[FINAL] Economic Co-design of Gas Fees for the OP Stack

[mitch]

EDIT (28/06/2023)

We took some feedback into consideration, particularly around the requested amount of OP for this Mission, we have lowered the requested amount to 125k OP, down from 190k OP originally.

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S4 Intent: Governance Accessibility (Intent 4)

Proposed Mission Economic Co-design of Gas Fees for the OP Stack

Proposal Tier: Eagle Tier

Baseline grant amount: 125k OP

% of total available Intent Budget: 5.33%

Please check here if access to upfront capital is a barrier to completing your Mission and you would like to be considered for a small upfront cash grant: Yes

Alliance Name: Commons Stack

Alliance Lead: Mitch

Contact info:
Telegram handle Telegram: Contact @divine_comedian

Discord user: divine_comedian

E-mail: divine_comedian@protonmail.com

L2 recipient address: 0x51b2934Bc91CCCEA127a9D091c9434Ad8c7565FC

Please list the members of your Alliance and link to any previous work.

Mitch - Github DAO Ops Lead and Product Manager at Giveth.io. He has actively filled roles and contracts for Commons Stack and many other projects such as TEC, Blossom Labs, Proposal Inverter, General Magic and Curve Labs. Project manager for the original Commons Configuration Dashboard.

Livia - Twitter Lead researcher at Commons Stack and TEC, led the cultural build and the economic co-design of the TEC economy using the Commons Configuration Dashboard.

Griff - LinkedIn Co-founder of Commons Stack, Giveth, General Magic & DAppNode; Top Steward in ENS, Gitcoin, Optimism, Arbitrum, TEC as well as many other Ethereum community projects. Was the original product owner of the Commons Configuration Dashboard.

Marko - Twitter Head of Design and Business Developer at General Magic. “Magic Marko” is a top notch designer and has been practicing his art on web2 and web3 projects for over a decade. The original designer of the Commons Configuration Dashboard

Cherik - Github Lead Front-End Developer at Giveth.io. Cherik has been leading the front-end design on a variety of products and features in Giveth for the last 2 years.

Nuggan - Github A skilled data science and solidity developer who currently contributes to Inverter Network and General Magic. One of the original python devs behind the Commons Configuration Dashboard in the TEC.

Please explain how this Mission will help accomplish the above Intent.

Collective Decision making can be very challenging for any large scale DAO such as Optimism. Governing the configurations of decentralized applications, smart contracts or even entire networks usually happens within small circles, with few choices left to the DAO besides a simple yes/no vote. By making decisions this way we fail to capture the collective intelligence of our community. We close off our minds to new ideas and don’t create a space for the best ideas to rise to the top.

What if it didn’t have to be like that? What if we could design an interactive experience for communities to come together and experiment with new ideas, collectively build off of each other’s knowledge and arrive organically at the best configuration with high consensus. This is the Economic Co-design Dashboard.

For S4 we propose to build the MVP of a Dashboard that will allow members of the Optimism community and any other community using the OP stack to experiment with configuration settings of the OP network, the first of which will be the gas price calculations for networks using the OP stack.

The gas price on Optimism will have a few variables that users will be able to design their own gas price configurations and run simulations on how much it would affect typical transactions and how gas costs would stack up against other L2s so community members can easily make a truly informed design.

Users can then submit their configuration via Arweave to a Module Configuration Archive which will be a censorship resistant database of all submitted configurations.

We will also enable the launch of a vote, proposing to change the network gas prices by selecting one or many user submissions from the archive and engaging voters with a custom instance of Snapshot.

The winning proposal can then be implemented into the corresponding network.

This proposal will also include providing educational content and guidance to kickstart the process. To deliver the content in an engaging social context we will use our same method that was successful in the Token Engineer Commons, hosting “Param Parties’’ to bring in participants, help them understand the module, its effects and guide them in creating their configurations.

Param Parties are also an excellent space for idea sharing and where the magic of economic co-design fully shines.

Due to the short duration of S4 this is only the beginning of a larger product to improve collaborative decision making and governance accessibility of anyone using the OP stack.

This is a first step towards a higher vision of putting the tokenomics of the OP Stack and specifically Optimism into the hands of the collective intelligence of the communities it affects. With the Economic Co-Design Dashboard we will empower governance to become more engaging, effective and accessible. Future additions to this project will allow us to direct how we choose to use the revenues accrued from network fees, sending them to RetroPGF or even potentially using them to buy OP tokens ensuring that the Token House and Citizens House have an easy but informed way of making these decisions on their own.

Subsequent Mission Proposals will further build on this Dashboard and provide more critical components such as:

• A modular dashboard framework, allowing communities to launch their own custom dashboards with their own unique modules.
• More modules for configuring pieces of the OP stack mechanisms.
• An SDK and framework for builders to create their own modules to be used in dashboards.
• Smart Contracts to define voting timelines and setting winning proposals
• Hosted libraries for communities to discover modules.
• A robust voting process including a nomination phase and more types of voting applications.
• No code strategy builder for communities to define their eligible voters.
• Educational/social experiences that create space for economic co-design to flourish

What makes your Alliance well-suited to execute this Mission?

Believe it or not, we’ve done this before.

In 2021 we built the Commons Configuration Dashboard to allow the Token Engineering Commons (TEC) to collaboratively parameterize their token economy, complete with voting app settings, vesting schedule and even their own Augmented Bonding Curve.

The Commons Configuration Dashboard is still live and can be accessed here.

We have a wealth of experience hosting educational opportunities including “Param Parties” and “Param Debates”, as live economic co-design events that brought together groups to design their “Commons Configuration” and subsequently debate them against other configurations.

Myself (Mitch), Livia, Griff, Marko and Nuggan all worked together for many months to design, develop, launch and use the Commons Configuration Dashboard for the TEC’s economic co-design process (then referred to as collaborative economics). We are bringing the team back together again for this very important project.

Param WG session turned into a Param debate!

We had a series of nominations and run-off votes until finally coming to a winning proposal and launching our Commons with those parameters.

The economic co-design process that we piloted in the TEC was incredibly engaging, educational, insightful and FUN for the entire community.

TEC Community Call 40: The Hatch Is Open!!!

Please list the critical milestone(s) that should be tracked to determine if you should receive your grant in one year.

• Milestone 1: UX & Design
• Milestone 2: Gas Controls Python Module
• Milestone 3: Test Deployment

How should Token House delegates measure progress towards this Mission?

• Milestone 1 | End of July, 2023
  • Showcase the final draft of UI Design and User Experience, Project is ready for front-end development
• Milestone 2 | Mid August, 2023
  • Published Python Module for configuring Gas Controls, complete with front-end design
• Milestone 3 | Mid September, 2023
  • Test deployment that enables users to do the whole flow, configuring, browsing configurations, launching and completing votes.

How should badgeholders measure impact upon completion of this Mission?

After the application is complete, we will begin to educate the community via param parties and param debates (funded by RetroPGF) and will achieve the following KPIs.

• KPI 1 - Accrue 30 user submitted configurations for the Gas Controls Module in the Archive
• KPI 2 - 20 “Param Parties” Facilitated with over 10 attendees each
• KPI 3 - Have one successful vote that leads to implementation into a network’s configuration

Breakdown of Mission budget request

• OP Stack Gas Control Simulation Module - 90,000 OP

• Module Configuration Archive - 50,000 OP

• Economic Co-Design Voting App - 50,000 OP

• Educational Onboarding, Param Parties - RetroPGF

I confirm that my grant will be subject to clawback for failure to execute on critical milestones: Yes

I confirm that I have read and understand the grant policies: Yes

I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Optimism Foundation to receive this grant: Yes

I understand that I will be expected to following the public grant reporting requirements outlined here: Yes

[MinimalGravitas]

This sounds fantastic! It’s clear how this would be a useful tool to make governance more meaningful -especially as more levers get added to the dashboard and more rollups get built on the OP stack. Also by letting people play with simulations of potential changes it’ll help people learn more and therefore become more engaged with the workings of the chains they use.

I’ll probably add more after I’ve had some time to properly mess about with the Commons Configuration Dashboard you’ve linked to over the weekend.

[Sinkas]

Amazing proposal! love the breakdown of all the information, the inclusion of all relevant KPI’s and examples of past work!

[Griff]

Did you play with the Dashboard @MinimalGravitas?

[Griff]

This project is inspired by one of the most active threads in the forum:

Change the use of OP tokens from a governance token to the main network token for gas payment

Completely agree @CryptoFlight. [mando-way-this-is-the-way] If I were to design this, and I would be interested in leading that charge. We would add 10-20% extra on top of the projected gas costs (which are volatile and impossible to accurately project, so we should have a margin on top anyway), and use this extra ETH to make scheduled auctions to buy OP and either burn or send to the DAO. I would have the DAO vote on the configuration, using a dashboard and param parties to inform the communi…

I’ve been really excited about making this proposal for about a year. Now that Bedrock is out, it is a very real opportunity to build an educated community that can manage the gas parameters and eventually add a clear utility use case to the OP token, where excess gas from usage of the platform can be auctioned off for OP.

This proposal is a first step in that direction.

[Zeptimus]

I am truly excited about this proposal! Being a participant in the TEC Collaborative Economics was an incredible experience that not only provided unique insights and deep understanding but also fostered a sense of shared accomplishment.

The most amazing part was that we created it all together. The collective intelligence that emerged from this was awe-inspiring. I am looking forward to seeing how this Economic Co-Design Dashboard will impact the OP Stack and contribute to the development of a more inclusive and engaged community.

Thank you for bringing this forward and for the dedication in making these processes more accessible and effective. Let’s co-create our economic future together, once again!

[freshelle]

Nice proposal! Seems like milestones and KPIs are reasonable.

[MinimalGravitas]

Hi Griff, yea I did. Have to admit to not completely keeping track of which parameter meant what, but the specifics for TEC weren’t really what I was interested in (certainly didn’t submit my ignorant messings)!

As a system for showing how variables effect a token economy it’s great, I love that it updates constantly rather than requiring you to click to run the simulation, and that you can tweak values with just the arrow keys rather than typing numbers each time. Simple stuff like that makes it very low friction for users who want to learn through just fiddling with things. I can definitely see how this would work with Optimism gas fees, and how it would be a really useful educational tool to help people visualize and think about that side of things. So much of decentralized governance seems to come down to the balance between wanting a very decentralized system with high participation from the community, while at the same time wanting everyone voting to have a decent understanding of the decisions. Actually I guess that’s also a problem in the off-chain world! Tools like this one seem designed to address that issue directly, so I’d love to see it built, promoted and well used!

In terms of rollout, all of your milestones are before 4844, so do you envision another update when that goes live to take into account the complete change in what the gas is being used for? Or will it be more like the ultrasound.money site where you could ‘simulate the merge’ before it actually occurred?

Either way, I’m more than happy to provide approval on this (assuming you can’t approve your own submission to go to vote).

[mitch]

Hey there!

I think in regards to the change you mentioned with EIP-4844 this will affect how the Ethereum base layer handles gas calculations. This 1st module proposed will focus on changing the parameters that are controllable by the OP stack. Notably the two fees dynamic fee and fixed fee which are defined here:

Transaction fees on OP Mainnet

You have a great point though, the changes to the base layer gas calculations will impact the overall system so they should be considered in any simulation, I think this provides an opportunity to create a subsequent module (outside of the current proposal) that can be used to calculate gas prices post-4844. This fits into our long-term vision of empowering builders to create their own modules and to have an ecosystem of open-source modules for different communities to use.

[Yass92]

with the team and talent behind this proposal, no doubt it’ll be a success!

[Guil]

This grant proposal is very exciting!
This interactive platform empowers communities to experiment with different configurations, starting with gas prices, and make informed decisions. I think this project has the potential to revolutionize governance and make it more accessible and engaging

[MinimalGravitas]

@mitch

This 1st module proposed will focus on changing the parameters that are controllable by the OP stack. Notably the two fees dynamic fee and fixed fee which are defined here:

Gotcha, that makes sense, thanks. Well I’m excited to see it built:

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

[polynya]

Echoing MinimalGravitas’ thoughts here. Integrating OP Stack chains into the broader Optimism Collective economy is an exciting challenge. I expect major OP stack chains to be largely independent, but many smaller ones may benefit from a deeper integration.

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

[mitch]

Definitely, the beauty of what this larger project (Past the scope of S4) envisions is to allow builders and communities ways to craft and plug-in their own modules into unique spaces and allow them to carry out this same process of economic co-design with different configurations that could be more relevant to a particular OP stack chain or protocol.

We’re imagining something that feels like jumping into an instance of Snapshot, each “space” pertains to a given community and the space can have unique settings such as modules available to configure, how they define voting eligibility etc…

[bobby]

Hi @mitch, thank you for submitting this proposal.

The Foundation is excited about helping communities experiment with network parameters, especially as Optimism expands towards the Superchain future. This proposal is a really creative way to support that evolution!

We will also enable the launch of a vote, proposing to change the network gas prices by selecting one or many user submissions from the archive and engaging voters with a custom instance of Snapshot.

We’d like to point out that there is not yet a governance proposal type for the Token House to adjust the gas fees charged on OP Mainnet. Other OP Chains are of course welcome to tune the economic parameters of their network how they see fit, including through any governance processes they introduce.

If this Mission proposal is approved, we’ll be excited to see the applications of this type of tooling, but want to make clear that OP Mainnet’s gas fees will not be subject to governance until a proposal type to do so is introduced in a future governance season. We will be sharing more guidance on what to expect from future seasons & proposal types in the coming weeks – thank you for your patience.

[Griff]

@bobby

We’d like to point out that there is not yet a governance proposal type for the Token House to adjust the gas fees charged on OP Mainnet.

I think the point here is that, BEFORE the community (not just the Token House, but also the Citizen House I hope) should have the power to make this decision, there should be a clear educational path for the community to take on this critical task.

@bobby

We will also enable the launch of a vote, proposing to change the network gas prices by selecting one or many user submissions from the archive and engaging voters with a custom instance of Snapshot.

This vote would be only for signaling. So it doesnt matter how the parameters are changed, whether it is a token house vote or a multisig that can just change at will, the community can work together to understand and then design the gas fee calculation.

In short I don’t see the lack of an onchain function to modify the gas params as a blocker for creating a dashboard and a process for the community to make an informed decision to change the gas params, if that change takes time to implement, then it takes time to implement.

[Griff]

Also… i’m not sure if my vote counts as I am part of the team here, but…

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

[lavande]

Hi Griff! As stated in the operating manual, delegates may not approve their own proposals. Clarifying here as you said you weren’t sure and others probably have the same question

[lavande]

Hi @mitch! Wanted to make sure you were aware of the Optimism Season 4 Pitching Sessions to help find the 4 delegate approvals you’ll need by this Wednesday at 19:00 GMT for your proposal to move to a vote.

These sessions are happening in Discord on Monday, 26.06 2pm ET / 6pm GMT / 8pm CET and Tuesday, 27.06 11am ET / 3pm GMT / 5pm CET.

You can sign-up here!

[mastermojo]

I am one of the Synthetix Ambassadors, and a Optimism Badgeholder. I am an Optimism delegate [Delegate Commitments - #65 by mastermojo ] with sufficient voting power, and I believe this proposal is ready to move to a vote.