Ethereum

a collective funding mechanism for +170 Ethereum L1 R&D maintainers 🌿 stewarding our commons infra


Introducing the @protocolguild pledge: with a commitment from Ethereum ecosystem projects to donate 1% of their native tokens to Protocol Guild, I believe we can align incentives between L1 R&D work and the rest of the crypto ecosystem ⛓️🛡️

https://tim.mirror.xyz/srVdVopOFhD_ZoRDR50x8n5wmW3aRJIrNEAkpyQ4_ng

If you aren't familiar with Protocol Guild, I recommend watching this video before you dive into the post, and following @cheeky-gorilla!

(summer of) protocol {support | guild | fellowship} ☀️


If you aren't familiar with Protocol Guild, I recommend watching this video before you dive into the post, and following @cheeky-gorilla! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhopXK6haL8

My quantitative definition of Protocol Guild's goal is to "make contributing to Ethereum L1 R&D economically rational on a risk-adjusted basis, while avoiding capture". The Protocol Guild Pledge (PGP 😄) is what I believe is sufficient to get us there.

A visual way to represent this is that core devs don't generally get token upside for their work. By moving a tiny bit out on the risk curve, they can dramatically shift their rewards. The PGP aims to close that gap, and bring the risk/reward levels of L1 work in line with the ecosystem.

Why 1%? First, percentages have 3 advantages over $-denominated thresholds: it puts all projects on an equal footing, abstracts the volatility from donations (all assets in PG vest, so "peak bull" donations may be worthless by end of vesting), and, most importantly, it allows easy pre-token commitments!

On that last point, once again, shout out to ether.fi for front-running us today with the announcement 😄

On that last point, once again, shout out to ether.fi for front-running us today with the announcement 😄 https://twitter.com/ether_fi/status/1752376059394408458

The post walks through some hypotheticals about what things would look like if we had this norm today. There are many moving pieces, but 1% is definitely right right order of magnitude (@dannyryan originally wanted 1.5, so it's a "deal"!)

Lastly, I argue that now is the right time to set this norm in the ecosystem: the next several years are critical for Ethereum R&D, and the community already has a strong culture of supporting public goods. A quantitative pledge is a meme that's hard to dilute, and hopefully becomes a default for future projects.

This post has been on my TODO for >6 months at this point, and I've had discussions about this with many, many people. I appreciate everyone's input, but worth noting this is my personal opinion/view: not PG's, ACD's, or the EF's!