Round 5 - GMC Call for Grant Applications - Deadline is October 7

This thread is for applications for Rocket Pool’s September 10, 2023 - October 7, 2023 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 (link) 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, 2023 at 23:59 (11:59 PM) UTC will be considered. Any grants posted after that deadline will be carried over to the next grant period.

This is the second application period that will use the new revised process outlined in RPIP-26. This is the expected schedule:

  • Application Period (September 10th - October 7th)
  • Application Discussion Meetings - one for each subcommittee (October 9th - October 13th)
  • Negotiation Period (October 14th - October 22nd)
  • Scoring Deadline (October 26th)
  • Award Announcement (October 27th)

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, feel free to remove or add sections based on relevance.

## Name of 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 USD $ and over what period of time is the applicant requesting?


### 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?

## 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?```

Name of Project

What is the work being proposed?

We have built, docIT a private Discord bot (allowing users to “talk to your docs”) that supports multiple document sites, with evolving LLMs. This bot will interconnect Rocket Pool’s key Github repositories, documentation, related articles, and forum posts

Is there any related work this builds off of?

This leverages current DOCit implementation, a back-end service purpose built to serve multiple chat systems.

Will the results of this project be entirely open source?

yes, GPL

Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate

This solution will enhance Developer Relations, Customer Support, and Community Support experiences within Rocket Pool’s ecosystem, starting point being Discord.

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

real-time documentation reference in chat, judgement free dialogue.

How does this help rETH holders?

real-time documentation reference in chat, judgement free dialogue.

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

real-time documentation reference in chat, judgement free dialogue.

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

real-time documentation reference in chat, judgement free dialogue :smile:.

How does this help the Rocket Pool community?

Common or esoteric questions both have high likelyhood of being answered with referenceable documentation to support all claims. This helps reduce load on RP maintainers and support team.

How does this help RPL holders?

This assumes the bot helps lower barrier of entry, which should bring more stability and usage the chain, helping raise value.

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

DOCit is designed to help multiple chains. This funding will help keep development moving forward to keep DOCit available for more chains in the future.

Will the resulting project be open source?

yes

Team

Who is doing the work?

Nigel Alford.

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

Nigel Alford is a technologist and entrepreneur focused on decentralized solutions. In his previous venture, Nigel created a Cartesi NFT marketplace for Book authors. Nigel has been involved with various technical projects from blockchains to digital maps. He is dedicated to reducing technical friction to start development and moving faster into projects.

Github: mrnigelalford (Nigel Alford) · GitHub

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelalford

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

Project Plan (4 week delivery)

Pre-Implementation: Collaborate with the DevRel, Customer Support, and Community Support teams to comprehend their needs, identify pain points, and decide where the bot can be most beneficial. These insights will direct the selection of data sources for implementation.

Milestone 1 - Implementation of Data Sources [2 weeks]: Post the discovery phase, we will incorporate 3-4 high-value data sources into the bot. We will crawl data and create OpenAI emeddings in our db to index and setup search on queries. This milestone will involve refining file loading, index creation, and data source integration.

End state: Have 3-4 data sources that can be queried.

Expected bugs: hallucinations, mismatches on query/documents.

Milestone 2 - Testing and Optimization + Deploy to Production [2 weeks]: This critical phase will concentrate on eliminating hallucinations and refining prompt engineering to ensure only pertinent answers are given, with source material and links for users to follow up on. The aim is to make the bot production-ready.

End state: A production-ready bot approved by the Customer / Community Support teams, ready for deployment on the Rocket Pool’s Discord and Telegram.

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

answered above. Yes, testing will happen at every milestone with expected outcomes.

How will the work be maintained after delivery?

Back-end code will be maintained and upgraded as we roll-out LLM updates.

Payment and Verification

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?

Total Ask: $8000 usd

Milestone 1: $4000 usd

Milestone 2: $4000 usd

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

End states listed above serve as verification proofs for testing.

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

This proposal is the lowest cost, we could pair down the OpenAI usage but that could affect language output.

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.