Shad, awesome post and I’m glad you have put so much work into it, and into getting SSV forward. My response will only hit a few points that stuck out to me in my first read through.
I’m glad the testnet seemingly went well and if setting the future for SSV and DVTs. But the structure of the testnet, as discussed in the testnet proposals, is what I attribute to low DAO participation. My perception from the testnet and the discord is that all you have to do to earn SSV is vote on proposals to earn more SSV, with extremely minimal participation. I get that the SSV development is tied to the price of the token going up based on interest, but that only gets people interested in a quick buck, pretty much equating the SSV token to one of those pump and dump shitcoins you mentioned in the post. At the same time, those actively participating in the network, primarily the operators, are sacrificing time, power, data and bandwidth and can’t compete with SSV whales, but are interested in the success of the network and the future of Ethereum staking. Those operators barely get a voice despite the greater amount of work put in compared to hodling the SSV token or getting lucky with deposit bot timing. Change up how the DAO votes, give everyone one vote or operators a multiplier, and I think engagement will go up and operators will no longer feel like an unvalued part of the network. Same goes for the secret society, it isn’t just hodlers you want, but those actively participating in the network, either as operators, validators, DAO participation, or discord engagement.
For funding, yes, Anchor is juicy, but it is not the Ethereum network, the APRs are fleeting, and UST is sketchy. Allocating some of the funds to the stETH derivatives like icETH should be fine, as is built upon a core protocol of the network.
In regards to community outreach, sure, I’ve seen the posts on Twitter and in the SSV reddit; they are quality, but lack outreach and usefulness and this engagement. But the majority Eth staking conversations are happening in the EthStaker and Ethfinance reddits, and that’s where the engagement on those platforms needs to be. If SSV really wants to be The DVT of choice, of Eth staking, it needs to be engaged there, to establish itself as the front runner and become so familiar with those in the community that it can be as easily mentioned as prysm, Geth, gnosis, etc. Better communication there, a better DAO and testnet structure, will go along way; why not engage EthStaker in promoting the next testnet, or get Dappnode to pin the SSV dapp to the top of the dapp install page, efforts like that. I really don’t see how a costly influencer is going to be useful in promoting what wants to be a core protocol without being a pump and dump.
I’m not sure if I missed it in the post, but is there a roadmap, like hey testnet 2 will come in late Q2, with testnet 3 in Q4, here’s the goals of those testnets and what’s being tested and what level of participation is needed and who we want to get involved, with the eventual goal of going live on say the merged gnosis chain first (potential partnership there) and live on mainnet in mid 2023? I think the community is lacking a path and data; by engaging in the discord on how things are going, like hey the SSV team saw this issue on the network with these combinations of operators and how we’re solving it, or how folks can get involved, would help too; a lot of the testnet just seemed about when rounds began and ended and rewards, and nothing on how it was actually going.
I’m sure there’s more, I’ll give it a reread and hopefully others will engage. Again, thank you for the work.
Further ideas on my second reread: For outreach and hackathons, why not a Gitcoin grant and bounties? There’s huge engagement in the funding rounds, plus matching, and it provides a very well known platform to get seen and get engagement, especially if you get one of the champions of Eth staking like Swagtimus, Superphiz, Daily Gwei etc to put it in their collection. Has SSV got any of the grants from the Ethereum Foundation?
As for hype to get folk engaged in SSV, consider the Gnosis staking model they’ve recently rolled out. They rolled out the same staking as the Eth network with the goal of making it more accessible, so all folks needed to stake was the Gnosis staking client, Nethermind, and 1 GNO. Since December 2021, they’ve launched and had 750k GNO staked, and a lot of that has come through various grants, whether 10 GNO distributed straight from the GNO foundation or 4 GNO through buying a certain Dappnode to stake. People have to maintain their gnosis staking operators in order to continue to gain the interest on the staked GNO, and withdrawals will be enabled around the same time as mainnet staking. SSV could get huge interest, I think, with a similar model, either parterning with Gnosis on the gnosis chain as a future testnet, or having folks actually have to stake SSV or a derivative testnet token(as opposed to the current definition of SSV staking aka hodling) and accrue interest and not be able to withdraw, and be penalized if they aren’t maintaining their operator. There could even be a grant application for folks to apply for and say get 10 SSV validators, instead of using GoETH and the rush to get into the deposit bot. I think lowering the barrier to staking but having people actually have to participate to obtain their gains could lead to big hype. Partnerships with other developers like Dappnode or Stakehouse or the like could also get those communities interested, especially if paired with making solo staking easier in the future.
As for outreach, I think the reason for the SSV token needs to be addressed. When SSV goes mainnet, it’s going to require operators switch over and maintain an additional package (ie Geth+Prysm+SSV). If you can clearly address how an operator is incentivized to run an additional package and bandwidth (is it like Rocketpool gaining RPL on a regular basis?) that could get people interested. Why will people want to be paid in SSV versus say another yet to be developed DVT that would payout to operators in Eth for hosting? Eth is the foundational token of the network and is the one I’d rather hold the most forever, so why do I want to earn and also hold SSV? That’s the question, I guess, that’ll clear some of the future up.
Just some more ideas.