Developer Advisory Board Operating Budget: Seasons 8 & 9
Developer Advisory Board Lead: Ed / wildmolasses
Proposed Operating Budget: 974,000 OP
Contact Info: @wildmolasses
Council Charter: OPerating-manual/Developer Advisory Board Charter v1.1.md at 5cf9c2db1ee2d93351f4e3507cbef4000f0cad4e · ethereum-optimism/OPerating-manual · GitHub
Breakdown of Council Operating Budget:
This Operating Budget is for the full 12-month term (Seasons 8 & 9), including the Reflection Periods. It covers the compensation required to run the Developer Advisory Board, and does not include budget for the mission funding which is done separately ([DRAFT] Budget Board Advisory Proposal for Token House Missions: Seasons 8).
Our S8/S9 structure consists of seven (7) Board Members and one (1) Lead. This budget is designed to fairly compensate our technical experts while placing a strong emphasis on incentivizing leadership and operational accountability for our key programs.
Member Stipends [unlocked, superfluid stream]:
-
Lead = 77,000 OP per season (154,000 OP total for S8/S9)
The Lead is responsible for ensuring that the DAB is both meeting its current objectives and finding opportunities to further support the Collective. This includes:- (a) leading all board meetings and internal decisions.
- (b) overseeing the decisions and feedback of all board responsibilities.
- (c) leading board discussions on approving protocol upgrades, and communicating these decisions (along with helpful voting context) to the community.
- (d) providing oversight and acting as a final point of escalation for Developer Adoption Grant decisions.
- (e) collaborating with other Council Leads to find opportunities to provide support across the collective.
- (f) tracking KPIs and drafting the Season 8/9 retrospectives at the end of the season.
-
Board Members = 35,000 OP per season, per member (490,000 OP total for S8/S9)
- This base stipend compensates the 7 voting members for their core responsibilities, including:
- (a) full participation in the protocol upgrade review process, including assessment of an upgrade’s Technical Content, Technical Merits, and Collective Impact, and on-time voting;
- (b) actively tracking progress of the upgrade roadmap;
- (c) contributing to discussions on Developer Adoption Grants when requested;
- (d) providing ad hoc technical advisory for other councils;
- (e) sharing office hours responsibilities (expecting upgrade discussions with various stakeholder groups).
- This base stipend compensates the 7 voting members for their core responsibilities, including:
-
Stewardship Stipends (5) = +20,000 OP per season, per member (200,000 OP total for S8/S9)
-
To ensure our key programs have sufficient bandwidth and are managed effectively, members assigned a stewardship role will receive an additional stipend. 4 of these members share responsibility for leading the DAB’s strategic grant-making, with the goal of increasing verified developer adoption per the Developer Advisory Board Mission, and the 5th one leads DAB Ops.
-
Audit Grants Stewards (2): +20,000 OP/season, per steward
- These two members share responsibility for the end-to-end operation of the Audit Grants Program. Responsibilities include:
- (a) co-managing and refining the application and review process for audit subsidies;
- (b) acting as the primary points of contact for projects and approved audit firms;
- (c) managing the program’s budget and reporting on its impact.
- These two members share responsibility for the end-to-end operation of the Audit Grants Program. Responsibilities include:
-
Foundation Grants Stewards (2): +20,000 OP/season, per steward
- These two members share responsibility for the end-to-end operation of our collaboration with the Foundation on strategic grants. Responsibilities include:
- (a) conceptualizing, drafting, and publishing Mission Requests;
- (b) co-managing the selection process for these strategic grants;
- (c) ensuring grant-making aligns with the Collective’s technical roadmap.
- These two members share responsibility for the end-to-end operation of our collaboration with the Foundation on strategic grants. Responsibilities include:
-
Ops Lead (1): +20,000 OP/season
- The Ops Lead is responsible for the board’s operational excellence. Responsibilities include:
- (a) managing internal operating procedures (IOPs), tools, and documentation;
- (b) ensuring deadlines around the upgrade process are well communicated;
- (c) scheduling meetings and tracking action items; and
- (d) scheduling office hours, coordinating on agenda and DAB member attendance;
- (e) interfacing with other councils and stakeholders (delegates, apps, chains, users) to ensure smooth cross-functional collaboration;
- (f) communicating what we’re doing to the Collective.
- The Ops Lead is responsible for the board’s operational excellence. Responsibilities include:
-
Retroactive Budget (locked for one year):
-
Total Retroactive Allocation = 60,000 OP per season (120,000 OP total for S8/S9)
- In line with the Budget Board’s guidance, this pool will be used to reward members for exceptional performance and impact that goes above and beyond their baseline responsibilities. The distribution method will be determined by the elected board to ensure fairness and transparency.
Multisig Management (unlocked):
-
Total Multisig Budget = 5,000 OP per season (10,000 OP total for S8/S9)
- This allocation is for the reimbursement of hardware signing devices or other operational security costs incurred by board members in the fulfillment of their duties, strictly following the Collective’s security policies.
How should governance participants assess impact?
The DAB’s success is measured by its tangible contributions to the Superchain’s security, collective technical excellence, and developer adoption.
User Experience KPIs:
-
Clarity and Trust in Upgrade Approvals: The board’s public analysis and voting for each protocol upgrade is clear, well-reasoned, and trusted by the community as a basis for understanding technical risk and reward.
-
Applicant Net Promoter Score (NPS): Solicit feedback from all grant applicants (audits and missions) to achieve an NPS score of >= 8.
-
Stakeholder Satisfaction: Achieve an NPS score of >= 8 from key stakeholders we collaborate with, including the Foundation and Grants Council.
Performance KPIs:
-
Protocol Upgrade Diligence: 100% of protocol upgrades are reviewed and voted on by the DAB within the official timelines, with no procedural delays caused by the board.
-
Driving Developer Adoption: The grant programs managed by the DAB demonstrably contribute to the “Verified Developer Interop Adoption” metric outlined in the S8 Missions proposal (increasing Atlas deployers with contracts interacting with interop
L2ToL2CrossDomainMessenger)
Justification for Budget
Worked with Gonna and Jun on figuring out ETH/OP conversions for historic numbers. Here’s a spreadsheet (in a format that mirrors theirs) where you can see the breakdown of our past season budgets in ETH, and the proposed differences from there: Proposed S8 Developer Advisory Board Operating Budget - Google Sheets