This year we’ve had a lot of great teams with strong talent. In an ideal world, we could afford to fund most of them. But the reality is that we have limited resources. In fact, given the decaying subscription revenue and the extended bear market, the DAO is currently spending more than it realistically should. That said, I see this spending as an investment in great teams.
The pressure is therefore on to make sure the teams we fund are the ones most capable of ensuring not only a sustainable third season of the SP program, but also a much stronger financial position for the DAO as a whole next year.
This is why ranked choice voting is so useful here — we are not just voting yes or no, we are prioritizing the proposals, hoping that as many can be funded as possible in the right order.
My Criteria:
- Strategic Importance to ENS — exceptional teams that I believe can take ENS to the next level and expand its scope.
- Crucial Tools from Solid Teams — talented teams building essential infrastructure, but not necessarily expanding ENS’s boundaries.
- Extended Asks — bonus scope from teams above.
- Nice-to-Haves — good ideas that would be beneficial, but aren’t priorities.
- None Below — proposals I don’t believe should be funded at this time.
Strategic Picks
NameHash
An outstanding team who shipped a lot last year — and more importantly, have a clear strategy and understanding of ENS’s financial sustainability. I trust them to execute and prioritize responsibly.
Blockful
Their contributions to ENS governance and protocol development speak for themselves. Disclosure: I have a financial stake in Blockful, but that stake exists because I support them — not the other way around.
Ethereum Identity Foundation (EIF)
I didn’t support EFP last year, but this year I think they’ve clearly matured into a project with broad identity utility across Ethereum. I trust Brantly to ensure they become the default stack for ENS identity.
Namestone
Slobo.eth has delivered time and again. Namestone has become foundational for offchain resolver infrastructure, and I want to see that continue.
Unruggable
I voted against them in their off-season request for funding last year, not due to lack of trust, but because I felt their proposal belonged in the SP program. Now that they’ve applied through the right channel, I’m fully supportive.
Unicorn.eth
I was skeptical last year, but they built and delivered. Their strategic vision for onboarding users through ENS subdomains is compelling, and I’d like to see them go further.
Solid, But Not Strategic
eth.limo
This is critical ENS infrastructure. Their proposal doesn’t add much that’s new — but it doesn’t have to. This is a public good we must fund.
Agora
They’ve built valuable governance infrastructure, and I want to avoid over-reliance on any single provider. Agora is a solid alternative to Tally and Snapshot.
Tally
Like eth.limo, this isn’t about innovation — it’s about continuity. Tally is integral to our governance workflows, and we should support that.
Lighthouse Labs
I wasn’t very familiar with their work before, but I appreciate their contribution to the SPP2 interface itself. That kind of practical involvement matters.
Namespace
They’re doing real work, but their scope overlaps with many others. I’m supportive, but it doesn’t stand out. See edit at end of this post
Promising Experiments
3DNS
This is a bold and visionary proposal. I’m excited about what they’re trying to do — bringing traditional domains into ENS natively is a huge opportunity. The only reason it’s not ranked higher is that they’re a newer team without much prior presence in ENS governance.
ZK Email
I admire the ambition here — linking zero-knowledge proofs with ENS identity is a cool idea. But it feels more like ENS is being asked to fund ZK research that may or may not yield useful results.
dWeb.host
Tools for decentralized websites are always welcome. I used to think this was central to ENS — in practice it’s more niche. That said, dWeb seems capable and aligned.
ENScribe
Naming contracts with ENS is important. But the budget here seems high for the scope offered. Good project, not urgent.
WebHash
Useful tooling, but overlaps heavily with dWeb.host and others.
JustaName
Seems like a decent team, but very similar to Namespace and Namestone — and with less history of contributions. See edit at end of post
None Below
These are proposals I don’t think should be funded this year. Some are AI-driven governance tools, some appear to be established projects looking to tack ENS onto their pitch, others just lack a compelling need.
I’ll refrain from naming all of them here, but I will call out one:
Wildcard Labs
Their proposal this year is nearly identical to last year’s. And while they were funded then, they offered no updates, no public engagement, and made no visible effort to contribute to the ENS community in the interim. The last mention of Wildcard Labs on the forum before this application was… their last application. That’s not acceptable. This was a stain on the Service Provider Program and might be a good argument for having a dedicated working group to make sure to follow Service Providers.
Have I treated your project unfairly? Do you think I have overlooked something important? Feel free to contact me directly on telegram At AlexVanDeSande and we can have a chat.
Updates: I’ve spoken with many teams over the last few days, looked over adoption metrics, GitHub activity and even heard from developers from competitor teams, and have decided that I had overlooked both Justaname and Namespace’s contribution, specially given their ask sizes. I have since reviewed my position and updated my ballot.