DAO GRANTS PROGRAM - BUDGETARY REDISTRIBUTION

by 0x858343382132b9ab46c857a7d52fdbafc039f784 (Zino)

Linked Pre-Proposal

DAO grants program - create the Community Building category

Summary

Define a budgeting strategy for the DAO’s Grants Program to secure the good standing of the treasury and long-term operations of the DAO.

Abstract

The Decentraland DAO has been granted a 10-year vesting contract worth 222M MANA starting Feb 19, 2020. The MANA in this contract vests every second, thus gradually increasing the size of the DAO’s fund at a rate of 1.8M MANA per month. Also, the DAO has its revenue streams, such as marketplace fees and wearable curation fees.

During the Q4 of 2022, the DAO decides through the governance process to define a strategy to limit the maximum amount of funds that can be allocated quarterly via the Grants Program.

Motivation

After an analysis from the Grant Support Squad on Q2 funded grants, an open session with the community, and hearing thoughts on the previous pre-poll governance, we have understood the following insights, aligned with the proposed new categorizations of grants:

• In World content (In world Building)= As this category was used fully and grants under this category have passed but due to lack of funding they were not granted, we propose to increase this category from 20% to 35%.
• Platform = As in Q2 this category was used by 19.83%, we are proposing to decrease this category from 40% to 20.
• Core Unit 15% = Left as it was as it was enough to cover its needs and fund new proposals under the category. Sponsorship = as in Q2 the usage of this category was 0%, we are decreasing this category from 10 to 2 %.
• Documentation = As in Q2 the usage of this category was 0% as the only grant that passed was nos compliant with the grantees proposal for this category, we are adding a new category that can cover our community’s needs (Community Experiences) and we are decreasing from 3% to 1% (which for Q3 would have represented $14630 DAI)
• Social Media Content = In Q2, the usage of this category was 0%. We are decreasing this category from 5% to 2%. We are aware that the total 5% of the budget for this category was used, but we’d like to encourage the social media content creators to be able to bring their communities to experiences in the Reference Client, and they would be covered in the Community Experiences category.
• Accelerator = From 7 to 10% because it was a short budget for the requested grants in Q2.
• Community Experience (new category) = assigning 15% (this category aims to bring people together in the reference client to generate community engagement. This can include creating wearables and emotes, or organizing events to gather with others and ignite fun community interactions. Please check out the governance proposal named “DAO GRANTS PROGRAM - NEW CATEGORY: COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES” for more information.

Specification

The Grants Program is divided into four periods (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4). At the beginning of each quarter the maximum amount of money that can be allocated through the Grants Program will be defined using the formula: 5,500,000 * MANA_PRICE * 0.7

Below is the proposed distribution for the next quarter (Q4, 2023) aligned with the proposed new categorizations of grants, including the quarter budgets using the previous example of a MANA price of $0.38:

• In World Building 35% = $512,050 USD
• Community Experiences 15% = 219,450 USD
• Platform 20% = $ 292,600 USD
• Core Unit 15% = $ 219,450 USD
• Sponsorship 2% = $ 29,260 USD
• Documentation 1% = $ 14,630 USD
• Social Media Content 2% = $ 29,260 USD
• Accelerator 10% = $ 146,300 USD

Conclusion

The DAO has an income of 1.8M MANA every month and should set up a limit control to spend at most 70% of such a stream. This will mitigate the risk of running out of funds in the next 7 years. The DAO should agree on limits for each category to distribute the funds based on a targeted strategy. This will encourage initiatives in underfunded categories. This approach aims to foster growth and development within the Decentraland ecosystem while ensuring fair allocation across different categories of projects, increasing those which aim to build architecture to populate Land In world building (current In-world content) and bring people together in the reference client to generate community engagement Community experiences (In poll named Community Builders).

Also, The DAO can change this distribution in the future via a Governance Proposal.

This proposal is summarized due to technical limitations. To view it complete and vote on it, visit the DCL DAO Governance dApp