In the process of writing this OIP we have been reflecting on Tethys (Τηθύς), goddess of the sources of fresh water, and the mother of the rivers, springs, streams, fountains, and clouds.
Summary
Seek authority from the community to launch an Olympus Grants Program (OGP) - governed by a program committee of known DAO contributors involved in the establishment of this proposal. As a part of the proposal, the program committee seeks authority from the community for a separate budget of $1.5 million - a sum which corresponds to equivalent programs run by Uniswap and Compound and is commensurate for a minimum viable product (MVP) relative to the Market Cap/Treasury of Olympus.
The purpose of the OGP is to bootstrap Olympus’ wider ecosystem within a clearly defined framework. All OGP grants will be directed to projects & contributors that directly advance the Olympus Ecosystem in ways which synchronize with emergent priorities of the DAO. Most major protocols have a grants program to provide a clearly defined and publicised mechanism to establish new products, projects and integrations beneficial to their protocols and their token holders.
Funding would also be available for external teams to execute a project or integration that is impractical or undesirable for Olympus DAO contributors to undertake. Examples include accessibility initiatives, developer documentation, decentralized frontends, third-party integrations and cross-chain expansion.
OGP would initially have the following remit:
1. Education - projects that educate about Olympus
2. Infrastructure - projects that improve/expand infrastructure of Olympus
3. Utility - projects that increase utility of OHM
The committee suggests utilisation of DAO reserved OHM for the OGP. If an enticing enough proposal is presented the community can vote on utilizing additional assets.
Unused funds from the OGP v0.1 would either be rolled over into the next iteration of OGP or returned to the DAO pending a future vote.
Motivation
Formalising a grants program has many additional benefits:
Establishes another mechanism for leveraging the existing expertise and experience of the DAO community by helping decentralize the identification of priorities, projects and opportunities important to the wider community, for the benefit of OHM.
Attracts talented developers who seek out clearly defined opportunities to contribute to emerging projects
Decreases the barrier to entry for teams who do not want to join the DAO but do want to contribute to Olympus.
Proposal
Approve Olympus Grants Program pilot with a budget of $1.5 million from DAO reserved OHM for a trial period of 3.3 months.
The committee suggests utilisation of DAO reserved OHM for the OGP fund is of most benefit to the DAO as the idle unstaked OHM are getting diluted by > $10M per day (assuming steady market price). If an enticing enough proposal is presented the community can vote on utilizing additional assets.
The program will be overseen by a committee of 7 DAO contributors known in the community from different departments within the DAO are:
Apollo (Olympus Initiator)
Appleseed (Engineering)
Brian (Sherpa, Community & Content)
Church (Product & Marketing for Odyssey)
DropKickDarren (Community & Content)
Json (Operations, Partnerships & Treasury)
WollemiPine (Partnerships, Community & Content, Engineering)
All decisions will be voted on by committee with minimum of 4 of 7 votes for a grant to proceed. Voting will be made public and available to the wider DAO. The process and assessment criteria will be transparent and published as part of establishing this MVP.
OGP will launch with the following initial priorities:
1. Education - projects that educate people about Olympus
Examples: Playgrounds, Hackathons, Infographic Contests, Ecosystem Maps, Developer Documentation, Accessibility Initiatives, Enhancement of Olympus brand, market perception
2. Infrastructure - projects that improve infrastructure of Olympus
Examples: Bug bounty, Decentralized Frontends, Cross-chain expansion
3. Utility - projects that increase utility of OHM
Examples: Onboarding Initiatives, Staker directed voting, third-party integrations, one-click purchase and staking within mobile wallets
The program will provide the following support in addition to grant funds:
Distribution
- Exposure and coverage in our social media and discord servers
DAO Assistance, which would need to be agreed on by a majority of Strategos
- Advice and assistance when required from highly skilled Olympus DAO members - with expenses covered by Olympus DAO - including community building, content creation, marketing, front-end and backend assistance, advice and review.
With the initial priorities in mind, some effective measures for quick successes might look like:
Total number of projects funded
Quarterly increase in applications
Project engagement post-event/funding
Overall community engagement/sentiment
Wrap UP
Unused funds from the OGP v0.1 would be rolled over into the next iteration of OGP, with approval of the community, or returned to the DAO pending a future vote.
At the end of the funding runway, the OGP committee will provide a report concerning the program.
After receiving feedback from the community, the OGP committee will propose adjustments and parameters for an ongoing program and then proceed to a governance vote. During this process, the program committee and DAO will continue to be able to work with existing grantees - as long as it remains within the approved $1.5 million expenditure cap.
Polling Period
- After 72 hours of community consultation on the proposal it will proceed to a Snapshot vote at 06:00 UTC on 04/12/2021 until 06:00 UTC on 06/12/2021
Vote
Yes - approve Olympus Grants Program administered by the DAO
Yes - approve Olympus Grants Program, different budget
No - do not approve Olympus Grants Program at this time