Fractal Visions | Declined |
| 3 | ForkinWisdom | Declined |
| 4 | FairSharing - Contribution On-Chain, Reputation building, Decentralize coordination | Declined |
| 5 | Token Resurrection | Declined |
| 6 | Kiwi News Application | Declined |
| 7 | Chora Club | Declined |
| Optimism as base for LRTs | ||
| 1 | Boosting LRT adoption with Compound Finance | Approved |
| Experimental Derivative Markets | ||
| 1 | Tradao - Copy Trading Platform | Declined |
| 2 | TLX - Leveraged Tokens Protocol | Approved |
| Develop Onchain Social Games that attract Builders to Optimism - v2 | ||
| No Application | ||
| Support on-chain games close to launch | ||
| No Application | ||
| Optimism as Venture Studio | ||
| 1 | Super Studios-Optimism as a Venture Studio | Approved |
| Gaming Infra in the Superchain | ||
| No Application | ||
| Marquee Governance Hackaton | ||
| 1 | SuperHack Bangkok - Marquee Governance Hackathon | Declined |
| Accelerating Game Development in the Superchain | ||
| No Application | ||
| Create Educational Programs that Empower Developers on Optimism - Modified with Lower Budget | ||
| 1 | GreenTech Hackathon Developer Workshops | Declined |
| 2 | Blockchain Innovation Hub: Optimism chapter | Declined |
| 3 | SuperDevs for Superchain | Declined |
| Intent 3B | ||
| Superchain Grants (chains only) | ||
| 1 | Fraxtal Application | Approved |
| 2 | Lisk - Intent 3B Grant Application | Pushed to next cycle with feedback |
| 3 | Derive (Formerly Lyra) Chain - Intent 3B | Approved |
| 4 | Mode | Pushed to next cycle with feedback |
| 5 | Race Foundation | Pushed to next cycle with feedback |
| 6 | Redstone Chain Grants Program Application | Pushed to next cycle with feedback |
| Intent 1 | ||
| Request for Audits | ||
| 1 | Trail of Bits Audit Request for Shape Factory, Inc. | Approved |
| 2 | Trail of Bits Audit Request for Curvance | Approved |
| 3 | Trail of Bits Audit Request for cLabs | Approved |
| 4 | Strands Finance | Approved |
| 5 | OP - Besu/Hildr | Approved |
| 6 | LogX | Declined by the Auditing service |
| 7 | Fractal Visions | Declined |
| 8 | Ame Network | Declined |