[DIP-5] Grant Program and Committee

Intro and Motivation

The Grant Program and the Grant Committee were created in pursuant to ssv.network DAO resolution from May 27, 2022: https://snapshot.org/#/mainnet.ssvnetwork.eth/proposal/0xb80b5ed3576d733eae0b34216eb8e1dbb086bebde63f0b0702164d2d5b1964f8 with the aim of promoting development and innovation by leading projects on the ssv.network. The funding for the grants shall be based on both the network DAO’s treasury and the minting of new SSV tokens.

Due to changing circumstances since the resolution has been made, including price fluctuations, the necessity to replace committee members, and other implications not foreseen at the time of the resolution, it is hereby proposed to replace it with this one. This resolution shall become effective as of the date of its approval with no retroactive effect.

The grants shall serve as funding for developers aiming at incentivizing projects and developers to become part of the ssv.network ecosystem and thus contributing to its improvement and development. The scope of development to be gained by grantees’ development should span from fundamentals to the cherry on the top of the protocol, and from accessibility tools to bug bounties.

Grants Specifications

The previous Grant Program approved a budget of 150,000 SSV & 1,500,000 USDC, noting that at the time the total USD value was approximately 3,000,000 altogether. It also approved minting of 300,000 SSV tokens for bug bounty.

At the time of submitting this proposal (August 13, 2023), the remaining budget of the committee consists of 110.081 SSV & 1.166.475 USDC.

For clarification and in order to avoid discrepancies, for future grants the Committee is requesting a budget of:

1. An additional 2.000.000 USD denominated in SSV.
2. 1.000.000,00 USD denominated in SSV tokens to be used solely for a bug bounty grant. These tokens will be minted by the DAO to the DAO Treasury and designated for this purpose. If the bug bounty program funds were to drop below 500.000 USD denominated in SSV, the DAO will, at its earliest convenience, mint SSV so that the bug bounty’s total amount is 1.000.000 USD denominated in SSV. No additional SSV will be minted once a total of 150,000 SSV has been minted in the way described previously or if instructed by the Grants Committee.

Grantees requesting a grant will be required to denominate their grant amount in USD. The grant amount will be provided to the grantee exclusively in SSV. The SSV granted will use the Binance trailing average USD value of SSV for the past 90 days from the date of the milestone approval. The Committee will endeavor to effect the milestone payment no later than 45 days from the day of the milestone approval. If the price of SSV were to fall under 10 USD per SSV at the time of milestone approval, the grantee will receive an SSV amount equal to 10 USD per SSV. The same 10 USD floor price will be applicable to the bug bounty as well.

All grants payments shall be executed by the Multi-Sig Committee. The Grants Committee shall inform the Multi-Sig Committee on any successful applicant with all relevant information in order to execute the grant.

The Committee will publish a brief overview of its evaluation criteria and will make public relevant information about successful grants applications.

The Grants Committee shall have full authority and discretion to:

1. Set the application and decision making procedures for the Grants Committee, excluding the cases for approving grants or adding or removing members described by the Grants Program and Committee Proposal Revision described below.

2. Choose the Mainnet Launch partners for the ssv.network Mainnet Launch by a simple majority vote of the committee members to whitelist Mainnet Launch partners:

   • I. The ssv.network under its Mainnet Rollout Plan has four different phases.
   • II. During the Launch phase the ssv.network will introduce builders (different staking applications such as staking pools and staking services) to aid in testing the network at scale.
   • III. Partners will be chosen from the pool of established teams that have received grants through our grants program. Selection will prioritize those who have demonstrated reliability, professionalism, and a strong capacity to execute in alignment with the ssv.network mainnet rollout. These teams will be whitelisted as partners to participate and help the ssv.network grow.
   • IV. The Multisig is required to sign this whitelist transaction if instructed by the majority of the Grants Committee mentioned above.

3. Choose the successful applicants and their respective sums, including USDC/SSV allocation.

4. Unwind the committee and the Grants Program prior to allocating the full sums at its disposal.

5. Set its internal working procedures. Nonetheless, a decision on a successful grantee or bug bounty recipient will be made according to the following tiers:

   • I. Any commitment for a grant or bug bounty worth of up to US $5,000: by a single Committee member.
   • II. Any commitment to a grant or bug bounty worth between US $5,000 to US $15,000: by two Committee members.
   • III. Each Committee member can approve up to two grants or bug bounties worth up to US $5,000, or be a part of two duo grant or bug bounty approvals for a commitment of US $5,000 to US $15,000, during a calendar yearly quarter. After the calendar yearly quarter expires, the Committee members can approve grants and bug bounty in the previously described fashion again.
   • IV. Any commitment to a grant or bug bounty worth more than US $15,000: by a majority vote of the Committee members.

The Committee shall inform all applicants that it may withdraw or terminate any pending grant, or part of a grant, at any time, if it has determined that the grantee has stopped working on the project for which the grant was approved, or if its deliverables do not meet a minimum professional threshold to be determined at the Committee’s full discretion. Such withdrawal or termination shall be executed by a unanimous vote of the Committee members and a written notice to the grantee. In case of withdrawal or termination any outstanding grants, or part of grants, will not be paid.

The Committee shall be an ad-hoc committee. It will cease to operate once all sums at its disposal have been paid.

Members of the Grants Committee

• Yorick (discord: yorickdowne)
• Marc (discord: marc_blockshard)
• Eridian (discord: eridianalpha)
• Taiga (discord: zktaiga)
• Blox representative

Adding and Removing Members

1. A DAO’s vote for replacing, adding, or removing a member, or amending the structure of the committee is binding and overrides any decision made by the Committee.
2. Replacing one existing member with another, by naming both the removed member and the suggested replacement at the same time, can be done by a ⅔ majority of the members of the Committee, subject to informing the community at least fourteen (14) days prior to such a vote, thus allowing the community to express its non-binding will.
3. If a member of the Committee informs the Committee about his/her wish to be removed from the Committee, a replacement can be voted in by a simple majority. The validity of such a vote is subject to: (i) informing the community at least seven (7) days prior to the vote about who is the leaving member and who is the suggested replacement, and (ii) informing the community no more than seven (7) days after the vote on its results.

Committee Compensation

Each Committee member shall receive $1500 per month denominated in SSV based on a 30-day trailing average, calculated on the 1st day of the following month using Binance as a price reference.