[DRAFT] Hacker Houses for the Superchain

🏹 Mission Requests
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Mission Request made by amrdavila and originally shared here.

Delegate Mission Request Summary:

Hacker houses are nice initiatives to provide initial training or bootcamps, aiming to promote the development and seed innovative projects, especially if they are associated and organized just before large events (Eth-Denver, Eth-Rio, Eth-Barcelona etc) and/or Hackathons. Hacker Houses make a lot of sense when talking about blockchain and Optimism Superchain and having as the main goal onboarding many new devs and seeding dozens of new projects at the Superchain.

S5 Intent Please list the Intent your Request aligns with here:

2 - Grow the Superchain

Proposing Delegate: Brichis (Sponsor)

Proposal Tier : Please specify the Tier required for Mission Applications under this Request (ie. applications must be submitted by teams at the Fledging Tier)

Ember Tier

Baseline grant amount:

3000 OP for each proposal, a total of 9000 OP

Should this Foundation Mission be fulfilled by one or multiple applicants: Select from: “One,” “Up to X” or “Multiple”

Up to 3

Submit by: To be set by Grants Council

Selection by: To be set by Grants Council

Start date: TBD

Completion date: If applicable. Please note Missions must be completed within 12 months (i.e. marked as done).

12 months

Specification

How will this Delegate Mission Request help accomplish the above Intent?
(Please explain alignment with the relevant Intent)

By engaging in the Hacker Houses, Optimism can stimulate developer growth on the OP Mainnet and across the Superchain. This involvement will provide the basis for unique contract deployments and interaction, a key metric for measuring the success of the Superchain’s growth. By supporting Hacker Houses new and regional use cases will be identified and seed. Furthermore, by providing the needed training and support for the initial development of new applications and solutions relevant to diverse communities, the Hacker Houses will be also enhancing the overall ecosystem’s innovation and reach.

What is required to execute this Delegate Mission Request?
(Please list responsibilities and/or expected deliverables)

  • Number of Hacker Houses: 3
  • Hacker House: documentation related to lectures, workshops and coding will be generated and organized for each proposal
  • Alignment with Ethereum Ecosystem: In case of multiple partnerships for the Hacker Houses.
  • Organizational Experience: Evidence of the ability to successfully host such events.
  • Community Engagement Strategy: Plans for attracting and engaging a diverse group of developers
  • Impact Metrics: Clear metrics for measuring the Hacker House contribution to Superchain growth, eg new contracts at OP mainnet and Superchain
  • Post-Event Strategy: Follow-up plans for ongoing project support or integration into the Optimism ecosystem, encouraging Hacker House participants to submit their projects for funding at OP Grants, Gitcoin, Giveth, etc.

How should the Token House measure progress towards this Mission?

  • These measures should focus on progress towards completion. Including expected completion dates for each is recommended
  • Please be as specific as possible in defining measures of progress so that Token House delegates can accurately track execution

Hacker House Application Receipt:

  • Measure: Count of applications.
  • Deadline: End of each Hacker House.

Event Execution:

  • Measure: (i) Successful Hacker House execution as scheduled. (ii) Documentation generated/updated

Post-Event Reporting:

  • Measure: Submission of detailed post-Hacker House reports.
  • Deadline: 1 month after Hacker House has ended.

Impact Review:

  • Measure: Comprehensive assessment of mission’s impact on Superchain growth.
  • Deadline: 3 months after Hacker House has ended.

How should badgeholders measure impact upon completion of this Mission?

  • These measures should be focused on performance and may be used by badgeholders to assess your Misson’s impact in the next round of RetroPGF
  • Please be as specific as possible in defining measures of impact so that Citizens’ House badgeholders can accurately measure the grant’s impact

Pre-cohort Milestones:

  • Application Volume: Number of applications received for each Hacker House.
  • Organizer Preparedness: Evaluation of logistical and resource readiness.

Post-Hacker House Milestones:

  • Event Execution Success: Assessment of Hacker House execution and participant feedback.
  • Project Initiations: Count of projects started during the Hacker House.

Ongoing Impact Measures:

  • Projects Deployed on Superchain: Total unique GitHub repositories related to the Hacker House.
  • On-Chain Attestations for Demoed Projects: Implementation of attestations for projects presented at the Hacker House.
  • On-Chain Recognition for Hacker House participants that joined all activities: Issuing attestations or NFTs to acknowledge participants.

Have you engaged a Grant-as-a-service provider for this Mission Request?
If so, please disclose the details of this arrangement, to the extent possible.

No

Has anyone other than the Proposing Delegate contributed to this Mission Request? If so, who, and what parts of this application did they contribute to?
amrdavila

7 Likes
2

In principle Hacker Houses are good instances of learning and creating Proofs of Concept but in this instance Hackathons are a better viable method. Not only do they result in greater output, but their progress can also be more objectively tracked.

Considering the suggested low amount of funds, it may be worth considering seeking specific sponsorships or grants like the next builders grant program and use retroPGF to fill the remaining gap.

However, I do think that instances like Hacker Houses may become more feasible and interesting to explore in the future, once OP Mainnet and Superchain reach a greater degree of sophistication or differentiation with a clearer path. This can help incubate the next big ideas for them to be built upon.

6 Likes
3

Hey @amrdavila – just wanted to flag this as a proposal that still needs delegate approvals in order to move to a vote. If you are no longer interested in pursuing this proposal – please disregard this message. In order to see the delegates assigned to your proposal those can be found here. The deadline to provide feedback and approvals for Mission Requests is February 7th at 19:00

Cheers!

1 Like
4

Hacker houses are a great idea if they are made in the right conditions. For example, a hacker house during ETH CC or Devcon, would make total sense. Hackathons from Eth Global to build using OP stack, Conferences to keep learning and spread the word about OP.

Also, having X amount of web3 builders shilling OP for this opportunity → Great marketing tool.

To make Ops easier, OP can partner with already existing scholarship programs, conferences and hackathons, to get the most out of the experience.

5

For smaller grant sizes such as this, I still think it’s worth experimenting with new ideas.

I am an Optimism delegate with sufficient voting power and I believe this proposal is ready to move to a vote.

2 Likes
6

Hey @op_julian and @Joxes, thanks for the feedback. I did not decline this proposal because would like to resurrect it later… we just launched our Blockchain Innovation Hub (the first of its kind in Brazil) and will start offering a free 9-weeks mentoring program for Ideation and Prototyping of new dApps, then this mentoring program behaves in fact as a Hacker House. Such as suggested, I will try other sources of funding as the next Retro Funding for “Builders”, then we might have an “Optimistic Hacker House” :slight_smile:

7

I hope that this proposal can be implemented in the future. Hacker houses represent a great space to continue improving digital solutions thanks to networking. The exchange of experiences can enrich the project and normally at large events it is possible to find people (especially developers) from many places, who do not usually stay or spend most of their time in the same places.

As a developer it is very valuable to have the opportunity to connect with people who share your passion for technology in places like this.

1 Like
8

As an advocate of increasing the number of women participating in Blockchain activities and especially hackathons, I think that a hacker house would be a good opportunity to introduce them to this world of dapp development within the superchain. Although we are at the beginning of the superchain, it can be a great opportunity for them to surprise us with their ideas.:rocket:

I would add to the proposal that workshops can be organized at the same time, whether virtual or IRL, on topics required for the Collective.
Additionally, an incentive could be to create a demo day where they present their projects and can receive a percentage of the funding. To be a small grant, it is good to pivot on this idea.

I want to propose something like this for the next mission, it would be good if we put together a proposal @brichis :muscle:t2::purple_heart: