ARDC V2 Update: May 2025 Progress & Deliverables
Hello Arbitrum DAO delegates and community members!
We’re pleased to share the Arbitrum Research & Development Committee (ARDC) V2 progress report for May 2025. This month was highly productive, with a strong focus on finalizing key research deliverables, publishing reports for community review, and engaging through various channels.
I. Published Research & Community Engagement:
May saw the culmination of several significant research efforts, which are now available for the community:
Incentive Program Assessments & Recommendations:
- Led by: DefiLlama Research & Castle Capital
- Key Findings from the Report:
- Bootstrapping Focus: Incentives are most effective for bootstrapping new products and ecosystems, rather than sustaining existing ones. Successful programs support new initiatives needing an initial push.
- Clear North Star & KPIs: A clearly articulated program-wide goal and aligned KPIs are essential. Past Arbitrum programs (STIP, LTIPP) sometimes lacked this, limiting impact assessment. zkSync Ignite serves as a good model for structured, goal-oriented programs.
- Active Monitoring & Data Infrastructure: Programs require built-in feedback loops, real-time monitoring, and transparent data infrastructure to allow for agile adjustments and accountability.
- Dedicated Operations Team: The research highlights the necessity of a Dedicated Incentive Operations Unit or a persistent team/provider. Such a unit is vital for ensuring continuity across programs, providing oversight, and driving iterative improvements based on performance data and evolving strategic goals.
- ROI-Driven Users & Ecosystem Strength: Most users are primarily motivated by ROI. Incentives attract attention, but long-term retention depends on the fundamental strength, health, and engagement opportunities of the underlying ecosystem.
- Tapering Rewards: Incentive programs should taper rewards gradually rather than ending abruptly (the “cliff effect”) to ensure smoother transitions to organic engagement and build user trust.
- Community Engagement: X thread highlighting recommendations - DL Research X article
- Findings will also be presented at the upcoming bi-weekly office hour call.
Analysis of the DAO’s Technical Decision-Making Process:
- Led by: DefiLlama Research
- Key Findings from the Report:
- Delegate Support Gaps: Delegates often lack interpretive support for complex technical proposals, relying on ad hoc communication and struggling with inconsistent documentation and fragmented onboarding.
- Underutilized Mechanisms: Workshops for technical walkthroughs are underutilized, and there’s no consistent institutional memory for past proposal learnings.
- External Best Practices: Some DAOs offer models with dedicated governance teams/advisory boards, standardized templates, and regular communication cadences that Arbitrum could adapt.
- Proposed Framework: The report suggests a framework integrating expert review into existing Arbitrum Aligned Entities (AAEs), launching structured, delegate-facing workshops for technical proposals, implementing Technical Missions Program for external contributor integration, and standardizing proposal metadata tables.
- Community Engagement: Key insights and recommendations were presented during the ARDC bi-weekly call on May 15th. - X thread
Analysis of Vote Buying Services:
- Led by: DefiLlama Research.
- Key Findings from the Report:
- Significant Platform Presence: Vote-buying platforms, notably LobbyFi (holding ~10-12% of ARB voting power in major proposals) and Event Horizon (~3-5%), have a growing footprint in Arbitrum governance.
- Pricing & Influence: Vote prices on platforms like LobbyFi are often set low (e.g., 1% of estimated beneficiary gain), creating a gap between “actual” and “theoretical” voting budgets and potentially undervaluing governance influence.
- Vulnerability Varies: The impact of vote buying is proposal-dependent. Multi-choice proposals (elections, grants) are more susceptible to swings from smaller blocs than binary (Yes/No) votes with high turnout.
- Decentralization & Risk: While VBE analysis shows Arbitrum voting remains largely decentralized, concentrated blocs could influence low-turnout proposals or tight multi-seat elections. Direct bribes are moderately feasible but limited by platform gatekeeping; whale collusion and “Dark DAOs” are currently of low feasibility but long-term concerns.
- Flexible Response Framework: The DAO should consider a spectrum of responses (Passive, Active, Interventionist) to address vote buying, ranging from dialogue with platforms and incentivizing organic participation to implementing emergency response plans or treasury delegations.
- Community Engagement: X thread shared to break down key findings and encourage discussion DL Research X article - Vote Buying Discussion Recording
II. Deliverables In Progress:
Arbitrum Ecosystem Mapping & Positioning:
- Service Providers: DefiLlama Research & Castle Capital.
- May Progress:
- Significant work on finalizing the taxonomy, KPIs, and data schema for various verticals.
- The scope was refined to focus on the Top 10 verticals for initial data collection and analysis.
- Castle Capital completed their work on the data request specifications, including inter/intra KPIs by vertical.
- DeFiLlama commenced data ingestion and the initial phases of analysis based on the refined scope and provided data structures. This involved setting up a meta base for granular pool-level data.
- Regular syncs between Castle, DL Research, and the Supervisory Council to ensure alignment and address data collection challenges.
- Expected Completion: The data analysis phase is intensive. We anticipate this report will be ready for review and publication around late June/early July.
III. Operational Updates & Ongoing Workstreams:
- Community Communication:
- Continued to publish X (Twitter) threads and coordinate amplification with the ArbitrumDAO Gov account to improve reach for published reports.
- Bi-weekly Office Hours continued, with the May 15th call dedicated to the Technical Decision-Making report.
- Service Provider Coordination:
- Regular check-ins and weekly sync calls with SPs to track progress, review drafts, provide feedback, and manage timelines for all active deliverables.
- Hours and invoices for Service Providers have been tracked and processed.
- Nethermind (Timeboost Analysis):
- This research stream remained on hold throughout May, mainly due to the Timeboost market still being in its infancy and highly volatile.
IV. Key Learnings & Adjustments from May:
- Iterative Feedback for Complex Reports: The Incentives report, in particular, benefited from multiple rounds of feedback and restructuring, leading to a more impactful final deliverable. This highlights the value of iterative review for complex topics.
- Phased Data Approach for Ecosystem Mapping: Refining the scope for the Ecosystem Mapping to a “Top 10” vertical approach for initial data pulls allows for more manageable data collection and quicker initial insights, before potentially expanding.
V. Looking Ahead to June:
- Aiming to finalize and publish the Arbitrum Ecosystem Mapping & Positioning report.
- Continued community discussions and feedback gathering on all published reports.
- Presentation of the Incentives Program findings during our next bi-weekly call scheduled for June 5th at 16:00 hrs UTC - Huddle: Huddle01 Meet
- With the ARDC V2 first term nearing its conclusion, no new major research initiatives will be scoped for now. The committee will focus on completing all outstanding work and ensuring comprehensive communication of all research produced during this term.
- The committee is coordinating with the initiative owner, @Immutablelawyer, to publish a proposal in June, in accordance with the ARDC V2 proposal passed onchain, determining whether the ARDC should be extended by six months.
- Ongoing monitoring and support for any follow-up actions or clarifications needed from the published research.
We encourage all delegates and community members to review the published reports linked above and share your thoughts and feedback in the respective forum threads or during our bi-weekly calls.
Thank you for your continued engagement and support!