Hi GMC and Rocket Poolers,
I’m posting as co-founder of RockSolid, a liquid vault platform that just launched our inaugural vault, the RockSolid rETH Vault in partnership with the Rocket Pool core team.
You can learn more about us here:
Name of Grant
RockSolid rETH Vault RPL Rewards, Rewards Claiming and BD
What is the work being proposed?
Grant
We are seeking a grant of 10,000 RPL in order to:
[Changed to USD on request from GMC] We are seeking a grant of $50,000 USD in order to:
- Develop an “additional rewards” feature for the rETH Vault to receive RPL and make it claimable by vault depositors
- Continue negotiating new incentives for rETH
- Continue pushing for extending rETH’s reach via deployment in new chains such as Plasma
NOTE WELL: Instead of selling the RPL/BOLD/rETH to fund the development, we will instead send all of it to the vault as “additional rewards” claimable as RPL by vault holders. If, for operational reasons, GMC can only send in BOLD or similar, that’s fine, we’ll just buy (
) RPL on the open market with it.
Some examples of the benefits to-date:
- 1650 rETH in the vault
- Approximately 3,000 of rETH deposited into Spark, generating new demand for rETH in the process and helping to close the discount.
- rETH integrated into Hemi bridge
- Incentives negotiated with new chains (not all able to be closed to lack of bridge integrations)
- New narrative and energy for rETH
Is there any related work this builds off of?
Yes, the core RockSolid Vaults platform built over the past 12 months. (We chose to request this grant instead of a retroactive one)
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 smart contracts for RockSolid Vaults are open source, but licensed under BSL lagoon-v0/LICENSE at main · hopperlabsxyz/lagoon-v0 · GitHub
The vault platform (web app, API, etc.) is closed source for the forseeable future.
Note, however, the RPL will be used to improve the vault returns for vault depositors (development costs will be paid out of our own balance sheet)
Benefit
Why this helps rETH
One of the guiding principles of our personal and company support of rETH is that rETH is good for stake distribution and therefore good for Ethereum. And for rETH to reach its potential, it needs to compete in terms of DeFi utility, liquidity and APR; in addition to the great advantages it has today in terms of decentralization.
By pooling rETH in the vault, we are able to:
- Deploy it efficiently to a variety of DeFi opportunities to earn rewards for deposiors (another reason to buy and hold rETH)
- Negotiate NEW incentives on behalf of rETH depositors (rock.rETH holders)
The higher the effective APR AND the more additional rewards we can provide, the more rETH we can attract, which leads to even more opportunities. In short, it creates a fly wheel.
Why this helps RPL
Protocol tokens are at some level, a way for the market to express their excitement or otherwise about a protocol. We think RockSolid is an excting development for Rocket Pool and it is in the direct interest of the protocol and RPL holdrs for the GMC to fund its development.
Saturn offers very exciting opportunities for RPL stakers, especially in terms of the proposed fee flow or “buy/LP & burn”. However, those upcoming features are not widely known outside the Rocket Pool ecosystem.
By distributing RPL (via a new claim feature) to protocol aligned actors (i.e. rETH vault depositors), we get the opportunity to get a new cohort of holders excited about RPL and Rocket Pool. We believe act of claiming RPL to a wallet and the active decision required to sell or hodl, will lead many to research and find out about the upcoming Saturn launch. In fact, this would be happening around the same time as the Core Team is exercising the marketing grant (link)
| Group | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Potential rETH holders | Post staking for rETH, rETH holders have additional opportunities to earn rewards in DeFi. Specifically, they will get the opportunity to earn RPL rewards if this grant succeeds. |
| rETH holders | Another reason to buy and hold rETH |
| Potential NOs | The RockSolid rETH vault is already applying significant buy pressure to rETH via looping and supply to Spark. We currently have approximately 2,900 rETH in Spark |
| NOs | NOs want more rETH minting to run more nodes |
| Community | It’s new project, initiative and exciting development |
| RPL holders | A new cohort of holders to explore RocketPool. |
Which other non-RPL protocols, DAOs, projects, or individuals, would stand to benefit from this grant?
RockSolid directly benefits, as the RPL improves the appeal of the vault via additional rewards. We hope that attracts more rETH (which is good for Rocket Pool) and also good for us as we earn fees on the vault.
Work
Who is doing the work?
Our team
What is the background of the person(s) doing the work? What experience do they have with such projects in the past?
The GMC and community should review the existing platform https://app.rocksolid.network to get a sense of our capabilities and quality of work.
What is the breakdown of the proposed work, in terms of milestones and/or deadlines?
October
- On receipt of RPL, enable the “Additional rewards” section of the UI to communicate to vault holders they are eligible for RPL rewards
- Evaluate distribution mechanisms (very likely to utilize https://merkl.xyz/)
- Select distribution mechanism
November
- Integrate “Claim” functionality (UI on top of merkl) for depositors to claim RPL rewards
We expect RPL rewards to be claimable by vault holders by end of November.
How is the work being tested? Is testing included in the schedule?
- We have test vaults on Hoodi and Base and will test distribution, accounting and claiming there.
How will the work be maintained after delivery?
- By RockSolid team
Costs
Costs to be borne by us.
10,000 RPL requested for the vault to be distributed to depositors.
What is the acceptance criteria?
Use case 1) That a user can view their accrued amount of RPL proportional to their share of the vault
Use case 2) That a user can claim their accrued amount of RPL.
What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much USD $ and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?
All up front on approval is preferred. Spreading over October and November is also possible.
Having the RPL sitting in the Vault’s wallet will be a good signal to depositors that rewards are coming, while the distribution mechanism is built.
How will the GMC verify that the work delivered matches the proposed cadence?
We can provide private links to the functionality in a test vault, on request.
What alternatives or options have been considered in order to save costs for the proposed project?
We are bearing the costs. In terms of grant size, you want enough tokens that each holder is claiming “multiple” RPL, so they’re more likely to actually investigate and potentially hold the token long term.
If you end up offering very small rewards, e.g. 0.1-2 RPL or something per holder, it doesn’t really move the needle in terms of rewards to generating interest in this new protocol of which you’re now a token holder.
Have you already been compensated by the RP protocol in any way for this work?
- Indireclty through fees on the vault
- We do expect to receive a modest IMC grant
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).
Only that we’re a private company and we believe we’re operating in a very protocol aligned manner.
Not a member of any committee.
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?
Yes, the more successful the vault, and the more successful Rocket Pool is, the more valuable our company, especially at this early stage.
More about RockSolid
https://rocketpool.net (new section on front page)
You can deposit right from the Rocket Pool front end here Rocket Pool - Decentralised Ethereum Liquid Staking Protocol