Pre-proposal: Expanding the Community Grants Program

Governance
1

Summary

This proposal aims to expand the range of grant options in order to support teams and bigger scoped projects.

Abstract

Decentraland DAO opened its Community Grants program on May 31st, 2021. Since then 12 grants have been given for Content Creator, Platform Contributor, Gaming, and Community categories.

The current structure is aimed at single individuals:

  • Tier 1: One-time payment of $500 - $1500 USD in MANA
  • Tier 2: One-time payment of $1500 - $3000 USD in MANA
  • Tier 3: Up to a 3-month vesting contract of $3000 - $5000 USD in MANA, with a one-month cliff.

This proposal aims to create 3 new tires designed for teams and larger scoped projects.

Motivation

The current tires are ok to fit small projects and individual contributions. If more money is needed the contributor can continue requesting further grants to keep up the good work (eg. KevinOnEarth).

In order to attract bigger projects that require the commitment of a team for many months, we need to scale our tire options.

Specification

The proposed new tires are:

  • Tire 4: Up to $60.000 USD using a 6 months vesting contract (1-month cliff).
  • Tire 5: Up to $120.000 USD using a 6 months vesting contract (1-month cliff).
  • Tire 6: Up to $240.000 USD using a 6 months vesting contract (1-month cliff).

These tires allow a team to receive up to 10k, 20k, or 40k per month for over 6 months.

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What do you think? Alternatives?

6 Likes
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What I would suggest is the tiers to be progressively accesible, I mean, a team should start with Tier3, then Tier-4, 5, 6. The numbers could be reviewed, but this progressive way is what makes sense for me.

We got the previous gaming Tier 3 of 5000$. Everything helps, but the truth is that it is really hard to manage how to spend it, because it doesn’t cover even 1 salary, with our work and effort apart (Eibriel & me), we have not moved the vesting contract yet. So, in reality, what we have built is from 0$ making programming, sysadmin, dev-ops, 3d modelling, drawings, smart-contracts, everything ourselves for now and living from savings. So 5000$ is quite small for “gaming”.

If someone curious, although we are still building, and we have deployed a really minimum version of the full plan of the game, you can start testing it, location is on the description of our twitter profile: https://twitter.com/GolfcraftGame

1 Like
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Thank you Yemel.

Making a game is expensive, we’ve been building in DCL since 2019 so we understand the full scope of this beast. I definitely support increasing the tiers, but not without projects submitting a business plan or burn rate with monthly milestones. The caveat to this would be the time it takes to ramp up (currently its hard to find talent). Maybe a bonus requirement would be that a portion of transactions goes to the treasury wallet to replenish some funds.

Other than that, I support this.

2 Likes
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Been thinking about this a lot, especially since I lobbied hard against the p2e grant proposal. I wasn’t opposed to bigger grants per say, it just felt rushed. I do think it’s wise to foster and attract bigger projects/teams. I think it’s natural to fear an onslaught of teams running to Decentraland solely to try to get grants, without really knowing the system or community. But I ask myself if that is necessarily bad. Maybe new people bring new mindsets, new skills, and widen the community of content creators in ways that may not happen totally organically. It’s not guaranteed every team will succeed, but the ones that do may bring tremendous value to the ecosystem. The current tiers are not attractive when it comes to serious development and is more indicative of hobby level commitment. We should be prudent in handing out grants which will require community participation (or delegation) to select what’s worth the experimentation.

I dream of the day that a grant proposal comes through that also shows a way to repay or at least benefit the DAO in ways for future generations to be so lucky. If we as a DAO are successful in funding teams that produce, we could potentially generate a Gitcoin donation like effect for those whose interest align with growing the metaverse.

1 Like
5

Thanks Yemel,

I totally agree with this proposal, think we need better incentives to create better experience and scenes, more comprehensive ones. We now got the T3 grant, and me and my partner Will work bleedingly on the scene with this compensation, luckily we are still having fun and enjoy the project. I personally agree with the progress way that Pablo mentioned above, and we would support you the best we can. For our project Meta City, pls have check at this link Meta City & Metadogepunks Launch Event (POAP & Wearable Giveaway Raffle) | Decentraland Events

Best,
Meta Charlie

1 Like
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Thanks @pablo, @Will, @MorrisMustang and @MetaDoge for your comments and support. Find below some notes. I’ll include some of these in the proposal and publish it for voting.

I believe your project deserves more than what Tire 3 offers. More money would let you hire contractors speeding up the development and improve your workflow without having to take a personal risk.

I generally agree with the progressive approach, however, I think this will be enforced by the community and the common sense of the team requesting the grant. The community won’t approve a massive grant to an unknown group, so it’s natural to start with a small grant to get validation on the idea, show some progress and request further grants to scale up the operations.

Also, the tires are capped by the max amount a team can request, but there is no minimum. For example, Tire 4 lets you request 3k per month for 6 months. This gives the flexibility to request a budget that fits with the team’s plan.

There are many ways the DAO benefits from the success of grants:

First, if these grants add value to Decentraland’s ecosystem then MANA should get more general awareness and the price should go up, thus making the treasury of the DAO bigger. So what is good for Decentraland is good for the DAO.

Second, I would love to see projects capable of generating a revenue stream, becoming profitable ventures, and generating employment around Decentraland. Enabling more people to make a living out of Decentraland’s ecosystem is key.

Ultimately, as you mention, bringing new people on board with skills and mindsets it’s a great benefit for the DAO. We need more active members. Attention and initiative are the more scarce resources IMHO.

Thanks again for your participation :pray:

2 Likes
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I think this is a fantastic idea! Plenty of visibility for Decentraland rn and potentially bringing in new users. I for one have been a $MANA holder for ages but never knew about the DAO and all this stuff going on. So great to see! Been familiarising and will continue finding out more about whats going on in coming weeks. Nonetheless from what I’ve seen so far, I think this would be a great way of attracting more diverse participants and projects to build in decentraland.

2 Likes