Grant Proposal Template [OLD]
OptimismTo apply for a grant through the Grants Council, please go here 11
Phase 1 Proposal Template v2
All Governance Fund grant proposals will be processed by a Grants Council in Season 3. Please submit your application to the Grants Council here 82 following the process outlined here 57.
ALL CYCLE 11 GRANT PROPOSALS SHOULD USE THE UPDATED TEMPLATE HERE.
Key information about Governance Fund grants
5.4% of the total initial token supply (231,928,234 OP) will be distributed to Optimism projects and communities via the Governance Fund. A portion of the Governance Fund may be used to provide OP grants. There are two primary objectives of Governance Fund grants in Season 3:
- Grow population of values-aligned builders: The Governance Fund should support developers launching novel applications that will draw new users to Optimism.
- Support small scale initiatives to grow unique users on Optimism: The Governance Fund may also support protocols by incentivizing small scale user growth initiatives.
Larger scale partnerships with protocols that have already found product-market fit are better suited to the Partner Fund 40.
For further details on the governance fund, please see the Governance Fund Charter 14.
During Season 3, projects can submit grant proposals to the Grants Council. The Council is split into two sub-committees:
-
Builders Sub-Committee:
- Focus: maximize the number of developers building on Optimism
- Non-focus: retroactive funding
- Possible grant examples: prospective builder grants for new projects, hackathons, technical content
- Format: proposers receive grants, suggested to be <50k OP, which are locked for a period of 1-year. If access to upfront capital is a blocker for applicants, Optimism may put them in touch with alternative resources to support teams in this position.
- Budget: 850k OP / Season
- Reviewers: @gonna.eth, @kaereste, and @jackanorak
- Consensus: 2/3 vote required to fund a grant
-
Growth Experiments Sub-Committee:
- Focus: maximize the number of users interacting with applications on Optimism
- Non-focus: retroactive airdrops
- Possible grant examples: small-scale liquidity mining experiments, usage incentives, user education
- Format: proposers receive milestone-based grants, suggested to be <250k OP, to pass on directly to their users as incentives for engaging with a protocol, platform, product or service. 40% of the grant will be distributed to the proposer upfront and the remaining 60% will be distributed upon completion of a mid-way point milestone. Completion of all milestones should be achievable in 3-6 months.
- Budget: 4M OP / Season
- Reviewers: @Michael, @katie, @GFXlabs, @MattL, and @MoneyManDoug
- Consensus: 3/5 vote required to fund a grant
The Council is welcome to consider any and all proposals which would drive growth or address a gap in the Optimism ecosystem, including public goods projects. However, all grant funding should come with an expectation of growth-related deliverables. It is not the intended purpose of the governance fund to retroactively fund public goods without an expectation of future work—there is a distinct OP allocation dedicated to this, which will be distributed via the Citizens House at a later date. You can read more about the total allocation of OP in the Allocations section 13 19 of our Governance docs 10 11.The Council may also put forward Requests for Proposals for particular grant proposals they would like to review.
How to apply for a Governance Fund grant
To submit a proposal, please submit your application to the Grants Council here 82 following the process outlined here 57. The application will follow the below template, which you should complete via the application form 37.
Please make sure you are familiar with the no-sale policy outlined below, under Eligibility, before applying.
Grant Proposal Template
Project name:
Author name and contact info (please provide a reliable point of contact for the project):
I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Optimism Foundation to receive this grant: [Yes/No]
I understand that I will be expected to following the public grant reporting requirements outlined here: [Yes/No]
L2 recipient address:
Which Voting Cycle are you applying for?:
Which sub-committee should review your proposal? (Builders Grants, Growth Experiment Grants)
Project description (please explain how your project works):
Project links:
- Website:
- Twitter:
- Discord/Discourse/Community:
- Please include all other relevant links below:
Additional team member info (please link):
Please link to any previous projects the team has meaningfully contributed to:
Relevant usage metrics (TVL, transactions, volume, unique addresses, etc. Optimism metrics preferred; please link to public sources such as Dune Analytics, etc.):
Competitors, peers, or similar projects (please link):
Is/will this project be open sourced? Yes/No/In Future
Optimism native?: Yes/No
Date of deployment/expected deployment on Optimism:
Ecosystem Value Proposition:
- What is the problem statement this proposal hopes to solve for the Optimism ecosystem?
- How does your proposal offer a value proposition solving the above problem?
- Why will this solution be a source of growth for the Optimism ecosystem?
Has your project previously applied for an OP grant? If successful, please link to your previous grant proposal and provide a brief update on milestones achieved with the grant. If unsuccessful, and this is a resubmission, please specify how you have incorporated significant changes in accordance with feedback.
Number of OP tokens requested:
Did the project apply for or receive OP tokens through the Foundation Partner Fund?: Yes/No/In Process
If OP tokens were requested from the Foundation Partner Fund, what was the amount?:
How much will your project match in co-incentives? (not required but recommended, when applicable):
Proposal for token distribution:
- How will the OP tokens be distributed? (please include % allocated to different initiatives such as user rewards/marketing/liquidity mining. Please also include a justification as to why each of these initiatives align with the problem statement this proposal is solving.)
- Over what period of time will the tokens be distributed for each initiative? Shorter timelines are preferable to longer timelines. Shorter timelines (on the order of weeks) allow teams to quickly demonstrate achievement of milestones, better facilitating additional grants via subsequent proposals.
- Please clearly define the milestones you expect to achieve in order to receive milestone based installments. Please consider how each milestone relates to incentivizing sustainable usage and liquidity on Optimism. Progress towards each milestone must be trackable.
- Why will incentivized users and liquidity on Optimism remain after incentives dry up?
Please provide any additional information that will facilitate accountability:(smart contracts addresses relevant to the proposal, relevant organizational wallet addresses, etc.)
Eligibility considerations
The below restrictions may not map with 100% clarity onto all possible scenarios. In the spirit of governance minimization 10, the Optimism Foundation will not police the application of these rules. Instead, it is the directive of the Token House to apply these parameters consistent with the purpose of the Governance Fund: driving sustainable usage and engagement on Optimism (rather than simply providing teams with working capital or voting power).
OP received through Growth Experiments Grants should not be sold by the grant recipient. This “no sale” rule:
- Includes the grant recipient, their affiliates and any other related persons. These persons cannot receive OP for the purpose of selling (or if the grant recipient knows they intend to sell) the tokens.
- Includes the direct exchange of OP for crypto or fiat, whether done publicly or privately. Think selling OP in exchange for fiat or crypto, regardless of whether done on a CEX, DEX, OTC desk, at your local park, or otherwise.
- Does not include using OP to incentivize usage. Providing OP as liquidity mining incentives is not restricted by these parameters.
- There is no expiration to this rule for Growth Experiments Grants
OP received through Builders Grants should not be sold by the grant recipient for a period of one year. After a holding period of one year, Builders Grant recipients have full discretion over how they utilize OP, so long as it coincides with the objectives outlined in their proposal.
You can read more about the reasoning behind the token locks here 14.
The expectation is that token grants will not be self-delegated for use in governance. The primary purpose of these token grants is to incentivize sustainable usage and growth of the Optimism ecosystem. Accordingly, for partners interested in increasing their voting power, the preferred route is by encouraging users to delegate their rewards to your governance representatives. There is no hard restriction on self-delegation, but if you plan to delegate a portion or all of your grant tokens to your own protocol, or a closely affiliated party, this should be made clear in your grant proposal along with your reasoning.