I’ve been asked to give feedback in a few upcoming applications and found myself repeating some suggestions. I also want to make a statement on how I intend to vote for the service provider selection.
1. The program is about furthering of the ENS system
At every application I ask myself: is this project going to make ENS more useful, more scalable, more efficient? Is it going to substantially help adoption and growth of the project? While the new guidelines allow for more services than just development, I personally still think those are the areas in which ENS needs more services.
2. The program is NOT about funding tangentially useful projects
Even if your project is great, and has some sort of ENS integration, it doesn’t mean it’s a great fit for Service Provider Program. I have seen projects who seen to make applications in which they are not substantially changing their own roadmap to build FOR ENS, but rather they are just doing some basic adaptations, integrating ENS and asking for funding. I believe ENS is a useful tool for all Web3 services and should be integrated everywhere and this relationship is mutually beneficial, and I don’t think merely integrating ENS into an existing app is enough to qualify as a Service Provider
3. Don’t be greedy
The last Service Provider had a maximum of 1M per year. Only one candidate asked that much but removed their bid before the vote started because of negative feedback. The largest winner was 600k 700k per year. I believe that is a lot of money for any company, specially considering it’s streamed constantly, and it can go much further than a year. Since this program has increased both the minimum and maximum ask, I believe this has made some perceptual changes from candidates asking for a lot larger bid. The budget of this year will be 1.5M/y for the 2 year stream and 3M/y for the 1y stream. I will only vote for very large budgets for exceptional projects that have proven their track record and are without a doubt, extremely useful for the future of ENS. Last year’s budget was 3.6/y and we had 9 different service providers and I hope to see a similar diversity this year.
4. Know the ENS community
Whenever there’s substantial money on the table, it’s natural for newcomers to bid for it. Before you do, please research a bit on the ENS system, community and history. You should know who the past service providers were, what they built, what are their priorities and roadmap for them as well as for ENS Labs. We hope to foster long term relationships with developers, that will stick around and help ENS grow, and not treat the program as yet another source of revenue for their existing startup.
These views are mine, personally and represent how I will think when ranking the candidates representing all that delegated tokens for me. They do not represent binding rules for the program, nor my view as director of the ENS foundation.