The ssv.network DAO (SSV DAO) recently announced a significant overhaul of its grants program to better support the evolving needs of the decentralized staking ecosystem. This revamped approach prioritizes fostering innovation and establishing strategic partnerships to ensure the continued growth and success of ssv.network.
Current Grants Program: A Look Back
The existing grants program, known as DIP-5, played a crucial role in propelling the development of decentralized staking applications and services on the SSV network. Launched alongside the mainnet, the program awarded over $3 million in grants to more than 60 projects. This resulted in a robust ecosystem boasting a diverse range of staking use cases and tooling, attracting over 23,000 validators and surpassing 745,000 ETH staked within just a few months.
Previously, grants fell under categories like Staking Pool Development and Staking Service Development. However, as the ecosystem matures, certain milestones within these categories have become less relevant, prompting the need for a strategic shift.
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Why the Change?
The SSV network’s development and integration processes have become more streamlined as the network matures. This has rendered some grant milestones, such as seed funding for early-stage projects and TVL growth incentives, somewhat redundant. The incentivized mainnet program already effectively incentivizes Total Value Locked (TVL) growth, diminishing the need for separate TVL milestones. As a result, the DAO has opted to refactor the grants process to better suit the network’s ongoing evolution.
The New Grants Strategy
The revised grants strategy focuses on two key pillars: fostering innovation through open grants for unique use cases and establishing strategic partnerships for critical ecosystem components. Here’s a breakdown of the key changes:
- New Application Process: Grants will be temporarily closed while the new strategy is implemented, followed by a relaunch with updated guidelines.
- Shifting Focus: Seed funding for staking services and pools will be discontinued.
- Supporting Existing Grants: Currently approved grants will be guided to completion.
- TVL Grants Discontinued: To avoid redundancy with the incentivized mainnet program, TVL-focused grants will be discontinued.
- Open Grants Prioritized: Grants will be geared towards fostering unique and critical ecosystem components.
- Maintaining Support Programs: Bug bounties and micro-grants will continue under existing guidelines.
- Strategic Partnerships: Instead of broad grants, SSV DAO may establish strategic partnerships for critical ecosystem components. This ensures dedicated development and ownership by the DAO, mitigating dependency risks. Potential focus areas include:
- Performance and metadata data providers
- Alerting and monitoring solutions
- Alternative SSV client implementations
- Operator solutions and cluster selection
- Developer tools and major player integrations
- Community programs
Next Steps
- Consultation and Alignment: Finalizing the new strategy will involve collaboration with SSV Labs’ teams and incorporating valuable community feedback.
- Grants Portal Update: The grants website will be revamped to reflect the new strategy. Application terms and conditions, including KYC/KYB requirements, will be updated accordingly.
Success Story: SSV Scan
SSV Scan, a network explorer developed with the support of a grant awarded under the previous program, exemplifies the program’s success. This explorer significantly enhances network transparency and usability, offering a comprehensive suite of features that empower users to evaluate network performance over time.
The SSV DAO has recently extended its partnership with DragonStake through a new grant aimed at scaling SSV Scan to accommodate over 100,000 validators and beyond. This initiative exemplifies the new strategy’s focus on fostering strategic partnerships for critical infrastructure development. DragonStake, a verified operator within the SSV ecosystem, has been instrumental since the testnet phase, running highly performant nodes.
Conclusion
These changes aim to streamline the grants process, better align incentives, and encourage innovative development within the SSV network. The SSV DAO is optimistic about witnessing more success stories like SSV Scan emerge as the new strategy unfolds. The DAO actively encourages community feedback and participation during this transition and looks forward to the continued support and commitment of its members.
