Round 31 - GMC Call for Grant Applications - Deadline is December 7

This thread is for applications for Rocket Pool’s November 7, 2025 - December 7, 2025 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 December 7, 2025 at 23:59 (11:59 PM) UTC will be considered. Any grants posted after that deadline will be carried over to the next award period.

This is the expected schedule for round 31:

  • Application Period (November 7 - December 7)
  • Scoring Deadline (December 23)
  • Final Voting Amendments, Discussion and Finalization (December 24 - December 27)
  • Award Announcement (December 28)
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

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

  • 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

Grant Application Template

Please copy paste the template below into a reply. Answer the questions there, feel free to remove or add sections based on relevance.

## Name of Grant

### 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?



## Benefit

<please enter N/A where appropriate>

| Group | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Potential rETH holders | If the grant is successfully completed, how does this help people looking to stake ETH for rETH? |
| rETH holders | If the grant is successfully completed, how does this help rETH holders? |
| Potential NOs |  If the grant is successfully completed, how does this help people looking to run a Rocket Pool node for the first time? |
| NOs | If the grant is successfully completed, how does this help people already running a Rocket Pool node? |
| Community |  If the grant is successfully completed, how does this help the Rocket Pool community? |
| RPL holders |  If the grant is successfully completed, how does this help RPL holders? |

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



## Work

### 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?



## Costs

### What is the acceptance criteria?

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

### Who will directly receive the payment? (Required — the GMC can only send grants directly to a recipient address and cannot accept invoices.)

### How will the GMC verify that the work delivered matches the proposed cadence?

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

### Have you already been compensated by the RP protocol in any way for this work?



## 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?

IMPORTANT
Based on the current value of the treasury, the committee will be extremely selective with the applications they approve in the near future. The GMC recommends only submitting applications that are of highest priority or could be considered an “emergency”.

Internal Notes:

https://dao.rocketpool.net/t/round-26-june-7-july-7-grants-bounties-retrospective-awards-results/3711 Round 26 was funded at $200 / call, totaling $2400.

_

## What grant is being renewed?

GA032316. Renewal for RP Community Call Hosting - Host Ken Smith

### What work from the previous proposal was completed?

There has been a recent increase in call frequency. We have conducted 12 calls in the first 4 months of the grant period. In communications with the GMC, I was advised to submit early for the renewal grant. I conducted two calls in November and December, and we (Mav and I) have planned at least one more before the end of the calendar year. These are beyond the 12 allocated calls in this grant, which I will apply as episodes in the renewal allocation if granted. A series of calls is expected in January to focus on the Saturn 1 launch.

Here is a listing of the Community calls I have hosted since the grant’s last renewal.

  1. 2025-07-10 ft Langers YT

  2. 2025-07-29 ft Pendle x.com

  3. 2025-08-04 ft BTSC YT x.com

  4. 2025-08-14 ft Langers

  5. 2025-08-27 ft Nuconstruct Note: Mav offered Nuconstruct X, but they wanted to do this one on Discord so they could connect with the community better

  6. 2025-09-09 ft Rezerve (x.com)

  7. 2025-09-18 ft ETHStrategy (#chitchat)

  8. 2025-09-22 Langers (on x.com)

  9. 2025-09-25 Rocksolid (Chitchat YT)

  10. 2025-09-03 (ft Liquity) x.com

  11. 2025-10-16 (ft. Langers) x.com

  12. 2025-10-30 (ft. RockSolid + Langers) x.com

### What work from the previous proposal is ongoing or pending?

The proposed work is to continue hosting periodic Rocket Pool Community calls. The Community calls are routine calls that typically feature either members of the RP development team or a business or marketing partner, known as a “special guest.” The calls are usually 60 - 80 minutes in length and are intended to inform the community about significant news topics, with weigh-ins from the core Rocket Pool team.

### What work was not planned initially but completed, if any?

Since the last renewal application (granted in Round 26 July 2026), a total of 14 community calls have been hosted.

### What work is newly slated since the previous proposal?

This grant renewal request seeks authorization for an additional 12 calls (~5-month window) to support the ongoing hosting of the RP Community Calls.

### Are the results of this project entirely open source ([MIT]( The MIT License – Open Source Initiative ), [GPL]( The GNU General Public License v3.0 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation ), [Apache]( Apache License, Version 2.0 | Apache Software Foundations ), [CC BY]( Deed - Attribution 4.0 International - Creative Commons ) license or similar)? If not, which parts are not, and why not?

Recordings of the live Community calls are recorded and posted on the Rocket Pool YouTube channel or X account for asynchronous listening after the event.

## Benefits:

### What metrics can you share on the success of the project?

See the listing above for the number of views from the YouTube recordings. I do not have statistics on the number of attendees in the space or channel during the live call.

### In less specific terms, how has this project improved the Rocket Pool ecosystem or benefited the Ethereum ecosystem?

The Community Calls increase the RP NOs’ knowledge of team development milestones and the road map process. Furthermore, they inform rETH holders and DeFi integrations about the LST. It’s a weekly (and sometimes multiple times a week) live Twitter or Discord space that covers topics of interest to both rETH holders and NOs. The Community Calls keep holders informed about the protocol and ecosystem, enabling them to make informed decisions. Most guest protocols either incorporate or will incorporate Rocket Pool into their protocols or services. The Community Call remains a foundational communication platform for three key stakeholders. The development team, the RP Community (particularly the pDAO), and the DeFi Ecosystem that is incorporating Rocket Pool into its various protocols and services.

## Team:

### Who has done the work, and have there been any changes to the team?

I have primarily hosted the calls for the last 2 years. For qualifications, I have been a long-term RP community member, serving as a Rocket Scientist and continuing my third year as a Community Call host.

### How have the individual constituents of the team been compensated?

I have previously received GMC grant funding.

### How has maintenance been performed since the project was delivered?

Most community calls hosted in the chit-chat are re-uploaded on YouTube by [@maverick]( Profile - maverick - Rocket Pool Governance ) and are publicly accessible via the YouTube platform (https://www.youtube.com/@RocketPool/videos). All the X space calls are automatically recorded and available immediately after the call on the X platform.

## Payment and Verification:

### Have the acceptance criteria been met?

Yes.

### What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL is the applicant requesting, and over what period is it requesting? Does this differ from the original approved amount?

I am seeking the same remuneration. Payments can continue to be made routinely in the periodic (~monthly) reward cycles.

### Is there a measurable Return on Investment for the project?

n/a

### What is the breakdown of spending on development for the original grant vs. maintenance?

n/a

## Conflict of Interest:

### Do the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest that need to be disclosed? (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. I am a member of the GMC, and under the current RPIP-18, I will be required to recuse myself from deliberations on this application.

### 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?

Possibly. We routinely invite special guests from other DeFi and Ethereum-based protocols to the Community Calls. Mav or Grant usually selects them and is generally tied to the Rocket Pool ecosystem. Their DeFi protocol may benefit from being included on the call. I will disclose if I am an investor or hold any tokens of the guest protocols.

Notice: This message marks the closing of the thirty-first (31) round of Rocket Pool grant 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 December 28. 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.