CIP: 18
title: CoW Grants Program Renewal Proposal
author: netrunner.eth, middleway.eth
status: Active
created: 2022-12-13

Summary - Renewal of the CoW Grants Program (CGP)

We are excited to launch this CIP to seek community support to renew the CoW Grants Program.

This program is an essential resource for advancing the CoW Protocol ecosystem and it will help improve the utility of $COW tokens and facilitate deeper integration with other DeFi solutions.

In June 2022, the CoW Grants Program was established through CIP-8. Now, we look forward to continuing the program seeking community support to renew it for 12 months.

Motivation

The CoW Grants Program is committed to helping grow the CoW Protocol's ecosystem, having reviewed and funded many applications with more on the way.

These contributions include analytics, tooling, UI/UX, infrastructure and growth projects. We are also beginning to see integrations with other well-known organisations like Yearn, Shapeshift and Defi Llama – positive signs that the program is making great progress!

There are few places to follow the Grants Program progress:

• Grants Program forum section
• Airtable including grant status
• Spreadsheet for tracking payments from the Grants Safe
• Grants Program Sanpshot space (newly introduced so doesn't include past grants)

The Grants Program has processed payments for grants in the total sum of

• 106,640 xDAI
• 190,100 COW

There are also pending obligations (conditional to milestones delivery):

• ZeroMEV data API: 15k xDAI
• Shapeshift integration: 5k xDAI, 400k COW
• Golang SDK: 5k xDAI
• Surplus capturing AMMs study: 21k xDAI, 150k COW
• TWAP orders (SC): 10k xDAI
• Ongoing stipend and contributors: On a monthly basis

Volume-based Partner Reward Program

This idea was pioneered in the Shapeshift Integration Grant. The model is straightforward and effective for both CoW DAO and its partners. Rewards are based on actual performance, creating incentives for driving more volume to the CoW Protocol, as well as giving partners exposure to the COW token.

Over the term of this 12 month grants program, we intend to gather information on what an economically sustainable expense would be to acquire new users (volume). We believe that a tailored partner reward program is a good way to test these kinds of collaborations before a general open program can be implemented.

Baseline deal:

First $10M volume: 60k $COW
Additional $50M volume: 120k COW
Additional $200M volume: 240k COW

Volume milestones must be surpassed within 12 months to be eligible for funding.
All COW tokens granted will be subject to 12 months of vesting.

• Baseline numbers for the purpose of this proposal are open for public discussion.
• Once the proposal is approved, the committee should not approve a partner deal with higher rewards per volume and per partner.

Grants Committee

Committee Members The CoW Grants Comittee is comprised of seven members - three from the core team and four from the community. Four community members receive a stipend.

Stipend At the beginning of the program, community Grant Committee Members received a stipend of approximately $750 USD per month. However, due to a decline in the price of $COW, we propose an increase in the stipend from 5,000 COW ($350 USD) to 8,000 COW ($600 USD), with an additional $150 difference being paid in $XDAI. We believe that this adjustment is fitting considering the decline in $COW prices and the responsibility for executing the Grants Program entrusted to us by $COW token holders.

Technical grants lead The previous 6 months grant program has also highlighted that reviewing highly technical grants needs a dedicated resource to do the following:

• Grantee assessment: Assess the grantee's capabilities to finish the grant;
• Technical review: Review technical specifications and conduct feasibility studies on Grant Proposals to assess the Grantee's aptitude to execute, making sure these align with CoW Protocol's development and standards;
• Evaluate results: Assess technical milestones before payments are given by the Committee.

Therefore, we propose that should this CIP be approved, Grants DAO will create a technical grant lead role to perform these core tasks.

Grants Program Term The Cow Grants Program will be a rolling 12 month arrangement, with annual renewals approved by CoW DAO.

Specification

Budget The budget for general purpose grants is proposed to be increased by 1.5M $COW and 500k $XDAI, in addition to existing funds on the Grants DAO Funds Safe. It is proposed that funds will be requested and bridged as tranche payments as required. This will ensure Grants DAO can meet current and future grant commitments while maintaining capital efficiency.

New Safe The Grants Committee proposes the establishment of a new Multisig Safe, separate from the Grants Safe, but still operated by the Grants Committee. This new Safe was already created with the exact same setup as the Grants Funds Safe, to be used if this proposal passes. It'll be used to operate the proposed Volume-based Partner Reward Program with a narrower mandate to only approve and pay performance-based rewards. It is proposed that this Safe will be funded with 3M COW tokens exclusively for this purpose.

Safe Transaction Data

{
   "version":"1.0",
   "chainId":"1",
   "createdAt":1673613134179,
   "meta":{
      "name":"Transactions Batch",
      "description":"",
      "txBuilderVersion":"1.11.1",
      "createdFromSafeAddress":"0xcA771eda0c70aA7d053aB1B25004559B918FE662",
      "createdFromOwnerAddress":"",
      "checksum":"0xb927b18c1f3b5fc551e49da277b88fdcf10e81d543604648cdac9b9803edacbd"
   },
   "transactions":[
      {
         "to":"0xDEf1CA1fb7FBcDC777520aa7f396b4E015F497aB",
         "value":"0",
         "data":null,
         "contractMethod":{
            "inputs":[
               {
                  "internalType":"address",
                  "name":"spender",
                  "type":"address"
               },
               {
                  "internalType":"uint256",
                  "name":"amount",
                  "type":"uint256"
               }
            ],
            "name":"approve",
            "payable":false
         },
         "contractInputsValues":{
            "spender":"0x88ad09518695c6c3712AC10a214bE5109a655671",
            "amount":"3000000000000000000000000"
         }
      },
      {
         "to":"0x88ad09518695c6c3712AC10a214bE5109a655671",
         "value":"0",
         "data":null,
         "contractMethod":{
            "inputs":[
               {
                  "internalType":"contract IERC677",
                  "name":"token",
                  "type":"address"
               },
               {
                  "internalType":"address",
                  "name":"_receiver",
                  "type":"address"
               },
               {
                  "internalType":"uint256",
                  "name":"_value",
                  "type":"uint256"
               }
            ],
            "name":"relayTokens",
            "payable":false
         },
         "contractInputsValues":{
            "token":"0xDEf1CA1fb7FBcDC777520aa7f396b4E015F497aB",
            "_receiver":"0xbD96C4Fe53f1d89a8Bdb3522BCEDfB20b5601b69",
            "_value":"3000000000000000000000000"
         }
      }
   ]
}

The proposed transaction is bridging 3m COW tokens to the newly created safe on Gnosis Chain for Volume-based partner program. Additional funds for the Grants program will be requested when needed.

Tenderly Simulation

Link to Tenderly simulation