[DRAFT] [GF: Phase 1] EthernautDao (Dev Education)

đź“ś Proposal Discussion Governance Fund: Phase 1
#1

Project Name: EthernautDAO

Web: http://ethernautdao.io/
Mirror: https://ethernautdao.medium.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EthernautDAO
GitHub: https://github.com/ethernautdao/
Gitbook https://docs.ethernautdao.io/

Author Name: Dhannte
(Reviewed, modified, and voted by EthernautDAO members)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DhannteG

**Number of OP tokens requested: 1.000.000 **

L2 Recipient Address: EthernautDAO Optimism multisig: 0x2431BFA47bB3d494Bd720FaC71960F27a54b6FE7

Relevant Usage Metrics: 32 successful Solidity mentorships with new devs trained in less than 1 year, of which 80% are smart contract CC developers today for various projects on Optimism, such as Synthetix, Aelin, Kwenta, Yield, and Optimism itself.

Optimism alignment (up to 200-word explanation):

Our main goal is to rapidly transform senior (web2) developers into senior Solidity developers. We do so by incentivizing experienced Solidity mentors but at the same time compensate those who create and share educational, curated, and updated content for developers to follow and learn. Projects like Austin Griffith’s speed run, Ethernaut game from Open Zeppelin, and CryptoZombies are used by hundreds of devs and were never compensated properly.

We are starting the distribution of Ethernaut EXP (ERC20 “soulbound” tokens on Optimism: EthernautExperience (EXP) Token Tracker | Optimism) to the community members who make these contributions, mentor new developers and add real value to the space (and a cool on-chain free-to-mint NFT to show off their experience level deploying soon: GitHub - SolDev-HP/EXPerience_Game at dev/svg_updates_aleta).

We focus on pairing mentors and mentees for tailored mentorships and provide whatever they need. Our community is open and free to join, what we build is open source, and we focus on free educational content forever. We are a public goods DAO for developers adding verifiable value to the space.

Proposal for token distribution (under 1000 words):

How will the OP tokens be distributed?

  • OP will be distributed monthly for 3 years starting in August 2022 (54% of requested funds) to EXP holders proportionally to their balance (EXP being a soulbound token).

Yearly distribution:

  • First-year 5.000 OP/monthly

  • Second-year 15.000 OP/monthly

  • Third-year 25.000 OP/monthly

  • 140.000 OP will be given to future mentors. Each mentor will receive 3000 OP (if requested) for every successfully trained developer with up to 9000 OP until the pool dries up

  • 320.000 OP will remain in the EthernautDAO treasury either for DAO maintenance, future incentives, and developer bounties like:

UI for gnosis safe CLI. It turns out that the only way to interact with the same address safe between blockchains is through a CLI since Gnosis’s UI can’t support it more on this here:
https://help.gnosis-safe.io/en/articles/5267779-i-sent-assets-to-a-safe-address-on-the-wrong-network-any-chance-to-recover
GitHub - 5afe/safe-cli: Command line utility for Gnosis Safe

How will this distribution incentivize usage and liquidity on Optimism?

We combine a soulbound token (EXP) given to educational contributors with OP tokens as a liquid and transferable asset.

We believe that by distributing OP tokens to community members who care about developers, education, and the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem, OP tokens are distributed to those community members that are active and interested in its development. We encourage these community members to provide liquidity and vote for Optimism proposals, but we will not enforce them. Every user is free to use their OP tokens as they see fit.

EthernautDAO will keep up to 40 ETH from donations in the treasury (same multisig address), with the surplus going to the Uniswap OP/ETH liquidity pool. This process will be rebalanced every 3 months. (OP tokens are not considered part of Ethernaut DAO 40 ETH treasury).
Donation web: EthernautDAO - Home
Donation contract: Contract Address 0xA433e0Bf662Dd934833C66D4f03711e1CCE9c9B2 | Optimism

Why will the incentivized users and liquidity remain after incentives dry up?

EthernautDAO will continue to mentor developers, raise funds and align incentives long before OP incentives dry up. Optimism is our home all the EthernautDAO projects are deployed and will be deployed to Optimism bringing in new users from all over the world.

Over what period of time will the tokens be distributed?

More than 3 years

How much will your project match in co-incentives?

All our funds are committed to the same co-incentives. We pay mentees, mentors, bounties, and DAO maintenance. This proposal will keep the DAO functioning for up to 3 years or more.

2 Likes
Optimism University?
#2

After going through the proposal, I am not sure how its connected to phase 1. May be RPGF ?

#3

Hey OPUser! thanks for your question. I’ll quote Governance Fund Overview, Phase 1 second paragraph.

“During Phase 1, any project on Optimism can submit a forum proposal to request any amount of OP tokens.”
We have our DAO multisig and our NFT donations contract deployed in Optimism (we were whitelisted long before Optimism was open to anyone). We also deployed EXP token and we are deploying a second NFT free-to-mint project.

“The proposal must include a plan for how the tokens will incentivize growth on Optimism.”
We mentor web2 devs to web3. We focus on smart contract developers that work and deploy in Optimism. This is a direct growth incentive.

I have seen you around in many proposals and you have good feedback so I feel I’m missing something, can you elaborate on why do you think this is not connected to phase1, please.

2 Likes
#4

Maybe if you could go into a bit more detail on how the $OP will be used to onboard mentees/devs/builders onto Optimism?

Also perhaps you could go into more detail around the 320k OP being set aside for bounties and such, will those bounties be strictly for Optimism based projects and initiatives?

#5

I agree with you on this.

The proposal must include a plan for how the tokens will incentivize growth on Optimism

This is where we have different opinion, Developer(s) can develop a project or smart contract and submit a proposal for that and gov funding will support them. This seems like you are seeking funding the dev migration from web2 to web3, like a salary. I dont see this as adding growth on Optimism.

Migration is not adding value, growth is when we have a working product and application and there is where I would like to see gov funding being used on.

OP tokens to community members who care about developers, education, and the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem, OP tokens are distributed to those community members that are active and interested in its development

Two points here, growth of Ethereum ecosystem and education/knowledge, both to me is important but its not directly related to gov funding, they might be part of public good i.e RPGF funding which is totally different topic.

#6

If I understand correctly your feedback is how we measure growth. What if I tell you that a lot of what Synthetix has in Optimism was built by devs coming from EthernautDAO? We will be indirectly responsible for the 693 tx/day rate and the $205.9M TVL or at least the recruiting, mentorship, and added CC part of it. Same thing with Kwenta or Aelin.

Maybe we can specify that OP tokens will be used only for mentors focusing on Optimism protocols/projects. This actually sounds fair.

We need more developers to make the ecosystem grow. I do understand this is not a direct financial growth yes. But for example, you have a few projects now unable to vote on snapshot because mirroring the same multisig address on mainnet and layer 2 “disables” gnosis UI on L2, they depend on CLI and they can’t vote with it.
Who’s taking care of that if you have almost every CC dev 24/7 protecting their predated projects from the market?

On the other hand, we have a lot of Web2 senior devs from places like apple, google, or MIT, mages of code and bright minds, and probably the next generation of Blockchain devs looking for a mentor, or bounties to cover and learn.

I can even take “DAO maintenance” out if you like. It won’t be needed tbh. But if we want to give OP tokens to someone, mentors who migrate Web2 devs into Optimism projects are the most growth-oriented thing we can go for.

1 Like
#7

Yes, tbh I wanted to be concise because as a delegate I know how hard it is to keep up with every proposal.

Optimism projects in need of new developers can reach out. We help and guide one of their CC devs on how to create a mentorship tailored for the position they need to cover. If they don’t have any CC available we can look for it. OP tokens in this case will be used as an incentive for a mentor to conduct the mentorship. (All treasury uses cases are voted by the DAO). Sometimes this project has the means to provide its own incentives but this is not always the case. And a lot of times for a lot of these projects to create a proposal to spend some treasury on developer growth is a bureaucratic pain. We ease this and projects come back with donations or more mentors later.

For mentees, it’s an incentive to get directly related to the Optimism ecosystem. We have seen bounties being one of the best actions to get new devs interested in a specific L2. Having so much L2 talent retention is hard and this keeps them learning how to deploy/migrate/create contracts for Optimism and make it their first choice when looking for a place to build.

Our main goal is to use these 320K Op tokens in bounties oriented toward solving some Optimism issues no one is taking care of. I can’t list them all as they will happen while the ecosystem grows but I can make a report every time we spend OP tokens in a bounty telling what issue will be solved. Again this OP use will be first approved by the DAO.

The next bounty (apart from gnosis safe bounty) will be:

Create a smart contract for OP distribution related to EXP balance and claiming action. (Must be and opensource module available for any Optimism project looking to distribute something related to an address balance) 500 to 1000 OP + 1 Ethernaut NFT

This way we create a library with modules available for any project.

Again we can take DAO maintenance out of the proposal as we said to OPUser.

1 Like
#8

I like this a lot fwiw, simply demonstrating very forward thinking here is enough for me. Seems innovative and like you are with it in terms of what it takes to genuinely create traction in Web3.

Exactly the type of protcol/person behind a protocol that tokens should flow to without a doubt IMO.

Will do my further due diligence on your project, but support this one myself for sure!

2 Likes
#9

This is good point but isnt it between Synthetix and the developer, Synth should support those developers from their side and same goes Kwenta or Aelin.

Maybe we can specify that OP tokens will be used only for mentors focusing on Optimism protocols/projects. This actually sounds fair.

Still looks same to me, knowledge in itself is a public good I support that but person/institute leading the initiative will come under public good hence RPGF.

Who’s taking care of that if you have almost every CC dev 24/7 protecting their predated projects from the market?

That is a valid point and I believe it has been addressed by the team. But how are you relating this to your proposal, are you suggesting that your project is recruiting developers to solve this problem? If yes, then the individual developer/ your project as a team can request for funding for that specific contribution and only here but at other public funding forum too as you have solved something that would help all web3 ecosystem.

On the other hand, we have a lot of Web2 senior devs from places like apple, google, or MIT, mages of code and bright minds, and probably the next generation of Blockchain devs looking for a mentor, or bounties to cover and learn.

More I read, more I am aligned that this proposal belongs to public good, your project is bringing web2 mind to web3 by mentoring, recruitment and helping them learn this new tools and technology like a recruitment firm for web3.
I believe you are mentoring them on Solidity, once a dev is comfortable with this language, he has many path to choose, either build something of their own or join an already existing(Synth example) project. And both are totally different.

Again, as text does not translate feeling properly, I want to mention that I am not against your proposal but I truly believe this will come under public good funding.

#10

Thank you OPUser this has been such a good debate. Made me rethink again and again how I’m thinking EthernautDAO to be.

If we were to follow your suggested path. Do you think we should keep this under draft and re-tag it once RPGF is open?

This is a good point but isn’t it between Synthetix and the developer, Synth should support those developers from their side and the same goes for Kwenta or Aelin.

They do support their devs, they sent the mentor and donated to the DAO. But we are leaving behind those projects/people that don’t have this capacity. The whole idea is to bring those into Optimism with this kind of project.

We envisioned EthernautDAO from the beginning as a public good, I understand why you see it falling into that specific category. This is mainly an optics debate where you condition growth in a specific financial way and we see it differently. That is the beauty of public goods, someone sees a park as a great place to take a walk, others see grass for their dogs to shit and some think it’s a bad tax investment.

#11

Thank you, Weston. While I am one of EthernautDAO funders, there is a community behind this project, not just a person. I’m here representing the DAO ideals the best I can. Reach out if you need something, you have any ideas aligned with what we do, or any questions regarding the project.

1 Like
#12

I support the proposal, EthernautDAO deserves funding – either through the gov fund or through RPGF, whichever fits best.

Why I support it? Optimism is directly benefitting from it by making new devs aware, encouraging building and developing on it. The value added is also long lasting, unlike your ordinary run of the mill defi project, which is unlikely to survive once the initial hype is gone (dont wanna shit on all defi projects though, some are good).

Im a solidity dev myself, I found them through one of their recent bounties. While I was solely focused on mainnet so far, EthernautDAO deployed (and is deploying) all of its contracts on Optimism. They made me look into Optimism and “onboarded” me, so to say.

2 Likes
#13

I can see where you’re going with this but I am concerned we would be turning away any project which doesn’t directly bring liquidity or users (whether they’re mercenary or otherwise) to Optimism.

IMO only approving projects which will directly onboard users and liquidity will result in catering to mercenary users and not long term aligned builders/devs and users.

On the topic of RPGF, I don’t think EthernautDAO would fall under that category. IMO DAOs do not necessarily fall under a “public good” even if their philosophy/business model is to build public goods.
There is a clear distinction here between EthernautDAO and any potential “public goods” that they build. If they were to develop some stand alone project for the entire ecosystem to use, they may be eligible for a retroactive grant for that particular initiative. However the DAO on it’s own isn’t a public good since they work directly with various defi projects to train devs and onboard them onto those teams.

My suggestion here would be for EthernautDAO to shorten the duration of their funding request and draw up a more targeted incentive program for directly onboarding devs to Optimism and identify some Optimism specific bounties which they plan to build, then draft their funding application based on those objectives.

I also think 3 years worth of runway is a bit too lengthy of a funding request and may cause some delegates to be hesitant to support the proposal as is. IMO a 6-9month program (with proportional funding), which is directly targeted at onboarding devs and launching bounties on Optimism, is more palatable. If the results of that program are promising then EthernautDAO can apply again and easily be approved based on a track record of delivering/making good use of funds.

To sum up my thoughts:

  • Ethernaut DAO is not a public good in and of itself (even though they may produce public goods and have no formal financing or monetization strategy)
  • The lifespan of the program can be shortened and more targeted to some Optimism specific objectives
  • The proposal can use a more detailed and direct plan for use of funds
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#14

Yes, I am still reading and collecting information what is “public good” as its being thrown randomly without providing proper context.
Why I am pushing you towards RPGF is because you mentioned “knowledge” and is 100% public good, so i would say yes, submit it there but once RPGF round is live, depending on guidance from OP team, I might ask you to provide more information.

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#15

I agree with you, we are initial phase of our governance and few definitions are not yet clear but I believe we are making some progress there. As of now, personally, I am not just looking for projects bringing liquidity, my main goal is to focus on long term sustainable growth.

On the topic of RPGF, I don’t think EthernautDAO would fall under that category.

You are right here too and I was careful in not calling “EthernautDAO” as public good, I was referring to knowledge sharing which is public good and on-boarding resources. Again, there many points to consider here and I am still reading on this but I want to encourage them to submit their proposal, this will lead to discussion, that will lead to learning and like I said, at early stage that is most important.

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