DAO Contributor: Developer Evangelist & Integration Specialist extension #2

Intention

My intention is to continue as a DAO contributor to assist as a developer evangelist & integration specialist. My goal is to continue expanding the network’s developer ecosystem and removing existing and potential implementation blockers.

Overview

This proposal aims to extend my commitment & contribution to the SSV DAO and builds upon my original proposal. My background information can be seen in the original one, in this proposal I will summarize my work for the DAO so far and propose further cooperation.

Summary of my contribution

Here is a summary of my work I have been conducting for the DAO thus far. For more details I have posted my work reports in the original proposal.

Main Ongoing Work

• Grantees
  • Application process I am offering feedback and suggestions to grantee applicants on their applications, to point out if their solution is not technically feasible or problematic, help them adjust it and succeed in the grant process. This includes clearing out technical challenges and what solutions they may use to overcome them and making sure the applications are clear and adhere to all the requirements specified by the Grants committee.
  • Product feedback If the team does not have yet fully formed and differentiated product, I am helping them with ideating through this stage, make it fit a niche within the SSV ecosystem and overall ETH staking one.
  • Ongoing Grantee support Making sure to help grantees overcome blockers they may have, connect them to potential partners and help them in the process.
  • Milestone submission Checking milestones, offering feedback and working out issues that arise.
• Grant process
  • Working with the Grant committee on streamlining and standardizing the whole grants process, lowering overhead & management complexity, to be able to onboard more grantees and keep the team lean.
  • This includes making sure we have good templates for grant application, milestone submission among others.

Other works / Publications

To see the content of this section please see the forum post linked to this proposal, due to incompatibility of linked resources it is not included here.

https://forum.ssv.network/t/dao-contributor-developer-evangelist-integration-specialist-extension-2/1124

Conferences

• UTXO conference

  • I have represented SSV DAO at this event, established relationships with new hackers, new & old partners and was spreading the SSV gospel to the wider crypto community. I have given a talk(abstract) at this event , the video of my presentation should be here soon on the official youtube channel. * * In this presentation I talk about what are the forces influencing the Etherum staking and what will be the variables determining the final outcome.

• Prague DeFi Summit + ETHPrague

  • I have represented SSV DAO at this event, established relationships with new hackers, new & old partners and was spreading the SSV gospel to the wider crypto community. I have done a workshop(abstract) at this event, the video can be seen here. * * In this workshop I walk participants through launching their own fully functioning staking pool with fully working frontend and backend. *
  • I have organized the first SSV community meetup so that SSV builders & enthusiasts can connect with the team and each other.

• ETHCC

  • I have represented SSV DAO at this event, established relationships with new hackers, new & old partners and was spreading the SSV gospel to the wider crypto community. I have done a workshop(abstract) at this event. * * In this workshop I walk participants through launching their own fully functioning staking pool with fully working frontend and backend.
  • I have organized another SSV community meetup so that SSV builders & enthusiasts can connect with the team and each other.

Plan of action for the next 6 months

Main - Rolling out mainnet

SSV network is already live on Mainnet, however it is a multi stage process, which will take months to complete. We need to make sure we help our grantees & partners in all possible ways to succeed. That obviously means making sure their SSV integration is sound from the design perspective, all edge cases are covered and the integration is sound.

For those teams that are still considering the best go to market strategy and target audience I am also exploring ideas on how to differentiate their product, what features to include and how to have the most sensible SSV integration given their products and goals.

This is an area where my skill set and experience with creating products comes very handy. I have been involved with creating products both before I became in crypto and after, have a deep understanding of both the marketing of the equation - how to position & differentiate the product and also the technical side - what is possible to implement and how to do so. Here I am leveraging my experience working on liquid staking solutions in the past as well as my knowledge of the SSV protocol and Ethereum staking in general.

Developer resources

Ecosystem developer tooling is one of the most important things for any open source project. We have seen first hand how hard it is to replicate the success of Ethereum. One of the key ingredients of this success is undeniably due to its developer tooling & resources.

In this area the main push will be on building SSV SDK. This SDK would create + format all inputs necessary for interacting with SSV network smart contracts and format their outputs. so they are easily usable in your backend system. It could also handle creation of the validator key from your secret, exit message or changing of fee recipient

Purpose of this SDK is to allow developers build blazing fast and super safe staking apps. Its design aims to address both Complexity and Safety issues, while making the SDK easily composable with other user generated functions and modules. It aims to do so by logically separating the SDK into internal module which is handling the secret and external module which provides good developer experience.

Other areas of focus that I currently explore is the development of subgraph for SSV and other tools that should make the building of SSV based staking apps as easy as possible.

Reporting

I will provide reporting of my activities that I perform in accordance with my goal & responsibilities & DAO needs. Reporting shall be done publicly to the DAO.

Reporting shall be done publicly to the DAO on the ssv.network forum at least every second month. The report should include the main objectives for the upcoming month(s), a recap of the activities worked on in the past month(s), ongoing work, and any side objectives, including recommendations to improve the DAO’s efficiency and governance. These objectives are subject to change based on the DAO’s needs.

Travel Plan

As I have done at the previous events and conferences where I represented SSV DAO thus far, I will continue organizing SSV community meetups, workshops on how to implement our tech and giving SSV related talks. So far I plan to attend the events listed below. My final travel plans may change I may attend fewer or more conferences due to other work responsibilities or personal reasons.

I am planning to represent SSV DAO at these events thus far:

• Nov 13-19 – Devconnect (Istanbul)
• Nov 16-19 – Pragma & ETHGlobal Istanbul

Travel and general expenses coverage

• The DAO covers travel and general expenses related to the fulfillment of work responsibilities, including transportation, accommodation, and other work-related expenses. These expenses must be pre-approved and submitted through the ssv.network forum.
• The DAO might request me to join typical industry events without extra compensation. The exception to that is if travel takes longer than 4 hours (excluding the event) or the stay is longer than 3 days, in which case additional compensation may be provided. In any case, the daily lodging expenses are capped at the standard per diem rates according to the following databases: International | US.

Compensation and Commitment

Compensation

All payments will be denominated 100% in SSV based on a 30-day trailing price average, calculated on the 1st day of the following month. Transfers shall be divided monthly and executed at the beginning of each calendar month for services rendered in the previous one. In case the payment is not executed in the given month, the payment shall be based on the latest SSV 30-day trailing price average before its execution to best reflect its USD value. I also ask for the backdated compensation of the currently active proposal to be recalculated based on this principle since it best reflects the agreed USD value of the compensation.

For my time and effort I’m asking a yearly rate of $156,000 USD. This would amount to a monthly payment of $13 000 (156 000/12) and overall payment of $78 000 for the duration of the grant paid in SSV under the conditions specified above.

In addition to the monthly compensation, 1000 SSV tokens shall be distributed as a bonus, but only if I remain active for the entire duration of this agreement. This incentivizes ongoing commitment and aligns my interests with the long-term success of the DAO.

Period of validity & Termination

This relationship will last for 6 month starting at 19th September 2023 (the next day after current proposal expires) and will cease at any time following a decision of the DAO.

I as contributor may terminate my assignment at any time. The engagement can also be terminated by the DAO or anyone appointed by the DAO, especially the dGC. Any decision made can be overruled by the DAO via formal voting. The contributor shall cease any action related to this engagement on the seventh (7) day following such decision. In any case, compensation shall be awarded until the 7th day. My primary area and preferred time zone for the length of this engagement are South-east Asia and UTC+8 respectively.

Commitment

This is a full time commitment. During the term of my engagement with the DAO and while receiving grants from it, I shall not work for any business, protocol, or DAO which is reasonably likely to interfere or compete with SSV.Network. This does not include activities that are not commercial such as collaborating with the Ethereum Foundation.

Clarifications

This engagement is not an employment agreement, and it does not create an employment relationship. Accordingly, I shall not be entitled to any benefits (pension, health insurance/medical coverage, etc.) associated with an employment relationship.

I warrant that my skills in the context mentioned in this proposal shall be put to the service of the DAO and the ssv.network and not to any of its members to whom I have no direct relationship or obligation.

I do not have the power to commit on behalf of the DAO and I shall not present myself as having such power.