We’re excited to share an update on our grant project, now officially named Optimistic Builder Dollar (obUSD) (formerly PGF DAI). We’re developing a yield-bearing stablecoin that shares its yield with approved Optimism Builder grantees. To ensure alignment with the ecosystem’s goals, grantees must receive an approval attestation from the Grants Council. We aim to create a proactive funding mechanism that complements the ethos of retroactive funding, empowering Optimism’s builders and fostering sustainable growth for public goods within the ecosystem.
This post marks the beginning of a series of updates we will provide in this thread to maintain transparency and keep the community informed of our progress.
Progress Update
We have made significant progress and are thrilled to share the completed milestones:
Milestone 1: Research and Requirements Gathering
Conducted two interviews with Retro funding badge holders to gain insights into public goods funding on Optimism.
Completed a thorough analysis of the Optimism ecosystem to identify areas of impact and gathered requirements for the cohort of public goods projects (minimum five projects).
Renaming to Optimistic Builder Dollar (obUSD): The new name reflects our mission to empower builders.
Refined Cohort Selection Mechanism:
Cohort eligibility now leverages the Grants Council attestations schema.
Projects require endorsements from at least three Optimism Citizens to join the yield-receiving cohort.
Cohorts automatically rotate, with projects phased out after several months.
Automated Yield Distribution: Yield is equally distributed among selected projects, ensuring fairness and scalability.
Current Work: Milestone 3 - Development and Testing
We are now planning to complete the next steps for this milestone:
Developing and deploying smart contracts on Optimism for obUSD minting, yield generation, and cohort management.
Integrating the UI/UX designs into the front-end application with help from Bleu studio’s
Preparing for user testing with initial participants to refine the platform.
Next Steps
Milestone 4: Community Engagement
Inform the users about how to make obUSD part of their day-to-day life.
Create comprehensive documentation and 2 video demonstrations.
Milestone 5: Full Launch
Officially launch the platform, announcing it across social channels and forums.
Encourage participation and monitor the platform for improvements.
Milestone 6: Evaluation and Iteration
Distribute the first round of yield to the cohort and document its impact.
Gather user feedback to iterate on the platform.
Stay Updated
We will continue to provide regular updates in this thread as we reach new milestones. This series of posts is part of our commitment to build in the open and foster transparency throughout the development process.
Your feedback is invaluable, and we welcome any questions or suggestions to enhance the project’s impact.
This sounds amazing! Is there a specific process that needs to be conducted to collaborate with this community?
We currently have mapped 2 main potential users:
obUSD minters: They can mint and burn obUSD to hold or transact in obUSD while contributing their yield to approved builder grantees. This could be anyone with some tokens onchain.
Citizens (badge-holders): Tasked with adding one more layer of trust by endorsing approved grantee projects to be included in the obUSD yield-receiving cohort.
The main testers would be existing citizens, guest badgeholders, and any Superchain enthusiast or treasury eager to help fund approved builder grantees.
We’re excited to share that Milestone 3: Development and Testing is now complete! Here’s what we’ve accomplished since our last update:
Milestone 3: Completed Tasks
Successfully deployed smart contracts on both Optimism Sepolia testnet and Optimism Mainnet. Integrated two attestation schemas for project eligibility and retro funding endorsements:
Yield is now being generated – first distribution scheduled in 23 days
We’re working closely with @Liliop.eth to test and refine the app, squash bugs, and improve the experience.
We’re in contact with @Gonna.eth to issue more attestations to approved OP grant council projects. This will increase our eligible cohort from 1 to 55 projects, ensuring more projects get potential access to the yield generated by obUSD’s yield.
We’re incredibly grateful for the support so far. This is just the beginning — let us know what you think and join us on the journey. Special thanks to @bleu_builders for helping with the front end dev <3
Final Grant Update – Milestone 6: Evaluation & Iteration
We’re pleased to share that we’ve completed the final milestone of our grant: Milestone 6 – Evaluation & Iteration. obUSD is live on Optimism Mainnet, generating and distributing yield to projects actively contributing to the Optimism Collective.
Total obUSD minted to date: 4,800 obUSD, with a record 8,000 minted last week.
Projects that received yield: Only one project, GovGraph founded by @maxsemenchuk , received yield in this first round.
Due to technical issues, @Gonna.eth was unable to issue attestations to the remaining 54 eligible Season 6 OP grant recipients in time. We’re hopeful that the upcoming distribution in 30 days will see a much broader cohort benefiting from obUSD.
Support the issuance of pending attestations so more projects can join the cohort.
Continue product iteration based on user feedback.
Explore multi-strategy yield integrations and improved transparency for cohort metrics.
Expand outreach to Superchain treasuries to begin holding obUSD and contributing to sustainable builder funding.
We are also looking forward to the process of evaluation and claiming our grant reward, and we’re happy to provide any additional context or feedback needed from our side.
We’re grateful for the support received during this grant cycle and look forward to scaling obUSD’s impact in the Optimism ecosystem.
— 0xR & the obUSD team
Tagging @Tane for milestone completion review.
Successfully deployed smart contracts on both Optimism Sepolia testnet and Optimism Mainnet.
Beta Warning: This is an early-stage test version—use it at your own risk! Some features may still have bugs and are actively being refined.
Milestone 4: Community Engagement - Already in Progress!
What’s Next?
Milestone 5: Full Launch
Milestone 4: Community Engagement – Completed
Explore here: 
Milestone 6: Evaluation & Iteration – In Progress