VIP16 - Bootstrapping Velodrome

Simple Summary

Ensure veDAO’s ability to incubate and bootstrap Velodrome by reorganizing and incentivizing the veDAO team required to build and launch it.

Abstract

We propose updating and publishing the veDAO Team and compensation.

Motivation

veDAO launched with the dual purpose of 1) giving ordinary people an opportunity to own and control a portion of Solidly and 2) driving maximum long-term value to the veDAO community.

In light of Solidly’s challenges, the DAO supported a shift in focus in VIP-15, giving the team a mandate of using the knowledge and expertise it had built to explore new partnerships and opportunities on behalf of the DAO. That work has resulted in a partnership with Optimism, the recruitment of new team members, and the high-level design of a new AMM Velodrome.

To support both the work done to date and the work that will be required in the coming months, the DAO needs to update team roles and responsibilities as well as compensation.

Rationale and Specification

The funding for veDAO’s incubation of Velodrome comes from two sources: a grant of $150,000 USD from Optimism and a portion of WeVE from the veDAO Ecosystem fund. To make it perfectly clear, we are not planning on using USDC funds from the treasury.

Organization

Overall, the DAO is now organized into several workstreams focused both on veDAO and its incubation of Velodrome. Within each workstream, we have both leaders and contributors.

High Level

Advisory Team: Kevin_L (legal), arj (bizdev, Optimism liaison)

Multi-Sig Team: alexcutler.eth, gabagool, Homura, jack-anorak, PoolTypes, Tao

Note, Multi-Sig will be updated to reflect these members.

Work Streams

Biz Dev Team: arj, gabagool

Community Team: Sloth, Triangular, Jashun

Product/Engineering Team: JD09, ****PoolTypes, DISCOmercenary, Stas__, stupid_horse, Mukesh C, Zoomer

Design Team: e_avax, JoeyVector, Xav

Marketing Team: alexcutler.eth, jack-anorak

Operations Team: Sumguy (treasury mgt), Kevin (legal)

Strategy Team: Tao, Dan, Nick, Rancid

Compensation

Compensation levels are meant to reflect both uncompensated work done to date, as well as the work required to successfully build and launch Velodrome over the next few months. Generally speaking, leaders of individual work-streams are compensated higher than contributors. All payments are subject to multi-sig approval based on expected deliverables.

Payment Details

Advisory + Multi-Sig

• alexcutler.eth: 600,000 WeVe, $1,500 USDC
• Homura: 600,000 WeVe, $1,500 USDC
• jack-anorak: 600,000 WeVe, $1,500 USDC
• gabagool: 550,000 WeVe, $1,500 USDC
• Tao: 550,000 WeVe, $1,500 USDC
• PoolTypes: 650,000 WeVE, $6,000 USDC
• Kevin: 200,000 WeVE, $0 USDC
• Arj: 150,000 WeVE, $500 USDC

Leads

• e_avax: 250,000 WeVE, $1,000 USDC
• DISCOmercenary: 250,000 WeVE, $1,000 USDC
• JD09: 250,000 WeVE, $1,000 USDC
• JoeyVector: 250,000 WeVE, $1,000 USDC
• Sloth: 200,000 WeVE, $500 USDC
• Triangular: 200,000 WeVE, $500 USDC
• SumGuy1234: 150,000 WeVE, $1,000 USDC

Contributors

• 0x_DanW: 150,000, $1,000 USDC
• Rancid: 150,000, $1,000 USDC
• nickbtts: 100,000 Weve, $1,000 USDC
• Stats: 100,000 Weve, $2,000 USDC
• stupid_horse: 100,000 Weve, $2,000 USDC
• Jashun: 66,667 WeVE, $500 USDC

Totals

WeVE (Ecosystem): 6,416,667

USDC (OP Grant): $40,000

Reserve Funds

In addition to team compensation, the team will require additional financial flexibility to ensure successful operations in the lead up to the Velodrome launch. That could include covering out-of-pocket expenses (i.e. domain registration, legal costs, etc), engaging additional freelancers to support key deliverables as needed, as well as offering bounties to community members.

Our plan is to reserve the use of the remaining $150,000 in funds from the OP grant as well as 1M WeVE as a reserve fund to be deployed at the discretion of the team to support these functions.

Distribution

Team compensation would be distributed in two phases, 50% on VIP Approval and 50% on successful Velodrome Launch.