Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) 6 will reward contributions to Optimism Governance, including governance infrastructure & tooling, governance analytics, and governance leadership.
Timeline
- Sign up: Oct 1st - Oct 14th
- Application Review Process: Oct 14th - Oct 28th
- Voting: Oct 31st - Nov 13th 18:00 UTC
- Results: Nov 19th
Scope Categories
Retro Funding 6: Governance will reward impact which has been generated between October 2023 - September 18th 2024. This includes impact relating to Governance Season 5 and Season 6 (up until Voting Cycle #28), as well as impact relating to the design and execution of Retro Funding 3, 4 and 5. Impact will be rewarded within the following categories:
Governance Infrastructure & Tooling
Infrastructure and tooling that powered governance or that made the usage of governance infrastructure more accessible.
Examples: Work on Optimism Governor contracts, Optimism Governance voting clients and interfaces, work on Optimism identity and reputation infrastructure, Retro Funding voting clients and sign up.
Eligibility: The following types of projects are eligible:
- Governance Infrastructure: Technical infrastructure that powers the voting process within Optimism Governance
- Governance Tooling: Tools that are used by Delegates or Citizens to participate in Optimism Governance
- Grants Tooling: Tools that support the Token House grants process, including the operation of the Grants Council. Tools which power or support the Retro Funding process.
Not eligible: The following types of projects are not eligible:
- Non-Optimism related governance tooling: Tools that have not been used in Optimism Governance
- Resources for Governance Onboarding: Documentation, educational videos or other resources that are dedicated to explaining Optimism Governance
Governance Analytics
Analytics that enabled accountability, provided transparency into Collective operations, promoted improved performance, or aided in the design of the Collective
Examples: Governance performance reports, Finance and Grant related analytics & reports, Delegate/Citizen voting power and activity analytics.
Eligibility: The following types of projects are eligible:
- Optimism Governance related Analytics: Analyses of the performance of Optimism governance, including governance participation, grant allocation and more
Not eligible: The following types of projects are not eligible:
- Analytics infrastructure or reports which are not related to Optimism Governance
Governance Leadership:
Demonstrated leadership in the Collective, including but not limited to, hosting community calls and/or participation in councils, boards and commissions beyond executing on basic responsibilities outlined in Token House Charters
Examples: Various Optimism Governance Councils, Commissions and Boards, governance process facilitation
Eligibility: The following types of projects are eligible:
- Councils, Commissions and Advisory Boards; NERD programs focused exclusively on core governance responsibilities (GovNERDs). This includes Security Council, Grants Council, Developer Advisory Board, Code of Conduct Council, Anticapture Commission, Collective Feedback Commissions and GovNERDs.
- Governance facilitation of critical governance processes and/or experiments such as community calls, proposal creation or review sessions, deliberations or similar
Not-Eligible: The following types of projects are not eligible:
- Governance onboarding and promotion initiatives.
- Delegate or Citizen governance participation, including forum engagement, participation in calls & workshops, participation in survey and other activities which are part of the responsibilities of citizens and delegates. These activities are rewarded separately as part of the Retro Governance Participation Rewards
- Each of the above mentioned Councils, Commissions, Advisory Boards and NERD programs are required to submit one application as a group, individual participation within one of the groups is not eligible. The allocation of rewards among group members should be proposed by the team Lead and is subject to the consensus mechanism of that group outlined in their internal operating procedures
- Governance Leadership within Governance Season 4 is not considered within this round, as it was already rewarded in Retro Funding 3.
Retro Funding 6 Size
Citizens will vote on the round’s OP allocation within the rounds voting experience. The Foundation is assigning a minimum OP Amount for the round of 1.1M OP and a maximum OP amount of 3.5m OP. Citizens will be able to vote for an OP amount within the range of minimum and maximum which they believe appropriately rewards the impact within the round. The round allocation will be decided by taking the median of Citizens’ votes.
The voting on the rounds OP allocation is an experiment in community-lead budget allocation.
The outcomes of this experiment will inform the evolution of the budgeting process in the future, which is subject to change based on learnings.
The following are considerations for the minimum and maximum values set by the Foundation:
- Retro Funding 3 benchmark: Approximately 1.1M OP was allocated to Optimism Governance Contributions in Retro Funding 3 at the end of 2023. The minimum round allocation for Retro Funding 6 matches this value, under the assumption that impact within Optimism Governance has been consistent or has increased since the last round.
- Optimism Governance growth: Within the scope period of October 2023 until September 2024, Optimism Governance has grown significantly. Within the timeframe a number of new governance leadership roles, such as the Developer Advisory Board, Security Council, TH & CH Feedback Commissions, Anticapture Commission have been introduced. The infrastructure and tooling which Optimism Governance relies on has been extended, introducing approval ranking in the Token House, partial delegation, Citizens’ House Protocol upgrade veto rights, Retro Funding sign up tooling and more. To reflect his growth, the Foundation set a maximum OP allocation of 3.5m OP.
Voting Design
For the round, a number of guest voters will be selected to further drive understanding on how different voter selection methods impact resource allocation decisions. You can learn more about the Retro Funding 6 Guest voter selection experiment here.
Retro Funding 6 will adopt the voting design from round 5, where voters are sorted into smaller groups dedicated to evaluating a specific set of applications. Incremental improvements will be made to the voting experience based on the feedback from voters in round 5.
Additionally, a small scale experiment on impact attestations will be part of the round, testing the collection of more community generated data to support voters in evaluating impact.
KYC & Grant Delivery
The Optimism Foundation is making continuous improvements on the KYC & Grant delivery process. Grants will be streamed to recipients over 100 days, following the announcement of results and approval of KYC. Superfluid is providing infrastructure for the streaming of Retro Funding grants. Grantees must receive a minimum of 1,000 OP to be eligible for rewards.
FAQ
How do I apply?
Go to https://retrofunding.optimism.io/ and follow the steps of this tutorial: Retro Funding - 27 August 2024 | Loom
When will grant disbursements happen?
Retro Funding 6 will conclude in November 2024, following KYC approval, tokens will be streamed to you over 100 days via Superfluid.
Where can I ask questions?
You can ask questions in the Optimism Discord in the #retrofunding-discussion channel.
I'm not sure my project is eligible, what should I do?
You can ask questions in the Optimism Discord in the #retrofunding-discussion channel.
I will apply with multiple projects, do I have to report my funding & grants for each?
Yes, if you’re applying with multiple projects, you need to report your funding & relevant grants for each
Can I apply for multiple categories?
Each project can only apply to one category.
What happens if my application violates the Application Rules?
If badgeholders find that you violate the Application Rules listed above, your project will be disqualified from participating in this round of Retro Funding. You will be able to apply again for future rounds.
Where can I nominate projects?
Theres no nominations process in this round, instead projects sign-up directly. So remind your favourite projects to apply!
Why do I need Farcaster to sign up for Retro Funding?
You will need Farcaster account to sign up for Round 6, if you don’t already have a Farcaster account, you’ll need to make one. Your Farcaster account isn’t just a sign-in method for Round 6, it’s also your Optimist Profile and will be used for future Retro Funding applications and other interactions with the Optimism Collective.
The easiest way to sign up for a Farcaster account is via the [Warpcast](https://warpcast.com/) app, which acts as a wallet to easily manage the keys of the newly created account. Upon sign-up, Warpcast currently charges a $7 fee to rent storage on the network. As a decentralized social network, Farcaster content is not stored on centrally controlled servers, but rather in Hubs, which are a [distributed network of servers](https://docs.farcaster.xyz/learn/architecture/hubs). Each unit of storage buys 5000 casts, 2500 reactions and 2500 follows. For those who prefer to register a Farcaster account via contracts directly, this can be done via the [ID Registry Contract](https://docs.farcaster.xyz/learn/architecture/contracts). Storage can be rented via the [Storage Registry Contract](https://docs.farcaster.xyz/learn/architecture/contracts). There are alternative Farcaster clients beyond Warpcast that also support account creation and storage renting.
Can I apply with two different projects?
Yes, one person can apply to two different projects, so long as there is no overlap in the work. You will need to complete the sign-up flow twice.
Can individuals apply or just projects?
You and your team should apply together with your project. Applying for individual contributions to a project is not recommended.
Can a team that has gotten a grants council grant, partner fund grant, mission grant get Retro Funding?
Yes! As long as you’ve deployed your contracts on one of the qualifying OP Chains and meet the application criteria.
Do I need to report my Airdrops under Grants & Funding?
No, you don’t need to report airdrops that you have received
Are Token sales considered as Investment?
Yes, if you consider them to be equity in your project
