Optimism Dominance in Yield-Bearing Assets (1 of 4)
Delegate Mission Request Summary:
This mission is part of a package that is intended to make Optimism the dominant venue for trading and creating yield-bearing assets. The target assets include real-world assets (RWAs), yield-bearing DeFi tokens that are simple in structure, and staked ETH.
This mission is specifically designed to attract high-quality RWAs and structured DeFi products by lowering the cost of acquiring a credit rating for promising projects determined by the Grants Council Audit Committee.
Recently, ratings agencies have been willing to engage with crypto projects to provide ratings. These ratings help investors in those projects review the quality of the offering, and increase confidence because structured finance professionals have done diligence on the fund. While not a promise of good returns, it helps traders and investors quickly ascertain that a project is not a scam or clearly untenable asset structure.
Ratings, however, are not cheap, and many new projects are not able to easily afford a full rating. This mission is structured to be similar to the current smart contract auditing subsidies administered by the Grants Council. Projects are expected to share in the costs of their rating, but subsidies will be made available for whitelisted providers.
S6 Intent
Intent 3: Grow application devs on the Superchain
Proposing Delegate
GFX Labs
Proposal Tier
Scales up to tier of proposer
Baseline Grant Amount
200k OP total is requested for this program. Individual grants are capped at 50,000 OP or 50% of the cost to initiate a rating, whichever is lower.
Should this Mission be fulfilled by one or multiple applicants
Multiple
Submit by
[Date to be set by Grants Council]
Selection by
[Date to be set by Grants Council]
Start Date
[If applicable]
Completion Date
Within six months of application approval.
Specification
How will this Delegate Mission Request help accomplish the above Intent?
This mission, like the smart contract auditing subsidy program, is meant to defray the cost of structured finance ratings. These ratings help distinguish high quality products, and increase the confidence of those trading and investing on Optimism rather than other chains.
What is required to execute this Delegate Mission Request?
Any of:
- A pool of reputable and experienced rating agencies.
- A system for matching ratings providers with projects that desire their services.
- A mechanism for distributing the grants directly or indirectly to the ratings providers and ensuring the funds are used for the intended purpose.
- Ratings are explicitly restricted to only cover deployment on Optimism to avoid paying for ratings that can be used on other chains with different technical features and risk assumptions.
GFX Labs has already identified two ratings providers interested in this program, S&P and Credora. This offers a TradFi-focused and a DeFi-focused group of ratings providers to suit the needs of different products. Other ratings agencies will be able to apply for whitelisting as well.
How should the Token House measure progress towards this Mission?
- Ratings agencies enlisted in the program (S&P and Credora at inception, open to additional providers at Grants Council discretion).
- Projects matched with ratings providers, and subsequent publication of ratings.
How should badgeholders measure impact upon completion of this Mission?
- By the number of RWA issuers that have deployed to Optimism after receiving or expressing interest in receiving a grant to purchase a rating.
Milestones
- 10 Yield-bearing assets with ratings from an agency in this program (or in the process to get a rating) are deployed to Optimism. Assets with pre-existing ratings are not counted towards this milestone.
Have you engaged a Grant-as-a-service provider for this Mission Request?
No.
Has anyone other than the Proposing Delegate contributed to this Mission Request?
No.
This Mission Request is considered failed or withdrawn if the other three missions labeled “Optimism Dominance in Yield-Bearing Assets” do not pass.
Which metric will the success of this Mission Request be evaluated against?
The North star metric against which this Mission Request should be evaluated is TVL, because the initiatives outlined above aim to attract an influx of additional assets. This metric was suggested by the foundation and approved by the Grants Council.