[grant update] Optimistic Builder Dollar (obUSD)

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

4 Likes

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

1 Like

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.

1 Like

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

1 Like