**POLL ADDED** Proposal: Engineering Working Group Request for Funding

Title: Engineering Working Group Request for Funding

Authors: @edwardk, @dylan

Situation

We are proposing funding for the Engineering Working Group for 3 months ending on December 31st.

What is the core problem(s) you want to solve?

As described in Deciding How to Prioritize Engineering Work the in-house engineering team at Index Coop is relatively new. With the launch of DATA in Q3 we’ve proven that we can do most (but not all) of the work to launch a Simple Index product without relying on Set’s engineers. That’s a huge accomplishment!

However, there are many more products that we would like to launch which are much more technically complex. In order to build these effectively, we need better alignment between Set Labs and Index Coop’s Product and Engineering teams. At the same time, we have to get creative and intentional about increasing our in-house engineering ability.

The core problems we want to solve today are:

1. Lack of visibility into product priorities, making it difficult to plan engineering work.
2. Poor coordination between Set Labs and Index Coop when it comes to R&D efforts. This is in part due to Problem #1.
3. There aren’t enough experienced smart contract developers to go around and hiring them has proven difficult.
4. Lack of documentation, processes, and training infrastructure make it difficult to onboard even skilled developers.

Why is this worth addressing today?

The range and quantity of new products we can launch are constrained as much by coordination problems as by limited engineering talent.

How will you address it?

• Seeking guidance from PWG for larger R&D efforts, in accordance with expected future launches.
• Improving coordination between Set Labs and Index Coop’s engineering teams.
• Leveling up existing contributors’ expertise in smart contract programming by investing in mentorship, developer education, pair programming and other means.
• Recruiting and onboarding additional engineering talent through our Wizardry channel.
• Starting to build Index Coop’s brand in the developer community.

What impact will this project have?

• Greater in-house financial product smart contract capabilities.
• Integrations with at least 4 new protocols (CREAM, Curve, etc.)
• Better tools for the community around calculating liquidity requirements and making multisig transactions.
• Increased contributor participation in terms of commits to our Github project repositories.
• 2 additional full-time hires or the equivalent in contributors.

Working Group Leader(s)
Co-lead: Edward (@edwardk)
Co-lead: Dylan (@dylan)

Request for Funding

Proposed Budget:

$180,000 USD in INDEX ($60,000 per month) and 1,275 INDEX.

This compares to the Q3 budget of $120,000 USD in INDEX which did not include a gas budget.

Use of Funds:

425 INDEX per month for @edwardk as working group co-lead.

@dylan is a full-time employee of Set Labs and is not included in this budget.

$19,500 in INDEX per month is for full-time contributors @0xModene and @ncitron. Their compensation packages were passed via IIP-66 5 and IIP-75 4.

We also request $45,000 in gas costs for the quarter to deploy new contracts and make transactions. It cost approximately $17,000 in gas to launch DATA, for example. We also need some budget for deploying other contracts (e.g. for OTC 3rd Close), technical operations (contributor rewards, methodologist reward payouts), and testing Web3 functionality on indexcoop.com. Gas costs are difficult to predict and will depend in part on how many products are launched. It’s quite possible that we are underestimating future gas costs and may need to request additional funding.

The remaining $25,500 in INDEX per month will mainly be used to grow our contributor base. Recent highly talented contributors include @Flattestwhite, @rootulp, and @blockdev, among others. We believe that with proper onboarding and incentives in place, contributors will increase their tenure and time allocated to Index Coop, and some will choose to join as full-time contributors.

Other uses of funds may include one-off bounties, recruiting costs, software/services, and smart contract audits (when deemed necessary).

Organization - How will it work?

What will you be doing?

• Product R&D performed in conjunction with Set Labs
• Keeping backlog and sprint boards up to date
• Weekly sprint planning meetings
• Testing & deploying code
• Assisting Set Labs with rebalancing
• Recruiting
• Developer community outreach and participation (e.g. conferences, hackathons)
• Regular knowledge sharing and collaborative code reviews

Generally speaking Edward will lead on engineering culture, strategy, and planning. Dylan will be in charge of operations and coordinating execution of deployments and transactions.

How will you interface with the community?

• Forum posts and discord.
• Product launch retrospectives.
• Cross functional groups where required.
• #Wizardry channel for onboarding technical contributors.
• Community updates via Monday morning meetings + an end of quarter retrospective.

Commitments

I am committed to Index Coop principles

I am committed to serving the entire Index Coop with my work.

I am committed to open, rapid communication: I know that clear, constant, public communication lifts up the entire Index Coop community. I am committed to this style of communication.

Shared learnings: I will share my progress, learnings with the entire community. I will ensure that anything I create is accessible beyond my own tenure for future generations of Indexers to access & build on.

Intellectual honesty: I am committed to growth and improvement. I am open to feedback and will use feedback to improve my work for the benefit of the entire Coop community.

I am committed to making Index Coop a welcoming, fun, and engaging community to work in!