Fund the Stylus Sprint

Description

Please find the full proposal on the forums, several sections have been removed to adhere to character limits: https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/rfc-fund-the-stylus-sprint/26437?u=entropy

Abstract

The ArbOS 31 “Bianca” onchain vote on Tally has passed quorum, signaling the DAO’s approval to activate Arbitrum Stylus on Arbitrum One and Nova. To bolster the impact of this upgrade, this proposal presents the one-time "Stylus Sprint" program, aimed at encouraging the early development of Stylus smart contracts and tooling by awarding up to 5,000,000 ARB to teams who build with Stylus. Applications will be open for 8 weeks and the program will run for 1 year. The Sprint will include a mix of open applications where teams are encouraged to be creative in their ideas as well as invitational/RFQs with strategically targeted objectives. The requested funding is intended to cover development costs, including hiring talent, training teams, adopting new tools, infrastructure expenses, and audits at the discretion of the recipient. This campaign's primary objectives are to engage new and existing Arbitrum protocol teams with this novel technology, showcase use cases only feasible with Stylus, and create foundational Stylus building blocks for widespread use.

Interested teams must apply through a designated application process and grant recipients will be selected by an Evaluation Committee based on specific criteria detailed in this proposal. As the program progresses, participating teams will receive staged funding as they reach predefined and agreed-upon milestones, culminating in the deployment and long-term upkeep of their projects.

Specifications

Application Process & RFP Details:

As mentioned, the Stylus Sprint program invites teams to submit applications either in the open-applications track or in response to lightweight Request for Proposals (RFPs, listed below) that target specific verticals, published by the Evaluation Committee. The below lists are non-exhaustive and serve as inspiration. Participants in the open track will have ample opportunity for innovation and creativity. All requests for both the open-application track and RFPs must be denominated in ARB.

The application approach described above for both open applications and RFPs ensures a structured yet flexible framework for harnessing the potential of Stylus technology. Not all funds will necessarily be deployed, and even if an RFP has quotes, there is no guarantee that any will be deemed satisfactory and chosen. The above categories are non-exhaustive and meant to be viewed as examples. If this proposal passes, the Evaluation Committee will cement an official list before applications open.

Teams are required to submit a detailed application outlining their plans for utilizing the funding. These applications will be thoroughly reviewed by the Evaluation Committee, which will also approve them. Upon approval, milestone payments will be systematically allocated to the teams based on their progress. If no satisfactory applications are received, as decided at the discretion of the Evaluation Committee, 0 ARB will be spent, and all unspent funds will be returned to DAO.

Evaluation Committee and Committee Advisors

To effectively administer the program, it is essential to establish an Evaluation Committee composed of Stylus experts. Additionally, a group of advisors will provide consultative support to the committee. Given the innovative nature and specific technical nuances of Stylus, we propose that the committee be primarily made up of members from Offchain Labs and OpenZeppelin, the two entities responsible for developing Stylus thus far. Currently, there are limited experts qualified to assess Stylus applications effectively. However, should the DAO prefer to engage in a broader selection process that we believe would be inefficient and lead to a less successful program, Entropy Advisors is more than happy to facilitate an RFP process instead, contingent upon a DAO vote to define and appoint these roles.

Evaluation Committee

1. Stylus Team Members - Offchain Labs (Waiving Payment)
2. Dev Team - Arbitrum Foundation (Waiving Payment)
3. Entropy Advisors (Waiving Payment)
4. Michael Lewellen - OpenZeppelin (5000 ARB per month)
5. Gustavo Gonzalez - OpenZeppelin (5000 ARB per month)

Committee Advisors

1. Entropy Advisors (Waiving Payment)

The Committee Advisors’ main role will be facilitating discourse with the DAO, applicants, and general project management in order to reduce the burden on the Evaluation Committee where possible. Members of the Evaluation Committee and Committee Advisors will not be eligible to apply to the program in any capacity due to conflicts of interest.

Judges and Advisors will serve for approximately 14.5 months. In the first 2 weeks, they will work together to refine the application and evaluation criteria as well as specifics around the RFPs to kickstart the process. The following 2 months will be used to review proposals as they come in. Subsequent 2 weeks will be taken to officially accept and reject projects. Both accepted and rejected applications will receive public rationale from the Evaluation Committee as to why the choice was made so that the DAO may have a view into the decisions and the teams can adjust accordingly in the future. In the next 12 months, contributors will greenlight milestone payments as projects achieve their goals and periodically give guidance to participants. Advisors will report back to the DAO through monthly updates over the lifespan of the program.

Multisig Setup

The Stylus Sprint multi-sig will be created and allocated 5M ARB for the Stylus Sprint Program and 150K ARB for payments to judges. Funds will be sent to an MSS-secured multisig. The funds in the multisig belong to the DAO and the signers act as grant managers on behalf of the DAO in coordination with the Arbitrum Foundation. Funds held in the multisig are explicitly banned from usage in DAO governance, including delegation.

Funding Levels and Disbursement

Teams will apply for their appropriate levels of funding. Suggested levels in ARB are 1M, 750K, 500K, 250K, 100K, or 50K. If teams want a different amount of funding, they must specify why in their application. These funding levels have been set to streamline the review process. However, teams are encouraged to request specific amounts of funding best suited to their needs. Teams will have 1 year to deploy their project and meet their 2 post-deployment milestones.

Unallocated funds will be returned to the DAO treasury after all applications have been reviewed and grant sizes have been determined. An additional dispersal to the DAO could occur if projects don’t manage to hit their goals within the 1-year timeline and if the budget has remaining ARB. There is absolutely no need to allocate all funds, and it will only be done if more than 5M in exemplary proposals are received during the 8-week application cycle.

Funding will be distributed based on achieving certain development milestones. 50% of funds will be distributed after deployment to encourage teams to think about growth and sustainability post-launch. The criteria for these 2 checkpoints will be proposed by teams in their applications.

All projects will be required to use milestones in order to ensure progress is being made before funds are fully allocated. The above milestone structure, however, is not required. For RFPs, custom milestone payments can be included in the quotes provided by service providers. Approved projects will submit requests as they reach milestones. The judges, with help from their advisors, will be responsible for ensuring validity and greenlighting payment to be sent as milestones are hit, in accordance with the Evaluation Criteria mentioned above. The evaluation committee will have the autonomy and authority to expel projects from the program at any point in their life cycle and stop all future milestone payments.

Timeline

1. Stylus Sprint Forum Post - August 20, 2024
2. Snapshot Vote Begins - August 29, 2024
3. On-Chain Vote - Sept 12, 2024
4. Stylus Sprint Begins - Oct 4, 2024

The program will begin on the Monday following the onchain proposal’s passing. The first 2 weeks will be used to refine and post the RFPs, followed by open applications for 8 weeks, then a 2-week application review process. Feedback between the Evaluation Committee and applicants will be conducted on an ongoing/continuous basis over the next 10 weeks. KYC with the foundation will then begin and first milestone payments may be allocated upon completion. The MSS chairs, Arbitrum Foundation, and Entropy Advisors will need to work closely to ensure a strict payment process.

Overall Cost

5,180,000 ARB

Up to 5M to be awarded to projects building on Stylus

75,000 ARB payment in total over 14.5 months per committee member for 2 committee members = 150,000 ARB

30,000 ARB paid up front to Questbook.