ENS DAO Midterm Grants Review (2022)
A summary of grants provided by the ENS Ecosystem Working Group
Purpose of the ENS Ecosystem Working Group
The purpose of the ENS Ecosystem Working Group is to identify and fund open source projects and initiatives that are focused on the development of the ENS Protocol itself.
The Elected Stewards are responsible for supporting these projects and have established a weekly call where project leaders are encouraged to present and receive feedback.
Ecosystem Stewards typically look for certain criteria when deciding what projects to fund:
Clearly defined purpose
Proof of work and path towards implementation
Link to learn more about the project
Budget request
Projects that have been funded by the Ecosystem Stewards have also shown a willingness to share their progress with the community at large, focus on catalyzing the global ENS adoption, and build infrastructure for further protocol development.
A Primer on How Ecosystem Funding Works
At the beginning of every term, newly elected stewards are tasked with drafting a budget request for the DAOs consideration. This budget is drafted in consideration of the current needs and goals that are important to the protocol’s sustainability at the time of approval.
Stewards work with TNL to surmise a proximal amount that will be necessary for the continuation of projects of interest. Once the amount has been determined, Stewards draft the formal proposal on the ENS DAO Governance Forum for DAO-wide discussion.
Budget requests usually consist of a summary of the overall request, items broken up by category and subgroups, the amounts requested in ETH, USDC and ENS, and finally a description of the multi-sig where the funds well be held along with the lead signer of each multi-sig.
Once rough consensus has been built, the request goes live on snapshot for a DAO-wide vote. If passed, multi-sigs are created and funded according to the request. The money in these multi-sigs are then used to fund Working Group specific initiatives.
This term, an approximate total of $2.2 million (USD) has been distributed to the Ecosystem Working Group to support ecosystem initiatives.
Source: Q3/Q4 2022 Budget Request: ENS Ecosystem WG
A note from Term 2 Ecosystem Lead Steward, Slobo.eth:
We pick projects from the following sources:
Ecosystem Weekly Calls (folks who come to present)
Infrastructure projects like LIMO (.limo) that are clearly part of the ecosystem
Occasionally, we receive ENS based projects via DMs
Guiding Principle: Retroactive Public Goods Funding
The DAO funds projects retroactively, rewarding projects that it recognizes as having already provided value. Ingeniously designed by Vitalik Buterin, Retroactive funding mechanisms focus on identifying projects that have already made a valuable contribution and impact to the ecosystem. The funding model incentivizes developers to work on projects knowing they will get paid based on the value of their work.
The ENS DAO, or as Vitalik would put it “the Results Oracle”, funds Public Goods according to the projects demonstrated value to the community at large. Below, we review projects that Ecosystem Stewards have funded according to the retroactive funding principle. Rewards are a mix of ETH, ENS and other stablecoin and are funded by fees generated from ENS Domain Name registrations.
Term 2 - Funded Projects
Term 2 began on July 1st, 2022. Since then, a total of three ecosystem projects have been funded. We will go over a brief review of each project, including a short analysis of how they provide benefit to the ecosystem overall.
1. Nimi - Profile
Nimi.eth started as a hackathon project at ETH Amsterdam 2022. Nimi makes it easier for users to host their content.
Nimi makes it easier for users to host content on their ENS domain. Currently, Nimi could be thought of as a “Linktree for web3”. Nimi’s goal is to get users to use their ENS for hosting content and allowing them to use it as a regular domain.
The purpose of the grant is to expand functionality and features to attract more users to setup their Nimi page as well as increasing user engagement.
Grant Amount: 15,000 USDC + 100 ENS
2. ENS Academy - Education
The ENS Academy aims to accelerate the adoption of ENS worldwide. They host weekly spaces, gathering ENS ecosystem leaders and Web 3 entrepreneurs to share their knowledge with the global community.
Their goal is to educate, support and empower all who benefit from the ENS Protocol. The project leaders built a platform where new users can learn the fundamentals and skillsets necessary to build on their ENS domain.
They are serving their community by producing focused interviews, Twitter Spaces, and pushing educational content through their own forum.
Currently, the ENS Academy run the following initiatives:
Host weekly Spaces
Run podcasts
Publish daily educational content
Create network with ENS Builders
Since they launched in June, they’ve hosted 20+ interviews with over 6000 attendees to their Twitter spaces, garnered 600 podcast downloads, and have produced over 60 forum posts amounting to over 11,000 page views.
The purpose of the grant is to cover the cost of hosting the podcast, forum and the website. They also plan to hire content writers to produce long-form educational content and forum moderators to ensure quality content. Some of the funds will also be used for development resources, to migrate the forum to be self-hosted and integrate Sign-in With Ethereum.
Grant Amount: 20,000 USDC + 100 ENS
3. ETH.LIMO - Infrastructure
LIMO is an ENS enabled IPFS gateway with a focus on privacy design and security. It represents a shift in decentralized web adoption by providing another means of accessing ENS resolvable domains. Prior to LIMO, Cloudflare’s eth.link service was the only way to bridge Web 2 and Web 3.
LIMO takes public gateway services further by focusing on strong privacy guarantees. For instance, it never logs IP addresses, engages in TCP fingerprinting, or allows for FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) which is a Google developed algorithim that tracks and correlates users based on their browsing history.
The purpose of the grant is to give more diversity to ENS/IPFS gateway operators, by introducing an additional ecosystem for it to strive in. By providing users with more diversity, it rings true to the OG Web 3 ethos of decentralization and user owned and operated networks.
Additionally, modern browser integrations still rely on Infura RPC calls by default which falls short of a high standard for user privacy.
LIMO strives to operate as a public good with a focus on community governance and oversight. Their mission is to work towards building a truly decentralized ENS/IPFS gateway service and a world-class developer platform for Web 3 sites.
Grant Amount: 60,000 USDC + 10ETH + 3000 ENS
Conclusion
ENS notices, respects, and funds critical infrastructure that supports ENS adoption.
The ENS DAO is welcoming to self-driven, attentive and responsive participants who share our values and follow the ENS DAO Constitution. We strive to highlight projects that communicate and act in the best interest of ENS to help ensure the long-term sustainability of this Public Good.
If you or someone you know has a project that would contribute to the ecosystem, we encourage you to reach out to any of the Ecosystem Stewards or join a weekly Ecosystem Working Group call.
Working Group Meeting information:
Every Monday at 2pm EST (6:00pm GMT)
Google Meet link: https://meet.google.com/oaj-qrgv-var
Term 2 Ecosystem Stewards’ Contact:
Excellent resource!