Executable CGP8 - Retroactive Funding Proposal for xPollinate Development

Introduction:

xPollinate was an early collaboration with the Buzz DAO (marketing arm of the 1Hive DAO) to create an interface for users to bridge to and from the xDAI (Gnosis) chain. This included the Polygon network, and then later the Binance Smart Chain. This was one of the earliest iterations of a 3rd party bridge.The 1Hive team assisted with the front-end development, as well as marketing and promotion. Shortly after launch, the bridge was far exceeding expectations and contributed to the long term success of Connext.

Abstract:

This proposal is asking for one-time retroactive payment for the 1Hive contributors towards building out the Connext xPollinate bridge that delivered $1.2B in volume in its first year of operation. We believe that we were one of the earliest contributors to help facilitate this bridge that brought in many users and a substantial amount of volume through the developer resources, and marketing tools that we applied to the project. This project was exempt from the initial allocation of NEXT tokens, and as such we are asking for retroactive funding for our work on this as indicated in this proposal.

Motivation:

In short, xPollinate was one of the first ever bridges able to facilitate the bridging of tokens from various layers without having to go through Ethereum. At the time, the Ethereum bridge was the only solution, but it had fees which at times exceeded 100 dollars per transaction. In order to rectify this glaring issue, the Connext team, in collaboration with the 1hive DAO and Polygon, facilitated the creation of the xPollinate bridge.

The idea was fostered through the absurdity of gas fees on Ethereum, and the eager will of Pranav (Polygon BD) to get 1hive and its apps to move over from xDAI chain (now Gnosis Chain) to Polygon. Pranav connected BuzzDAO with the Connext team, which at the time consisted of Arjun, Rahul, Layne, and Victoria. It initially started on Telegram on January 21st 2021 and then the conversation was moved to Discord. We scheduled a call and chatted about various ways to integrate interoperability between these chains, and solve the current crisis of the fees when transferring through mainnet. A collaboration between the groups was struck after many meetings to discuss the details. Work was then divided into tasks, and people were assigned to complete these tasks in order to bring the product to market.

After 8 months of work, from late Jan 2021 - Sep 2021, xPollinate was created. Because of the widely successful launch, due in part from all the teams working together to seamlessly launch xPollinate, it resulted in over $1.2B in volume.

Rationale:

1hive is well-versed in the intricacies of token launches and retroactive payments, recognizing that these processes can be complex and time-consuming. This understanding extends to the concept of retroactive airdrops for contributors who have collaboratively developed a product.

This proposal helps to ensure that the xPollinate addresses and contributors that were excluded from the airdrop receive remuneration for their hard work and dedication towards completing and facilitating this project.

Specifications:

This is retroactive funding of already delivered results. For details on what was accomplished and built, you can find a timeline of events here 4. You can also find additional archived information on the above here. 5

Payment Schedule:

Compensation will be distributed to the 1hive multi-sig which will then be distributed amongst its contributors. A detailed spreadsheet will be created to track issuance of funds to ensure transparency.

Steps to Implement:

This proposal follows the recommended structure outlined in the DAO Docs 2. Initially, we are looking for comments about the proposal from the community. If necessary, changes to the proposal will be implemented.

Once approved, the 1Hive team will begin to create a spreadsheet that details the allocations of each team member, based on their contribution to the project. This will be a living document and we will continue to iterate on it and come to a consensus before we issue funds from the multi-sig.

Timeline:

The RFC phase will be followed by the vote. After the RFC phase, the multisig funding address will be included in the Snapshot vote making this an executable proposal.

Once approved, as stated above, we will begin the spreadsheet to allocate rewards based on work completed, dedication to the project, as well as other factors determined by the Buzz DAO. We will continue to maintain transparency on this, and provide updates to any questions to the community as we go.

Overall Cost:

We have calculated the cost to perform the tasks to launch xPollinate with the support of 1Hive developers, marketing experts, support staff, and business development at a total of $66,155.

This includes the following:

• Medium Articles
• Banners
• Content Creation (3 videos)
• Updates to Wiki pages
• Content Coordination
• Designs
• xPollinate Dev Work
• Including 2 devs for FE & debugging
• xPollinate Dev Coordination
• Podcasts
• Scope creation meetings
• Troubleshooting bugs
• xPollinate bridge support (with over 320 unique inquiries)
• Monthly recaps
• Integration of xPollinate bridge on Honeyswap landing page
• 1xDAI bounty from 1Hive for utilizing the xPollinate bridge to first time users
• Translations to Spanish, Turkish, and other languages for bridge materials (videos, articles, twitter)
• Twitter campaigns
• Adding tutorials for bridging through the Landing Page
• Fee subsidization proposal from xDAI
• Ramp bounties

Buzz DAO (1Hive), requests a one-time retroactive payment for their pivotal role in developing the Connext xPollinate bridge. This bridge facilitated a remarkable $1.2B in transactions, offering a vital alternative to Ethereum's high gas fees. Despite the success and significant volume driven by the efforts, development and skills, BuzzDAO (1Hive) was excluded from the initial NEXT token allocation.

BuzzDAO (1Hive) is seeking 360,000 NEXT tokens, this sum is curated by various factors, including their early involvement, the significant volume generated by their efforts, and their vested interest in NEXT despite market fluctuations, and the exclusion from the airdrop.

Thank you for taking the time to consider our proposal. We are happy to elaborate more, or answer any questions the community might have. We look forward to our future support, and are happy and excited to be able to shape the future of Connext.