GIP-114: Should GnosisDAO support an annual renewal for Blockscout SLA and hosting services - October 2024 - October 2025?

Executive Summary

Blockscout continues to be an integral part of the Gnosis ecosystem, providing critical blockchain explorer services for both the Gnosis mainnet and Chiado testnet. The open-source explorer has not only attracted and retained users but has also become an indispensable tool for Gnosis developers. We propose to continue our partnership, offering enhanced services and cutting-edge features to further elevate the Gnosis user experience.

Demonstrated Value

Over the previous year (since our last update in GIP 89), Blockscout has delivered significant value and seen steady usage by the community. The high-level numbers included here come from Mixpanel and directly from the Gnosis Blockscout instance covering stats from September 1, 2023 through September 1, 2024 :

Robust User Base:

• Monthly active users increased from 11.2K in September 2023 to 28.4K in August 2024. High traffic months included December 2023 with 45,069 MAU and June 2024 with 41,113 MAU.
• 115K average monthly page views over the previous year

Developer Support:

• 42K verified contracts (all time)

User Engagement:

• ~4.2K signups to myAccount (since Oct 1, 2023)

Features and Improvements

Over the past year, we've implemented major features through standalone upgrades and significant backend (V6+) and frontend improvements (v1.2+) including:

• User Operations Support - https://gnosis.blockscout.com/ops
• Human-readable transactions
• Public tagging and tags submission
• Name Service support
• API and CSV export improvements
• SolidityScan security scores
• DAppscout improvements including star rating, DeFi menu and tooling, additional sorting features and more.

Roadmap for the upcoming year

• Advanced filtering and sorting options
• Account Abstraction improvements
• NFT explorer enhancements
• Additional DeFi integrations
• Statistics and Analytics improvements (additional views, ability to zoom)
• Multichain search
• User engagement and retention mechanisms

Bridged Transactions

In addition to the roadmap items above, we will create a custom view for xDai bridge transactions providing similar functionality to the current Bridged Deposit Transactions view in Gnosisscan (https://gnosisscan.io/txnbridge). This view provides insights into xDai origination and allows for better tracking and transparency.

Our Commitment

Gnosis is one of the original Blockscout instances and will continue to receive priority updates, services and new features as they are developed. Blockscout will continue to provide superior service for the Gnosis ecosystem.

1. Maintain and host Blockscout instances for Gnosis Chain and Chiado testnet.
2. Provide premium feature updates.
3. Offer an SLA that prioritizes maximum uptime, speed, and db optimizations.
4. Deliver dedicated support via Discord.

Timeline and Financial Proposition

We propose a renewal of our 12-month engagement backdated to begin on 1 October 2024 and continuing through 1 October 2025. Over the past year we have optimized our hosting operations and on-premise infrastructure and are pleased to offer a 20% discount on our hosting services for 2024-25.

• Gnosis Chain Mainnet and archive node: $6,400/month (was $8000 per month) for a total 12 month cost of $76,800
• Chiado Testnet and archive node: $3,200/month (was $4,000/month) for a total 12 month cost of $38,400

Total Investment: $115,200

This represents a $28,800 per year reduction from our 2023 pricing, reflecting our commitment to value and support for the Gnosis ecosystem.

Amount is requested up front for the year. Payment can be made to Blockscout’s SAFE 0xAddress on Ethereum mainnet (0x242ba6d68FfEb4a098B591B32d370F973FF882B7) with USDC or USDT.

Ongoing Support & Continued Growth

Blockscout has a proven track record of providing high-quality, reliable and affordable explorer services. We’ve worked hard over the past year to optimize our offerings and close the gap between features provided by closed source explorers and our open-source explorer. We’ve provided resilience and redundancy over the past year during numerous Gnosisscan outages. Above and beyond our parity with other scanners, we are dedicated to developing new and innovative features to support Gnosis as a standalone ecosystem as well as its role in the multichain future.

By renewing our partnership, you're not just getting a blockchain explorer – you're investing in the continued growth and success of the Gnosis ecosystem. Let's continue building the future of blockchain exploration together!