Budgetary items are individually approved in dedicated proposals, and a complete overview of the DAO’s needs is an important tool to keep track of the inventory requirements and smooth operations of the DAO. This document is the result of extensive consultation with prominent community members and is brought forward to the community to serve as a suggested framework for the upcoming strategic goals and the budget they entail.
The below budget is not voted on or forms a commitment for the DAO, it’s merely intended to serve as a tool to project forward the DAO’s needs and costs. This budget follows, and replaces, the planned budget shared with the community in the past:
The budget is divided into 4 main categories:
Operations, Grants, Core Development, and Growth.
(Previously approved budget)
During 2022, the DAO passed a few proposals for engaging with various community leaders assuming various positions.
Currently (January 2023), there are 4 active working groups within the DAO: Grants, Multi-sig, VOC, and dGC. Their associated costs are as follows.
These operations and costs shall, if relevant proposals are passed, consolidate under a proposed entity - the Foundation.
The Foundation shall be structured as a legal entity empowered by the DAO, representing it and embodying it to the extent permitted and decided. It is meant to carry out various functions (e.g., organizing community calls, offline events, and much more, as shall be decided by the DAO). See the elaborated reference to the Foundation below.
dGC | Multi-sig | Verified Operators | Grants
SSV Foundation
(Pending approval)
The foundation is a critical component of a well-organized and efficient DAO. It’s a legal entity nominated by the DAO to represent and embody the DAO to the extent permitted and decided in various matters, from contracts, hiring, bank accounts, etc.
The foundation is a tool that helps take the DAO and its operations to the next level, as done in many other projects in the past years.
A dedicated, elaborated, and specific proposal with relevant details should be published and voted on.
To that end, a foundation should be set up with the required positions and roles to be assumed: Directors and any other role required by the relevant jurisdiction, finance and legal functions, and probably a team to run the daily operations.
The expected costs of setting up the foundation and bare minimum operational costs are:
(Previously approved budget)
In May 2022 the DAO passed the grants program proposal, allocating $3M for grants and $3M for bounties.
The Core Dev category is a new type of activity the proposed Foundation (and thus, the DAO) should assume in 2023.
Core Dev activity refers to the necessary and crucial protocol development costs for advancing the protocol and the entire SSV project
The DAO should strive for full financial independence, thus enabling ever-growing decentralization and a successful community-led project.
An independent DAO, as the SSV DAO is, should be able to finance (and carry out) its own decisions in full.
At the heart of the above is the development of the protocol, a cornerstone in attracting TVL and dominating the DVT landscape.
Blox has been bearing a substantial part of the costs for some time, and as part of this budget, the DAO shall grant Blox compensation for part of the development services it performs, thus allowing the community to keep its continuous control over the project and oversight over any contributing member, including the Core Dev, and doing so independently and through the dGC committee.
For clarity, the Core Dev shall perform the following services for the DAO in the fields of Development and Product:
Areas of Focus
Two main phases in 2023
- Mainnet launch
- Launch of V3 testnet, including:
- Node implementation:
- P2P Networking
- Spec alignment
- All beacon duty support
- 4,7,10,13 cluster sizes
- New V3 contracts
- Registration and removal of validators and operators.
- Fees and payments mechanism, including liquidations.
- Gas optimization.
- Security optimization.
- V3 web-app design and functionality
- V3 explorer support
- V3 documentation
- Node implementation:
- Audits
- SSV Implementation
- SSV Spec
- Contracts
- Other required mainnet preparations
- Launch of V3 testnet, including:
- Post Mainnet
- Advanced DKG
- Message struct refactor
- Multi remote signer support
- Scale research and spec
- Multi blockchain support research
- Advanced consensus research
- Miscellaneous node & spec maintenance and development
KPIs
The development and product teams shall measure their success by the following parameters:
- Stable and robust SSV spec (test coverage for spec functionality and a functioning second client implementation)
- Stable node implementation (benchmarked against testnet/mainnet beaconchains), easy to setup and maintain
- Smooth mainnet launch
- Support for partners building on SSV
- Great developer experience for anyone starting and building on SSV
Suggested Grant for the Core Dev for these Services
It is estimated that these development efforts shall require about 12 developers (specializing in GoLang, Full Stack, Solidity, and QA), 2 Product Managers, and one designer.
It will further require Cloud services for hosting testing and production environments, DevOps services, and audits of the smart contracts by a reliable third party.
This is far from being a comprehensive list of expected costs, but the Core Dev is willing to keep bearing a substantial part of the costs itself for the benefit of the project and the community, as done by other members of the SSV community.
For all the said services, the requested grant is US $ 2.5M.
Second SSV Client Implementation
As part of the commitment to decentralization, the SSV Core Dev team has worked on a dedicated SSV spec that will enable more SSV client implementations to emerge to further improve the robustness of the network and provide protection in the unlikely case of a major issue with any one client.
As we approach mainnet and the SSV spec is fairly stable, it’s time to discuss the introduction of another development team that will lead a second SSV node implementation.
The above will have a dedicated proposal with all the relevant details. As part of the budget, it’s important to estimate associated costs with a second implementation which will be a multi-year effort.
This separate development team implementing an SSV client aligned and compatible with the SSV spec should cost approximately US $1-1.5M.
Under the growth category are all budget items that are dynamic and aim to grow certain areas in the ecosystem.
Market Making
Market Making services provide liquidity and depth for a token and is required for a healthy token availability and use and thus is a cornerstone for a successful project focused on token utility.
Market Making providers do so in return for a fee or a token inventory and a call option on it. The table below refers to both options.
The identity of the Service Provider, its ability to meet the legal and compliance requirements, the exact scope of services, and the cost, shall all be considered, voted on, and decided by the DAO (or anyone designated by it) when the time comes and proposals pour in from relevant providers. However, this service should be factored in at this time, so the planning is as complete as possible.
Summary
Cost
Foundation | Market-Maker