Round 17 - GMC Call for Bounty Applications - Deadline is October 7

Grants / Bounties
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This thread is for applications for Rocket Pool’s September 7, 2024 - October 7, 2024 bounties. Please only post bounty 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 October 7, 2024 at 23:59 (11:59 PM) UTC will be considered. Any bounties posted after that deadline will be carried over to the next award period.

This is the expected schedule for round 17:

  • Application Period (September 7 - October 7)

  • Scoring Deadline (October 22)

  • Final Voting Amendments, Discussion and Finalization (October 23 - October 26)

  • Award Announcement (October 29)

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.

Bounties Rubric

When evaluating grant applications, the GMC takes into account the following goals:

  • If the bounty is completed successfully, to what extent does it further the GMC goals?

  • To what extent is it likely that the bounty can be feasibly claimed/completed successfully?

  • If the bounty is successfully completed, how large is the benefit to the protocol relative to the size of the proposed costs?

Bounty Proposal Template

Guidelines

  • The goals of the Bounty Proposal are:

  • to communicate your bounty idea clearly, in general terms, such that the GMC can decide if it’s worth pursuing.

  • to estimate the benefits and costs attached to your proposal.

  • to disclose any relevant conflicts of interest.

  • Answers to the template questions do not need to be highly detailed. Estimates or ranges are acceptable. Brief answers are also fine.

Template


# Bounty Name

## General Information

### What is the nature of the proposed bounty?

### Why are you writing this bounty proposal?

## Benefit

<please enter N/A where appropriate>

| Group | Benefits |

|---|---|

| Potential rETH holders | If the bounty is successfully completed, how does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH? |

| rETH holders | If the bounty is successfully completed, how does this help rETH holders? |

| Potential NOs | If the bounty is successfully completed, how does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time? |

| NOs | If the bounty is successfully completed, how does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node? |

| Community | If the bounty is successfully completed, how does this help the Rocket Pool community? |

| RPL holders | If the bounty is successfully completed, how does this help RPL holders? |

### Which other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals would stand to benefit from the bounty being successfully completed?

## Work

### What steps would be entailed in completing the bounty? Do successful examples of such work exist elsewhere? What skillsets or knowledge will be required?

### What advice would you give a bounty hunter working on this bounty?

### Should the output of this bounty be available under an open source license?

## Costs

### How much do you think the completion of this bounty worth to Rocket Pool (in USD)?

### How much work will be needed to verify this bounty has been completed? What skillsets or knowledge will be required?

## Structure

### How would you structure this bounty, and why?

* A single payout to single team on completion?

* Divided into milestones?

* Multiple payouts to multiple teams?

* Should this be written up as multiple bounty definitions?

* Something else?

### Is this bounty repeatable?

### Are there any reasonable circumstances under which this bounty should be withdrawn? Should it expire?

## Conflicts of Interest

### Does the person or persons proposing the bounty 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 successful completion of the bounty).

### Will the applicant, or any protocol or project in which the applicant has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the bounty is successfully completed?

Bounty Definition Template

Guidelines

  • When a single proposal bounty proposal has parts that must be completed by different groups, it should become multiple definitions.

  • Where reasonably possible, bountiy definitions should limit the number of distinct skillsets required for completion of the bounty.

  • Bounties should be defined in terms of the smallest worthwhile unit of work. IE: $25 to add/update a single relevant FAQ question rather than $5,000 to update the FAQ.

  • Include any information or resources that might reasonably help a bounty hunter complete the bounty.

  • Think carefully about which tasks are required, and which can be optional.

  • Clearly list any dependencies, if the bounty cannot be completed in all circumstances.

  • Only include multiple milestones for large bounties with natural points of division.

Template


# Bounty Name

## Data

* Repeatable?

* Expiring?

* Skillsets for completion? (See existing bounties and reuse where possible, new skillsets are recommended if sufficiently distinct)

* Relevant tags? (See existing bounties and reuse where possible, new tags are recommended if sufficiently distinct)

* Min reward (USD)?

* Max reward (USD)?

* Any linked definitions? (e.g. if a single bounty proposal becomes multiple definitions.)

* Any dependencies?

## Summary

Short 1-3 sentences describing the bounty.

## Dependencies

Is there anything that must happen (outside of a bounty hunter's control) before it is possible to complete this bounty? This may be other bounties that must be completed first, an upcoming event or change or a regular occurance that triggers a valid bounty. This section is optional. May be later removed from the definition if the dependency becomes permanently met.

## Required Milestones

What _must_ be completed for a bounty hunter to claim some amount of bounty. Described per milestone.

### Milestone A - <Name of Milestone>

**Payout: ** <payout amount>

Clear bulleted list or subheadings covering the items that must be completed and/or adhered to for this milestone to be valid.

### Milestone B - <Name of Milestone>

**Payout: ** <payout amount>

Clear bulleted list or subheadings covering the items that must be completed and/or adhered to for this milestone to be valid.

### Milestone C - <Name of Milestone>...

## Optional Milestones

What tasks _may_ be completed for a bounty hunter to earn extra bounty rewards. Described per milestone. This section is optional.

Optional milestones may be less strictly defined than required milestones. You may aggregate multiple minor considerations that would contribute to a payout.

### Milestone D - <Name of Milestone>

**Maximum Payout: ** <maximum payout amount>

Clear bulleted list of the items that would contribute to payout for this milestone.

### Milestone E - <Name of Milestone>...

## Further Notes

Anything you think that would be beneficial for a bounty hunter to know when working on this bounty. Maybe be divided into subsections as needed.

## Resources

Links to repositories, web pages, forum discussions, etc. Anything that the bounty hunter may be able to use to do a better job on the bounty work.

## Contacts

Individuals that have agreed to act as contacts for this bounty. Include usernames + contact details for any platform on which the contact is willing to respond to requests. Any contacts are expected to fully understand the bounty definition. This section is optional.

Contacts:

* MAY be eligible for incentives.

* SHOULD NOT assist the bounty hunter directly with the bounty work.

* SHOULD assist bounty hunters via feedback, direction and oversight upon request.

## Verification

Who is expected to verify that the work delivered meets the relevant milestones? This person or group must have agreed to do this in advance of this definition being published. This person or group should have any relevant skillsets needed to properly verify the bounty work.
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Name of Bounty

rETH Growth Incubator

What is the nature of the proposed bounty?

The upcoming launch of NodeSet along with future upgrades through Saturn 1 and Saturn 2 will address the node operator demand issue that has been limiting Rocket Pool’s scalability. With the impending ‘unlocking’ of rETH supply, the DAO’s priority should now shift toward strategizing ways to scale rETH demand to optimize Rocket Pool’s growth and efficiency.

The original ‘Rapid Research Incubator’ campaign, initiated by Epineph, was highly successful, leading to a tokenomics overhaul that laid the foundation for Rocket Pool’s next evolution—Saturn.

This new bounty seeks to replicate that success by generating actionable ideas for the GMC to rapidly increase rETH demand.

This effort is part of the broader initiative called Operation rETH. Following the review of the submissions, the GMC will approve several tasks, which will then be converted into bounties. A board will be created to track the progress of these tasks.

The Discord channel can be found here (Discord)

Must the results of this project be entirely open source:

Yes. The contents of submissions will be used by the Rocket Pool community and the team.

Work and Verification

What steps would be entailed in completing the bounty? Do successful examples of such work exist elsewhere?

This bounty requests community members submit a brief/abstract with specific/actionable recommendations of mechanisms to increase rETH demand.

Suggested length of 0.5-3 pages on any topic above, including specifically which topic or topics it is intended to answer. The brief should include both perceived benefits and suspected drawbacks/downsides, further research/data/decisions needed, specific actionable recommendations, and general implementation ideas. The brief does NOT have to be polished, complete data analysis, or specific code; it will NOT be judged on English proficiency, grammar, etc.

The brief should be a single work you can link to, rather than referring to a series of posts/threads. A single individual can submit multiple works. It can be posted as a single discord post, a forum post, a GitHub submission, an uploaded document, and any other form that can be easily viewed.

How long is the proposed bounty available for? Is it awarded to the first team to successfully claim it, or is it in some way divided among all such successful claims in the proposed availability period?

The submission period will be 21 days.

Who will test any products submitted for claiming the bounty?

An evaluation committee comprising a minimum of 3 members (preferably 5) will be appointed to assess the merit of each submission. The committee selection process will involve a combination of volunteers expressing their interest publicly and the GMC administrator reaching out for volunteers. The committee creation process is expected to last one week but can conclude at any time after the selection of 5 members. Members of the evaluation committee are ineligible for rewards from this specific bounty.

Each submission will be assessed on a scale of 1 to 5 in three categories: utility, innovativeness, and simplicity. The individual ratings in these categories will be summed to determine the overall score.

Utility
The practical value, applicability, and potential for driving rETH growth are essential in assessing a submission’s competitiveness against Lido’s staking options. Submissions should offer specific, actionable strategies to increase rETH demand, while demonstrating practicality and a strong potential for future success. High-impact proposals aligned with Rocket Pool’s technical infrastructure and DAO governance (pDAO) will be particularly valuable in promoting long-term growth.

Innovativeness
A submission is considered innovative if it introduces original and creative ideas aimed at driving rETH adoption. The evaluation will focus on how the submission presents new approaches to scaling rETH demand, breaking away from conventional methods and offering fresh perspectives, solutions, or strategies that could significantly differentiate Rocket Pool in the staking market.

Simplicity
The clarity of the concept, ease of communication, and feasibility of implementation are critical in evaluating submissions. Proposals that are easy to understand and execute, with minimal disruption to existing systems, will be prioritized. Simplicity ensures that research ideas can be swiftly implemented to deliver utility and help scale rETH demand efficiently. They will be graded on factors such as:

  • Conversion to actionable items.
  • Conversion to GMC bounty(s).
  • Effective communication to the DAO for voting (if needed).
  • Clear communication to the GMC or RP team for implementation.
  • Successful implementation by the GMC or RP team.

What is the acceptance criteria for awarding of the bounty?

Every serious submission will be considered.

Highly prized qualities will be: specific actionable recommendations, high impact, innovation/uniqueness of ideas, persuasive discussion, feasibility from both technical and political (pDAO) standpoints, format that can be easily converted into a GMC bounty.

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

Group Benefits
Potential rETH holders This research will help improve rETH supply so that more rETH can be owned (non-full deposit pool) for cheaper (less premium) and better APR (less drag)
rETH holders Keeping the deposit pool from filling up will help increase rETH’s yield.
Potential NOs RPL valuation is based in large part on capture of market share; this bounty aims to improve the ability of the market to correctly value RPL, as well as the ability for the protocol to grow.
NOs See potential NOs and RPL holders
Community This is intended to distribute bounties widely to get multiple viewpoints, particularly from those who may otherwise not be as active.
RPL holders RPL valuation is based in large part on capture of market share; this bounty aims to improve the ability of the market to correctly value RPL, as well as the ability for the protocol to grow.

What other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from the bounty being successfully completed?

DeFi protocols listing RPL.DAOs and treasuries that want exposure to staked ETH.

Will the results of the completed bounty be open source?

Yes

Payment

How much USD $ is the applicant requesting for successful completion of the bounty?

Each submission will be assessed on a scale of 1 to 5 in three categories: utility, innovativeness, and simplicity. The individual ratings in these categories will be summed to determine the overall score.

Submissions with the highest cumulative scores will be awarded as follows:

  • Tier 1 (1st place - 2nd place) - $2,000 each
  • Tier 2 (3rd place - 5th place) - $1,000 each
  • Tier 3 (6th place - 20th place) - $250 each
  • Ineligible - The submission lacked clarity or detail

In the event of a tie, ranked choice voting will be used from data collected in the ‘Favorite Applications’ section. A maximum 10k USD will be dispersed based on these criteria. The default payout token will be RPL.

Conflict of Interest

Does the person or persons proposing the bounty 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 successful completion of the bounty).

I am the GMC administrator. I recommend not restricting GMC members from submitting ideas.

Will the applicant, or any protocol or project in which the applicant has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the bounty is successfully completed?

No, Rocket Pool will be the only protocol to benefit. No one making award decisions will be the recipient of an award. I will not be a recipient of an award.

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Notice: This message marks the closing of the seventeenth (17) round of Rocket Pool bounty applications. Any applications submitted after this will not be considered for this round. The GMC will announce the award recipients in a new thread here on the forums around October 27th. 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.