DAO Contributor contract extension: Developer Evangelist & Integration Specialist & Tokenomics researcher

Proposals Hiring
1

DAO Contributor contract extension: Developer Evangelist & Integration Specialist & Tokenomics researcher

Intention

My intention is to continue as a DAO contributor to assist as a developer evangelist & integration specialist & tokenomics reasearcher with the goal of expanding the network’s developer ecosystem and removing existing and potential implementation blockers and helping to move the tokenomics discussion forward.

Overview

This proposal aims to extend my commitment & contribution to the SSV DAO and builds upon my original proposal which will expire in a couple of days. My background information can be seen in the original one, in this proposal I will summarize my work for the DAO so far and propose further cooperation.

Summary of my contribution

Here is a summary of my work I have been conducting for the DAO thus far. For more details I have posted my work reports in the original proposal.

  • Grantees

    • Grants Ecosystem update
      I have mapped out all the developer-relevant resources and updates in this document. You can check the grantees’ progress there.
    • ssv system architecture questions
    • Application process
      I am offering feedback and suggestions to grantee applicants on their applications, to point out if their solution is not technically feasible or problematic, help them adjust it and succeed in the grant process. This includes clearing out technical challenges and what solutions they may use to overcome them and making sure the applications are clear and adhere to all the requirements specified by the Grants committee.
    • Product feedback
      If the team does not have yet fully formed and differentiated product, I am helping them with ideating through this stage, make it fit a niche within the SSV ecosystem and overall ETH staking one.
    • Ongoing Grantee support
      Making sure to help grantees overcome blockers they may have, connect them to potential partners and help them in the process.
    • Milestone submission
      Checking milestones, offering feedback and working out issues that arise.

  • Grant process

    • Working with the Grant committee on streamlining and standardizing the whole grants process, lowering overhead & management complexity, to be able to onboard more grantees and keep the team lean.
    • This includes making sure we have good templates for grant application, milestone submission among others.

  • Tokenomics

  • Expanding & improving documentation

    • I have focused on implementing feedback gathered at ETHBogota and working with the core team on improving the documentation. We are trying to find the best way, how to not make it overwhelming while providing all the necessary changes.
    • The focus was on getting feedback from developers and the wider community, based on which I have updated documentation and created the Awesome-ssv repository linked below.
    • The next phase will be to make all documentation correspond to v3 contracts and architecture changes it brings.

  • Developers

    • Developer Ecosystem update
      I have mapped out all the developer-relevant resources and updates in.
    • Awesome SSV repository
      This repository is a go to resource for developers and I am continuously improving & expanding it. It provides developers with 2 main things.
      • Overview of other useful repositories they can help them build their ssv solutions, such as staking pools, staking services, notification services, operator services and other tools.
      • Minimalistic LSD with working frontend, backend & smart contracts.
    • Updates
      • Frontend folder
        This folder includes out of the box working frontend obviously, but also a new instance of smart contracts, deployment scripts and allows for deployment and testing of SSV based LSD pools
      • Awesome ssv walkthrough tutorial
        This video tutorial goes more in depth, shows the deployment and explains various moving parts of an LSD pool.
      • Repo documentation overhaul
        The documentation of README.md has been revamped to be easier to understand and restructured to help the new devs get a good grip on all relevant repos to help them start building.
        RUN_THIS_REPO.md building has been split and the backend tutorial has been moved to RUN_BACKEND.md. Also, new FE_README.md was added to walk devs through the deployment of Frontend & Backend based on the widely used Scaffold-eth framework.

  • Talks / articles / conferences

  • ETHGlobal + Devcon

    • This was the culmination of my early work for the DAO so far. Here I leveraged my in-depth protocol knowledge, was able to gather invaluable feedback, work with people building on us and struck up future partnerships. You can check out my tweeting from the events, here a tweet with a team building on us that won a prize both from the DAO and ETHGlobal! where I was tweeting about the experience, the teams, and other interesting things happening there.

  • ETH Denver

    • SSV DAO has sponsored ETHDenver and I have been the only one there from the DAO. Within these almost two weeks, we have been helping the hackers and manning SSV booth. I have represented SSV DAO at this event, established relationships with new hackers, new & old partners and was spreading the SSV gospel to the wider crypto community. You will be able to read more on this in an ETHDenver report coming out soon. I have prepared and given a talk on LSDs, which I plan to write an article about later.

  • DVT landscape part 1

    • This article has been a long time in the works and mapping DVT landscape.

      It is a comprehensive overview of various aspects of SSV protocol and how it differs with competition.

      It explores it’s Architecture, Networking, Software Stack, Consensus, Client software, Key management, Risks, Edge cases, Tokenomics and other topics.

Plan of action for the next 6 months

Main - Getting ready for mainnet launch

SSV network is dependent on our partners in order to be successful. Thus we need to make sure we help our grantees & partners in all possible ways to succeed. That obviously means making sure their SSV integration is sound from the design perspective, all edge cases are covered and the integration is sound.

For those teams that are still considering the best go to market strategy and target audience I am also exploring ideas on how to differentiate their product, what features to include and how to have the most sensible SSV integration given their products and goals.

This is an area where my skill set and experience with creating products comes very handy. I have been involved with creating products both before I became in crypto and after, have a deep understanding of both the marketing of the equation - how to position & differentiate the product and also the technical side - what is possible to implement and how to do so. Here I am leveraging my experience working on liquid staking solutions in the past as well as my knowledge of the SSV protocol and Etherum staking in general.

SSV V3(mainnet candidate) documentation

All of our documentation at docs.ssv.network as well as awesome-ssv and other resources will need to be updated to reflect the new revamped smart contract architecture. Will be working with Jon and Ariel form Blox team on making sure the changes are clear not a blocker for the grantees and partnering teams who are preparing to launch

SSV V3(mainnet candidate) integration

We need to make sure that all the teams (20+) implementing ssv.network as their backend as well as those building additional tooling and infrastructure can do so without any major problems and hiccups.

This is a crucial thing which cannot be overstated, since for our launch to be successful, we need our partners to have everything ready to go at the launch.

Developer resources

Ecosystem developer tooling is one of the most important things for any open source project. We have seen first hand how hard it is to replicate the success of Ethereum. One of the key ingredients of this success is undeniably due to its developer tooling & resources.

Based on the feedback we got at ETHDenver, the next push would be to expand documentation of the awesome-ssv repo and harden the repository, making it bug free and easier to use. Also the whole repo needs to be updated to work with v3 contracts to serve as a reference for all the teams and partners implementing these changes.

Tokenomics

There has been a long and fruitful discussion on tokenomics within the dao tokenomics working group, in which I have been pushing towards reconsidering some of our default mechanisms from the first principles. The summary of which is well encapsulated by fod in his writeup The State of our Tokenomics and a Request for your Thoughts.

To move the discussion forward I have created an SSV network tokenomics analysis and what are its actual effects that I have created in the process. Approaching mainnet there is a need for a framework for setting DAO controlled parameters that I have put together.

The push for the upcoming months would be to review, feedback, expand the framework so that we have inputs for the mainnet launch.

Then the next steps will be expand the conversation, by inviting more people into the discussion, doing more in depth analysis of potential changes to the tokenomics such as allowing other ETH as a payment token and exploring new mechanisms that can help us bootstrap higher TVL within the SSV protocol after the mainnet launch.

Reporting

I will provide reporting of my activities that I perform in accordance with my goal & responsibilities & DAO needs. Reporting shall be done publicly to the DAO.

There will be areas of activities I intend to focus on the upcoming month along with activities I have worked on past month. These can change based on the DAOs needs.

Travel Plan (Thus far)

  • Jun 9-11 – ETHPrague conference & hackathon
  • Jul 17-20 – EthCC (Paris)

Grant & Commitment proposal

Contribution Grant

All payments will be denominated 100% in SSV based on a trailing average for the previous six months, calculated on the 1st day of each month. This long term average ensures long term allignment with the DAO. 7 day trailing average would be used only in case of market crash to ensure I can still cover my monthly expenses.

Transfers shall be divided monthly and executed at the beginning of each calendar month for services rendered in the previous one.

  • For my time and efforts and to cover tax & healthcare & workspace expenses, I’m asking a yearly rate of $156,000 USD.
  • The rate does not include travel expenses to the conferences & events where I will go to represent the DAO. These will be reimbursed based on actual costs incurred in the following month.

This would amount to a monthly payment of $13,000 (156,000/12) paid in SSV under the conditions specified above.

Termination

This relationship will last for 6 month. If the proposal is approved, it will start on 19th March 2023 (the next day after current proposal expires) and will cease at any time following a decision of the DAO. After every 6 months if no action is taken by either the DAO or the Contributor, the relationship will be automatically renewed for another 6 months under the same conditions as specified in this proposal.

My Commitment

This is a full time commitment. During the term of my engagement with the DAO and while receiving grants from it, I shall not work for any business, protocol, or DAO which is reasonably likely to interfere or compete with SSV.Network. This does not include activities that are not commercial such as collaborating with the Ethereum Foundation.

Clarifications

This engagement is not an employment agreement, and it does not create an employment relationship. Accordingly, I shall not be entitled to any benefits (pension, health insurance/medical coverage, etc.) associated with an employment relationship.

I warrant that my skills in the context mentioned in this proposal shall be put to the service of the DAO and the ssv.network and not to any of its members to whom I have no direct relationship or obligation.

I do not have the power to commit on behalf of the DAO and I shall not present myself as having such power.

Operations consideration

All compensation in SSV should be made through the DAO multi-sig, which I am not and shall not be a key-holder of. If at any time either the DAO or anyone appointed by the DAO decides, by way of a vote, my services are no longer needed, I shall cease any action related to this engagement on the seventh (7) day following such decision. Grants shall be awarded until the said 7th day. The seven (7) days shall be dedicated to the transfer to a designated DAO contributor.

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Marko has made many great contributions across several areas of SSV thus far, and you can see from his long list of responsibilities and tasks that he has been working hard. I think he is a valuable member of the team, and I support the extension of his contract.