Grants Application
Project
Rocket Pool University
Website for a Rocket Pool related catalog of courses with quizzes and NFT (POAP) certification.
Focus on EE (Education and Engagement) with both the Rocket Pool community and the broader crypto community.
What is the work being proposed?
Development of a framework for hosting Rocket Pool oriented courses along the lines of the now-defunct Ethereum Studymaster. 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)
Last application, I gave out a rough draft of this website. I can provide again if it helps the decision making process.
Is there any related work this builds off of?
Other than being inspired by Ethereum Studymaster, this is being 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.
- Offers a location for sharing Rocket Pool information, 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?
First, what RPU is NOT:
- It is not an attempt to replace/replicate the excellent official docs. In fact, the included first course references the docs and guides the student to using them.
- It is not a tutorial for setting up Nodes/Staking ETH, etc. Although things like that could be included.
Rocket Pool University prompts users to learn more about various aspects of Rocket Pool via classes and POAP collection, but also will make distributing and contributing knowledge easier and more fluid. This is about Education, Engagement, and Outreach.
In my opinion, one area we need covered most is in positive educational outreach to the rest of cryptoland. This is one step on that path. This effort can also serve to encourage other attempts at education and outreach, as well as, allowing others to contribute to this effort with their own tutorials and courses.
The included initial course, Basics of Rocket Pool, is not meant to replace the official documentation, it is a high level overview of the documentation; an easily digestible cliff notes version written from the ground up to give a different perspective on what parts are needed for novices to garner a quick but encompassing vision of the protocol. NOT, a quick understanding of how to set up a node or monitor progress. In many cases, it references the docs and via the quizzes teaches students how to reference them.
It is important to offer several variants of education on the protocol, since people learn by many different methods. Furthermore, much of the language used in large scale projects, like RP, tends to repeat obscure phrases and buzzwords that are confusing to newcomers and, all too often, much of the existing community. Different wordings and summaries can open up minds to concepts previously not fully grasped.
We correctly have focused a lot on internal contract and monitoring work. Outreach to the community by a community driven protocol is also essential. Jasper and Ken doing twitter spaces, Jasper’s extensive twitter presence, and Waq with Rocket Fuel are shining examples of this outreach. More variants on outreach are critical, however. RPU provides another marketing touch point of a different type to reach more people.
This framework is easily expandable as new courses can be added anytime. Somewhere down the line, this could even be an approach for such things as RP support training and I am already working on an outline for a “Competitors of Rocket Pool” course to give overviews of what the LST landscape looks like at the moment and a “Rocket Pool Resources” to show people how to find the information they need among the vast numbers of links, websites and bots our community has created.
What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?
The Basics of Rocket Pool course benefits anyone else who wants to understand how RP functions. Others, beyond RP, could potentially be allowed to 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 Sept 1, 2023
- The “Basics of Rocket Pool” course (Est time to complete: 70 hr ) - Est completed bySept 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: $9000 (250 RPL @$36)
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: $0 (0 RPL @ $36) *included*
Comment: The course will consist of roughly seven lessons
with subsections and seven quizzes of roughly ten questions each.
Total: $9000 (250 RPL @ $36)
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 September, 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. My pricing, although already discounted for this amount of work, does not take into account the value that the GMC assess the project to have. I am open to alterations.
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