DAO Global Hackathon hosted by Aragon

Username

Ivan (Ecosystem at Aragon)

Grant Description

Aragon is inviting Syntehtix to co-sponsor The DAO Global Hackathon to the extent of $12,000 USD. The Hackathon is a 4-week virtual event where hackers will leverage cutting-edge governance primitives and existing tools to enable the next generation of DAOs. Taking place online in Spring 2023, the Hackathon will bring together hackers, builders and DAO operators to create solutions that DAOs will use in the real world.

Overview

The proposal for Synthetix to provide bounty funds for the 2023 DAO Global Hackathon, organized by Aragon, presents a unique opportunity to drive developer engagement for Synthetix as a protocol and DAO. The hackathon, divided into four "Hack Tracks," allows Synthetix to allocate funds across multiple bounties and tracks, providing developers with many opportunities to win bounties. This flexibility allows Synthetix to choose a track that aligns with its goals and objectives or spread the funds across multiple tracks.

100% of the $12K in grant funds would go to the winning hackers and entirely for the benefit of the Synthetix ecosystem. There are 4 “Hack Tracks” to which partners may allocate their funds, including splitting funds across multiple bounties and tracks:

1. Integration track (for partners looking to grow their partner universe): Two or more partners jointly offer a shared bounty that combines their products to address a user need or create a DAO process flow.
2. Use case track (for partners looking to discover interesting applications of their product): Partners offer open-ended or specific bounties to extend their product's functionality or to address a specific audience. (i.e. drive synthetic asset usage across DAOs)
3. Solution track (for DAOs facing a specific organizational challenge): The sponsoring DAO creates a bounty to solve a specific problem they face. (i.e. improve council activity transparency for a better token holder experience)
4. Freestyle track (for partners who don’t want to manage bounties): The partner contributes to a prize pool that a panel of judges will distribute to selected submissions across the other 3 tracks.

Aragon, the organizer of the hackathon, is a leading provider of DAO infrastructure and has successfully run a DAO tooling hackathon in late 2021 with over 1000 participants, 23 partners, and 30+ bounties (see site: https://hackforfreedom.org/). This year, Aragon is partnering with HackerEarth to ensure an outstanding hackathon experience from platform to marketing to community management/support. Aragon is covering all costs related to the organization of the 4-week virtual hackathon to allow co-sponsoring partners to direct 100% of the funds they dedicate directly to hackers.

Value to Synthetix

By co-sponsoring the Hackathon, Synthetix will be able to draw developer attention to its protocol and its DAO. The unique format of the Hackathon provides Synthetix with the flexibility to direct resources towards improving token holder and contributor experience (e.g. track 3) or towards improving the accessibility and user-friendliness of its protocol (e.g. tracks 1 and 2). More specifically with respect to protocol growth, Synthetix can leverage the focus of the Hackathon on DAOs, to incentivize the introduction or streamlining of functionalities catering specifically to DAO treasuries as a vertical. If Synthetix DAO does not have the spare capacity to craft specific bounties track 4 is also a great option to promote the development of DAO infrastructure and support the growth of web3 developer community. Importantly all funds contributed by co-sponsors go directly toward the winning teams.

Bounties will be listed on the Hackathon website and a public call for participants leveraging HackerEarth’s global community of 8 million developers, as well as through Aragon and partner networks. Aragon will provide prompts and a communication schedule to make it easier for co-sponsors to amplify the Hackathon through their respective channels. Several educational and networking events throughout the Hackathon.

Project Implementation Plan

The Hackathon is currently in the planning stage, and we have already confirmed multiple partners, including ENS, Snapshot, Exponent, and others. Our implementation schedule for the hackathon includes the following key steps:

• In January, we are updating marketing and assets, recruiting sponsors and partners, and testing the HackerEarth platform for a smooth hackathon experience.
• In February, we will open registration for hackers and activate marketing and community-building efforts across our partners. We will also finish the sponsors' list and determine judges and mentors for the hackathon.
• In March, we will confirm the details of the bounties, finalize the schedule and agenda, and ensure that demos and presentations are ready for the hackathon.
• In April, we will launch the 4-week hackathon and facilitate team formation to tackle bounties. Partner presentations will also be ongoing throughout the hackathon.
• In May, judges will announce the winners, and bounties will be distributed. We will continue growing the DAO hacker and partner community alongside the Synthetix ecosystem.

Additional Information

Participating in tracks 1, 2, and 3 means that a contributor/s from Synthetix will be responsible for drafting the bounty and evaluating submissions. Synthetix will determine the winning submission for those bounties and reward the bounty to the respective team. If Synthetix bounty receives no valid and complete submissions, Synthetix will not be spending the associated funds. Hackathon teams will develop and submit their projects by the deadline on the HackerEarth platform.

The Hackathon will be hosted and promoted via the HackerEarth platform, with over a decade of experience hosting hackathons to their massive global community of professional devs, including directly to an estimated 25-30% of the total web3 developer community. Aragon will provide additional marketing, comms, support, and infrastructure before, during, and after the hackathon, working with partners to amplify its efforts.

Promo Deck: https://docsend.com/view/q3a2n2qkmcabbueu

Funding Request

We propose that Synthetix fund $12,000 USD in bounties to award across hackathon tracks. Partner levels, offering extra benefits based on funding amount, include: Summoner ($20,000+), Governor ($12,000+), Steward ($9,000+), Contributor ($3,000+). The minimum funding for the Governor level includes large brand placement in Hackathon marketing and 2 presentation slots. We also recommend to co-sponsors holding weekly 30-min office hours to support developers working on their bounties.

Aragon is covering Hackathon infrastructure and platform expenses. 100% of the funding will go directly to one or more hackathon bounties that would be defined, owned, and awarded by the Synthetix granting team. Alternatively, the funds could be allocated to the Freestyle Track of the hackathon, in which it would be distributed across the other bounties. In the latter case, a panel of judges would select winners and Synthetix would be able to secure a judge seat.