[EP 6.3] [Social] Renew Service Provider Budget

The Service Provider's streams were initiated almost exactly a year ago, and while it's approved for 18 months, it is supposed to be a program reevaluated yearly. Here is the proposed format for this year. This vote intends to be a DAO check on whether to renew the program and if so, under what budget.

Vote

The vote will be a Ranked Choice Vote on either to approve or reject and budget. Options will be:

• Renew and increase budget to $4.5 Million per year
• Renew and maintain budget at $3.6 Million per year
• Renew but reduce budget to $2.7 Million per year
• Do not renew the program.

The budget is set per year. However the actual required budget will need to cover 19 months, because as detailed below, 1/3 of the streams will be budgeted for 2 years and we will add another 3 months of runway to make sure the program is not interrupted by eventual delays in the 2026 vote.

What is the Service Provider Program

The ENS constitution states that "Any income generated to the ENS treasury is to be used first of all to ensure the long-term viability of ENS, and to fund continuing development and improvement of the ENS system.". The goal of this program is to create a more diverse and decentralized base of developers and companies involved in the improvement of the ENS system, by creating a guaranteed income stream to support their continued work. Streams last at least one year.

Who can apply?

Any company offering services they believe will add value to the ENS ecosystem is eligible to apply. While this process has traditionally focused on developers, delegates now have discretion to determine what services qualify as beneficial.

Eligibility Requirements:

• The applicant must be an existing company, over one year old, with an established team and reputation.
• The company or its team members must have serious prior experience with ENS, blockchain, or internet domain related projects.
• The company must secure endorsement of at least 50k delegated ENS tokens, either through public backing by a delegate or by demonstrating support via Snapshot.
• Neither the company nor its team members may reside in OFAC-sanctioned countries.

Submission Process

Candidates will be required to submit a proposal demonstrating their eligibility and outlining their plans. The proposal must include the following:

1. Past Achievements:
   A list of their accomplishments in ENS, the blockchain space, or domain systems.

2. Scope of Work and Budgets:

   • A basic scope, which outlines the minimum yearly budget they would accept to perform their work, along with the specific goals and deliverables they aim to accomplish within that budget.
   • Optionally, they may also provide an extended scope, which includes an increased budget and details the additional projects or goals they would pursue if granted this higher budget.

3. Proposal Format:
   The submission must be provided both as a written document and as a short video (no longer than 5 minutes) where the team discusses the above points.

4. Quarterly KPIs:
   The proposal must include a set of quarterly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to define what "success" looks like for their basic and extended scope. These may include specific targets, such as product releases, user acquisition numbers, or other measurable metrics that can be used to evaluate their progress against their own promises. Althought we encourage developers to explore new areas of research outside these given metrics, considerable thought should be given to these metrics, and every quarter you will be required to post an update on them. Failing targets in two consecutive targets will trigger a Service Assessement (see below) by Metagov stewards.

5. Budget Guidelines:

   • All budgets must be submitted as integer multiples of $100k per year.
   • The minimum budget request is $300k per year, and the maximum is $1.3M per year.

What will be selection proccess look like?

1. Eligibility & Voting

   • The MetaGov Working Group reviews candidates for eligibility.
   • Eligible candidates are included in a ranked-choice DAO vote with the option "None Below".
   • A quorum of 1M ENS votes is required; otherwise, the process halts and a new vote is conducted.

2. Budget Streams

   • Two-Year Stream: 1/3 of the yearly budget for a two-year duration.
   • One-Year Stream: Remaining 2/3 of the yearly budget for one year.

3. Evaluation Process
   Projects are assessed in ranked order:

   • If "None Below" is reached, evaluation stops.
   • If the candidate has been part of the Service provider program for at least a year AND if the extended budget fits within the remaining two-year stream budget, assign to the two-year stream . Subtract the extended budget from the two-year stream budget.
   • Assign to the one-year stream if:
     1. The extended budget fits the one-year budget. Subtract its extended budget from the one-year stream.
     2. OR if the basic budget fits the one-year budget, subtract the its basic budget from the one-year stream.
   • If none of these conditions are met, the project is eliminated.

4. Completion

   • Evaluation ends when all projects are assessed, the remaining budget on all streams reaches zero or "None Below" is selected.

Relevant Dates

The Submission process will start as soon as this vote ends, the deadline for submission of proposals will be March 31st* and the vote for the selection will start soon after that. Those with the two year stream will be guaranteed a stream until at least february 2027, while the others will be at least february 2026, when they will need to submit again.

Resposibilities for selected service providers

Brand name and association with ENS DAO

Selected providers will be rewarded with the streams, but will also carry the responsibility to represent ENS to the world. They will be granted usage of the ENS brand name (within guidelines).

The stream will be managed by the Metagovernance Stewards, but they are to enact representing the DAO's intent. They will have access to pause or move streams due to security concerns or upon the request of the service provider. They can only terminate a stream if there is a sucessful DAO vote requesting them to do so (which the DAO is free to do at any point for any reason).

Open Source

All work done directly funded by this program must be Open Source and Freely Licensed (MIT). Service Providers are free to also have proprietary codebases but the works establised in their proposals and quarterly reports must also be available on github or other public repositories.

Quarterly reports

Service Providers must provide a detailed written report on their accomplishments every quarter. They are also required to present at working group meetings when requested by stewards and to give at least one presentation at a conference each year (remote attendance is acceptable if necessary). These reports must include any metrics or KPIs promised for the reporting quarter, as well as any new metrics or KPIs proposed for future quarters. Additionally, the report must state the total amount received during the quarter. While Service Providers are encouraged to include financial spending details, this is at their discretion and not a mandatory requirement.

Increased funding

Selected service providers may request specific, non-recurring grants at any time, following the usual governance process on the forum. However, to request an increase in their ongoing stream budget, they must meet the following conditions:

• They must have been a service provider for at least one year.
• At least six months must have passed since their most recent stream-related request, whether it was part of a service provider submission or another stream adjustment process, regardless of either it was sucessful or not.

Service Providers can terminate their own stream at any time without notice, thus liberating them from any further obligations towards the DAO. (Note: Terminating their stream does not exempt them from potential liability for any misconduct or unresolved issues.)

Responsabilities for Metagov Working Group

The ENS DAO can terminate streams for any reason following the proper governance procedure and after a DAO vote. Additionally, Metagov or Ecosystem Stewards can and should trigger a Service Assessement if any of these conditions are met:

• A service provider fails to publish their quaterly report twice
• A service provider falls short of the KPIs on their proposal twice in a row.
• A service provider is unresponsive to attempts to contact them
• A service provider is believed to be actively participating in a behavior or project that is considered harmful to the ENS system or brand.

The Metagov Working will then appoint a person that will conduct an investigation on the claims and publish recommendations on how to solve the issue moving forward. Solutions might include (but are not limited to) a reconsideration of new KPIs, a demand of internal reorganization for the service provider, a renegotiation of terms or even the termination from the program. Once the report is published, a DAO wide vote will executed to decide on the proper outcome for the provider.