April 2023 GMC Call for Grant Applications - Deadline is April 15th

ShfRyn · 2 April 2023 12:01

This thread is for applications for Rocket Pool’s April 2023 (Round 2) grants. Please only post grant applications in this thread. If you would like to discuss and/or ask questions about any applications you see in this thread, we ask that you do so in this separate forum thread which has been established for all community discussions related to this round of applications. Only those grant applications that are posted in this thread and timestamped by April 15, 2023 at 23:59 (11:59 PM) UTC will be considered.

Please note the following differences between grants and bounties. Grants are intended to be applied for by those who are wishing to carry out the work themselves. Bounties are open-ended goals that could be met by anyone, including those other than the proposing party. In other words, if I believed that Rocket Pool needed a fifty-foot paper mache orange rocket for publicity purposes and I wanted to be the one to built it, I would apply for a grant. If I instead thought Rocket Pool needed a fifty-foot paper mache orange rocket for publicity purposes but I wanted it to be open to whoever built it first to claim the reward (similar to a prize), then I’d apply for a bounty.

To guide you in your application, the GMC has established the following goals and the following scoring rubric:

GMC Goals

Grants, bounties, and retrospective awards should make it easier and/or more attractive to do one or more of the following:

become a node operator

operate a node, mint rETH

hold or use rETH

improve the quality of life for the protocol and its community.

Grants Rubric

The Grants rubric involves scoring each of the three categories from 1 to 5:

If the application is successful, to what extent does it further the GMC goals?

To what extent can the application be feasibly carried out by the person(s) proposed to complete it?

If the application is successful, how large is the benefit to the protocol relative to the size of the proposed costs

The maximum score is 15 and the minimum is 3.

Grants Application

Please copy paste the template below into a reply. Answer the questions there, entering N/A where appropriate:

## Grants Application

## Project

### What is the work being proposed?

### Is there any related work this builds off of?

### Will the results of this project be entirely open source ([MIT](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT), [GPL](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html), [Apache](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0), [CC BY](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

## Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

### How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

### How does this help rETH holders?

### How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

### How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

### How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

### How does this help RPL holders?

### What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

### Will the resulting project be open source?

## Team

### Who is doing the work?

### What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

### What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

### How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

### How will the work be maintained after delivery?

## Payment and Verification

### What is the acceptance criteria?

### What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

### How will the GMC verify that the workâ€™s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

### What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

## Conflict of Interest

### Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

### Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

Valdorff · 6 April 2023 19:02

Project

What is the work being proposed?

A defi opporunities summary page updated fornightly. This may be a simple google document, or may get moved to something like GitHub Pages.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

The defi opporunities document at Rocket Pool Defi - Google Docs

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Yes, CC BY-SA

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

It provides up to date information on what kind of yield they can expect with rETH in defi.

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

It provides up to date information on what kind of yield they can expect with rETH in defi and shows them where to get it.

How does this help rETH holders?

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

No direct benefit

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

No direct benefit

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

More knowledge of Defi opportunities may improve the impact of incentives. More knowledge of potential Defi opportunities may drive rETH demand.

How does this help RPL holders?

No direct benefit

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

The defi projects that work with RP that are on the page would benefit some.

Will the resulting project be open source?

already is

Team

Who is doing the work?

Val will be responsible for the work. Hoping to have another community take over this cycle. If they do, I will ask payment be redirected.

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

Val put together the current document and has updated it.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Varies a bit from just under an hour to over 2 hours per fortnight for pure updating. Some additional ad-hoc time when new protocols or pools are added.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

Not applicable, really.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

Delivery is ongoing

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

Message GMC liaison upon update. They may check changes as desired (the document is versioned). Regardless of if Val or another community member does the work, Val will message the liaison when ready.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

$100/fortnight until the next cycle.
As mentioned earlier, if I can get another community member to do these updates, I’ll ask for payment to go to them.

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

See acceptance criteria

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

N/a

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

Val is a member of the IMC. I think this is probably more of a “I’ll have to research less” than a conflict, but worth listing.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

Not beyond the payment and aid to RP.

woh · 7 April 2023 20:16

Grants Application

Project: RocketPhone

RocketPhone is a project aiming to run a Rocket Pool mainnet validator on a phone 24/7 and build a website to track its stats and location.

What is the work being proposed?

The RocketPhone project demonstrates the versatility of staking a node on mobile hardware. It challenges the notion that staking must be done at home with servers by showing that a node can run on other types of hardware and that downtime of a node is not a significant issue. By running a node on a mobile network, there will be instances of bad signal quality, causing the node to go offline, but the impact on rewards will be minimal. The project aims to prove that the node will still be profitable and staking can be done from anywhere in the world.

Currently the testnet version just runs the validator client but the long term goal is to run a mainnet execution client, consensus client, and validator client all on the phone hardware.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

The work builds upon the RocketPhone project on the Prater testnet by Woh.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Yes

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

The project intends to show that staking is not limited to data centers or home servers and can be run on all types of hardware and networks, alleviating anxiety about staking hardware and downtime/missing attestations.

How does this help rETH holders?

The project may inspire more people to become node operators versus just holding rETH.

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

The project aims to create a guide for installing the Rocket Pool smart stack on a mobile phone, easing the concerns of new node operators that installation is difficult to do, that running a node can be done in many different ways, and showing that a node having missed attestations due to network connectivity or other reasons will be minimal against their earnings.

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

This project may help node operators currently running Rocket Pool nodes come up with new and innovative ways to run a validator. An operator may choose to run a node on a mobile device if they run into a situation where a home node is unfeasible.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

The project can bring attention and a positive reputation to Rocket Pool due to the uniqueness of running a node on a mobile device.

How does this help RPL holders?

N/A

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

N/A

Will the resulting project be open source?

Yes

Team

Who is doing the work?

The team consists of Woh and JamesCarnley.eth

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

Woh is an experienced node operator with an IT background and JamesCarnley.eth is an experienced web developer. Woh is currently running two nodes on a mobile device on the Prater testnet.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Installing the mainnet smart node stack on the phone
Depositing for an 8 ETH / 2.4 RPL minipool
Building a website with a guide of the installation process and node stats
Building a tracking map on the website to show updated node validation locations

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

RocketPhone is currently being tested on Prater with two 8 ETH minipools. The first one since January 26, 2023 and the second since March 22, 2023.

Goerli Rated.network stats for 2 minipools:

Description	Value
Participation Rate	89.50 %
Inclusion Delay	1.68
Correctness	88.20 %
Total Rewards Earned	0.1424 ETH
Rewards Per Validator	0.0712 ETH
Total Penalties Accrued	-0.0215 ETH
Penalties Per Validator	-0.0108 ETH
Times Slashed	0
Slashes Collected	0
Proposal Miss Rate	0.00 %
Source Accuracy	89.48 %
Target Accuracy	99.45 %
Head Accuracy	76.90 %
Rating Percentile	Top 40%

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

The node will be maintained after delivery by Woh and can be monitored on Beaconcha.in.

Payment and Verification

Payment address: rocketphone.eth

	ETH	RPL Request*	Dollars
Minipool	8	328.53	$14,849.44
RPL	2.4	98.56	$4,454.83
Website		66.37	$3,000.00
Phone		22.12	$1,000.00
Phone Plan		26.55	$1,200.00
		542.13	$24,504.27

*calculated at $45.2 RPL

What is the acceptance criteria?

A fully functional Rocket Pool node running a validator on the mainnet beaconchain.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

Proposed payment schedule: 477 RPL upfront for the minipool deposit, phone, and unlimited data plan. 66.37 RPL upon completion of the website.

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

The GMC can verify the work’s deliveries by monitoring the node using Beaconcha.in initially and later tracking progress on the project’s website.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

N/A

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

Woh, a member of the project team, holds RPL and runs Rocket Pool nodes.
JamesCarnley.eth, a member of the project team, holds RPL and runs Rocket Pool nodes.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

N/A

killjoy · 11 April 2023 20:19

Grants Application

Project

What is the work being proposed?

A docker image which may optionally added to the rocketpool service stack to provide UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) monitoring metrics to prometheus to allow for alerting and monitoring of your UPS within Grafana.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

I published this docker image in September of 2022 and have been using it since to import metrics on my CyberPower UPS to Grafana. This implementation uses the CyberPower pwrstat cli to retrieve data from any CyberPower UPS. This grant exists to extend this docker image to also make use of apcupsd to be able to monitor APC UPS’ and create documentation to clarify how a node operator can integrate this image into their rocket pool stack. By providing support for both APC and CyberPower UPS’ I believe this image will be of use to a large percentage of node operators who have a backup power solution.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

This project will be entirely open source under the GPL3 license.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

N/A

How does this help rETH holders?

By creating tools to help node operators monitor and improve their validator’s uptime, additional value will accrue to rETH holders via increased staking rewards from fewer missed proposals.

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

N/A

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

This project helps those running a Rocket Pool node by notifying node operators when their node is at risk of going offline due to a power outage. Many node operators rely on BeaconCha.in to notify them when their validator begins missing attestations, however those with a UPS won’t receive any notification until their UPS’ battery is depleted. This project creates a mechanism for them to be alerted before their node goes offline and implement their contigency plan sooner.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

N/A

How does this help RPL holders?

N/A

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

The docker image will be general purpose so it can be of use to anyone who wishes to monitor their UPS using Grafana and Prometheus.

Will the resulting project be open source?

Yes.

Team

Who is doing the work?

I will be completing this work (killjoy#9896)

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

I am a software engineer / founder and have 10+ years of experience in application development and dev ops using tools such as Docker and NodeJS. In the past I have worked in a founding role as a technical lead and full stack developer for several start ups in healthcare and freight tech.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Extend the docker image (or create a second variant) which makes use of apcupsd to interface with prometheus in the same manner as the existing docker image: ~ 1 week
Test the setup using an APC UPS: ~ 2/3 days
Develop documentation to guide node operators on how to add this tool to their stack: ~ 0.5 days
Aid in updating the official Rocket Pool documentation.: ~ 1 day

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

The work will be tested by acquiring both a CyberPower and APC device and simulating power outage conditions to ensure proper functioning. This testing time has been accounted for in the project schedule.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

Both the apcupsd and pwrstat cli applications have not seen major updates in the last 5 years. It is therefore unlikely that this project will require significant ongoing maintainance. However in the case that it does, minor updates may be implemented by myself or community members. If a major change is required a future grant could be submitted.

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

Community members are able to successfully integrate the docker image into their rocket pool stack
Community members are able to view UPS metrics within Grafana
Community members correctly receive alerts when they simulate a power outage (given their internet service is uninterrupted by the outage)

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

RPL can be granted within 2 weeks of meeting the acceptance criteria outlined above. I am requesting 5 RPL to cover the cost of the purchase of an APC UPS for testing, and an additional 10 RPL as compensation for development work.

How will the GMC verify that the workâ€™s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

Will communicate with GMC liaison on a regular basis. They may monitor the GitHub repository to view work in progress.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

I could get help from a community member to test the APC UPS rather than purchasing one myself, but for long term support I think it is ideal if I personally have access to both supported types of UPS.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

Nothing to disclose other than the fact that I operate a node and hold RPL.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No.

ramana · 12 April 2023 19:31

Grants Application

Project: Frontend (“Staking Pond”)

What is the work being proposed?

An open source decentralised website interface to the Rocket Pool protocol, for liquid stakers and node operators.
The following features may be included:

Mint/burn rETH
- Using a choice of routers in case the DP is full/empty
(Stretch goal 1) View your rETH rewards/profit
Confirm withdrawal address
Migrate RPL v1 to v2
Stake RPL on behalf of a node
(Stretch goal 2) Smartnode alternative: register a node, set node timezone, set node withdrawal address, stake RPL, set voting delegate, claim (and optionally restake) rewards, deposit a minipool, etc.

I make no claims about the design quality, only functionality. I would intend to build a minimal design with responsive easy-to-use accessible functionality. Designer contributions would be welcome from additional team members should they wish to join.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

It is similar to https://stake.rocketpool.net, and to some beta versions of https://rocketscan.io. The idea of a decentralised frontend is similar to those of https://liquity.org.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Yes 100% pure free and open source software. GPL or AGPL as appropriate.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

It provides a convenient interface for staking, that can be verified by inspection for security and trustworthiness, and run locally for the security-conscious.

How does this help rETH holders?

E.g., if they want to stake more or unstake, see previous answer.

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

It offers a convenient and verifiable interface for registering their node, although it will need to be documented how to import the node account into the smartnode later if they want to use that.

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

It offers a convenient and verifiable interface for managing their node.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

It grows the community to welcome the security-conscious advocates of free and open source websites.

How does this help RPL holders?

It can help them migrate their tokens in a trustworthy verifiable convenient interface.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

None, unless the website implementation turns out to be reusable in some ways.

Will the resulting project be open source?

Of course. How could it not be?

Team

Who is doing the work?

Ramana. I would welcome team contributors, especially for additional design or testing work.

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

I made some websites before like games, and I’m working on a dapp at GitHub - xrchz/hodlem: Decentralised Texas Hold'em Poker for Ethereum

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

The features listed above can each be considered a milestone. There are also basic features like wallet integration to do first.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

No. Testing, beyond the basics, will be by the community.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

The grant does not cover maintenance, but I intend to respond to upgrades and add new features as appropriate, and to incorporate improvements or fixes from the community.

Payment and Verification

I propose 250 RPL for the base features and 100 RPL each for the stretch goals. I am very open to negotiation from the GMC on these numbers.

What is the acceptance criteria?

All the functions listed above are usable.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

Whenever is suitable, as long as full payment is received in a timely manner after all features are complete. (Counted separately for stretch goals.)

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

All development will be in a public git repo.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

None.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

No.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No.

ramana · 12 April 2023 19:48

Grants Application

Project: RocketSplit Withdrawal Contract

What is the work being proposed?

A free smart contract that can be used as the withdrawal address of a Rocket Pool node to facilitate trust-minimised node-sharing relationships.

For example, if different parties wish to provide only ETH or only RPL for the node, and/or wish to receive configurable fees or a custom distribution of the rewards from the node.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

This is similar to the “whale marriage” splitter contracts used for markobarko/worthalter’s nodes, or ramana/waq’s “dolphin marriage” (see rpl2k.eth’s node). It is also related to another community member’s withdrawal contract that automatically sends a portion of their rewards to their children.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

100% pure free software.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

N/A. Except maybe it creates more NO demand so there’s more rETH available.

How does this help rETH holders?

N/A

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

If they don’t want to run the node themselves, or provide all the capital, they can join forces with another party without having to trust them by using this contract.

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

N/A - unless they switch to the contract, then the above benefits apply.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

Opens the appeal up to more kinds of node operator.

How does this help RPL holders?

Opportunity to stake their RPL without having to also stake ETH.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

N/A, unless they copy some of the ideas.

Will the resulting project be open source?

Without a doubt.

Team

Who is doing the work?

Ramana

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

I wrote the dolphin marriage and family splitter contracts. See GitHub - xrchz/contracts

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

It’s basically a one-off job. But to break it down

Design/requirements, in consultation with GMC and community. Figure out what features are useful and feasible.
Implementation.
Testing/verification/audits

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

Basic testing is included via unit and/or integration tests on development network, and possibly on testnet.
Stretch: formal verification of the contract.
Stretch: commissioned audits from known/trusted auditing firm(s).

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

N/A - this contract has fixed functionality and no need to change. However, although not included in this grant, I would be open to creating extensions in future versions as the underlying Rocket Pool protocol changes.

Payment and Verification

I propose 500 RPL for the base requirements (smart contract + testing). An additional 500 RPL for formal verification. An additional 500 RPL for paying auditors if desired. I am very open to discussing and revising these numbers with the GMC.

What is the acceptance criteria?

The functionality is implemented and tested.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

All development will be in a public git repo.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

None.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

No.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No.

jasperthegovghost · 14 April 2023 05:17

Grants Application

Project

What is the work being proposed?

Take over funding the weekly Twitter spaces hosted by @ken and @jasperthegovghost from the RP team. This activity fits better under the purview of the GMC than it does from the team.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

-N/A-

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

All Twitter spaces are re-uploaded on YouTube by @maverick.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

Increases awareness of rETH and what users can do with it.

How does this help rETH holders?

Keeps holders up to date with the protocol and ecosystem so that they can make informed decisions.

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

Provides an avenue for users to engage with the team and informed speakers to ask questions as well as provides a regular space for interaction.

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

Keeps node operators informed on protocol updates as they pertain to the Smartnode and smart contracts.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

It is one of the largest and only regular forms of engagement between the community.

How does this help RPL holders?

They can learn what RPL is used for.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

Many teams approach Nick for Twitter Spaces and gain value through our audience. These protocols in the ecosystem use us as a conduit for updates.

Will the resulting project be open source?

Yes

Team

Who is doing the work?

Myself and @ken

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

We have been doing these Twitter Spaces since Feb of 2022. Occasionally, one fills in when the other cannot host, but we’ve by and large been very consistent.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

We each do 1 Space on alternating weeks, optionally covering for the other until such a time as it is no longer valuable. Perhaps an annual basis for the sake of setting a timeframe.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

How badly #trading dunks on us.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

YouTube hosting on official channel.

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

Hosting a well-prepared Twitter Space of approximately 1-2 hrs length that focuses on educating the community.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

The team set rate thus far has been 9 RPL/wk. Admittedly, I always thought 10 was much cleaner. After discussion with Ken, we would be happy to take either a 9 RPL/wk rate or the current USD equivalent of $450/wk. Currently, payments have gone out roughly every 6 weeks. I am open to whatever the GMC prefers.

How will the GMC verify that the work deliveries match the proposed cadence?

Twitter Spaces are scheduled in advance and can be verified on the Discord events page.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

It would be more expensive to hire someone professionally who has the requisite knowledge.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

Yes, Ken is on the GMC.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No.

ramana · 14 April 2023 10:26

Grants Application

Project: RocketProof

What is the work being proposed?

Build a formal model of the Rocket Pool protocol (the smart contracts) and its execution environment (Ethereum) in higher-order logic.

As an initial foray in this direction, we propose only to build a model at a suitable and convenient level of abstraction, with a view to future extension (with a formal connection e.g. via refinement) to more accurate low-level details (e.g. EVM opcode semantics).

Is there any related work this builds off of?

No, although we will use existing generic tooling and libraries e.g. https://hol-theorem-prover.org.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Pure unadulterated free software. 100% GPL.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this benefit Rocket Pool?

There is no difference to the answer for all Rocket Pool variants for this question, so I provide the answer once:

Provide machine-checked confidence in the safety and security of the protocol.
A unique marketing opportunity: that the protocol has been formally verified to the proposed degree of thoroughness.
In case any bug bounties are found to be claimable during the course of the verification, these will be claimed and mitigated, which further enhances the quality and security of the protocol. 10% of all bug bounties claimed will be donated back to the GMC budget.

(Note: no marketing of the results is included specifically in this proposal.)

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

The Ethereum (both execution and consensus layer) protocol model will be reusable for other verification projects. And the methodology for smart contract protocol verification may also be reusable.

Will the resulting project be open source?

How could it possibly not be?

Team

Who is doing the work?

Ramana
Team member TBD - I will post a bounty

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

Rocket Pool node operator, and holder of rETH and RPL
Has an award-winning PhD in formal verification, and is a primary author of a large project in this area, https://cakeml.org, amongst other theorem-proving projects.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Here’s an example roadmap for the first 1-2 months:

Define basic model of EVM
- probably not including bytecode initially, but just high-level operations, e.g., shallowly embedded state change functions
Define basic model of beacon chain
Define model of Rocket Storage contract, based on shallow embedding of the Solidity implementation
Prove some basic properties of Rocket Storage as a quick check of the methodology and setup

My rough sense of the size of this project is 6 months.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

Base level: all proofs will be machine-checked by the HOL theorem prover, for every commit to the main branch of the repository.

Furthermore, the high-level theorem statements will be scrutinised and offered (as with all the work, but these can be highlighted) to the community and team members for inspection.

Optional extra: we may include correspondence checks between contract execution in logic and execution in an external test harness (e.g. traces from mainnet, or testnet/devnet executions). Some of these correspondences could be included as theorems above - the extra testing described here is more about building infrastructure for extracting traces to check against.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

No maintenance included by default: the final commit will build and verify with a specified HOL version. Updates should, however, be straightforward in the future, whether due to Rocket Pool, Ethereum, or HOL updates.

Payment and Verification

I propose a budget of 1000 RPL for the main work, with up to 250 RPL in reserve for additional extras.

Since this project is in part a research project, the exact targets and direction may diverge from the text of this application - please consider the spirit of the application, i.e. to formally model and verify the Rocket Pool protocol with machine-checked proofs, as the guiding direction. If this application is supported and its work is done, I expect there will be further applications in the future for extending and improving the work.

I am very open to negotiation and stewarding from the GMC on deciding on the payment level and schedule, and on the verification criteria.

What is the acceptance criteria?

Minimum criterion: There is a formally proved theorem about some non-trivial (although it can be simple) property of the Rocket Pool protocol. This implies there are sufficiently good models of Ethereum and Rocket Pool defined in order to state the theorem.
The primary judgement will be made by Ramana and their collaborator(s).
An additional judgement will be made by a Rocket Pool community member (the GMC can choose), with the requirement being that the result is explained/documented/AMA’d by Ramana to sufficient detail that this community member is satisfied, assuming a good-faith attempt is made to understand it by the community member.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

I am open to whatever the GMC suggests on this point.

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

All development will be in a public git repository, and the team will make themselves available for Q&A as desired (within reason).

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

None. There’s a K framework formalisation of Ethereum I think, but probably it’s not suitable for the depth of smart contract verification we eventually want to do.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

No.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No.

mmurthy · 14 April 2023 18:18

Grants Application

Project

Karma delegate dashboard for Rocketpool contributors

What is the work being proposed?

We would like to build a custom delegate dashboard to potentially replace delegates rocketpool net. We have worked with a number of DAOs in the ecosystem and you can see delegate dashboards we have built on our site karmahq (unable to link to it because of forum restrictions).

Our dashboards can be used for:

Onboarding delegates (instead of using forum thread asking delegates to join)
Displays delegate activity stats across Snapshot voting, Forum, Discord and anything else you want to track
Integration with Snapshot delegation so RPL holders can find the ideal candidate and delegate their voting power

Example: https://delegate.gitcoin.co/

Is there any related work this builds off of?

We have already integrated with many DAOs and lot of that technology can be used for Rocket Pool DAO

Will the results of this project be entirely open source? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Frontend is all open source. The backend code that integrates with various third party systems is not open source.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

Below are a high level benefits of this dashboard:

Provides more visibility to RPL token holders on who is active in governance.
Helps RPL token holders find delegates to assign voting power further improving governance.
Easy onboarding will encourage more delegates to join the DAO and contribute.
Advanced stats helps hold delegates accountable.

Overall, having this visibility and making it easy to participate in governance will help the DAO become more decentralized and stronger.

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

N/A

How does this help rETH holders?

N/A

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

N/A

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

N/A

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

Karma can provide deeper insights into community member activity as described above. Apart from that, DAO can use this dashboard to identify active contributors and use that as criteria for GMC elections.

How does this help RPL holders?

It is in the best interest of RPL holders to assign their voting power to the most effective delegates. Our dashboard provides everything they need to do that which results in strengthening the DAO.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

All the features we build will be automatically useful to other DAOs using our dashboards.

Will the resulting project be open source?

Frontend is open source.

Team

Mahesh Murthy (Founder of Karma)
Andre Mury (Full stack dev)
Arthur Ulhoa (Backend dev)
Amaury Maghales (Frontend dev)

Who is doing the work?

Our entire team will be involved in the project.

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

I, Mahesh Murthy is the founder of Karma. We have been working on this product and helping DAOs for more than a year. We have gained deeper insights into the workings of DAO and would like the opportunity to help RocketPool DAO improve their governance.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Milestone 1 (2 weeks)
Identify all the sources of integration (tracking) and agree on scoring logic with the RocketPool DAO. This will include Snapshot, Forum, Discord and anything else the DAO would like us to index.

Deliverable: Shared Doc with the outlined tracking and scoring requirements.

Milestone 2 (2 weeks)
Implementation of custom Dashboard that will allow delegates to sign up and add their info and token holders to delegate their tokens.

Deliverable: Handover of custom Dashboard including accountability thread in forum to update the community and collect feedback.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

Testing is included in the schedule.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

Even after delivery, we will be indexing data on a daily basis so the stats are current. We are adding features constantly to the dashboard all of which are included in the cost.

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

The dashboard will be implemented and hosted on subdomain of rocketpool.net. The team will test the onboarding flow and check the stats of delegates who are already active.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

The payment we request will cover the initial setup and maintenance of the dashboard data and additional features for a period of 1 year. Below is the proposed schedule with amount requested.

End of Milestone 1: 100 RPL
End of Milestone 2: 300 RPL

How will the GMC verify that the workâ€™s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

Per the milestone details, we will present the document with all the details at the end of Milestone 1. At the end of Milestone 2, the product will be fully built and be visible on subdomain for everyone to see.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

N/A

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

None

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

None

Arif · 14 April 2023 18:29

Grants Application

Project

Decentralized Analytics for Monitoring Rocketpool Health and Performance

What is the work being proposed?

We aim to empower Rocketpool users and understand Rocketpool data easily, do no-code analytics and build beautiful charts and dashboards.

DappLooker is a leading provider of web3 analytics for Dapps and networks, with strong and consistent growth. We provide analytics on 120+ million user data, 200+ Dapps, and 15+ networks and have established partnerships with several prominent projects in the Web3 ecosystem.

Website
Integrations
Discover page

The current Dashboards on Dune and other platforms fail to provide the following offerings

Our Unique Offerings:

DappLooker is the only platform out there to provide subgraph Analytics. We are subgraph native with attractive UI, budget-friendly, and faster queries.

We analyze both On-Chain and Off-Chain Data together for better decision-making.

We also support API as a off-chain data source data source

We can Integrate and use Chart APIs to fetch chart data directly onto your platform.

No code Analytics and Watermark free embedding

We propose building subgraph-powered analytics dashboards that provide real-time insights into Rocket Pool’s user data, collateral-specific Minipool Dashboard, and network performance.

Here are the dashboards we plan to build and why

Implement Collateral-specific Minipool Dashboard

As of now, all the dashboards of Rocketpool that are live across all the platforms, none of them give an insight into ROIs and Show performance of minimum/50%/150% mini pool over time and metrics involving Split out into consensus, execution, RP rewards, RPL appreciation/depreciation

Implement User Retention Dashboard

Current dashboards available only give an insight into the number of users . We pal to deep dive into this metric and give analysis on repeat users, distinct users’ churn rate, etc

Implement Rocketpool Network Overview Dashboard

We studied the Rocketpool dashboards and found that various important metrics still need to be added to current dashboards. We plan to provide them along with a focus on rETH burned in this dashboard

Once the development and creation of the 3 proposed dashboards are completed, they will be accessible on the website https://rocketpool.dapplooker.com. This website will serve as a central hub for the Rocketpool community to monitor and analyze the performance of the entire ecosystem. With these dashboards, users can view key metrics such as user’s churn rate, staking pool, market capitalization, liquidity, node capacity utilization, and token volatility, all in one place. This centralized approach to monitoring will allow for quicker and more informed decision-making based on the latest data trends.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

We have already built one basic dashboard for Rocketpool
https://dapplooker.com/dashboard/rocketpool-analytics-decentralized-ethereum-staking-protocol-365

We have experience building similar analytics dashboards for other blockchain Dapps and have partnerships with TheGraph, Moonbeam, Connext, Celo, Near Ecosystems, etc.

Here are some dashboards:

Near Metapool Staking Dashboards
https://DappLooker.com/dashboard/near-metapool-staking-dashboard-125

Casper Validator Dashboard
https://DappLooker.com/dashboard/casper-validator-dashboard-27

Silo protocol Dashboard
https://DappLooker.com/dashboard/silo-protocol-dashboard-283

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

The analytics dashboard for Rocket Pool will be public. These dashboards will give users a detailed view of the Rocketpool network, including its key metrics and data insights. The dashboards will be accessible at https://rocketpool.dapplooker.com.

Here is a sample link for the Analytics dashboards we built for NFTs: https://nft.dapplooker.com/
Similarly, It will be a stop shop for the Rocketpool community for Analytics. It will also be available on the Discover page of DappLooker. Additionally, users can fork and build custom dashboards and perform community analytics.

The Discover page’s search engine lets users search for charts, dashboards, and creators directly. E.g., if the user searches for Rocketpool, the page will show all relevant dashboards and charts matching the Rocketpool keyword.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

The dashboards built by DappLooker would provide stakers with valuable information on the health and performance of the Rocketpool network.
This information can be used to make informed decisions about staking their ETH and earning rETH, a liquid staking token that can be used for other purposes while still earning staking rewards.
The staking pool dashboard would show the total staking capacity and the historical performance of the staking pool in terms of ROI. This information can help stakers decide whether to participate in the staking pool.
Additionally, the node performance dashboard would show the uptime, performance, and profitability of each node, allowing stakers to select a reliable node to delegate their ETH.

How does this help rETH holders?

Collateral-specific mini pool dashboard assists rETH holders in making informed decisions.
The dashboard provides insights into the profitability of running a mini pool at different collateral levels.
ROI can be compared to determine the optimal collateral level for maximizing returns.
he dashboard tracks consensus rewards, execution rewards, and RP rewards earned by the mini pool.
rETH holders can monitor the performance of their investment through the dashboard.
The Network Overview dashboard would show the market capitalization, number of token holders, and correlations with other tokens, allowing rETH holders to decide when to buy, sell, or hold their tokens.
This information can help rETH holders decide whether to continue holding their tokens or to cash out.

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

The Collateral-specific Minipool Dashboards would show the ROI of running a mini pool with 50% and 150% collateral on the Rocketpool network.
The Network Overview dashboard built by DappLooker would provide node operators with valuable information on the performance of their nodes.
The dashboard would show the performance and profitability of each node, allowing node operators to optimize their nodes for better returns.

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

The Network Overview dashboard built by DappLooker would provide node operators with ongoing insights into the performance of their nodes.
The dashboard would show the performance, and profitability of each node, allowing node operators to optimize their nodes for better returns.
The block validation and propagation time metrics can be used to optimize node performance, while the node reputation metric can be used to maintain a good reputation in the network.
The Network Overview dashboard would show the total staking capacity of the staking pool, allowing node operators to estimate the competition for staking rewards.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

The dashboards built by DappLooker would provide valuable information on the health and performance of the Rocketpool network.
Integrate Rocketpool data for community analytics
- Data analysts can build and share custom analytics
- Users can build a custom dashboard
- They can fork, edit and customize
- This is not possible in existing tools
Also, an insight into user retention will help understand whether users are increasing or not and, if so why
This information can help the community make informed decisions on improving the network and ensuring its security and reliability.

How does this help RPL holders?

The dashboards built by DappLooker would provide RPL holders with valuable information on the performance of the Rocketpool network.
The Network Overview dashboard would show the total rewards earned by the staking pool, allowing RPL holders to estimate the returns on their investments.
The Network Overview dashboard would show the market capitalization and correlations with other tokens, allowing RPL holders to decide when to buy, sell, or hold their tokens.
When RPL holders know about the transactions of RPL and have transparency about the usage,It will help make the protocol decentralized in its true sense

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals would stand to benefit from this grant?

Our analytics and visualization platform could benefit from several other protocols, DAOs, projects, and individuals in the Ethereum ecosystem. Some examples include:

DeFi protocols - Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols such as Sushiswap, Compound, Aave, and Synthetix could benefit from DappLooker’s analytics and visualization tools to monitor liquidity, user behavior, token prices, and other key metrics.
DAOs - Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) such as Dai, ConstitutionDAO, and Apecoin could use DappLooker’s tools to monitor member participation, voting behavior, and other governance-related metrics.
NFT marketplaces - Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces such as OpenSea, Rarible, and Nifty Gateway could use DappLooker’s tools to monitor sales volume, user behavior, and other key metrics.
Individual traders and investors - Individual traders and investors in the Ethereum ecosystem could use DappLooker’s tools to monitor market trends, token prices, and other key metrics to make more informed investment decisions.

Overall, DappLooker’s analytics and visualization platform could benefit a wide range of stakeholders in the Ethereum ecosystem, helping them better understand and monitor the health and performance of various protocols, projects, and initiatives.

Will the resulting project be open source?

Yes, it will be open source. Once the five proposed dashboards are developed and created, they will be accessible on the website https://rocketpool.dapplooker.com. This website will serve as a central hub for the Rocketpool community to monitor and analyze the performance of the entire ecosystem.

The resulting project could be easily accessed on the DappLooker website on the Discover page. Users can search for the various dashboards here https://dappLooker.com/browse/dashboards?sort=popular.

Team

Who is doing the work?

DappLooker’s team of 12+ members includes experienced blockchain developers and data analysts who would be doing the work.

Name of team leader

Abhay Singh
Abhinav Singh

Names of team members

Vikas C. - Head of Engineering
Arif K. - Growth Lead

Our team has 35+ years of combined experience. Believes in iterative development and fast execution.

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

DappLooker’s team has extensive experience building analytics tools for blockchain Dapps and has partnerships with TheGraph, Moonbeam, Connext, Celo, Near Ecosystems, etc.

Real-time Web3 Explorer & Visualizer https://graphlooker.com/

Please find below the multi-chain analytics, which is live:

Optimism dashboards for Aave and Connext are already live.
Graph Network Analytics
Aave DeFi & User Retention Analytics
Celo Network Analytics
Aave V3 User Retention Dashboard https://DappLooker.com/dashboard/aave-v3-polygon-user-retention-dashboard-23

Listed below is our partner collaboration work:
Graph Network Analytics
Aave DeFi & User Retention Analytics
Celo Network Analytics

Multiple ecosystem funds and grant programs back us:

Secured ecosystem grant from TheGraph foundation
(https://twitter.com/MoonbeamNetwork/status/1442877904724144137 1)
Received 2 grants from Celo Foundation 2
Secured grant from Aave Grants DAO, Connext Network,
Received grant from NEAR Foundation

What is the breakdown of the proposed work in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Milestone 0 is already achieved. There is only one milestone left. We will complete the 1st milestone in 1st month and from the approval date.

Milestone 0:
Build the Rocketpool Analytics Dashboard - This dashboard provides a snapshot into the performance and growth of the Rocketpool network. This gives an insight into metrics like Staked ETH, Total Minipools, Total stakers, monthly eth staking volume, and staked Eth growth
We have already built this dashboard, and it is live at RocketPool Analytics - Decentralized Ethereum Staking Protocol | Dashboard | DappLooker.

Milestone 1 :

Indexing and Maintenance of Rocketpool Data

Make relevant upgrades to index and maintain Rocketpool contracts and subgraph data.

Index Rocketpool smart contracts and subgraph data on the Ethereum network. Populate entities like nodes, stakers, pools, and transactions on the Postgres database in an easy queryable format. Once data is indexed, Rocketpool users can also do community analytics.

Integrate graph & chart libraries to build the below dashboards.
Implement Collateral-specific Minipool Dashboard
Implement User Retention Dashboard
Implement Network Health Dashboard

Dashboards

Collateral-specific Minipool Dashboards - The dashboard could offer insights into the profitability of running a mini pool at different collateral levels, thus helping users make informed decisions. The following metrics could be included:

ROI: In this case, the ROI would reflect the returns earned by running a mini pool on the Rocketpool network.
Minimum Collateral Pool ROI: This metric would show the ROI of running a mini pool with the minimum required collateral on the Rocketpool network.
50% Collateral Pool ROI: This metric would show the ROI of running a mini pool with 50% collateral on the Rocketpool network.
150% Collateral Pool ROI: This metric would show the ROI of running a mini pool with 150% collateral on the Rocketpool network.
Consensus Rewards: This metric would show the number of consensus rewards earned by the mini pool over time.
Execution Rewards: This metric would show the number of execution rewards earned by the mini pool over time.
RP Rewards: This metric would show the amount of RP rewards earned by the mini pool over time.
RPL Appreciation/Depreciation: This metric would show the percentage change in the value of RPL over time.

2… User Retention Dashboard - This would include metrics such as user acquisition, retention, and engagement. This would give Rocket Pool insights into how users interact with the platform and how they can improve the user experience.

It will cover important metrics such as

Total users
Total repeat users
Churn rate
Retention rate
Track user retention activity on a month by monthly basis.
Track user notifications retention activity on a monthly basis

Rocketpool Network Overview Dashboard - This will be a detailed overview regarding the burn rate, the node operator insights, and staking pool analytics

It will cover important metrics such as

Token burn rate: This metric shows the rate at which rETH tokens are being burned or destroyed.
Node earnings: This metric shows the total earnings of each node, including commissions and RPL rewards
Node capacity utilization: This metric shows how much of a node’s staking capacity is being used.
Staking pool rewards: This metric shows the total rewards earned by the staking pool.
Staking pool performance: This metric shows the historical performance of the staking pool in terms of ROI.
Staking pool fees: This metric shows the fees charged by the staking pool for participating in the network.

After completing the development and creation of the five dashboards, they will be available on the website https://rocketpool.dapplooker.com. This website will act as a central location for the Rocketpool community to track and evaluate the overall performance of the ecosystem. We will also make the dashboards live on https://rocketpool.dapplooker.com

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

The work will be tested by DappLooker’s testing framework, which includes integration tests and end-to-end tests.
Also, we will verify the data from relevant sources like rocketscan.io.
Testing is included in the schedule.
As and when a dashboard is completed, it will be checked and verified by our data analyst team.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

The work will be maintained after delivery by DappLooker’s team, which will provide ongoing support and updates.
We will constantly take feedback from the Rocketpool community through Discord, Forum, and Telegram.
We will also do Co-marketing, under which there will be tweets, blogs, and Twitter spaces.
As and when there are any feedback or request, we will make the necessary updates to the relevant dashboards

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

The acceptance criteria would be as follows:

Deliver agreed-upon dashboards with correct metrics
Provide Rocket Pool users with data insights on protocol across various metrics
Maintain dashboard and regularly update it based on feedback
Ensure the dashboards are functional and user-friendly
Meet agreed-upon milestones and deadlines
Payment made upon milestone completion
Acceptance criteria based on successful delivery and maintenance of the dashboards

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

The proposed payment schedule and amount of RPL requested are as follows:
The payment will be upon milestone completion
The payment schedule will be over 1 month from the approval
Milestone1 one will be completed in Month 1 = 158RPL
158 RPL = 8000USDT

(1 RPL=50.83USDT)

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

The GMC will verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence through the link https://rocketpool.dapplooker.com/ and it will also be available on the Discover page of DappLooker.
The link https://rocketpool.dapplooker.com will become a central hub for the Rocketpool community to analyze and monitor the ecosystem’s performance after completing the five proposed dashboards. By having all of this information in one place, users can make more informed decisions based on current trends.
The Discover page’s search engine lets users search for charts, dashboards, and creators directly. E.g., if the user searches for Rocketpool, the page will show all relevant dashboards and charts matching the Rocketpool keyword.
Also, regarding sources of truth, we will provide screenshots and Loom recordings in this forum. Since the product is live and free, the community can also check the interface independently on our website.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

NA

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

We do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No, the recipient of the grant and DappLooker’s other partnerships will not benefit financially if the grant is successful.

drdoofus · 14 April 2023 20:45

Grants Application

Project

Rocket Pool University - Website for Rocket Pool related classes/tutorials

What is the work being proposed?

Development of a framework for hosting Rocket Pool oriented classes/tutorials along the lines of the now-defunct Ethereum Studymaster course. Courses can be created by anyone (but as of this application must be uploaded by either myself or potentially a select list of co-developers). A user (i.e., a connected wallet), reads through the lessons for a course and takes a quiz after designated lessons within that course. The user has limited chances to pass each quiz. Passing all quizzes for a course is required to pass the course and obtain the POAP or potentially other digital certification.

This grant application covers:

Frontend, written in NextJS 13 with TypeScript and TailwindCSS
Wallet sign-in via rainbowkit and wagmi
Laravel Database for user course and quiz information storage
A basic “Introduction to Rocket Pool” course
POAP Delivery mechanism for course completion (might be manual at first)

Is there any related work this builds off of?

Other than being inspired by Ethereum Studymaster, this is will be built from the ground up.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Probably/Possibly MIT, but unsure. If it affects funding, then I’ll license it however GMC prefers.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH/rETH holders/people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time/people already running a Rocket Pool node/RPL holders?

The included “Basics of Rocket Pool” course and potential for future classes on this topic:

Adds a new strategy for disseminating introductory Rocket Pool information that appeals to many of the types of people in the crypto community, including future/current stakers and investors, via self-learning, quizzes and POAPs.
Creates a unique vector for marketing Rocket Pool, potentially increasing interest.
Offers a location for sharing Rocket Pool tutorials, training (potential support training certification), introductory protocol information, etc., to increase staking and protocol comprehension.

The Ethereum Studymaster course was a proven success as many in this ecosystem enjoy the format of learning via study/quiz taking/certification feedback.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

The Rocket Pool community has an impressive amount of out-reach (to those outside the community) and in-reach (to those deeply involved). This project can serve both of those groups well by allowing others to contribute tutorials and courses of their own or learning from existing content.

However, a main strength of this project is aimed at the often neglected reach-around. That is, engaging the large amount of people familiar with Rocket Pool, but not necessarily fully engaged. Rocket Pool University will not only prompt those users to learn more via classes and POAP collection, but also will make distributing and contributing knowledge easier and more fluid.

Furthermore, as one of the community members who has not typically done contract work or written bots etc., I would find a project like this inspiring. It encourages the regular member of Rocket Pool by showing there are various ways to be involved, i.e., shit-posters can contribute, too.

Somewhere down the line, this could even be an approach for such things as RP support training.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

Introduction to Rocket Pool protocol in an easy to digest manor. External entities could add content explaining how to use their apps within a Rocket Pool context.

Will the resulting project be open source?

Likely, yes.

Team

Who is doing the work?

Dr Doofus

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

I’ve done a lot of website creation work, including databases. I’ve also written a lot of tutorial type and instructional material for physics and math courses over my years in the field.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

The breakdown is in two main parts with goal for completion noted. Work has already begun and a proof of concept is available for GMC to view if desired.

The base website framework (Est time to complete: 250 hr) - Est completed by June 1, 2023
The “Basics of Rocket Pool” course (Est time to complete: 70 hr ) - Est completed by June 1, 2023

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

Initial Testing - Dr Doofus
Beta Testing - Will select a few community/GMC members

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

I will maintain the website after creation. I will enable select other community members to access the site in the event I can not continue in the future.

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

A fully functional website with at least one full course - Basics of Rocket Pool - with at least seven lessons, each of which has an associated quiz. Mechanism to deliver a certificate (likely in the form of a POAP) upon course completion. Profile page for a wallet showing what courses the user has passed.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

Task: Website Framework
Request: $11,250 (250 RPL @$45)
Comment: Although this is a large amount of work, I also understand that it is not a critical feature for the protocol, thus rate is not what I would normally ask.

Task: Basics of Rocket Pool course
Request: $1575 (35 RPL @ $45)
Comment: The course will consist of roughly seven lessons with subsections and seven quizzes of roughly ten questions each.

Total: $12,825 (285 RPL @ $45)

For the first year, maintenance is built into the cost above. I suspect I will continue to maintain for free in subsequent years, but if it ends up being wildly successful, I might request another grant for yearly maintenance.

All payment sent on GMC verification of completed tasks listed above to drdoofus.eth. Estimated to be complete in June, 2023.

How will the GMC verify that the work?

A number of GMC members will need to take the course and verify it works as intended.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

It is purely a work of labor, so reducing the cost is at the discretion of the GMC.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

None

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No

ramana · 15 April 2023 06:56

Grants Application

Project: RocketSafetyRPC

What is the work being proposed?

A tool to use your node as your RPC for submitting transactions that first simulates all the state changes that would result from the transaction before releasing it.

In other words, you can check what the transaction is going to do before submitting it. (If possible before signing it, but this might be harder to implement cleanly in a wallet-agnostic way.)

We will also add as much UI support as we can for interpreting state changes in a human friendly manner, so you can understand the results of the transaction simulation. This will be open ended extensible work.

Finally we may also be able to add the option to use flashbots private transactions, and maybe even flashbots bundles of multiple private transactions to avoid the mempool for sensitive transactions that need to e.g. avoid frontrunning.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

This is a similar idea to Fire RPC, but will be an independent implementation with a different design (no browser extensions).

Tenderly already does transaction simulation. Maybe they have an API we should use. But probably a fresh implementation makes sense. Also I dunno how easy it is to interpret their simulation results.

The rocket pool guides already say how to use your node as RPC. This would substantially improve the advantage of doing so.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Open source FTW. All GPL (or AGPL if appropriate). (Another advantage over fire btw.)

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

If they use it when staking they can check they are interacting with the official rocket pool contracts and not being phished or scammed.

How does this help rETH holders?

When they use their rETH in defi for example, the same benefits as above - avoid scam transactions.

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

N/A, except it’s an added pull to want to run your own node, to get the protection

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

They get to use their node RPC with this tool to protect themselves from scam transactions.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

Similar to other answers, plus marketing opportunity perhaps. It’s not exactly rocket pool specific in the implementation details, but can highlight the quality of our community.

How does this help RPL holders?

Similar to the rest.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

Yes, anyone who uses ethereum stands to benefit, especially if they have access to their own node RPC already. (technically this may not be necessary)

Will the resulting project be open source?

Fully

Team

Who is doing the work?

Ramana

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

I made tools like rocketarb before, and the hodlem game. This would be kinda in the same space of coding.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Just do it. Millstone one: Initial version intercepts transactions and displays state changes before release. Milestones 2-infinity: improve UX.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

No.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

I’ll probably maintain it, and anyone can contribute to the git repo via merge/pull requests.

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

It works as RPC protection for non time critical transactions and shows human friendly transaction simulation for at least the transactions you would interact with rocketpool smart contracts with.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

Time period is up to GMC - I am flexible.

I request 150 RPL for milestone 1, 50 RPL for milestone 2, and 100 RPL for all the flashbots stuff. (Not everything need be funded if the GMC prefers to fund only part of the work.)

I am very open to negotiation and discussion on the pricing of this work.

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

It’ll all be in a public git repository.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

None. I mentioned the alternatives I know about earlier.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

No

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

No, except ethereum

ShfRyn · 15 April 2023 14:09

Grants Application

Project

POAP designs and distributions for the community

What is the work being proposed?

POAP distribution for major smartnode updates and special community events.

Design POAP for required node updates. Every time there is a high priority smart node update, create thread incentivizing members to update, then distribute POAPs to anyone who updated within 24 hours. I did this for 1.9.0 but would do it for every required update this period. This POAP would be unique in design but the same template would be used for each update.
Design and distribute 6+ POAPs for special community events this period. I do this randomly now depending on my schedule but making this consistent should drive community engagement. These would use my standard orange border design unless otherwise was requested.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

These are things I have done in the past.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Yes, CC-BY 2.0

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

N/A

How does this help rETH holders?

N/A

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

N/A

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

Incentivizes them to update their nodes.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

Stronger security with more nodes updates. Stronger community engagement with POAP drops.

How does this help RPL holders?

More POAPs to look forward to for special events.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

N/A

Will the resulting project be open source?

N/A

Team

Who is doing the work?

ShfRyn

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

I have done it in the past for both free and commissioned projects.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

A thread would be created after every required smartnode upgrade this period.

The 6+ special events would be planned to be spaced out, 2 events each mo. would be the goal. This will incorporate both surprise events and events crafted by me or the community in order to achieve this. I.E. a new member joining the oDao might be a surprise event, while a whale appreciation day might be a crafted event.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

N/A

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

I will provide the template for the updating node poap as a PSD if requested.

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

POAP designed and distributed for required smartnode updates

6+ POAPs designed and distributed for special events

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

$500 / mo for 3 months

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

They can view the distributions on the POAP app.

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

I project costs of:

$500 for design and distribution of the Node Update POAPS

$1000 for the six+ special events

The distribution can be very time consuming, I’ve had special events where I have had to DM 200+ people individually to distribute one POAP.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

I am a member of the GMC.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

N/A

peterkrulis · 15 April 2023 18:24

Project

What is the work being proposed?

The StableCore team is seeking a grant from the Rocketpool community to support our efforts in developing an Ethereum-native stablecoin that offers staked ETH rewards and is backed solely by rETH. Our stablecoin is pegged to the market price ratio of rETH/Eth, with the price of the accruing value token rETH being divided by the price of the underlying ETH.

Our protocol is purely decentralized, trustless, and permissionless, providing staking rewards incentives for stablecoin holders and promoting the decentralization of blockchain validation.

Ethereum native yield bearing stablecoin → staking rewards incentives for stablecoin holders → decentralization of validation of blockchain.

Github Repo with Pitch :

Github Repo with smart contracts:

Our stablecoin is backed solely by rETH, and our smart contract holds a liquid staking derivative of the Rocketpool Protocol, which is rETH.

Our protocol enables users to mint NFTD using: 1.other stablecoins as USDT,USDC,DAI

2.cash/bank cards.

3.Virtual Land NFT purchases

Each user who mints stablecoins is entitled to staking rewards from staked ETH, which are proportionate to the amount of rNFTD minted.

To facilitate this, our protocol’s smart contract holds a liquid staking derivative of the Rocketpool Protocol, called rETH. rETh is then held in smart contract for redemption purpose only.

Only stablecoin holder can redeem rETH by burning stablecoin.

Our smart contract holding rRTH streams staking rewards to the stablecoin holder/minter.

Peg :

We believe pegging stablecoin to 1 USD is quite difficult to maintain and not natural within the crypto ecosystem shall the protocol be decentralized and permissionless. Holders of stablecoin however expect some tangible peg to be able to predict the price of the stable asset in the foreseen future.

We have taken inspiration from the Rai Reflex Index by Reflexer Finance in designing our peg mechanism, using market forces and arbitrage incentives behind rEth and Eth to ensure the stability of the peg , but unlike RAI we intend to set the target price to the ratio of market prices of rETH/Eth.

Our smart contract holding rETH streams staking rewards to stablecoin holders/minters, and only stablecoin holders can redeem rETH by burning their stablecoin.

We welcome any member of the Rocketpool community who wishes to participate in designing the stablecoin redemption and peg mechanism. For more information, please contact us on Discord at peterkrulis#0269.

Is there any related work this builds off of?

It is built on the top of RocketPool protocol only. Reflexer finance as inspiration.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source ( MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts will not be, why, and under what license will they be published?

Yes.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

How does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH?

Increased market share and staking rewards for validators and rEth holders…

How does this help rETH holders?

This should be decided by the RocketPool community , various possible benefits to rETH holders :

directing part of the fees from new stablecoin holders to rETH holders in order to increase staking rewards

How does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time?

No direct benefit.

How does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node?

Increased RPL staking rewards as well as increased price of RPL.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

Buying RPL token on the open market along with holding Eth that is bought during the minting process could help to spin up more validators according to pre – set rules.

If more demand on rETH side than on node supply, more RPL can be bought and used as incentive to spin out for new LEB8 minipools.And vice versa.

It can be always determined by the protocol the ration between Eth and RPL to buy via Uniswap while minting the stablecoin.

Various possible scenarios can be built in order to benefit the community.

It may enable users to interact with rETH more efficiently when staking ETH via minting the stablecoin and receiving rETH, compared to buying rETH on the open market.

Furthermore, it has the potential to stabilize the price of rETH in relation to ETH by creating additional arbitrage opportunities.

How does this help RPL holders?

Again, decision from the community would be welcome, however buying the RPL token using part of the staking fees thus increasing RPL price.

Part of the staking rewards from rETH backing the stablecoin could be used to buy RPL token and either adding it as extra layer of backing of the stablecoin or staking it thus removing RPL out of the supply resulting in price increase and distributing RPL staking rewards to community.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?

Uniswap, Balancer.

Will the resulting project be open source?

It already is open source and always will be in alignment with Ethereum and Rocket Pool ethics.

Team

Who is doing the work?

StableCore Team : Peter Krulis, Georgi Karagyozov , Petar Todorov

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-krulis-4921751a2/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgi-karagyozov-1a33041b0

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petargtodorov/

What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?

All three members of StableCore team have experience as developers, both Georgi and Petar working for companies within blockchain and crypto space, Peter focuses more on managing the project and on cryptoeconomics and tokenomics.

What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?

Designing the product in cooperation with RocketPool team and community.

Testing the peg and redemption mechanism.

Developing smart contracts.

Testing smart contracts.

Auditing smart contracts.

How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?

Minting of the stablecoin is being tested on the Goerli testnet. Testing and auditing of smart contracts essential.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

StableCore team would continue developing, improving and maintaining the stablecoin protocol.

Payment and Verification

What is the acceptance criteria?

Stablecoin minting process functional .

Rewards streamed to stablecoin holders, rEth holders and node validators.

Peg mechanism developed and tested.

What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?

$12000 / month for period of 3 months . Total of $36000 in RPL. Payments fortnight based on GMC verification of completion of the given tasks.

How will the GMC verify that the work’s deliveries match the proposed cadence?

Fully on chain. Public github repo .

What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?

Active approach from the RocketPool team and the community.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).

None.

Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?

None.

ShfRyn · 16 April 2023 11:15

This message marks the closing of the second round of RP grants. Any applications submitted after this will not be considered for this round, but those individuals who are still interested in applying are encouraged to check back on the forums for our second round, likely starting July 1. The GMC will announce the award recipients in a new thread here on the forums on or before April 31 (likely on, not before). The community will then have two weeks to issue any challenges before funds are disbursed. Thank you to all who applied and thank you to everyone who has followed along. Anyone who would like to comment on existing applications is encouraged to do so in this thread.