Testing Hybrid Funding Experiments for the OP Ecosystem
Calling All OP Badgeholders and Delegates
We invite you to participate in a series of experiments in the second half of 2024. Our goal is to promote token engineering within the Optimism and Superchain ecosystems.
This initiative will test a novel approach to linking a Quadratic Funding (QF) seed round with a follow-on Retroactive Funding round that rewards impact generated by the seed round. The experiment also integrates a novel capital allocation mechanism called Tunable Quadratic Funding (TQF), which allows us to augment normal QF rounds by specifically looking for Subject Matter Expertise and boosting the weight of OP delegates and badgeholders donating even small amounts to token engineering projects in our Gitcoin round.
We’re looking for community members who believe in the importance of trustworthy blockchain systems and are interested in seeing token engineering practices blossom within the Superchain. As such, we think this experiment could be of interest to Optimism’s future development of retroactive funding and governance.
How to Get Involved
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Track our Live Round on Gitcoin: Check out and support the projects participating in our current funding round. Because of our TQF boosts for OP delegates and badgeholders, your contributions and votes can make a significant impact.
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Join our Community: For more information and to stay connected, visit our Join Page. Here, you can find links to our social media accounts, forum, Medium articles, YouTube channel, and upcoming events. This central hub will keep you informed about all our activities and updates.
The Experiment
- Duration: August through December 2024
- Funding: TEC will invest $50k between two rounds and Gitcoin is contributing an additional match of $50k for the Quadratic Funding round.
Round 1: GG21 Quadratic Funding Round
We will run a Tunable Quadratic Funding (TQF) round on Gitcoin Grants 21 in August, with a few important modifications from the TEC’s previous four Gitcoin rounds:
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Superchain Impact: Projects must present a plan for catalyzing token engineering adoption and impact in the Superchain.
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Superchain Voting Boosts: In addition to our current practice of using TQF to boost votes with token engineering expertise, this round will boost votes for Superchain stakeholders (badge holders, top delegates, and “trusted users”).
TQF Success in Previous Round: Our previous implementation of TQF distributing $TEC in Gitcoin Grants 20 boosted Optimism-based projects. By incorporating an OP delegate signal into our funding mechanism, we observed a noticeable increase in support for projects focused on the Optimism ecosystem. This success validates our approach and reinforces our confidence in using TQF to align funding with community priorities and expertise in the Superchain.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the Optimism ecosystem, it’s worth noting that our $TEC token is a native OP token. This aligns with our broader mission to promote token engineering within the Optimism and Superchain ecosystems, extending beyond these specific funding experiments.
Round 2: TEC Retro
The retroactive funding round is currently slated for November and will use Gitcoin’s EasyRetro on Allo Protocol. It features:
- TQF Recipients: Only recipients of the above August TQF round will be eligible.
- Superchain Impact: Retro awards will recognize progress against plans from Round 1 applications, broken into two milestones:
- Early September: Completion of an impact plan using Karma.
- Late October: Progress on grantee-specified impact goals.
- Two Badgeholder Groups: Awards will be decided by a panel of badgeholders with a mix of experience in token engineering and Superchain governance and stewardship.
Educating the Superchain
Throughout this project, TEC will organize events and communications to explain token engineering and highlight grantees’ work to Superchain governors, stewards, builders, and other key stakeholders.
Join the Token Engineering Movement
We’re looking for Superchain community members with an interest in token engineering and the underlying premise of building trustworthy blockchain systems. Feel free to drop a reply to this post if you are interested in working with the TEC towards this goal.
Here’s a link to an article on Medium that explains these plans in more detail.
