About the Delegated Developer Tooling Domain and TLDR
The Delegated Domain for Developer Tooling has focused on projects that empower developers, fostering a robust and accessible system with a two fold mission:
-
Fill crucial gaps: This includes essential infrastructure for network interaction, documentation for broad accessibility, and developer tools focused on tackling challenges like Layer-2 centralization, security, and user adoption.
-
Spark innovation and prepare developer-based products for sustainability, business models and venture funding: We have seen proposals for cutting edge applications drawing inspirations from established protocols, AI, and infrastructure that is ready to take a step forward in innovation. The Delegated Domain for Developer Tooling has also prepared grantees for pitch deck reviews, meetings with VCs and accelerators with 1:1 mentorship sessions, building a robust business model, and asking the hard questions that can make this project sustainable in the long run.
Based on proof from grantees and constant iteration with them we have had successful grantees who have been accepted to the Consensys Fellowship, secured interviews with OrangeDAO’s fellowship, and prepared fully-fledged pitch decks for a token or equity raise with web2 and web3 VCs.
Evaluation Rubric:
The proposals were polished during the first quarter of the grants program and have established a solid foundation on our four main evaluation rubrics:
-
Addressing developer and ecosystem needs: Demonstrate a clear understanding of the pain points experienced by Arbitrum Developers and propose solutions to directly address them.
-
Novelty and relevance: It has to be aligned with growth objectives and metrics based on demands for the following product.
-
Feasibility and clarity: An initial well-rounded plan with realistic milestones, concise and explanation and future aspirations for the project was critical for decision-making inside the diligence of the grants program.
-
Team expertise: Relevant experience and skills from the team or solo-founders was key in instilling confidence that the development of this grant and its continuation is in good hands.
Domain Overview:
- Number of proposals: 34
- Accepted proposals: 10
- Committed funding: $128,520 USD
- Number of milestones in total of all accepted proposals: 30
- Milestones completed: 14
- Funding disbursed: $55,000 USD
| Proposal name | Committed Funding | General description and what have they been up to? |
|---|---|---|
| Laika - Request builder for Web3 | $12,500 USD | Postman for Web3. It works as a way to interact with Smart Contracts on the most friendly UI we have seen in possibly some time – combination of Remix, Postman and Etherscan ‘contract’ section. Laika has already finished the first milestone and is working on closing the scope for the grant. Previously the company has been incubated by accelerator programs and with an easy-to-grasp deck they are ready to head out and raise a successful pre-seed/seed round. Also enabled Laika to be open-source and pushed a PR from non-core Laika team and community for end-to-end testing. |
| Infrastructure Support for Arbitrum One and NOVA by ShapeShiftDAO | $13,000 USD | ShapeShift DAO proposed integrations in Frontend, Backend, Documentation and integration inside their Multichain Bridge (with an added value to bridge from Arbitrum to Bitcoin). ShapeShiftDAO has been the most fast-paced integration in the Delegated Developer Tooling Domain with already finishing the integration (including decentralized RPCs) on both Arbitrum One and NOVA. Currently Arbitrum One is already available with leading assets on its multi chain bridge and demo, while Arbitrum Nova has already been deployed in its testing environment. |
| Agnostic Account Abstraction Dev Tool for Arbitrum One and NOVA | $12,500 USD | This team has developed previous crypto companies and applications in Latin America. During an ETH Global Hackathon the team built account abstracted wallets to be onboarded on-top of WhatsApp. Similar to how TON enables wallets in Telegram – with the difference of a bigger and broader user-base. Team has already completed its first milestones integrating initial smart contracts and closing a deal with a WhatsApp business provider being MessageBird enabling them to onboard the wallets while following Meta’s strict policy on crypto products and services. |
| Bonadocs | $10,000 USD | Building a collaborative way to promote integration of smart contracts from different protocols. It started as a Postman for Web3 – similar to Laika. Later pivoting into a Google for Arbitrum Smart Contracts enabling the search and integration of smart contracts from distinguished protocols while enabling it to be read, deployed and simulated through a direct fork of Arbitrum One mainnet. We are pretty impressed by Bonadocs work in the last quarter, with its grant coming to a close and being accepted into the Consensys Fellowship opening the doors for up to $1.5M USD in funding from Consensys Mesh and participating in interviews for this cohort of the OrangeDAO fellowship. With the right mentoring, Bonadocs can easily reach a successful raise by Q2-Q3 2024 with significant growth metrics and adoption. |
| Bytekodes - AI Intent Layer for dApps | $11,000 USD | Bytekodes is leveraging AI to create an intent layer for Arbitrum. Imagine if ChatGPT could interact with the blockchain and you can send a prompt like ‘swap 20 USDC for DAI and supply it into Aave’. Bytekodes has successfully advanced into its final milestones while also polishing their pitch deck for a pre-seed raise and having interviews for the OrangeDAO fellowship. |
| Espacio Cripto - Increasing Arbitrum’s Exposure to the LATAM Developer Community | $8,000 USD | Espacio Cripto is LATAMs HUB for all things crypto-related with a strong focus in governance, account abstraction and most recently Layer-2s. Abraham and Lalo both the founders of the community, have previously worked for unicorns like Bitso, platforms like Bueno and Payment Infrastructures like KillB. Espacio Cripto also has previously been supported by now members of the Arbitrum Foundation. While it has been our only DevRel approved grant proposal, Espacio Cripto will be used as a guideline and foundation for other DevRel proposals who might apply for the Delegated Developer Tooling Domain. For this grant proposal we have negotiated articles, reports of the meetups and on-chain attestations that includes how many developers were previously in the Layer-2 ecosystem and who are joining to start developing in the ecosystem. Some of the milestones Espacio Cripto has and why they are fit to lead the DevRel category in the Delegated Developer Tooling Domain: Espacio Cripto’s community grew significantly during the last months. Went from having 556 to 1,669 community members in Telegram 1 in the previous year, a growth of 295%. This is an active group with an engagement of more than 25% (readers and writers). Went from having 51 episodes to 225 as of November 3, 2023. It produced more than 250 hours of educational content. Has more than 115,000 downloads in the last year. According to its 2022 Spotify wrap, it was in the top 10 podcasts for +23,000 people, top 5 for 17,000 people, and top 1 for almost 6,000 people. According to Spotify, it was in the top technology podcast in Mexico for 198 days in 2022 |
| DeFi Teller - Enhancing Arbitrum’s Ecosystem Analytics | $10,520 USD | DeFi Teller is building a Yelp for chains and protocols. With a ‘trust don’t verify’ principle the grant covers general fixes and enhancements for their website, database, analytics tooling and user reviews. The team is pretty well-versed with experience in technical background and previous editors in the journalism space. The integration covers support for One and Nova (TBA). Team has already updates pretty much all front-end bugs and enhanced data and parsing to capture metrics from relevant protocols in the Arbitrum Ecosystem. |
| JiffyScan: Block Explorer for Account Abstraction (EIP-4337) supporting Arbitrum One and Testnets | $13,000 USD | An Etherscan for Account Abstraction. Arbitrum One and Testnets (Sepolia and Goerli) have already been deployed. Aditya asked for this grant to cover for infrastructure and upscaling costs in a growth-based grant while he prepares JiffyScan for an enterprise pricing model and a seed round raise. First milestone has already been disbursed and completed. Waiting on his growth reports to disburse next grants. |
| Arbitrum Python SDK | $20,000 USD | Mert is developing a Python SDK for Arbitrum its a 1:1 replication of the current Arbitrum TypeScript SDK including Python native modules for asset bridging, mata entities, messaging, and utilities with the goal to enhance developer accessibility and integration capabilities within the Arbitrum Ecosystem. This proposal addresses a clear need for the ecosystem as Python is one of the most used programming languages. While old, it is still pretty relevant in consumer, business and enterprise ecosystems. Mert has previous experience building grant proposals of this scope and has stellar recommendations from grant programs like Aave, Filecoin and Polkadot. |
| Stylus VS Code Extension | $18,000 USD | Tolga is developing a Visual Code Extension for Stylus on Arbitrum. Offering a Project Management suite, enhanced coding experience and document for its VS store release. Tolga’s proposal addresses a clear need for the ecosystem as the talk of the town for developers has recently been Stylus. Projects and extensions like this help improve current developer experience, adoption and focus on providing more open-source commitment. The development of this extension was approved due to previous experience and recommendations from grant programs like Aave which have mentioned how great the experience working with him has been during its grant timeline. |
Things to improve and conclusions:
The Delegated Developer Tooling Domain has been powering progress! We’ve seen a surge of high-impact projects, attracted exciting new proposals, and established a robust framework for growth. While a few overlaps surfaced from Questbook and our own programs, it’s a testament to the vibrant ecosystem blossoming on Arbitrum!
To build on this momentum, we’re excited to unveil two initiatives:
-
Streamlined Adoption & Expansion: We’re crafting a new RFP document and grant application template specifically for experienced teams building within the ecosystem. This will open doors for innovative use cases and proven business models, ensuring our funding reaches projects truly ready to make a splash.
-
Sustainable DevRel Support: We’re committed to nurturing long-term success, not just initial momentum. For DevRel proposals, we’ll explore attestation models for successful onboarded projects, workshops, and practices that empower them to flourish beyond grant cycles.
The future is bright in the Dev Tooling Domain! We’re thrilled by the horizon-expanding proposals emerging, from Chronicle Labs’ open-source oracles to Mountain Protocol’s RWA wrappers and Dhive’s governance HUB. These solutions hold immense potential to strengthen the Arbitrum’s growing DeFi ecosystem, transparency and engagement in Arbitrum’s governance-driven landscape.
On a personal note, our ambition is to witness one of these promising protocols secure venture funding or a successful token raise. Early-stage incubation programs like those thriving on other L2s, such as Celo’s Celo Camp, are crucial for our ecosystem’s growth, and that’s a goal we’re passionate about pursuing.
We’re energized by the possibilities ahead and eager to hear feed from the community. Onwards and upwards! 