I am unable to edit my original post so I am posting our finalized application draft in a comment here @Matt_StableLab @SEEDGov
Application Template
SECTION 1: APPLICANT INFORMATION
Provide personal or organizational details, including applicant name, contact information, and any associated organization. This information ensures proper identification and communication throughout the grant process.
Applicant Name:
Ric Feynman (co-founder, product & business development lead)
Project Name:
Buffer Finance
Project Description: [Enter Project Description (1-3 sentences)]
Buffer Finance is a decentralized price prediction platform built on Arbitrum. Buffer is the first platform of its kind to offer both crypto and non-crypto binary (forex, commodities) markets and the shortest time frames going as low as 1 minute.
Buffer’s products, with their simplicity, clarity, and engaging design, serve as an ideal onboarding tool for a broad range of users, extending beyond the crypto-native audience.
Team Members and Roles: [List team members and their roles/responsibilities]
- Feynman (Co-founder, Product Lead, Business Development)
- Heisenberg (Co-founder, Chief Engineer)
- Curie (Backend Dev)
- Tesla (Backend Dev)
- Maxwell (Frontend Dev)
- Faraday (Frontend Dev)
- Jane (UI Designer)
- HL (Social Media Manager)
- Heloise (Marketing & Growth)
- Nick Dhillon (Moderator, Community)
- Mellboi (Moderator, Community)
Project Links: [Enter Any Relevant Project Links (website, demo, github, twitter, etc.)]
- Web: https://app.buffer.finance/
- Docs: https://docs.buffer.finance/
- Github: Buffer Finance · GitHub
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Buffer_Finance
- Discord: Buffer Finance
- Telegram: Telegram: Contact @bufferfinance
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BufferFinance
### Contact Information
Point of Contact (note: this should be an individual’s name, not the name of the protocol): [forum handle]
Point of Contact’s TG handle: @feyman101
Twitter: https://twitter.com/feyman101
Email: Feynman@buffer.finance
Do you acknowledge that your team will be subject to a KYC requirement?: Yes
# SECTION 2a: Team and Product Information
Provide details on your team’s past and current experience. Any details relating to past projects, recent achievements and any past experience utilizing incentives. Additionally, please provide further details on the state of your product, audience segments, and how you expect incentives to impact the product’s long-term growth and sustainability.
Team experience (Any relevant experience that may be useful in evaluating ability to ship, or execution with grant incentives. Please provide references knowledgeable about past work, where relevant. If you wish to do so privately, indicate that. [Optional, but recommended]):
We are a small but nimble team of crypto enthusiasts who have been relentlessly driving innovation in the options space on the Arbitrum network for over two years.
Here’s the bit of promised history mentioned in the introduction: Buffer first originated as a vanilla options platform on BNB Chain. We started building the platform, focusing on three fundamental problems - capital efficiency, simplifying options trading instruments, and customizability.
Eventually, we identified exotic options as the superior framework to simplify the option buyers’ journey. This allowed us to offer a more simple trading experience, with no liquidation, pre-defined risk and reward, and zero complexity. So, a full product, UI, and messaging rehaul later, we launched Buffer on Arbitrum as an exotic options platform in September of 2022.
This move significantly advanced our pursuit of achieving a perfect product-market fit. Upon our debut, we introduced the Up/Down markets, quickly capturing consistent interest. A testament to our platform’s success was the remarkable $95.3K in protocol fees generated on March 26, 2023, highlighting our market resonance. Within 5 months of launching on Arbitrum, we scaled the platform to a peak TVL of $11.6M.
We’ve since expanded our offerings to include above/below markets, partnered with Perennial Finance to support leverage trading, and rolled out fixed-time expires (currently live on testnet), and recently launched above/below markets on Buffer. As the platforms evolved, our understanding of user behavior and market trends evolved - leading to refine our messaging as a price prediction platform. This is where we stand today.
Regarding grants and airdrops, Buffer received significant an airdrop from Arbitrum in March 2023 and also an airdrop from Pyth Network’s Retroactive airdrop Phase 2. We manage these incentives with foresight, keeping the majority of the Arbitrum airdrop in our multisig, rallying a prudent and strategic approach to growth and innovation. (Note: $14K of the PYTH airdrop was rallied to host a user onboarding campaign on Galxe on March. 12, 2024.)
We would be absolutely happy to share additional details about the team with the council privately, if needed.
What novelty or innovation does your product bring to Arbitrum?
Gasless (0 eth), One-Click Trading:
This feature, unique to Buffer, eliminates the need for transporting assets from web3 wallets to smart contract wallets and also removes the need for users to place any trust in the smart contract wallet. The only requirement is to complete the 1-click setup and give a gasless approval. Once that is done, the user will never need to spend any ETH from their wallet at any part of their journey on Buffer to place a trade.
Gasless trading is made possible with the EIP-2612 permit that allows the trader to grant contract allowance through an off-chain “permit” message. It helps users to reduce their approval footprint and allows them to interact with dApps more safely. Sound familiar? To some of you, it might. This was one of the key architectural choices announced by Uniswap X around the time we launched 1-click gasless trading, only Buffer made the decisions months ago - making us one of the first projects to embrace application-level intents.
Additionally, features like limit orders in-chart management and early close significantly improve trading flexibility.
Fastest Price Prediction Market on Arbiturm:
Up/Down markets on Buffer offer fast paced trading on crypto assets with timeframes as short as 1 minute.
A flywheel that short-circuits liquidity growth:
Buffer is designed to short-circuit liquidity growth by offering a powerful advantage in fee generation efficiency, markedly outperforming the typical perp dex.
Here’s a direct comparison:
Buffer’s product design enables it to handle very high trading volumes with a lower Total Value Locked (TVL), efficiently converting every $1 million in trading volume into $100,000 in fees. This efficiency is achieved through the leverage and pre-defined payouts our product provides. In comparison, a perpetual swap decentralized exchange (perp dex), with its 0.03% fee rate, needs a massive trading volume of $333.33 million to generate an equivalent amount of fees. Therefore, Buffer’s model is remarkably more efficient, making each dollar of trading volume 33x more effective in producing revenue than that of a perp dex.
Trade any volatility conditions without any directional bias:
Above/Below markets allow traders the ability to trade any volatility conditions without any directional bias. Additionally, traders can capitalize on periods of low volatility by purchasing in-the-money to secure profits. It is essentially a prediction market for price ranges.
One-stop-shop for trading and hedging:
Buffer’s price prediction markets are an effective tool to offset the risk of high leveraged positions. Since Buffer also offers perp-trading of up to 100x leverage (via perennial integration), it allows for seamless and effective cross-hedging strategies.
Low-latency trades:
To further enhance the trading experience, our platform includes a suite of advanced augmentation features, designed to complement our streamlined one-click trading interface. A key highlight is the introduction of optimistic trade verification. This feature ensures that inbound orders receive immediate verification directly within the user interface, reinforcing the true CEX-like trading experience.
Is your project composable with other projects on Arbitrum? If so, please explain:
Composability lies at the core of Buffer, evident in how our architecture is built - we are able to easily adapt features based on market dynamics. Above/Below markets can be integrated permissionlessly by any protocol on Arbitrum. Up/Down markets are composable, but require our API to send trades to support 100% gasless trading.
Anyone can launch a vault over BLP (Buffer Liquidity Pool) offering different return profiles to LPs based on their risk appetite. GMD and the Revest finance team launched a vault over the BLP Vault back in 2023. By Q3 2024 we will make further improvements to streamline the process of launching vaults over BLP pools significantly - some of the key improvements include using ERC-4626 standard and whitelisting contract addresses that can add funds to the BLP pool without a lock period with their custom limit.
Buffer also offers perpetual trading, in partnership with Perennial Finance, currently supporting 12 perp markets directly on Buffer.
Do you have any comparable protocols within the Arbitrum ecosystem or other blockchains?
Due to the novelty of Buffer’s product, there are no direct competitors. In certain areas, Thales is the closest project offering a similar type of trading, however we are the only price prediction platform to offer timeframes as short as 1 minute. There are no other protocols that come close in terms of our comprehensive product suite and the 1-click, gasless facility for seamless trading as well as the trading asset diversity.
How do you measure and think about retention internally? (metrics, target KPIs)
We measure retention value via our Stats page and dashboard.
Our approach to retention is meticulously focused: volume is the pivotal metric we monitor.
Sustained volume escalates fees, subsequently enhancing APRs for liquidity providers. This in turn fosters superior liquidity, giving the platform the ability to support larger positions for traders - creating a virtuous cycle of growth and stability.
Then we add sub-KPIs to measure the health of our primary KPI, outlined below:
-
Traders
- Daily Volume
- Daily Protocol Fee
- Daily Unique Traders
- Total Traders
-
Market-Making Vault
- BLP TVL
- BLP exchange rate
- Pool Utilization Rate
Relevant usage metrics - Please refer to the OBL relevant metrics chart 9. For your category (DEX, lending, gaming, etc) please provide a list of all respective metrics as well as all metrics in the general section:
General Metrics:
- Daily Active Users
- Daily User Growth
- Daily Transaction Fee
- Daily ARB Expenditure and User claims
- Incentivized User List and Gini
Options:
- TVL
- Trading Volume
- Open Interest
- List of Traders
- List of Liquidity Providers
- Fees
Do you agree to remove team-controlled wallets from all milestone metrics AND exclude team-controlled wallets from any incentives included in your plan:
Yes
Did you utilize a grants consultant or other third party not named as a grantee to draft this proposal? If so, please disclose the details of that arrangement here, including conflicts of interest (Note: this does NOT disqualify an applicant):
This proposal is written by Buffer contributors and with feedback and insights from the Serious People team.
None of these groups will receive ANY of the incentives in this proposal and therefore have no conflicts of interest.
# SECTION 2b: PROTOCOL DETAILS
Provide details about the Arbitrum protocol requirements relevant to the grant. This information ensures that the applicant is aligned with the technical specifications and commitments of the grant.
Is the protocol native to Arbitrum?:
Yes, deployed on 22.08.2022
On what other networks is the protocol deployed?:
None.
What date did you deploy on Arbitrum mainnet?: [Date + transaction ID. If you don’t live on mainnet, explain why.]
22.08.2022 [Arbitrum Transaction Hash (Txhash) Details | Arbiscan]
Do you have a native token?:
Yes, $BFR is the utility and governance of Buffer Finance. It is currently available on Uniswap V3 and Camelot. Tokenomics
Past Incentivization: What liquidity mining/incentive programs, if any, have you previously run? Please share results and dashboards, as applicable?
- Daily & Weekly Trading Competition:
In early 2023 we ran daily and weekly trading competitions. Although competitions were run for a relatively short period, the run was highly successful in boosting trader count and total trade volume:
-
Daily Competitions (Feb 9 - Feb 20, 2023; 11 days):
- Total volume generated: 197,591 USDC
- Trades: 3,307
-
Weekly Competitions (Feb 20 - April 17, 2023; 8 weeks):
- Total volume generated: 2,132,573 USDC
- Trades: 34,226
The leap from Buffer v1 (where the previous competition where hosted) to v2.5 (current), we are indeed playing in a different arena - where risk management is tighter, but the trading experience is more seamless. It is critical to push into perspective that after the release of Buffer v2, a relatively conservative risk management was put into place to reduce exposure and risk to LPs. Market fluctuations and competitor activities influenced our trading volume, leading to weeks of lower averages post-campaign.
However, with Buffer’s latest advancements, including one-click, gasless trading, and new above/below markets, we expect not just a rebound to previous campaign levels but a stronger, more sustainable platform. This evolution reflects the lessons learned and solid foundation built during this period of transformation.
All competition results, including trade volumes, number of trades, rewards, and participation levels, are available on our competitions leaderboard - Daily | Weekly.
- Buffer Buy Back & Burn:
50% of the trading fees generated from BFR trading have been used to burn BFR tokens. So far, a total of 136K BFR has been burned through this mechanism. This burn mechanism has been paused as we recently pushed a new proposal (BIP-03) outlining revenue share and a staking mechanism. A successful vote will set in motion a stronger, more sustainable $BFR buy back and burn strategy.
Current Incentivization: How are you currently incentivizing your protocol?
- $BFR staking is powered by esBFR (escrowed BFR), Multiplier Points and 25% protocol generated revenue
- Referral Incentives in the form payout boosts are offered to both referrer and referee using a tiered approach.
- Community reward program: we launched a campaign on Galxe on 12.03.2024 to drive user onboarding. The campaign is a month-long, ending on 12.04.2024, new tasks are updated weekly. A prize pool of 14,000 PYTH will be distributed to qualifying wallets at the end of the campaign.
Have you received a grant from the DAO, Foundation, or any Arbitrum ecosystem-related program? [yes/no, please provide any details around how the funds were allocated and any relevant results/learnings(Note: this does NOT disqualify an applicant)]
No
Protocol Performance: [Detail the past performance of the protocol and relevance, including any key metrics or achievements, dashboards, etc.]
- 4th largest options trading platform by fee and revenue
- Peak TVL $10M | Current TVL $1.62M
- 985K generated solely as $ARB token volume
- $930K in total fees generated since deployment on Arbitrum
- 101,964 trades since deployment on Arbitrum
- 1,830 traders
- Over 57% of the total $BFR circulating supply staked
Metrics:
Buffer Stats | Buffer Dashboard
Protocol Roadmap: [Describe relevant roadmap details for your protocol or relevant products to your grant application. Include tangible milestones over the next 12 months.]
Q2 2024
- Bootstrap liquidity via LP loss rebates (more info under ‘Grant Execution’ section) ~ To be launched 18th April 2024
- Daily competitions and trading leagues: with social features such as social and profile tracking (more info under ‘Grant Execution’ section) ~ To be launched on 2nd Apr 2024
- Jackpots: to further drive trading activity and engagement (more info under ‘Grant Execution’ section) ~ Can be started from 28th of March
- New dashboard for LP with details regarding overall returns and loss-rebate claims
Q3 2024
- Incorporate ERC4626 vault standard into BLP to support maximum composability
- Launch new staking vaults with deallocation fee and to strike a balance between long-term stakeholders while allowing new entrants to participate in the success of the protocol (subject to governance).
- Launch pilot version of fixed expiry Up/Down markets on mainnet
- Open bot integration program
- Relaunch Optopi collection with exclusive utility
- Expand range of tradable assets
Q4 2024
- Launch a strategy Builder to allow users the opportunity to build their own strategy by utilizing Buffer’s risk sharing building blocks.
Audit History & Security Vendors: [Provide historic audits and audit results. Do you have a bug bounty program? Please provide details around your security implementation including any advisors and vendors.]
Security Incidents: [Has your protocol ever been exploited? If so, please describe what, when and how for ALL incidents as well as the remedies to solve and mitigate for future incidents]
We haven’t faced any contract-level exploit since the time we were live on Arbitrum the only loss of liquidity pool had ever incurred was due to the custom built pull-based oracle we were using. Dependency on second-level data aggregation introduced a single point of failure the exploit during low volume and high price wicks. Since then we have shifted to using Pyth as our base oracle and have never faced any issues since then, safely executing 101,758 trades executed to 1819 traders so far.
# SECTION 3: GRANT INFORMATION
Detail the requested grant size, provide an overview of the budget breakdown, specify the funding and contract addresses, and describe any matching funds if relevant.
Requested Grant Size: [Enter Amount of ARB Requested]
224,735 ARB
Justification for the size of the grant 17: [Enter explanation. More details are better, including how you arrived at the required funding for individual categories of expenses covered by your grant plan]
We are distributing the grants to key participants in the Buffer ecosystem to:
The grant amount will be divided into 4 buckets:
- Enhance liquidity
Binary options can generate much higher fees with significantly less capital - with just $1M in liquidity we can support 10x in monthly trading volume. As such with limited liquidity, the pool’s risk-taking capacity is also limited, making payouts less attractive for large-volume traders. This makes liquidity providers pivotal in boosting volume and activity on Buffer, enabling large trades with minimal slippage.
Current TVL stands at 128,000 and we aim to increase it to 3M (which was also our ATH).
To attract more liquidity by enhancing cumulative returns for depositors, we will allocate a portion (46,285 ARB) of the grant size to time-locked yield-boosting incentives, inspired by Camelot’s Nitro Pools. Our goal is to grow TVL to $3M (which was our all-time high).
Liquidity providers must lock their funds for a period ranging between 2 to 90 days to be eligible for the enhanced yield. This requirement is set to ensure the stability of the TVL, allowing enough time for the PnL for liquidity providers to even out. This approach will also help establish the BLP pool as a dependable source of real yield, bolstered by historical performance data showing profitability for over 16 weeks with minimal drawdowns.
- Incentivize trading activity and acquire new traders
We plan to return 50% of trading fees to Buffer traders across 12 weeks, effectively lowering fees to attract high-volume, programmatic traders seeking incentives. This strategy will boost volume and fees for the protocol, balancing skew and reducing LP exposure and risk, thereby enabling larger open interest caps.
We believe that if we refund half of our fee’s we will be able to triple our volume for the 90 days that we run the program. We are currently averaging 17,604 of volume per day. If we 3x this number and multiply by 90 days, we will end up with a total volume of $4.7M over the 90 days of our program. With our blended fee being 7.5% of the volume, this would be a total of $354,375 of fees. We will be refunding only half of these fee’s or $177,187. When we take this amount and divide by the price of arb $1.75, this totals out to 101,250 $ARB to refund trading fees to our users!
- Drive volume with continuous engagement of acquired traders
Our early 2023 campaign achieved remarkable results, generating $197,591 USDC in just 11 days and $2,132,573 USDC over 8 weeks with modest reward pools. Building on this, we aim to generate $12M trading volume in the upcoming 12-week competition allocating 69,200 of the grant size.
Metrics - Daily Trading Competition Feb - April 2023
Metrics - Weekly Trading Competition Feb - April 2023
Using the metrics from our previous program, we were able to generate $2,132,573 of volume with $21,521 of rewards. That’s a 1.01% volume/reward ratio. If we take the $12M of volume we would like to target, we would need $121,098.79 of incentives to hit that goal. Using a spot price of $1.75 we would like to ask for 69,200 ARB for this part of the program.
Additionally, the competition is structured to maximize trading volume relative to rewards. Daily, the top 30 traders by absolute PnL and 10 traders with the lowest will earn points, which accumulate weekly to determine reward distribution from the total ARB incentives.
Daily, we’ll select the top 30 traders by highest absolute PnL and 10 by lowest in each league, awarding points as outlined in the accompanying chart. Accumulated points, weighted daily, determine weekly rankings, with ARB incentives for each league distributed based on these rankings.
The expected trading volume significantly outstrips the rewards. For instance in the Diamond tier, it takes merely 2 traders to surpass the break-even point, ensuring a considerable boost in trading activity across all leagues. This design not only enhances trader engagement but also assures that trading volume exceeds the ARB rewards distributed, ensuring a higher return on investment.
- A randomized incentive system to boost trading frequency per trader:
We design and allocate a small portion (8,000 ARB) of the grant size to a jackpot system, a low-cost user activity, that leverages random reinforcement reward mechanisms to foster further engagement of acquired traders, completing the new growth flywheel.
Grant Matching: [Enter Amount of Matching Funds Provided - If Relevant]
We will provide 6,593 of Buffer’s $ARB to LP yield boosting program as an initiation phase, setting up the base for launching the LTIPP incentives, guiding its potential for broad-scale implementation.
Grant Breakdown: [Please provide a high-level overview of the budget breakdown and planned use of funds]
The grant amount will be divided into 4 buckets each targeted towards improving our target KPIs:
- 46,285 ARB (20.6%) for time-lock based yield boosting for liquidity providers incentives to achieve higher TVL with longer locks and allow bigger trades generating higher yields and kick-starting the flywheel
- 101,250 ARB (45.05%) for trading rebates across Buffer prediction markets (Up/Down markets and above/below markets) to directly provide better pricing to traders via subsidized trading fee, and incentivising volume growth on the platform.
- 69,200 ARB (30.79%) for trading competitions to acquire new traders - designed to emphasize consistent performance and participation of traders across weeks, this also adds a gamification layer assisting in higher retention.
- 8,000 ARB (3.56%) for the jackpot to increase the number of trades we get per trader via a randomized reinforcement mechanism
*We have mentioned a comprehensive overview of grant usage, weekly caps and execution in the section below (Execution Strategy).
Funding Address: [Enter the specific address where funds will be sent for grant recipients]
0x5558CD6480A63601EC780D8f40FD7cD97dea48a7
Funding Address Characteristics: [Enter details on the status of the address; the eligible address must be a 2/3, 3/5 or similar setup multisig with unique signers and private keys securely stored (or an equivalent custody setup that is clearly stated). The multi-sig must be able to accept and interact with ERC-721s to accept the funding stream.
Three of four multisig SAFE
Treasury Address: [Please list out ALL DAO wallets that hold ANY DAO funds]
0x691FA1d4dc25f39a22Dc45Ca98080CF21Ca7eC64
Contract Address: [Enter any specific address that will be used to disburse funds for grant recipients]
TBC upon being approved for the grant - code is ready for deployment but we are hesitant to deploy code without knowing it has a purpose.
# SECTION 4: GRANT OBJECTIVES, EXECUTION AND MILESTONES
Clearly outline the primary objectives of the program and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), execution strategy, and milestones used to measure success. This helps reviewers understand what the program aims to achieve and how progress will be assessed.
Objectives: [Clearly state the primary objectives of the grant and what you intend to achieve]
-
Grow fees and daily unique traders on Buffer to position Arbitrum as the key infrastructure for fast-paced prediction markets.
-
Increase TVL that allows increasing volume by larger position sizes and maximum open interest on Buffer supporting trades via reward and retention campaigns
Execution Strategy: [Describe the plan for executing including token distribution method (e.g. farming, staking, bonds, referral program, etc), what you are incentivizing, resources, products, use of funds, and risk management. This includes allocations for specific pools, eligible assets, products, etc.]
- Time-Locked LP rewards (46,285 ARB + 6,593 from Grant Matching):
52,878 ARB will be allocated to scale liquidity for Buffer prediction markets. LPs lock liquidity into uBLP market-making pool to revive LP boost NFTs. These LP NFT will have yield-bearing properties. They can be locked for a period of time (2 days to 90 days) to increase % of LP rewards.
Every LP NFT will have its own unique spec like amount and lockup period. The yield boosting pools are the final destination where LPs can stake their LP positions (aka. LP NFTs) to receive ARB rewards. The yield-boosting pools are fixed-duration pools that act as an additional layer of yield rewards for Buffer staked LP positions
- Specifications:
- Users can lock their USDC in a uBLP vault for up to 90 calendar days
- Upon providing capital to the uBLP pool users receive LP NFTs based on their lock period
- Users stake their LP NFTs in the yield-boosting pool to receive ARB rewards, based on the specs of their LP NFT (lock period and amount)
- Every user can deposit as many LP NFTs they hold as they wish to. The rewards calculation is then made based on the sum of all the user’s current deposits
- Trading Competitions & Leagues (69,200 ARB):
The trading competition will run over a course of 90 days, with rewards to be distributed as ARB.
- Leagues, Rank and Points & Incentive Distribution:
Competition participants will be divided into five leagues - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond - according to their trading volume from the previous week. In each league, the daily ranking will recognize the top 30 traders with the highest absolute PnL and 10 traders with the lowest absolute PnL, awarding points based on their ranking.
Then based on the total accumulated points with each day’s weight, we derive a weekly rank. Following this, the allocation of the total ARB incentives is distributed based on the weight of the accumulated points.
- Leaderboards:
Two leaderboards in each league: Highest PnL and Lowest PnL value
- Trading Rebates (101,250 ARB):
50% of the trading fees will be given back to traders over 13 weeks. Rebates will be capped at 6,750 ARB for each epoch or 3.75% of the volume generated whichever is lower, 1 to 12 epochs equal to 7 days and epoch 13 will consist of 6 days, ARB will be distributed on a pro-rata basis based on volume.
All the data is saved on-chain via our storage contracts and the distribution of ARB will be done via smart contract where all eligible wallet addresses can claim their share directly from the reards page (UI to be built and released 2 weeks before launch of the incentives).
- Jackpot (8000 ARB):
-
The user qualifies for the jackpot if the position size is equal to or exceeds the minimum trade size.
-
As soon as the trade is placed, an additional random number is received from the vrf (if the user qualifies for a jackpot),based on the vrf value a fixed payout is made to the trader.
-
Qualification of trader is based on the minimum size of trade (kept at 25 USDC)
-
66% of the time the trader receives 0 rewards, and 33% of the time 2 ARB (detailed probability distribution in the justification section)
What mechanisms within the incentive design will you implement to incentivize “stickiness” whether it be users, liquidity or some other targeted metric? [Provide relevant design and implementation details]
- Liquidity:
To receive boosted yield, the liquidity provider has to lock their funds from 2 to 90 days. This will allow us to keep the TVL stable and allow enough weeks to pass before smoothing out the PnL for LPs, allowing us to establish the BLP pool as a stable source real yield. This is also supported by BLP pool’s past performance, where it has been profitable for more than 16 weeks with minimum drawdowns (link - https://sentinel.buffer.finance/)
- Onboarding Programmatic Users:
Offering trading fee rebates makes Buffer exceptionally appealing to high-volume, programmatic traders, significantly improving their ROI for integrating with our prediction markets.
- Incentivize Consistent Performance:
A trader’s position in the league depends on the volume in the previous week. Points accumulate daily, based on the trader’s leaderboard rank at the close of each 24 hours from the contest’s start. Instead of grouping positions into equal reward buckets, we design a mechanic where rewards increase exponentially as a trader levels up. As a result, the model incentivizes consistent performance and a strategic approach throughout the competition period.
- Clear Product Market Fit:
Buffer’s unique prediction markets (Up/Down and Above/Below) offer a novel way of attracting and sustaining users regardless of market conditions - bullish, bearish, or sideways and of diverse risk appetite. The strategic allocation of a major portion of the grant towards user acquisition and engagement underscores our belief in the product’s inherent design to foster stickiness.
Beyond the aforementioned strategies, we will continue to broaden Buffer’s scope with a suite of enhancements: launching new trading pairs based on community engagement, integrating social features to promote trader engagement, maintaining a truly seamless trading experience, enabling trading bot compatibility, and more building a more efficient LPing system with 4262 standard implementations. Tailored strategies are set to significantly boost TVL, deeper market liquidity, and attract new traders through continuous trading campaigns, maintaining a high level of activity on Arbitrum, setting the stage for enduring organic growth well beyond the grant incentive period.
Specify the KPIs that will be used to measure success in achieving the grant objectives and designate a source of truth for governance to use to verify accuracy. [Please also justify why these specific KPIs will indicate that the grant has met its objective. Distribution of the grant itself should not be one of the KPIs.]
Volume is our primary KPI to quantify liquidity and trading activity. However, this metric alone might not fully capture platform dynamics due to potential concentration among few participants. To address this and ensure a multifaceted and granular analysis, we will be measuring other supporting KPIs:
- TVL - Higher TVL allows for higher-size trades in our risk management
- Daily and monthly active traders - more users allow for a more diversified trading
- Ratio of daily new and repeat traders - offers insights into the platform’s ability to sustain and grow its user base
- Number of trades - offers a more granular view of trading behavior beyond aggregate volume
- Fees
These KPIs collectively ensure the platform’s volume reflects a diverse and active user base, providing a more accurate assessment of its health and sustainability.
Grant Timeline and Milestones:
Overview:
Specifics:
How will receiving a grant enable you to foster growth or innovation within the Arbitrum ecosystem? [Clearly explain how the inputs of your program justify the expected benefits to the DAO. Be very clear and tangible, and you must back up your claims with data]
Industry luminaries including Vitalik Buterin have emphasized that one of the rare clear product-market fits of the entire blockchain technology is globally accessible, transparent, permissionless prediction markets of simple derivatives trading such as Buffer’s Up/Down and Above/Below markets. Since launch in late 2022 - Up/Down markets have seen consistent interest - with TVL rising rapidly, especially in early 2023 (peak TVL 11.65 million).
This area represents a significant, yet largely untapped, growth opportunity due to the complexity of solving liquidity limitations. Injecting liquidity into Buffer will increase both trade volume, transaction volumes, and TVL in tandem. Once the trajectory is set in motion, it is designed to persist - thanks to Buffer’s focus on short-term trading instruments which allows liquidity to be churned and utilized multiple times - generating higher fees with significantly less amount of capital.
As we drive Buffer further towards mainstream adoption, we organically inject increasing liquidity, and positive network effects across the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Do you accept the funding of your grant streamed linearly for the duration of your grant proposal, and that the multisig holds the power to halt your stream? [Yes/No]
Yes
# SECTION 5: Data and Reporting
OpenBlock Labs has developed a comprehensive data and reporting checklist for tracking essential metrics across participating protocols. Teams must adhere to the specifications outlined in the provided link here: Onboarding Checklist from OBL 12. Along with this list, please answer the following:
Is your team prepared to comply with OBL’s data requirements for the entire life of the program and three months following and then handoff to the Arbitrum DAO? Are there any special requests/considerations that should be considered?
Yes.
Does your team agree to provide bi-weekly program updates on the Arbitrum Forum thread that reference your OBL dashboard? [Please describe your strategy and capabilities for data/reporting]
Yes.
*First Offense: In the event that a project does not provide a bi-weekly update, they will be reminded by an involved party (council, advisor, or program manager). Upon this reminder, the project is given 72 hours to complete the requirement or their funding will be halted.
Second Offense: Discussion with an involved party (advisor, pm, council member) that will lead to understanding if funds should keep flowing or not.
Third Offense: Funding is halted permanently
Does your team agree to provide a final closeout report not later than two weeks from the ending date of your program? This report should include summaries of work completed, final cost structure, whether any funds were returned, and any lessons the grantee feels came out of this grant. Where applicable, be sure to include final estimates of acquisition costs of any users, developers, or assets onboarded to Arbitrum chains. (NOTE: No future grants from this program can be given until a closeout report is provided.)
Yes.
Does your team acknowledge that failure to comply with any of the above requests can result in the halting of the program’s funding stream?: [Y/N]
Yes.