Season 6: Mission Application Guide: How to Submit a Mission Application
Season 6 begins on June 27th. Grant applications open on July 18th and run every 3 weeks through December 11th. Follow the public governance calendar the rest of the Season!
What’s a Mission?
To understand Missions, you first need to understand Intents. Intents are directional goals that allow the Collective to align on near term targets.
Missions are specific initiatives aimed at achieving one of the Intents. They are tightly scoped and can be accomplished start-to-finish in less than 12 months.
Missions are specific initiatives to be executed by a team of contributors rather than ongoing services or vaguely scoped work performed by permanent working groups.
Example Mission:
“Request to Upgrade OP Mainnet to the Bedrock Release” NOT “Request to Fund developers for the next 3 months”
The Token House creates Mission Requests outlining specific initiatives they want to see built for the Collective. Any team can apply for a Mission grant to fulfill a Request!
How do I Apply for a Mission Grant?
Submit a grant application to execute a Mission Request. The Grants Council reviews all applications and selects team(s) to execute each Mission Request.
If you’re working on something that doesn’t fall under a Mission Request, that’s okay! Your impact may still be rewarded via Retro Funding, it just won’t be eligible for an upfront grant this Season. Keep building and shipping impact across the Collective!
Who Can Apply for a Mission grant?
- Each team must identify a point of contact.
- Teams may apply for multiple Mission Requests. Any team member’s affiliation with multiple Mission Requests should be made clear.
- Members of the Grants Council are not allowed to apply to their own Mission Requests.
Please note: All grant recipients are subject the Grant Policies and must KYC with the Foundation to receive rewards (as with all grants).
How do I Apply for a Mission grant?
There are two types of Mission grants. Those granted by the Foundation and those granted by the Grants Council.
Applying for a Foundation Mission Grant
Foundation Mission Requests, supported by the Partner Fund, are created and selected by the Optimism Foundation on a rolling basis. You can see previous Foundation Mission Requests here.
- Make sure you understand the Collective’s grant policies before applying. Grants are locked for one year unless directly passed through to users as incentives.
- Foundation Mission Requests can be found on the ecosystem contributions github.
- An application template should be included on each Foundation Mission Request.
- Submit your application as a comment on the relevant github issue by the specified submission date, by copying and pasting the completed template.
- The Foundation will select a team by the specified selection date and get in touch regarding KYC and grant delivery shortly thereafter.
- Selected teams should post monthly progress updates on the relevant github issue until the Mission has been completed.
Applying for a Token House Mission Request
Token House Mission Requests, supported by the Governance Fund, are created at the beginning of each Season (2x per year.) These Mission grants are processed by the Grants Council on regular Grant Cycles (see the public governance calendar).
- Make sure you understand the Collective’s grant policies before applying. Grants are locked for one year unless directly passed through to users as incentives.
- Token House Mission Requests will be added to the ecosystems contribution github on July 18th. Submit your application via the Charmverse link included on the relevant github issue by the specified submission date.
- You can find all application deadlines on the public governance calendar.
- The Grants Council will announce the selected applications at the end of each grants cycle via a roundup thread on the forum. The Foundation will reach out with all additional information about grant delivery shortly thereafter.
- Selected teams should post monthly progress updates as comments on their application (in Charmverse) until the Mission has been completed.
Application Templates
Make sure you follow the required template when creating a new application. You will find those on the ecosystem contributions github and/or directly in your application via Charmverse.
How Do Missions Relate to Retro Funding?
If a Mission grant generates impact beyond what was described in the initial Mission Request, additional rewards may be received via Retro Funding. We suggest applicants request 80% of the amount of impact they believe they will generate, incentivizing the rest to be rewarded retroactively based on quality of execution. Over time, the proportion of upfront grants to retroactive rewards should continue to shift towards retroactive rewards until most contributions are fully supported by Retro Funding.
For clarity, additional Retro Funding is never guaranteed and applicants should not submit applications on the assumption that they will receive more than the upfront grant.
Key Dates and Deadlines
- Applications will open on July 18th once the Mission Requests for Season 6 are finalized!
- Key dates and deadlines will be added by the elected Grants Council Lead