1. Presentation
We are an officially recognized Tooling Governance Committee, responsible for assessing proposals related to tooling and infrastructure (wallets, bridges etc.).
To begin with, for this proposal we identified a possible conflict of interest between our team member (@cryptotesters involved in Hop protocol) and thus that individual was excluded from assessing this proposal.
2. About the project
Bridges are vital for the Optimism network to flourish. They enable capital flow between various chains.
Across is an optimistic bridge allowing users to move funds between two EVM compatible chains. Relayers are actors that provide liquidity on destination chains. Across is optimistic in the sense that after a successful relay of funds, relayers (not users) are reimbursed for their service by the optimistic oracle.
At its current stage, Across uses UMA’s Optimistic Oracle as a security source for dispute resolution. Conceptually, Across should work properly if UMA is.
Notes:
- Supports the following chains, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Boba, Polygon and Optimism launched in December 2021.
- Across is the only bridge that uses UMA’s Optimism Oracles.
- They have plans to launch $ACX token in October 2022. Full details of the token launch.
- To date it hasn’t suffered any security incidents.
External links:
Similar OP Governance proposals:
- Hop Protocol - 1M OP tokens
3. About the following
Across submitted original proposal in July. Original proposal requested more tokens (1M OP vs current 750k OP) and had a similar co-incentives plan.
4. About the proposal valuation
- Added value (good to bad): good. As we noted previously, bridges are crucial for adoption. It’s important for Optimism to use as many different (reasonable) bridge designs as possible. Across is one of few bridges employing optimistic tech. It has a good track record and active community.
- Impact or expected usage (high to low): medium. Optimism ecosystem has grown these months, there are a large number and variety of bridges supporting the network, But it is always welcomed to have new bridges/liquidity networks being frictionless to enter and exit. Due to the presence of different bridges competing for activity, we believe that the impact will be medium since it does not present a very emerging need beyond the possibility of supporting new tokens and incentivising users to give Optimism a try.
- Current Status [Development stage/Open Source?] (early to ready): ready. Across Protocol is in production since November last year. At the moment anyone can be a relayer to full-fill orders (https://docs.across.to/v2/developers/running-a-relayer) but governance has not been implemented yet nor full-immutability.
- Expenditure plan and distribution (appropriate to inappropriate): appropriate. 75% of requested OP tokens will be used to subsidise users bridging, 25% for relayers providing liquidity. ACX will be used as a co-incentive. We are slightly worried about rebates that can total to more of 105% bridge fees, but we believe that in reality, it won’t be a problem because this is rebating only bridge fees (not OP gas fee) + it can be tweaked if farming potential is real.
- Amount requested (high to low): medium.
5. KPIs and impact tracking
Optimism Governance should be aware how each OP token is really spent. We suggest tracking following KPIs:
- number of bridged users
- volume bridged
- number of bridged users that made at least 3 other transactions on optimism (other than bridging away)
- OP vs ACX spent
We suggest that Across team creates a Dune dashboard (or something similar) with these metrics.