Asking for 7k in ARB to help Fund Unlock Protocol’s Ecosystem via Grants Stack

This proposal requests to use 7k in Arb tokens given to Unlock Protocol Labs by ArbitrumDAO to run a retroQF round on Grants Stack, to help incentivize AND reward builders using Unlock Protocol in an open, transparent, and democratic way. Our goal is to help fund at least 20 projects with this funding. If successful we will look to run more rounds (every 1-2 quarters) to help encourage builders, creators, and communities to use Unlock Protocol.

This proposal was inspired by conversations during the open DAO community calls over the last few months, and further discussions were had in the #Unlock-DAO discord channel as well as on the community forum to help craft this proposal. Those discussions included: blahkheart - stellaachenbach - lanzdingz - Julien | Ʉnlock - ccarfi | Ʉnlock - ramitphi - Victorius - Zet | Cyberfallout - Wonderwomancode

We will leverage QF funding mechanisms to help retroactively fund projects that the community deems valuable to the Unlock Ecosystem. If you have seen or been a part of a Gitcoin round, this is the same process, just with a focus on the Unlock Protocol Ecosystem.

Only projects and teams who have integrated and used Unlock Protocol in a meaningful and impactful way will be eligible.

This is a temperature check and if this proposal passes, we will move to DAO vote. If rejected we will take into account community feedback and update the proposal. You can find more on this topic/ current discussions in the forum - https://unlock.community/t/funding-unlock-protocol-s-ecosystem-using-retroqf-grants-gitcoins-grants-stack/494

Some eligibility criteria to be eligible for the round:

• Must have integrated Unlock Protocol into their project or used Unlock for ticketing
• Must be deployed on Arbtrium (can vote on this separately if we need)
• Must disclose amount of NFTs/Certifications/memberships/tickets minted (and point to proof) 50 mints (total) min as an example
• Needs to write a brief description/how the project positively impacted the Unlock Community and therefore is eligible for the round
• This is retro funding, meaning the project needs to have already been launched/the event has already happened -link in social profiles
• link github repo (if they have it)
• share info on their team (are they solo or a group)
• tweet about the round/unlock protocol

We will verify to criteria before approving projects to participate in the round + there is gitcoin passport enabled to help ensure the round isn’t sybil attacked.

Also proposing a 20% matching cap - what this means is that any 1 project can only acquire a max of 20% of the total matching pool (Example - if the matching pool is 8000 in ARB, a project can only receive a max of 1600 ARB in matching funds) this ensures that more projects can be rewarded vs 1-2 larger projects capturing all the matching pool (this also helps with social collusion)

We want to find a way to meaningfully reward projects that have used Unlock for ticketing/ memberships and events, and projects that have integrated Unlock Protocol within their tech stack, in a fair way, at scale, and in public.

TLDR; We reward projects using Unlock Protocol and Unlock Protocol is rewarded through increased usage, transactions and ecosystem growth.

ROI and benefits for the DAO/Unlock Ecosystem: Our goal is to help reward at least 20 projects that have meaningfully used Unlock Protocol.

• Allows us to encourage more builders, creators, teams, and projects to integrate Unlock’s tech stack into their projects, without needing to individually fund every grant ourselves
• Unlock Protocol makes money from % fees generated through cc ticket sales, this helps encourage more teams to use Unlock for ticketing, subscriptions etc creating a positive feedback loop
• This is a democratic way to give out retro grant funds to projects supporting the protocol and our ecosystem/DAO by extension
• This opens up another grant-giving module that doesn’t require as much upfront energy and time from the DAO, but that still ensures the community helps determine which projects are the most deserving of retro grant funds
• Only projects already using Unlock with be able to apply - a way to incentivize projects to integrate Unlock before the next QF round (a reason we will announce multiple rounds)
• Allows all community members who wish to participate a chance vote through their donation (even $1 goes a long way with matching funds) * this also allows projects to raise more funds without the DAO needing to provide all of those funds
• If successful we can continue with this grant-giving process and look for other ways to raise matching funds
• This is a tested and proven funding model/system

Gitcoin has proven through various cycles that funding your ecosystem has win-win outcomes. It is what Vitalik used to build the ETH ecosystem in the last bear market, funding $50m worth of projects in the ETH ecosystem.

Now it’s available to use for any DAO. This proposal is to use the same tools to build Unlock Protocol’s ecosystem in this current market, without needing to use a high amount of treasury funds.

How it works: The idea behind this is to run a smaller, but still meaningful round to help grow awareness, promote Unlock Proctocols tech stack and reward past projects.

Our goal is to then use this to help incentivize more projects to build with Unlock, with a focus on having more projects use Unlock Protocol for ticketing during ETHDevner. This will then continue with future web3 events. We will build a narrative that helps promote the awareness that Unlock Protocol DAO will be rewarding projects using our tech stack.

Next steps:

Once passed we will create the round criteria and get feedback from Unlock DAO and the community to ensure it aligns with the goals of the DAO and Unlock Protocol as a whole. We already have the green light that Unlock’s Marketing Team aka Chris with help us promote this and we’ll work together to make it a success.

We will apply to see if we can receive further funding from the Arbitrum Matching fund. [*Arbitrum is also incentivizing communities who run rounds on Arbitrum with increased matching funds. If this proposal is approved we will apply with the hopes of increasing our matching pool funds = more $ for Unlock community builders/creators

From there we will begin marketing and creating the resources needed to get the round started. The goal is to launch the round and have grantees be applying just as EthDenver is ending, with the round concluding mid March. This will give us enough time to not only promote the round for projects already building with us, but with an emphasis on rewarding projects that use Unlock for ticketing during EthDenver.

We will verify to criteria before approving projects to participate in the round + there is gitcoin passport enabled to help ensure the round isn’t sybil attacked.

There will be a 20% matching cap - what this means is that any 1 projects can only acquire a max of 20% of the total matching pool (For example - if the matching pool is 7000 in ARB, a project can only receive a max of 1400 ARB in matching funds) this ensures that more projects can be rewarded vs 1-2 larger projects capturing all the matching pool (this also helps with social sybil collusion)

We will begin to track and measure the success/impact of this initiative (see forum post for more info)

Upside: Jumpstart our ecosystem flywheel that creates value for the Unlock Protocol ecosystem in a way that rewards projects, creators, and teams that are helping drive Unlock Protocol usage forward.

Risks: The round doesn’t yield our desired results of gaining enough traction and rewarding enough builders/creators. *which is also why we’re asking for a small amount of 7k ARB to test it out (Unlock Labs was given 75k ARB). Our goal would be to have 20+ projects in this round receiving funding.