Growth Grant Report
gm OP frens 
As a follow-up to our previous post, ShapeShift DAO would like to report the final figures related to our growth experiment with Gitcoin Passport + Thrivecoin.
tldr; the incentive program outperformed expectations both in terms of Unique Transacting Addresses (UTAs) onboarded and anticipated acquisition costs.
| KPI | Target | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| UTAs | 10,000 | 27,385 |
| OP/UTA Acquired | 16.5 | 4.98 |
User Actions & Incentives
Although success metrics related to UTAs and Volume were not included in the original proposal, we’re happy to report the following data for all three features incentivized by the program:
| Action | Incentive | UTAs | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trading | 3 OP | 22,261 | $1,568,996 |
| Bridging | 6 OP | 23.530 | $2,320,928 |
| Fiat Ramping | 9 OP | 1,598 | < $250,000 |
The figure below shows the distribution of user actions during the incentive program.
A few learnings for future incentive programs:
- Bridging was the most popular task, likely due the action’s co-location with swapping in the ShapeShift UI, and relatively high reward rate. In the future, we would offer equal incentives for Swapping and Bridging.
- Despite having the largest OP reward, few users chose to onramp fiat via providers such as OnRamper, Banxa, and Mt. Pelerin. There are many potential reasons for this user behavior, including high UX friction and jurisdictional challenges (KYC, etc.). We we therefore recommend against fiat ramps incentive programs the future.
- Thoughtful iteration and calibration of user rewards is required to avoid diminishing the quality of a project community with non-sticky users (i.e. airdrop hunters). Special attention should be paid to the user journey before reward distribution to determine the likelihood of change in behavioral patterns.
- Anti-sybil mechanism is key, details below.
Data provided by distribution service partner ThriveCoin.
Sybil Protection
For the purpose of this growth experiment, a Unique Transacting Address (UTA) was defined as a wallet with a minimum Gitcoin Passport Score. We partnered closely with the Passport team to calibrate the required score for the OP Program, and experimented with different levels of difficulty.
Our experience implementing OP rewards led to the following calibration considerations for Gitcoin Passport scores when the available incentive range is ~4-20 OP:
- 22+ significant reduction in sybils at the cost of high friction, KYC-like UX
- 19-20 golden zone with post-campaign, pre-claim analysis
- 17-19 potential for substantial sybil abuse
In addition, we conducted a post-campaign analysis to remove suspected sybil attackers. Key learnings from this program have been published in partnership with Gitcoin Passport.
Conclusion
Our experiment demonstrates the feasibility of DAO-managed onchain user rewards for Optimism using crypto-native tools and partnerships. ShapeShift DAO remains open to further partnership with the OP Collective around growth incentive programs, should the community desire further experimentation and data!