[EP3.1.1] [Social] Q1/Q2 2023 Funding Request: ENS Ecosystem Working Group

Status Passed
Votes Snapshot
Author slobo.eth

Q1/Q2 2023 Funding Request: ENS Ecosystem Working Group

Abstract


The ENS Ecosystem Working Group requests funding of 935,000 USDC and 254 ETH from the ENS DAO for Q1/Q2 2023.

The ENS Ecosystem Working Group is responsible for growing and improving the ENS Ecosystem by funding people and projects that are ENS-specific or ENS-centric. In line with Article III of the ENS DAO Constitution, the requested funds will be used to support projects and builders contributing to the development and improvement of the ENS protocol and the ENS ecosystem.

This social proposal is submitted to satisfy the requirements set out in Rule 10.1.1 of the Working Group Rules (EP 1.8). If this proposal is passed, the funding request will be included in a collective executable proposal put forward by all three Working Groups.

Specification


USDC ETH $ENS
ENS Ecosystem Multisig 935,000 254 -

Description


ENS Ecosystem Multisig Balance

The ENS Ecosystem Working Group is requesting 935,000 USDC, 254 ETH, and 0 $ENS.

The ENS Ecosystem Working Group currently has 879,982 USDC, 110 ETH, and 40,936 $ENS in its multisigs.

If this funding request is approved, the ENS Ecosystem Working Group multisigs will have a total of 1,814,982 USDC, 364 ETH, and 40,936 $ENS.

USDC ETH ENS
Carried Forward (from Q3/Q4 2022) 879,982 110 40,936
Requested (for Q1/Q2 2023) 935,000 254 0
Total Balance 1,814,982 364 40,936

ENS Ecosystem Multisig Allocations for Q1/Q2 2023 (with funding request approved)

The table below shows the total allocations for the ENS Ecosystem Working Group multisig, and related multisigs, with funds carried forward from last term (Q3/Q4 2022) along with funds requested in this proposal for this term (Q1/Q2 2023).

USDC ETH $ENS
Hackathons 235,000 20 -
Support 178,000 20 1,250
Grants 220,580 30 -
Builders 250,000 39 2,000
IRL 84,256 10 1,000
Merch 50,967 5 500
ENS Fairy 50,000 174 -
ENS Fellowship 60,000 - -
Layer 2 150,000 - -
Normalization 50,000 - -
ETH.Limo 85,000 10 -
Bug Bounty** 240,000 - -
Discretionary 161,179 56 36,186**
Total Balance 1,814,982 364 40,936

** The USDC in the Bug Bounty and the $ENS held by the ENS Ecosystem Working Group multisig is available if needed and will likely be carried forward into future terms.

Allocation of Requested Funds

The 935,000 USDC, 254 ETH, and 0 $ENS of funds requested in this proposal will be allocated to the following initiatives/outcomes.

USDC ETH $ENS
Hackathons 230,000 10 -
Support 90,000 5 -
Grants 105,000 30 -
Builders 100,000 15 -
IRL 45,000 5 -
Merch 40,000 5 -
ENS Fairy 50,000 174 -
ENS Fellowship 60,000 - -
Layer 2 105,000 - -
Normalization 40,000 - -
ETH.Limo 70,000 10 -
Total Requested Funds 935,000 254 -

Description of Initiatives/Pods

Initiative/Pod Description Multisig Signer or Lead Singer
Hackathons Sponsorship costs and prize money for hackathons and conferences luc.computer
Support Support mods for social platforms, technical and non-technical educational and archival content validator.eth
Grants Small grants funding for ENS proposals on ensgrants.xyz + evergreen integration bounties Ecosystem stewards
Builders Support for builders shipping code that improves ENS Ecosystem stewards
IRL Funding In Real Life events that coincide with the existing Ethereum event schedule + funding IRL community meetups limes.eth
Merch Subsidizing the cost of creating and shipping physical ENS merchandise including shirts, hats, and pins Ecosystem stewards
ENS Fairy Funds continued development of ensfairy.xyz + acquisition by validator.eth of names on temporary premium that can be utilized to grow ENS adoption + funding the ENS fairy registration bot to gift .eth names to IRL community members and builders validator.eth
ENS Fellowship Supports exceptional developers actively creating and contributing to the ENS ecosystem with a 6 month Fellowship Ecosystem stewards
Layer 2 Development of ENS Layer 2 solutions Ecosystem stewards
Discretionary Funds in the Ecosystem Working Group multisig that are utilized at the discretion of stewards Ecosystem stewards

This proposal was prepared by Slobo.eth, lead steward of the ENS Ecosystem Working Group.

11 Likes

Just a couple of questions.

Is the difference between total funds and allocated funds just going to be kept as a reserve/buffer? There is quite a bit of difference between total (including proposed funds) and what is allocated for Support, Grants, and Builders, for example. What is that extra money for?

Also, the 174 ETH for ENS Fairy. That is for acquiring names on temporary premium, and gifting names? That’s quite a lot of money.

Thanks.

The total balance table shows how much has been allocated to each pod/initiative based on the sum of this funding request and funds carried over from last term.

The requested funds table shows specifically where the requested funds will be allocated.

Any funds that are not spent from this total will be carried over to next term.

The idea is that the ENS Fairy pod will use that ETH to purchase names on temporary premium that could have a meaningful impact on the adoption of ENS. Any ETH spent on premium names will then go back into the controller.ens.eth wallet. It is circular in nature and allows the ENS Fairy initiative to compete with speculators.

5 Likes

Hey thanks for the post!

So a few small questions.

About the process of funding requests(I won’t repeat in the other requests): I know the post has been open for 7 days and now we mostly got notified due to the snapshot vote, but is it possible to notify the top stewards a bit before so a discussion can start before anythign goes to vote?

Otherwise it’s a bit weird, even if we wanted to achieve a change in the funding it’s already a “yes”, or “no” vote so it’s either no, or rubber stamping yes. Do I explain my concern clearly enough?

About this funding request:

  1. For the IRL stuff do you have any idea which events this concerns for Q1/Q2?
  2. Layer2 any details? Is this for dev salaries?
  3. What is normalization?
  4. What is ETH.Limo for? Hosting cost or further development?

We can definitely reach out ahead of time to notify top Delegates of upcoming proposals. In the past, even with notice, Delegates tend not to engage with a proposal until it is put to a vote.

UPDATE: We just posted a weekly roundup thread about governance activity that might be especially useful for Delegates. If you’re following the ENS DAO Twitter account, you should see these in your timeline weekly from now on.

The IRL pod will be hosting an event at ETHDenver in early March. Beyond that, I’m not sure whether anything has been confirmed, but @Limes can comment if I’ve missed anything.

The IRL funding is also available to build out infrastructure for community-hosted IRL meetups, where a portion of costs can be reimbursed to hosts. We hope these will take place in as many countries/cities as possible.

Will leave this for @slobo.eth and @matoken.eth to comment.

Name normalization is an ongoing upgrade being worked on by @raffy. You can follow Raffy’s work on nomalization in this thread and this more recent thread.

More information is available in this post.

3 Likes

A good example of a layer two project is CCIP implementation for ENS on StarkNet.

I’d expect the majority of this to go to dev salaries via grants to CCIP read implementation on client libraries.

1 Like

Alisha is correct, potentially one more, although nothing confirmed. Generally, we will be hosting IRL events that go along side major conferences.

We thought folks really enjoyed and got a lot of value out of our event at Devcon. We are excited to continue to organize these in the future!

3 Likes

Thank you for the clarifications guys. I will be voting for this proposal.

2 Likes

I’m sorry, I really didn’t think through this well. It’s just hit me…

The ENS DAO is effectively bypassing the premium expirey feature.

This seems very wrong… maybe I cannot articulate why, but seems to undermine the very feature created to ensure fair markets.

1 Like

I have created a discussion thread regarding the bypassing of the premium fee by the ENS DAO, by proxy of ensfairy.eth - relating to the 50,000 USDC and 174 ETH (~$275,000) allocated in this funding request.

EP 3.1.1 has passed. An executable proposal to fund Working Groups will go live on Tally in the next 24 hours.

2 Likes