CGP 2.0 Updates and Renewal

Summary

After successfully running CGP 2.0 for two quarters and taking into consideration its impact, Questbook proposes to renew Compound Grants Program 2.0 with a budget of $970,000 = 20,847 COMP (calculated based on the most recent COMP price at the time of proposal submission, which was $46.53), spread across three domains. Questbook has received great feedback from the community, builders and domain allocators to renew the grants Compound Grants and are grateful for their valuable inputs.

For more details, see the full forum discussion here: https://www.comp.xyz/t/cgp-2-0-updates-and-renewal/4518/44.

Background and Progress

CGP 2.0 went live on Jan, 2023 with a grants budget of $800k spread across four domains. Over the past two quarters, CGP 2.0 domain allocators approved proposals requesting $670,000 in grants and disbursed a total of ~$410,000 to accepted proposals from a pool of 100+ proposals. These domain allocators were elected from the community and by the community. The specific information regarding the accepted proposals and the funded teams can be found here. Detailed information related to CGP 2.0’s funding breakdown, relevant metrics, insights, and proposed improvements going forward can be found here.

Proposal

Based on the impact and insights derived from CGP 2.0, we propose renewing CGP 2.0 with a budget of $970k for two quarters. The domain allocators will utilize this budget to fund proposals that align with Compound's roadmap. After researching, gathering feedback from domain allocators, active community members, and builders, we propose supporting the following domains:

RFPs, acceptance criteria and specifications for each domain

1. Dapps and Protocol Ideas - Link
2. Multi - Chain/Cross chain Strategy, Dev Tooling - Link
3. Security Tooling - Link

• Given that Dapps and New Protocol Ideas domain received more than twice the number of proposals compared to all the other domains combined, we propose merging Multi-chain and Cross-chain Strategy domain with the Dev Tooling domain.
• Additionally, we propose increasing the allocated grants budget for Dapps and New Protocol Ideas domain to $450,000 and reducing the grants budget of the Security Tooling domain to $150,000 taking into consideration the number of proposals and allocated grant amounts for both domains during CGP 2.0.

Specifications and Implementation

Similar to the model implemented in CGP 2.0, the renewed grants program will be run using Delegated Domain Capital Allocation Model. Each domain allocator will run their respective domain on-chain for full transparency using Questbook. Additional details related to specifications and implementation be found here.

Compensation

Sourcing, reviewing, funding, marketing, tracking and nurturing proposals requires significant expertise and time commitment from the grants committee members and they should be fairly and competitively compensated for their efforts. Based on the learnings from CGP 2.0 specified above, we believe that a Program Manager is expected to dedicate approximately 25 hours per week, while the domain allocator is required to allocate an estimated 15 hours per week. However, these time commitments may vary depending on the number of proposals received for a domain and the domain allocators may exceed or work for less than 15 hours per week based on the proposal volumes. We propose keeping the hourly price the same for the Domain Allocators and the Program Manager as in the case of CGP 2.0.

• Questbook will provide the grants committee its grants orchestration tool free of cost. We suggest that the grants committee continue with Synapse for KYC services and Docusign for all contractual agreements, as we have been using these services throughout CGP 2.0.
• However, for any specific asks from the grants team in order to run the process more smoothly, Questbook will charge for any additional feature requests based on the development overhead through a retrospective grant from Compound.

All unallocated funds from the first iteration of CGP 2.0 have been returned back to the Compound treasury

The KPIs, CGP 2.0 funding overview, expectations of the proposed renewal program along with the responsibilities of the Domain Allocators and the Program Manager can be found here.

About Questbook

• Questbook (YC-W21) is a decentralized grant orchestration tool, currently being used by Polygon, AAVE, Celo & Solana.
• Considering the achievements of CGP 2.0, as well as the time commitment and operational expertise necessary for running an effective grants program, Questbook will continue in the role of the Program Manager. Ruchil from Questbook will assume the responsibilities of the Program Manager in place of Sriharsha Karamchati due to bandwidth constraints. Ruchil was the program manager for Polygon facilitating the disbursal of ~ $1M in grants. He works with Solana foundation and ecosystems within Solana on a daily basis to help them design their grants program. He has received a grant of $250K from the Solana foundation for the same. He also worked closely with CGP 2.0 Program Manager and Grants team.

Disclaimer

Questbook has been collaborating with Michigan Blockchain to work through the details of this grant renewal proposal and communicate the merits to the broader Compound community. Michigan Blockchain was not provided consideration as a result of this collaboration as both proposers believe the passing of this proposal is in the best interest of the Compound protocol.