[grant update] Optimistic Builder Dollar (obUSD)

Governance Fund Missions 🏹 Grants Updates
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Hello Optimism Community!

Our builders grant [optimistic crowdstaking] was approved in season 5.

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).
  • Detailed documentation available here.

Milestone 2: Technical Research and Design

  • Designed the technical modifications necessary to align with community input.
  • Completed UI/UX designs and published the codebase for smart contract development.
  • GitHub Repository.

Key Updates Post-Milestone 1:

  • 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.

To reach out send a message on X: optimisticUSD

cc: @bleu_builders @Gonna.eth @kokocares @JashFi @kaereste

Bless,

0xR & The obUSD Team

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Hey @0xR I’d like to participate in these milestones. I have a community to collaborate, to make testing and proving feedback in the user experience.

Happy to stay in touch!!
Lili

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Hey @Liliop.eth,

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.

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Hey @0xR nop, there are no requirement but we can coordinate on dm.

We don’t have badgeholders but maybe we can collaborate on the first group.

Let’s coordinate on dm!
Lili

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Grant Milestone Update: obUSD

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

:small_blue_diamond: Successfully deployed smart contracts on both Optimism Sepolia testnet and Optimism Mainnet.
:small_blue_diamond: Integrated two attestation schemas for project eligibility and retro funding endorsements:

:warning: 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.

Currently, obUSD can be minted with DAI on Optimism Mainnet, allowing users to explore the application and test yield-generating functions.

:small_blue_diamond: Upcoming Task: We are working on connecting and linking our official domain: obdollar.xyz

:fire: Milestone 4: Community Engagement - Already in Progress!

We’ve already made great strides in this phase:
:small_blue_diamond: Secured social handles for X and Farcaster:

:rocket: What’s Next?

:soon_arrow: Milestone 5: Full Launch

  • Official platform launch with announcements across social channels and forums.
  • Encourage user participation and actively monitor feedback for improvements.

:soon_arrow: Milestone 6: Evaluation and Iteration

  • Distribute the first round of yield to the cohort and analyze its impact.
  • Gather user feedback and iterate on the platform for future enhancements.

We appreciate your support and feedback as we continue building obUSD. Let us know what you think! :light_bulb::rocket:

Bless,

0xR & The obUSD team

cc: @Gonna.eth @Liliop.eth @kokocares @Tane

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Grant Update: WE ARE LIVE!

We’re thrilled to announce that obUSD is now live on Optimism Mainnet – check it out at obdollar.xyz! :tada:

Read our launch article: Introducing the Optimistic Builder Dollar (obUSD) — obUSD

:white_check_mark: Milestone 4: Community Engagement – Completed

:white_check_mark: Milestone 5: Full Launch – Completed

  • obUSD is officially live on Optimism Mainnet
  • The first obUSD tokens have been minted – join the beta and try it yourself!

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Explore here: obdollar.xyz

:yellow_circle: Milestone 6: Evaluation & Iteration – In Progress

  • 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

Bless,

0xR & the obUSD team

Tagging @Tane from the grant milestones team

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Acknowledged the progresses and congrats to the obUSD release! Looking forward to the final milestone to be completed.

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