Community Cauldron Initiative

Background

The current application lifecycle for the DGP typically takes upwards of two weeks to complete with multiple screenings and interviews. The team thoroughly reviews candidates and projects to maximize impact from funding. Our goal is to fund projects that have a long term impact on dYdX. This process works great for larger initiatives with sizable funding, but it can also shut out community members looking to participate on a smaller scale. Instead, the DGP should be inclusive to all levels of contributions.

To improve accessibility, the DGP is launching a community fast-track initiative to fund small, one-time projects by community contributors. We are calling this the “Community Cauldron”. Approvals will run through an expedited process on a rolling basis. Our selection criteria will remain the same, but our goal will shift from protocol impact to contributor onboarding and engagement. Funding amounts will be limited to a maximum of $2,500 per grant request, any grant request above this amount will be put through the standard process.

How will it work?

The Community Cauldron will run for an initial two month period. DGP Trustee Alexios will be spearheading the program, in charge of initial screening to determine eligibility.

Although open to any ideas that meet our selection criteria, project examples include:

• In-depth article on a dYdX feature or topic not typically covered
• dYdX Trading bot or algorithm
• Developer resources
• Promotional content on Youtube or Twitter
• Content translation to popular languages
• Educational content
• Podcasts, Community events on Gather.town, Discord, or IRL (e.g. trading session)

The DGP will allocate $25,000 in funding to the Community Cauldron for this two month period.

Project funding will be capped at $2,500 and limited to one-month timeframes. Any project looking for funding above $2,500 or needing longer than one-month to complete will be assessed through our standard process.

To signal a Community Cauldron application, check the last box of application form labeled Community Cauldron.‍‍

Why are we doing this?

In Grants v1.5, the current version of the DGP, we have focused our efforts on maximizing long-term impact from grants issued. We've funded really exciting projects with this goal in mind, including MEV analysis, cross-chain USDC depositing, Cosmos-SDK development, and funding rate optimization.

An unintended consequence of this approach has been a lack of funding and accessibility to smaller, community-minded contributors and projects. Focusing on big picture, high impact projects is great, but what about the community member that wants to host a gathering or build a bot for their friends? The DGP should strive to be inclusive of contributors at all scales. After all, what’s the point of building for long-term impact if there’s no one around to enjoy it.

With that in mind, we’re experimenting with an easier process to fund smaller, short-term projects targeting new and active community members.

What are we hoping to accomplish?

The primary goal of this initiative is to onboard new contributors and engage existing members to proactively participate in the protocol. We want to make dYdX a fun place to hang out and engage with others, whether it be through events, tools, or sharing information.

Overall, we’ll be using contributor engagement and participation as a measure of success. We’ll look at the amount of new contributors we onboard, the amount of existing contributors signing up to participate, and measuring participation across the community to determine the impact of this initiative.

At a more granular level, we’ll be reviewing the different categories of grants issued to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Sharing some examples below on what that might look like:

Event: Attendee count, Attendee engagement, New community members, Content quality

Trading Bot / Tool: Amount of users/visits, Community feedback

Translation / Content: Amount of viewers/readers

Since this is an experimental process, the metrics used to quantify success will be updated as we go along. We’ll be sharing with the community our experience and lessons along the way!

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If you're interested in a community project, apply here!