ARDC Communication Thread

Hello everyone!

We’re excited to kick off ARDC V2 following the success of the first iteration. A few things have changed, starting with the creation of the new Supervisory Council, which replaces the DAO Advocate role. In V2, we’re aiming to promote transparency, governance, and research outcomes for the Arbitrum ecosystem.

Here’s a quick look at who’s on the team now:

Supervisory Council

Specialized Service Providers

  1. Risk Seat: Nethermind
    Focused on evaluating and mitigating DeFi risks, building on work from V1.

  2. Security Seat: OpenZeppelin
    Ensures smart contract security and safe governance mechanisms, testing, bug detection, and thorough audits like in V1.

  3. Research Seat: DefiLlama Research & Castle Capital
    Provides data-driven insights on topics like sequencers, fraud proofs, governance best practices. Picking up where research from Delphi Digital and Blockworks left off in V1.

ARDC Public Notion Page

To keep everyone in the loop, we’ve set up an ARDC Homepage on Notion.

This page will have:

  • Task List: See what the different service providers are working on.
  • Meeting Minutes: Details from our calls, including bi-weekly Council calls and specialized discussions with Risk, Security, and Research seats.
  • Additional Resources: Any new documents, frameworks, or proposals we develop along the way.

Communication

  • We’ll be using this Forum thread as our main hub for monthly updates, Q&A, and community feedback.
  • We will set up ARDC Bi-Weekly Calls on Thursdays, beginning February 6, so the community can hear updates from the entire ARDC (Supervisory Council, Risk, Security, and Research) and share feedback.
  • Feel free to tag or DM any of the three Communications leads on Telegram: JuanRah, Alex Lumley, or Frisson if you have suggestions or questions about our announcements.

Next Steps

As we begin ARDC V2, here’s what’s currently being worked on:

Call to Action

  1. Join the Conversation
    • Share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas in this thread.
    • Propose new research tasks you think the ARDC should explore.
  2. Attend Community Calls
    • We’ll post details about our bi-weekly calls in this thread and on the ARDC Homepage. Show up, ask questions, or just listen in to stay informed. We invite all delegates to attend our first Bi-Weekly call on Thursday, February 6 at 5pm UTC.
  3. Stay Connected
    • Keep an eye on this Forum thread for real-time updates.
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I think there is a typo here—Thursday, February 6 (not 7).

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Thanks for letting me know, post has been edited with the correct date.

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Thanks for the transparency, I am very excited to see this develop and would like to ask if this will be co-created by the members of the ARDC or commisioned to a third party? As someone involved in and around grant programs, this is a great step in optimizing arbitrum daos grant programs.

Also curios what does ‘comparative’ mean, will they be compared to other grant programs or within this one? Thank you!

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Castle Capital and Defi Llama Research - the Research Service Providers are working on it.

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They will be looking at other grant programs (Lido’s LEGO, Uniswap and others) evaluate them, have conversations with those teams and eventually come up with recommendations for the Arbitrum DAO’s grants

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Ahead of tomorrow’s update call

  1. Budgets, hours worked per service provider, rates, payments etc → check out this Excel

  2. What is the ARDC working onWebsite

  3. More details about each project → double click on the item see output here

  4. How is the ARDC prioritizing (not exhaustive)
    → input from delegates, OCL, AF, Entropy
    → what research moves the needle (e.g., what can be translated into actionable proposals?)
    → what will still be relevant in 1-2 months (or time it takes to complete the research)

  5. Lost in the ARDC website and still have so many questions → watch this Tutorial walking you through the page

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January 2025 Update

For the first month of the ARDC activities, I am sharing the current progress and outline our ongoing initiatives.

Deliverables In Progress

Nethermind (Risk)

Analysis of the sustainability of sequencer revenue

  • Completed extraction of data on gas fees from various smart contracts
  • Finished grouping protocol contributions to sequencer fees
  • Currently analyzing trends by vertical (DeFi, CEX, cross-chain, gaming)
  • Examining impact of Arbitrum Nova and Orbit on total sequencer revenue
  • Expected completion: ~2 weeks

DefiLlama Research & Castle Capital (Research)

Analysis of the Arbitrum DAO’s grants program

  • Developed evaluation framework for ecosystem program assessment
  • Completed initial analysis of historical reports and resources
  • Currently conducting stakeholder outreach and engagement
  • Analyzing feedback from Discord discussions
  • Expected completion: ~2 weeks

OpenZeppelin (Security)

Current ARDC Work

The Supervisory Council is actively working with service providers to prioritize upcoming initiatives:

  • Nethermind: Upcoming analysis on governance attack viability and quorum risks (AMA scheduled for February 20th)
  • Research Members: Analysis of the Arbitrum DAO’s incentive programs (STIP, STIP Backfund, LTIP, STIP Bridge)

Communication Channels

We’ve established multiple channels for delegate engagement:

  1. Bi-Weekly Calls: Every other Thursday at 11:00 AM CST
  2. ARDC Homepage: Comprehensive resource for tracking deliverables and progress. You can find several resources within:
  1. Forum Communication Thread: Updates and final reports
  2. ARDC space in Delegate Chat / Telegram: Direct communication channel - @JuanRah - @AlexLumley - @Frisson

Next Steps

  • Next bi-weekly call: February 20th
  • Upcoming deliverables expected in mid February

Call to Action

We invite delegates to:

  • Join our bi-weekly calls for updates and feedback
  • Submit research initiatives through any of our communication channels
  • Reach out to Communications leads with questions or suggestions

The ARDC is here to support the DAO’s research needs. We encourage active participation and feedback from the community to help guide our initiatives.

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We just wrapped up a comparative study in grant programs, maybe this helps

If you need more details kmk

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Thanks @zer8, sharing this with the teams!

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My pleasure ser! Happy to assist/consult as a delegate in any way I can, been involved in web3 grants for almost 3 years now and gathered very diverse insights

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@Juanrah shall we connect @ZER8 with the teams researching grants?

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Yes, I already shared the comparative study with them. I’ll DM you on Telegram @ZER8 ! Thanks for your disposition.