[ARDC] DAO Advocate Communication Thread

[krst]

Intro

Following the success of the proposal to establish the Arbitrum Research and Development Collective (ARDC), elections were held to determine the members of the collective. In the context of those elections, Ant Federation and L2BEAT joined forces and together we were elected in the role of the DAO Advocate. The mandate of the DAO Advocate is to represent the DAO and direct the ARDC’s efforts. It essentially functions as the bridge between the Arbitrum DAO and the ARDC.

As the DAO Advocate, we’re committed to transparency and we’ll use this communication thread to regularly provide upgrades on what we, as well as all the other members of the ARDC, are working on.

Following our election, we hit the ground running by first establishing a direct line of communication between us and all the members of the ARDC. We’ve also already had 2 calls so we can coordinate among all members of the ARDC to discuss the next steps and operational procedures going forward.

ARDC Public Notion Page

For transparency’s sake, we’ve set up a publicly viewable Notion page that contains all information relevant to the ARDC’s operations. Specifically, there’s a section that will have meeting minutes from all the ARDC calls, and a kanban board that will contain all the tasks the ARDC will work on, is working on, and has worked on.

Additional sections and subpages will be added if and as needed.

You can find the Notion page here.

Communication

Given the role, communication between the DAO and the DAO Advocate is essential. To that end, we want to make our communication channels known so you can reach out to us at any time.

1) This communication thread. You can use this thread to publicly bring up topics in which our involvement in our capacity as DAO Advocate is needed.

2) Bi-weekly status update call. As per the mandate of the original proposal, we’ll be hosting 2 calls per month that will be open to the public to address any and all topics relevant to the ARDC. During those calls, both the DAO Advocate as well as representatives from all the members of the ARDC are going to be present.
The calls are going to happen every other Monday at 1 pm UTC / 9 am EST starting on Monday 8th of April 2024. You’ll find the links to the calls in the Arbitrum DAO Governance Calendar.

3) ARDC Meeting Minutes. You’ll be able to find meeting minutes from each call (both private and public) of the ARDC in this Notion page we’ve set up.

5) L2BEAT Arbitrum Office Hours. We already host weekly office hours where stakeholders can discuss all things relevant to Arbitrum with us. We’re inviting people to freely use our office hours to discuss DAO Advocate matters. The call takes place every Thursday at 3 pm UTC.

6) Open Arbitrum Governance Call. The monthly open governance call is also a good place for discussions relevant to the whole ARDC. We’re always present at those calls and happy to discuss any topics relevant to the ARDC and DAO Advocate. The next call is happening on Wednesday, 3rd of April at 3pm UTC / 11 am EST.

7) Telegram. For a quick and direct way to reach us, you can send a message to Krzysztof on Telegram. Turnaround time will be within 24 hours on a business day.

Next Steps

Going forward, you can expect regular updates from our involvement in the DAO in our capacity as DAO Advocate in the form of written updates. Of course, you can find us to discuss anything in more detail in any of the communication channels mentioned above.

From a process standpoint, all ARDC members are going through the KYC/KYB process to sign an agreement with the Foundation and have submitted the necessary documentation. Once that process is complete, we’ll be set to officially kick things off.

Operationally, and in parallel with the KYC/KYB process, we’re working on identifying and deciding on key areas of interest in which the ARDC could already be of help, on top of establishing how we’ll collectively respond to the DAO’s needs as they arise.

Call to action

We invite everyone to participate in our inaugural call on Monday 8th of April at 1 pm UTC to discuss all of the above and more relevant to both the ARDC, but also Ant Federation’s and L2BEAT’s role as DAO Advocates.

[Sinkas]

All members of the ARDC have now finished the legal procedures of completing the KYC/KYB process and submitting the grant agreement (Chaos Labs grant agreement pending) and thus the 6-month term of the ARDC officially begins.

To avoid unnecessary downtime due to operational details, we commenced planning the work for each member and started assigning some tasks in advance. Some of the tasks have now already been completed or are almost done and some of the deliverables have been published to the DAO. Since last week, you can consider the ARDC fully operational and working at full steam!

From here on forward, you’ll be able to find all deliverables on the newly created “Arbitrum Research & Development Committee (ARDC)” forum category, where each member has a subcategory in which to publish their work.

That way, we ensure the work isn’t siloed away from the DAO in our ARDC Notion page (even though it’s publicly viewable here), but it is at an arm’s length for delegates to get to.

So what have we been working on the past month?

STIP Analysis Case Studies

The first task assigned to the research members was an analysis of the results of the STIP. The deliverables, 2 case studies on GMX and JOJO (see them here), have informed them and us of the direction we need to take to have a broad view of the efficiency and pitfalls of the STIP for all receiving protocols.

Risk member was also tasked with reviewing both STIP and LTIPP from a financial risk perspective and presenting a report with their findings.

Gaming Catalyst Program Review

Research members were also assigned to review the Gaming Catalyst Program proposal and analyze it to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as to identify any potential red flags that we could point out to the proposers behind the GCP.

Additionally, we asked the research members to look into the salary ranges of similar roles to the ones proposed in the GCP in traditional funds to have a benchmark for what’s reasonable. That way, delegates who do not have experience or knowledge of traditional VC salaries can better assess the costs with the information acquired through ARDC’s research.

The deliverables are currently under review and will be published in the forum as soon as possible.

Event Horizon proposal security considerations

The proposal by Event Horizon successfully passed temp-check and is now heading towards an on-chain vote. We assigned the security member to review the proposal and compile a list of technical considerations that delegates should be aware of. At the same time, we connected the Event Horizon team with the security member so they could answer any questions and at the same time receive input from ARDC as guidance to refine their proposal before going to an on-chain vote.

We are currently working on a report which will be published in the forum as soon as it concludes so delegates can cast an informed vote.

Call to Action

We want to remind delegates that the ARDC is here to support the DAO and the work delegates are doing and it’s at their disposal through the direction of the DAO Advocate. To that end, there’s a biweekly call every other Monday at 12 pm UTC the link for which you can find in the Arbitrum Governance calendar.

In addition, we invite delegates to reach out to us (L2BEAT) in our capacity as DAO Advocates if they have topics in mind that they believe the ARDC should be assigned to. To that end, we are available at the biweekly call mentioned above, on Telegram (Krzysztof & Sinkas), and during our L2BEAT Arbitrum Office Hours which happen every Thursday at 3 pm UTC.

[pedrob]

gm!

Following @BlockworksResearch research on GMX and JOJO STIP performance, which is great and I recommend everyone must read it, they have identified certain shortcomings in the planning, execution, and reporting of the STIP. Many of these shortcomings have been addressed by the new LTIPP process, but there are still challenges and improvements to be made.

One of the issues raised, and the reason for my writing, is that we have not allocated resources to analyze whether the growth in TVL of the protocols during the STIP was due to the genuine influx of new users and TVL to Arbitrum, or if it was merely a result of fierce internal competition.

As advisors during the STIP Bridge, we have noticed that the TVL of most protocols has dropped significantly over the last month, which could call into question the sustainability of the TVL attracted to the chain through incentives.

This coincides with a TVL decline of approximately 24% since March 11, when the network peaked at 3.931 billion, according to Defillama.

In their GMX report, Blockworks mention that " It should be noted that although the incentivized TVL on GMX hasn’t been sustainable, the liquidity incentives could still be considered a success if they attracted new capital to Arbitrum, which is now rotating into other ecosystem projects. If there is demand from the DAO, this is something the ARDC could focus on going forward".

With this context and looking forward to properly setting up the Long Term Incentives Program for Arbitrum, I request the ARDC, through the DAO Advocate L2BEAT @Sinkas @krst, to deliver research that analyzes the origin of the TVL that has gone to the main protocols during the STIP, so that the DAO can determine whether the investment through incentives has attracted new users and capital to Arbitrum that has remained in the network or has left once the incentives ended.

One alternative is to conduct this research over the 5 (?) protocols that received the biggest grants. This would be: GMX, MUX, Camelot, Vertex and Radiant.

Of course, in their expertise and if deemed necesary, I look forward to the ARDC modifying the criteria for selecting the protocols or refining the data that needs to be collected to achieve the desired outcome.

Thank you very much!