Hi LuukDAO, thank you for the feedback and thoughtful questions! Have you read the rationale that I provided in response to this Mission Request or the Mission Proposal that I created for this Mission Request?
If you havenāt already, Iād appreciate if you could check them out since these documents provide a lot of clarity that could help you better understand the value of this Mission Request. If you prefer a more visual overview, you can also watch my recent presentation from Superchain Demo Day or the videos of Optimism Fractal events to gain a better understanding of the rationale behind this Mission Request. Now, here are the answers to your questions:
Why Iām requesting 30K instead of 40K in the Mission Proposal:
Iām requesting 30K for this initial phase to use the collectiveās resources efficiently given the limited budget. By requesting less than the available budget, Iām being conservative and saving additional funding for future proposals.
This amount covers the research and design of a fund distribution system for the Respect Game. I originally planned to request at least 100k in my proposal (as you can see here), but needed to pivot our strategy because only 75k was approved in the Mission Request and nearly half of the budget was already approved for another project before I submitted my proposal.
When more funding becomes available, I plan to make two more Mission Proposals for the development & implementation phase of the fund distribution system and a growth experiment style grant to reward Respect Game participants.
Why itās critical to increase the budget for this Mission Request:
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Onchain Social Games have Extraordinary Market Potential: Onchain social games represent a rapidly growing market with immense potential. As you can see here, onchain social games have proven success and are uniquely positioned to attract vibrant developer communities for many reasons.
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Onchain Social Games have Unparalleled Potential for ROI: The Optimism Fractal Respect Game (and similar onchain social games) can provide an unprecedented level of benefits to the Optimism Collective, with an outstanding return for investment compared to all other initiatives.
To understand the potential benefits of onchain social games, please consider the following:
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The Respect Game provides better ways to distribute funds than current Retro Funding mechanisms, which are distributing over 40 million OP this year.
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The Respect Game lays the foundation for an ideal governance system that enables the Collective to scale both the Citizensā and Token Houses in a truly decentralized manner.
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The Respect Game provides a perfect process to onboard, attract, and empower builders with a wide variety of resources throughout their development career.
The Respect Game has consistently demonstrated its ability to attract builders throughout our three year history, inspiring hundreds of builders and motivating countless volunteer hours of development work. This success is well-documented in both videos and onchain gameplay transactions.
The Respect Game has the potential to significantly enhance core aspects of the Superchain, including Retro Funding, Optimism Governance, and the developer experience. Given the substantial investments the Optimism Collective makes in these areas and the importance of these core aspects, itās critical to consider allocating proportional funding to the development of the Respect Game. The potential impact of this project, as recognized by many community members, warrants funding well beyond the scope of this Mission Request. This Mission Request serves as a foundation, with the intention to seek additional resources as the project demonstrates its value to the Optimism ecosystem.
While the funds for other Mission Requests have been fully allocated, the primary consideration should be funding Mission Requests that will create the most value for the Collective, regardless of whether the original budget has been consumed.
Why the request for a 325K total budget is justified:
The potential impact of onchain social games, particularly the Respect Game, on the Optimism ecosystem justifies a substantial investment. While I believe it would be in the best interest for the Collective to allocate many millions of OP towards the Respect Game, Iām requesting a more modest 325K total budget to balance ambition with pragmatism.
I originally created four Mission Requests with an aggregate budget of over 800k OP with the primary goal to fund the development of Optimism Fractal Respect Games (as you can see here). However, less than a quarter of this was sponsored and approved, which was a compromise that was a largely due to time constraints. In this governance season there is 6 million OP allocated for Intent 3A and approximately 1.7 OP is remaining to be allocated amongst Mission Requests, so continuing to request approximately 15% of the budget for Mission Requests that could fund the development of Respect Games seems to be a fair percentage when considering the potential benefits described above.
In addition, here are more reasons that provide justification for the requested budget of 325k:
Comprehensive Application Development:
This budget allows for parallel development of various aspects of onchain social games, including the Respect Game and auxiliary games. As stated previously, the approval of this Mission Request would also enable me to propose the two other important Mission Requests for implementation phase of the Respect Game funding system and the fund distribution phase (which each follow the design phase of my currently proposed Mission).
In addition to developing the fund distribution component of this onchain social game, I also plan to make Mission Proposals to fund developers who are building several other important aspects of Respect Game development. This includes such as scaling up development of different kinds of fractal apps, developing gamified governance apps that leverage Respect, and building related products for growing communities upon our suite of open-source software.
There are several developers who are currently building these apps on a volunteer basis and their development could be greatly accelerated with adequate funding. This Mission Request can provide onchain social game developers with security that theyāll be compensated, provide the opportunity to build bigger teams around different components, and attract more developers who contribute to our open-source codebases (which the Respect Game is perfectly designed to do). There is a large amount of development work needed that would enhance the Respect Game, which are well organized into tasks and projects our community notion site. In addition weāre also developing several auxiliary onchain social games that can each create profound benefits for the Collective (such as Cagendas, RetroPitches, and Cignals).
The funding in this Mission Request would enable the creation of more comprehensive tools, documentation, and SDKs that other teams can use to develop all kinds of applications on Optimism. It enables us to create a robust foundation that developers across the Optimism ecosystem can build upon, while also providing opportunities for all other developers to build onchain social games on Optimism.
Strategic Ecosystem Development:
The Respect Game serves as a powerful catalyst for rapid community growth within the Optimism ecosystem. It has the potential to scale Optimism Fractal from its current weekly events with dozens of participants to a thriving hub of thousands of builders engaging daily. This scalability isnāt limited to Optimism Fractal alone; the open-source nature of the Respect Game allows other organizations, communities, and businesses to adopt and adapt it to their specific needs, creating a network effect that fuels growth across the entire Optimism ecosystem.
Onchain social games represent an emerging paradigm in social coordination, opening up a new category of applications that can unlock tremendous innovation and potential for the Collective. The benefits provided by the Respect Game can be very useful for a wide variety of fields, including governance, finance, media creation, impact evaluation, and developer tooling. You can envision a future where builders can join multiple Respect Games daily, each tailored to their interests and expertise. For instance, there could be Respect Games specifically for smart contract developers, front-end engineers, governance enthusiasts, artists, and specific project collaborations. Each organization that implements the Respect Game can serve as a powerful attractor for builders on the Superchain.
Time is of the essence in realizing this vision. While Optimism already benefits from having Optimism Fractal on its network, fully embracing and supporting this initiative is crucial for maximizing its impact. The Respect Game provides essential foundations for attracting builders, optimizing governance, and developing ecosystem resilience. These capabilities are vital for Optimism to navigate future challenges effectively and fulfill its mission of creating a more equitable internet. Moreover, the Respect Game provides an essential piece of the infrastructure needed to tackle global coordination challenges and actualize the Optimistic Vision throughout society. The Respect Gameās ability to facilitate fair, transparent, and efficient coordination at scale is poised to revolutionize how communities and organizations operate in the digital age.
By supporting the Respect Game and similar onchain social games, Optimism (and more specifically the OP Mainnet) can attract builders much more effectively than market competitors, play a pivotal role in addressing broader societal needs, and create immense value by improving the Collectiveās core processes. By supporting this Mission Request now, we provide Optimism Fractal and other communities developing onchain social games with the opportunities needed to maximize impact and set the stage for increasingly profound benefits.
Conclusion
I maintained the request for an additional 250K because I believe that a far larger budget would be in the best interest for the Collective. However, I would also be very appreciative if 175K were approved, as this would still represent a significant improvement over the current 40K remaining and allow for substantial progress in developing these critical tools and infrastructure.
The key is to provide sufficient resources to create a robust foundation for onchain social games on Optimism, which can then be built upon and expanded in the future. Any increase in funding will directly translate to increased capacity for development, community building, and ultimately, value creation for the Optimism ecosystem.
On another note @LuukDAO, I think the products supported by this Mission Request will be very helpful for your work with Kolektivo, Superchain Eco, and Celo Public Goods. Iāve enjoyed following Superchain Eco over the past year and am looking forward to potential collaboration opportunities that may arise in the future.
I invite you and anyone else reading this to join Optimism Fractal weekly events and experience the Respect Game for yourself. Feel free to reach out with any other questions or feedback.