ATOM Accelerator DAO Transparency Report 7

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Atom Accelerator DAO - Transparency Report 7
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Report Date: July 30, 2024

Table of Contents

  • Overview

  • 1. Financial Reports

    • Balance Sheet - Main and Strategy Wallets
    • Balance Sheet - Operational Wallets
    • Income Statement - Primary Wallets (Main & Operational)
    • Income Statement - DAODAO Main Wallets
    • Income Statement - DAODAO Operational Wallets
    • Cash Flow Management Report - Strategy Wallets
    • Cash Flow Management Report - Main Wallets
    • Cash Flow Management Report - Operational Wallets
    • Hedging Operations

  • 2. Oversight Committee Election

    • Election Overview
      • Election Process
      • Voter Engagement
      • Election Challenges
      • Election Results
    • Updates from Elected Oversight
      • Official Appt Details
      • Oversight Salary Disbursement
      • Github Repository
      • Office Hours
    • Grant Process
      • Enhancing Transparency & Ed in Grant Evaluations: Scores, Notes
      • Grace Period

  • 3. Transparency

    • 2023 Retrospective
    • “Transparency Drive”
    • Team Addition/Departures
    • Oversight Committee Composition, Transition & Recruitment Process

  • 4. Grants

    • Enhancing Transparency & Education in Grant Application Evaluations
    • Recent Grants (issued since Transparency Report #6), by Grant Name Grants: Name Changes
    • Summary: Grant Applications
    • Summary: Grants Approved, By Category

  • 5. Venture Funding

    • Elys Network

  • 6. Tokenomics: RFP Recap



Overview

The ATOM Accelerator DAO (AADAO) presents its seventh Transparency Report. These reports demonstrate the team’s commitment to openness, community engagement, and stakeholder education by providing clear remits of its key resources and activities.

This issue is prepared by the Elected Member of the Oversight Committee (Grace Yu), with inputs from the larger DAO contributor team.

Please note alterations to the structure of this report, and subsequent transparency reporting. The focus will be shifted to sharing material updates on the DAO’s financial status, oversight activities, and operational developments.

In an effort to enhance its responsiveness and operational flexibility, AADAO has moved away from the previous “batch system” of processing grant applications. The DAO has migrated to a rolling, open application process for grant review and approvals.

This approach allows the team to evaluate and fund projects on an ongoing basis, rather than in predetermined batch cycles that can interfere with the deployment of funds. The current report highlights grant-making activities since retiring the batch system and provides updates on all grants issued since Transparency Report #6 on May 14th, 2024.

Since commencing grant-making in March 2023, AADAO has supported +60 projects, and deployed $10 million in funding. For a comprehensive retrospective on grants issued during the inaugural year, please refer to the recent publication of “Navigating Growth: An In-Depth Retrospective on 2023 Grants.”

Key highlights of this report include:

  • Detailed financial reporting for main, operational, and subDAO wallets, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow management.
  • Results of the first Cosmos Hub Governance election, which elected Grace Yu to the AADAO Oversight Committee; including appointment details and early actions of the elected member.
  • Grant Process: Updates on grant applications, application scoring, rejection emails, and a mandatory “grace period” to be enforced between resubmissions.
  • Bonus Methodology & KPIs (Individual and Team)
  • Introduction of the “Transparency Drive” — an initiative to publish key governance policies and foundational documents for AADAO’s internal controls and governance.
  • Updates on recent team changes, including the hiring of a new Ventures Funding Lead and departure of the Oversight Coordinator.
  • Details of the first venture investment in Elys Network.

Should you have any suggestions as to how AADAO can improve the structure or content of its reporting, please send your ideas to grace@atomaccelerator.com.



I. Financial Reports

AADAO maintains a structured wallet system across multiple blockchain networks for transparent and efficient resource management.

The following covers all financial activity from its primary wallets (main and operational) and subDAO (DAODAO) wallets.

Grants: Grants Committee

  • cosmos1syhp2rh3kgqpa5hjrkyfsqsh49mqyye5k9ejc70lev9pq5g9spxs7ya6zd
  • osmo16zm8crvnpawjf3mnnrdasma2m5d6q0edtllrg3w5dul7dg2tp2vsy2ftxm

Operations: Operational committee

  • osmo13w39u0fjv65zshm6xq54mme5nuyg552crf5adjygydelw5htx6pqyyx3ey

Strategy: Strategy Committee

  • cosmos1gs5595tkkvgr7vjc48vl9dv99pw7m6055lql4xrm0evwqa90pa7qtkm26j
  • osmo1d2cjl6k99yk4np5h97a4trxx5x2cnq9n6l2fmmu408agxltcpqaqp972k4

SubDAO addresses:

The primary wallets on Neutron are linked to sub-accounts on Noble, Osmosis, and ATOM (Cosmos).

A. Balance Sheet

  1. Main and Strategy Wallets

Balance Sheet: Main and Strategy Wallets
2. Operational Wallets

B. Income Statement

  1. DaoDao Main Wallets

  1. DaoDao Operational Wallets

C. Cash Flow Statement

  1. Strategy Wallets

  1. Main Wallets

  1. Operational Wallets




II. Oversight Committee Election

AADAO hosted the first-ever election on Cosmos Hub Governance to add a community-elected member to its Oversight Committee. This election marks a significant milestone for Cosmos Hub governance, and Grace Yu’s appointment via democratic process underscores the DAO’s commitment to ensuring community representation in organizational accountability and its oversight mechanisms.

The elected member reports directly to Cosmos Hub Public Governance. The Oversight Committee provides oversight for all AADAO Committees, ensuring compliance with best practices, and internal controls. The Committee has the authority to:

  • Veto grants
  • Discontinue existing grants
  • Initiate termination of DAO contributors in cases of serious misconduct (with evidence)

Election Overview

Election Process

Three on-chain proposals went live on May 10th, 2024.

  1. Proposal #920 - AADAO Oversight Election: Vote for Grace (Cosmos Nanny)
  2. Proposal #921 - AADAO Oversight Election: Vote for Matt Brown
  3. Proposal #922 - AADAO Oversight Election: Vote for Clyde Carver

Voter Engagement

The Oversight Committee member election saw exceptionally high voter engagement, exceeding expectations. All three proposals (#920, #921, #922) maintained a consistent turnout of around 59%, indicating steady community interest across all candidates.

Notably, Proposal #920 for Grace received more participation (ATOM deployed in voting) than ATOM 2.0: A new vision for Cosmos Hub (#82)1, and nearly matched the participation with ATOM Halving: Set Max Inflation Rate to 10% (#848)2. The high level of engagement demonstrates:

  • The community’s strong interest in AADAO’s governance
  • The perceived importance placed on the elected Oversight Committee Member’s role
  • The community views electing an Oversight member as significant as major protocol changes

Election Challenges

Voting Behavior Issues:

  • Guideline Deviations: Some validators strayed from recommended voting procedures, particularly at the beginning and earlier half of the voting period.3
  • Bias/Signaling Concerns: These deviations raised concerns about potential bias signaling through an abuse of voting options.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Some validators voted with preference (Yes/No) despite actual or potential conflicts of interest.

While the limitations of current Cosmos Hub governance contributed to these issues, implementing multiple-choice options4 in the next governance module upgrade can help mitigate actual or future abuses.

That said, the first election highlighted the need for active supervision during election events; underscoring the importance of providing an election supervisor to monitor voting behavior to maintain the integrity of voting behavior and voting processes. In summary, while code improvements will help, they cannot replace the need for active human oversight to ensure fairness in elections.

Election Results

The race was competitive between Grace (#920) and Clyde (#922).
On May 24th, Grace won with 5,439,569 more ATOMs than Clyde, a 9.8% advantage.

  • Proposal #920 (Grace): 60,856,064 ATOM voted Yes (59.64% Turnout / 40.00% Quorum)
  • Proposal #922 (Clyde): 55,416,495 ATOM voted Yes (58.48% Turnout / 40.00% Quorum)
  • “Opposition votes” (No + Veto) and Abstains:
    • While Grace led in “Yes” votes, she received 8.92 times more “opposition votes” than Clyde
    • Clyde had ~13.9% more Abstains than Grace, but received less “opposition votes” than Grace
    • Grace received 9.37 times more “No” votes than Clyde
    • 90% of “No” votes for Grace came from three validators: Informal, Swiss Staking, and Strangelove5.
Proposal Yes (ATOM) No (ATOM) Veto (ATOM) Abstain (ATOM) Turnout/Quorum
#82. ATOM 2.0 71,016,518 2,724,762 55,891,644 19,835,290 58.54% / 40.00%
#848. ATOM Halving 73,165,203 56,667,011 11,669,549 36,323,836 69.64% / 40.00%
#920. Grace 60,856,064 9,918,550 263,298 81,300,199 59.66% / 40.00%
#921. Matt 8,363,414 10,065,208 267,363 131,787,328 58.94% / 40.00%
#922. Clyde 55,416,495 1,058,328 258,742 92,648,686 58.50% / 40.00%

Left: May 23, 2024 at 19:24 PM EST
Right: May 24, 2024 at 14:30 PM EST
Source: AADAO Elections Dashboard by Defiant Labs

Left: May 24, 2024 at 12:33 EST
Right: May 24, 2024 at 14:30 EST
Source: AADAO Elections Dashboard by Defiant Labs

Updates from Elected Oversight

Official Appointment Details

  • Onboarding Date: June 14, 2024
  • Position: Community Elected Representative, AADAO Oversight Committee
  • Employment Status: 35% Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Contributor
  • Compensation Bracket: $45 to $65 per hour (Oversight Member, Technical/Developer Member)6

Note: Due to Grace’s mid-month start date, her compensation for June 2024 will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Oversight Salary Disbursement

Current Salary Disbursement Process: The Strategy Committee’s multi-signature wallet currently funds Oversight members’ monthly salaries.

Imminent Changes to Oversight Salary Disbursement: AADAO is developing a more autonomous payment system to enhance Oversight’s independence and impartiality:

  • Annual Funding: The Strategy Committee’s wallet will replenish Oversight salaries once a year, unconditionally.
  • On-Chain Vesting: DAODAO’s on-chain tools will manage salary vesting.
  • Independent Compensation: This approach separates Oversight members’ pay from AADAO’s regular budgeting and payroll processes.

Creating this self-sustaining compensation structure will:

  • Strengthen governance integrity.
  • Ensure Oversight members are free from potential internal influence.
  • Enhance the independence of Oversight members.

Since her onboarding, Grace has wasted no time in getting to work on behalf of the community, most notably through the development and launch of the AADAO Oversight Github Repository.

This comprehensive digital archive serves as a consolidated hub of information, offering an organized presentation of key facts pertaining to AADAO’s history, formation, team composition, organizational structure, grantees, ventures, and Treasury operations (main, operational, and subDAO accounts).

Previously, grantee information was particularly fragmented across multiple channels and reports, making it difficult for community members to access and digest grantee data efficiently. To address this, Grace produced a well-structured repository that presents grantee data through coherent, comprehensive, and accessible tables.

To illustrate the improved clarity and accessibility of grantee information, please see a sample from the 2023 grantee table below:

Concurrent with these efforts, AADAO is in the final stages of a redesign of its website content and dashboards. The changes aim to streamline navigation and facilitate more intuitive discovery of AADAO’s rules, policies, activities, and funding related information. The synergy between the updated website and the repository exemplifies AADAO’s ongoing dedication to supporting solutions that advance user-centric design and information availability.

For a current and complete overview of all grants issued by AADAO to date, refer to the following repo links:

Additional Repository Resources:

  • Team Roster: For updated information on the current/former AADAO team, including full-time and part-time contributors, please see team README.
  • Transparency Reports: For an archive of transparency reports (#1-7) and the 2023 Impact Report, please see transparency_reports README.
  • Venture Program: For information on AADAO’s venture program and investments, please see ventures README.
  • Main Wallets and SubDAO Addresses: For information on AADAO’s main wallets and SubDAO addresses, please see wallets README.

How to Reach & Report Concerns to Oversight

To enhance community-driven oversight, Oversight is introducing and encouraging the use of GitHub’s Issues feature. This tool assists in transparently tracking and addressing public concerns directed to the elected Oversight member. For a practical example of how this feature can be utilized, refer to an example issue: “[QUESTION] Batch 5, Grantee - ‘Multiple Grants in the Infrastructure Domain’”. Please use the provided GitHub Issues Template to submit substantial concerns/complaints.

Grace will provide regular written updates via the Cosmos Hub Forum; and maintain “Community Office Hours” to ensure predictability and consistency in her availability:

What: Community Office Hours
When: Thursdays from 4pm - 6pm EST/8pm - 10pm UTC
Where: Cosmonaut HQ Telegram Chat (#AADAO Topic Channel)

For matters requiring sensitivity and discretion, you can email Grace directly at grace@atomaccelerator.com.



III. Transparency

2023 Retrospective on Grants

On July 4th, 2024, AADAO published “Navigating Growth: An In-Depth Retrospective on 2023 Grants” via Cosmos Hub Forum. The report is a comprehensive retrospective analysis of all grants issued during its inaugural 2023 year. Assessments were performed per the guidelines published on the AADAO website.

Grant-making in an innovative and niche environment is challenging. The job is not to be perfect, rather to adapt quickly. For a new team operating in a pilot year, one can say the AADAO’s grant completion rate in its pilot year was relatively high.

Here are key takeaways from “Navigating Growth,” Retro Report:

  1. 2023 Grant Overview
  • Total grants awarded: 40
  • Completion status:
    • Completed: 24 (60%)
    • In Progress: 11 (27.5%)
    • Discontinued: 5 (12.5%)
  • Overall completion rate (counting Completed and In Progress): 87.5%
  1. Grant Sizes and Completion Rates
  • Range: $9,600 (smallest) to $250,000 (largest)
  • Average grant size: $92,847
  • 62.5% of grants fell between $50,000 and $200,000
  • Completion rates:
    • Smaller grants (under $100,000): 75%
    • Larger grants (over $100,000): 50%
  • Negative correlation observed between grant size and completion likelihood
  1. Grant Status & Average Approved/Paid Amounts
  • Completed grants:
    • Average approved amount: $76,562
    • Average paid amount: $75,645 (99.2% of approved)
  • In-progress grants:
    • Average approved amount: $128,538
    • Average paid amount: $61,280 (47.7% of approved)
  • Discontinued grants:
    • Average approved amount: $119,978
    • Average paid amount: $66,295 (55.3% of approved)
  1. Frequently Used Words in Grant Rationale Analysis (“Why did we give the grant?”)
  • Top reasons:
    1. ATOM/AEZ/Cosmos Hub (38 mentions)
    2. Ecosystem development (15 mentions)
    3. General development (14 mentions)
    4. Community support (12 mentions)
  1. Frequently Used Words in Lessons Learned Analysis (“What did we learn?”)
  • Key learnings:
    1. Go-to-market (GTM) strategy improvement (12 mentions)
    2. Enhanced communication (9 mentions)
    3. Better KPIs/milestones (8 mentions)
    4. Improved marketing (7 mentions)
    5. Community engagement (6 mentions)
  1. Insights
  • Strong focus on ecosystem development (37.5% of grant reasons)
  • Emphasis on core Cosmos elements (95% of reasons mentioned ATOM, AEZ, or Cosmos Hub)
  • Go-to-market strategies of grantees emerges as a critical area for desired improvement (30% of grants)
  • Better project management practices cited (42.5% mentioned improved communications or need for better, more focused and accountable KPIs/milestones)
  • Need for operational improvements; time management and inter-team coordination identified as challenges for AADAO contributors

“Transparency Drive”

In its ongoing commitment to operational transparency, AADAO is preparing to publish key governance policies and foundational documents, including but not limited to:

  • Code of Conduct & Conflicts of Interest
  • Oversight Veto Policy & Procedure
  • AADAO Charter and Bylaws

These will be available on the website following their respective ratification via internal DAO vote, as applicable.

The recent Oversight election highlighted the need to revisit internal protocols for assessing and managing conflicts of interest during ordinary and extraordinary procedural events (e.g., elections). In response, AADAO will be revisiting their COI policy, with special attention to the applicability and implementation of established definitions and frameworks.

Furthermore, as the DAO expands its scope from traditional grants to include venture funding, the organization recognizes the need to reassess and adapt its existing framework to account for actual and potential conflicts that can arise as its key activities diversify.

By publishing these documents, AADAO aims to strengthen the integrity of its operations while nurturing confidence from the community.

Team Additions/Departures

During the first half of 2024, AADAO actively recruited for several 100% full-time equivalent (FTE) contributor roles.

Additions

  1. Appointments Announced in Transparency Report #6:
  • “Mark from Denmark” (@darkmatterr__): Grants subDAO Lead
  • Syed Choudhury (@syedchoudhury): Communications/Marketing Lead
  1. New Hire - Ventures, Funding Lead:
  • In March, AADAO informed the community of our search for a Venture Grants Specialist
  • On May 23rd, AADAO announced via main social media channels that Jordan Andrews (@0xjordy) had been hired for this role.
  • Jordan will lead the Venture Funding program. He brings over 8 years of experience in business development and venture financing across 13 ecosystems.
  • Please note that the position previously known as “Venture Grants Specialist” is now called “Venture Funding Lead.”
  • Program Renaming: “Venture Grants” program has been renamed to “Venture Funding”. These changes were made to more accurately reflect the nature of the work and program.

Departure - Oversight Coordinator

Damien Bonello is a 35% FTE Contributor who has been engaged as the Oversight Coordinator since the beginning of the pilot year.

In June, Damien Bonello received a promotion with his primary employer, Simply Staking validator. This promotion expanded his roles and responsibilities, making it untenable for him to continue his position as AADAO Oversight Coordinator. His end date with AADAO was June 30th, 2024.

AADAO congratulates Damien on his well-deserved promotion. The team expresses gratitude for his contributions in establishing and shaping the DAO’s Oversight policies and operations. Damien’s work has been instrumental in laying the foundation for the DAO’s governance and accountability structure.

Damien is a leading voice in Cosmos Hub governance, successfully leading several governance proposals including Proposal #88 (Increasing Cosmos Hub Community Tax), Proposal #687 (Replicated Security Third Party Audit) and Proposal #826 (Set Minimum Commission to 5%). AADAO looks forward to engaging with him as an active participant in Cosmos Hub governance.

Oversight Coordinator Role

This role has been revised from a 35% FTE to a 20-25% FTE position.

Responsibilities of the Oversight Coordinator:

  1. Policy Development:
  • Draft, deliberate, implement, and amend internal control policies for AADAO governance; and Oversight Committee operations and procedures.
  1. Community Engagement:
  • Collaborate with the elected Oversight member; engage with the community in a transparent, reliable, and productive manner (e.g., quarterly community calls, and weekly community office hours).
  • Address community concerns and provide consistent and transparent support in primary channels.
  1. Transparency Reporting:
  • Prepare and publish transparency reports in a timely manner
  • Co-lead the writing of the annual report on AADAO Phase 2 (renewal year 2024).

Oversight Committee Composition, Oversight Coordinator Recruitment & Transition Process

The Oversight Committee’s structure consists of three key roles:

  • Coordinator (vacant, previously Damien Bonello)
  • Internal Auditor/Controller (Patricia Mizuki)
  • Elected Member (Grace Yu)

This composition ensures comprehensive oversight while maintaining operational efficiency.

In the event of a vacancy with either the Coordinator or Internal Auditor/Controller roles, the following process is implemented:

  1. The General Manager (Youssef Amrani) will recommend candidates to the Strategy Committee.
  2. The Strategy Committee7 votes to select a qualified candidate from the General Manager’s recommended shortlist.
  3. In order to formalize the Strategy Committee’s selected candidate for prospective hire, the candidate must be ratified by a 60% majority vote with all contributors of AADAO participating.

Youssef is currently finalizing his review of potential candidates for the Strategy Committee’s consideration. In the interim, Grace has agreed to assume several of the Coordinator’s responsibilities until a replacement is onboarded.

Performance Bonus

Performance Bonus Structure and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

During the renewal mandate (Proposal #865), the Atom Accelerator team proposed a performance-related bonus structure without defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Since the proposal’s passage, the team has now formalized both its KPIs and the methodology for implementing this bonus structure. The methodology and KPIs were developed by the Strategy Committee members, the role of Oversight is ensuring the methodology and KPIs are shared in a transparent manner.

Performance Bonus Allocation

The performance bonus for each individual shall be allocated as follows:

  1. Individual Performance (50%): Assessed based on personalized Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) tailored to the specific responsibilities and duties of each team member.
  2. Organizational Performance (50%): Evaluated against the AADAO’s collective KPIs, hereinafter referred to as “Team-wide KPIs.”

Individual KPI Design Rationale

Individual performance KPIs are being developed collaboratively between each contributor and their direct supervisor, aligning with the overall Team-wide KPIs. These individual KPIs are highly contextualized to contributors’ roles and their respective committees.

It is important to note that for Strategy Committee members, their individual KPIs are identical to the team-wide KPIs outlined below. This unique alignment means that the Strategy Committee’s success is directly tied to AADAO’s overall success.

For information regarding the assessment process and vesting timelines, please refer to the section below.

Team-wide KPI Design Rationale

The Team-wide KPIs have been formulated with dual intent:

  • To measure the direct performance of the AADAO team within their scope of control.
  • To establish aspirational targets that encourage the team to exert positive influence beyond their immediate purview, to promote inter-subDAO coordination and performance optimization.

Team-wide KPI Composition and Weightings

The Team-wide KPIs shall comprise of the following components:

  1. ATOM Market Cap Dominance (15% weighting): Measured against an index of other Shared Security providers. While AADAO does not engage in market making or product development for Interchain Security, this metric aims to incentivize efforts to positively influence this key Cosmos Hub product. (This has been approved by AADAO’s legal counsel and does not create regulatory risk — insert here the reasoning via footnote)
  2. Service Quality Improvement (35% weighting): Focused on enhancing the quality of service provided to teams engaged with AADAO. This metric extends beyond funding allocation to encompass a comprehensive evaluation of AADAO’s ongoing support to grantees.
  3. AEZ Growth (50% weighting): Quantified by the increase in projects and developers within the AEZ. This metric aims to foster the development of user-centric products within the Cosmos Hub and AEZ ecosystem. It should be noted that while AADAO does not directly control developer education or onboarding processes, this benchmark will track the influx of new developers and projects into the AEZ.

Specific targets for each component are delineated in the accompanying graphic.

Interpretation and Possible Application of Performance Bonus Criteria

The following examples illustrate the application of the aforementioned performance bonus criteria:

  • Minimum Threshold Example: In the event that AADAO facilitates the onboarding of four (4) new projects into the AEZ, the maximum performance bonus awarded under the Team Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) shall be limited to ten percent (10%).
  • Mid-Range Performance Example: Should AADAO achieve the following:
    • Onboarding of four (4) new projects into the AEZ;
    • Attainment of a ninety percent (90%) score in the feedback survey; and
    • Growth of ATOM market capitalization dominance by three percent (3%);
    • the maximum performance bonus awarded under the Team-wide KPIs shall be fifty-two and one-half percent (52.5%).
  • High Performance Example: In the instance where AADAO accomplishes the following:
    • Attainment of a one hundred percent (100%) score in the feedback survey;
    • Onboarding of fifty (50) new projects relevant to the Cosmos Hub and AEZ. ; and
    • Increase in the number of developers in the AEZ by four percent (4%);
    • the maximum performance bonus awarded under the Team-wide KPIs shall be sixty-two and one-half percent (62.5%)

Performance Bonus: Assessment and Vesting

Performance assessments are conducted semi-annually by the designated direct supervisor.

Committee Leads assess the performance of individuals within their respective committees (e.g. Grant Reviewers are assessed by the Grants Committee Lead), while the General Manager assesses the performance of leads and individuals not affiliated with a single committee (e.g. Ventures Lead, Marketing & Comms Lead, etc.)

Non-permanent members of the Strategy Committee are responsible for assessing the performance of the General Manager and evaluating the entire team’s performance against Team-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Performance bonuses are vested on a linear basis over a six-month period commencing from the date of award.

Bonus structure is divided into two components:

  1. Individual Performance Bonus (50% of total): Assessments and awards for individual performance shall occur semi-annually.
  2. Team-wide KPI Bonus (50% of total): Assessments and awards for Team-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) shall occur annually.

For the 2024 performance cycle:

  1. Individual Performance Assessments:

    • Assessment Date: June 30, 2024
    • Full Vesting Date: December 31, 2024
    • Assessment Date: December 31, 2024
    • Full Vesting Date: June 30, 2025

  2. Team-wide KPI Assessment:

    • Assessment Date: December 31, 2024
    • Award Date: December 31, 2024 (subject to bonus qualification)
    • Full Vesting Date: June 30, 2025 (approximately)

Any bonus awarded shall vest in full six months from the respective assessment date. The vesting process shall occur gradually over this six-month period, with the total awarded amount becoming fully accessible at the conclusion of the vesting period.

Note: The bonus methodology and associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been developed by the AADAO Strategy Committee. Oversight’s role in this process is limited and complementary, rather than directly involved in policy development.

Oversight’s primary function in this context is to conduct an independent review of the methodology, with a specific focus on identifying any potential vulnerabilities or conflicts of interest within the assessment process. This review serves as a crucial check to ensure the integrity and fairness of the system.

Additionally, Oversight plays a key role in promoting transparency – ensuring that the logic behind bonus distribution is communicated clearly and comprehensively to the Cosmos Hub community. This transparency is essential for maintaining trust and accountability within the organization and the broader community.


IV. Grants

To date, for the current 2024 fiscal year, AADAO has approved 55 applications, and deployed $4.8 million in funding support. The average grant approved amount is $80,000, the median grant approved amount is $87,586.

As of last month, AADAO retired the “batch system.” Moving forward, grants will be considered and reported on an open application, rolling basis.

AADAO uses specific terms to differentiate its funding activities.

Note on Terminology:

  • “Grants”: When AADAO uses the term "grants,” it is referring to its standard, grant-making activities.
  • The use of “Venture Grants” will be discontinued.
  • “Venture Funding” now replaces “Venture Grants” to refer to all venture-related funding activities.
  • “Quadratic Funding” (QF) refers to the contributions the AADAO makes to the matching prize pool for each round of the AEZ Quadratic Grant,run in association with DoraHacks.

Enhancing Transparency & Education in Grant Application Evaluations

In collaboration with the Oversight Committee, the Grants subDAO has decided to implement changes to the feedback AADAO gives to unsuccessful grant applicants. Moving forward, all applicants will receive their evaluation scores accompanied with notes in their rejection emails. This initiative serves two crucial purposes:

  1. Transparency: By sharing scores and specific feedback, AADAO offers applicants a clear window into its evaluation process, reinforcing its commitment to openness.
  2. Education: More detailed feedback provides tangible learnings, helping applicants understand the strengths and weaknesses of their submissions. This guidance aims to foster improvement in the quality of first-time and recurring applications.

It is crucial to emphasize that the disclosure of scores is not an invitation to negotiate scores issued; rather, the scores are shared as a tool for education and information only.

Grace Period for Rejected Applications

To maintain the integrity of the grant application pipeline and process, AADAO will be enforcing a mandatory two-month “grace period” for reapplications from rejected grant applications. This policy aims to:

  • Maintain the integrity of the grant application process
  • Allow applicants time to thoroughly review, research, and reshape their proposals and relevant plans, meaningfully

Exception: The grace period will not apply to applicants who are specifically invited to reapply following an interview that directs them to do so. In such cases, the reapplication should incorporate mutually agreed-upon changes to the initially proposed scope of the original application.

By implementing the above, the goal is to improve the overall quality of applications and ensure that grant funding is directed towards well-developed and thoroughly considered projects.

Recent Grants

Since Transparency Report #6, AADAO has approved several new grants. This report provides a detailed breakdown of only recently approved grants. Moving forward, every subsequent transparency report will also focus solely on grants issued since the previous report. This change aims to eliminate redundancy in the DAO’s reporting and ensures that reporting offers the most timely and relevant information sought by the community.

For a comprehensive list and details of all grants issued to date, please visit the AADAO Oversight Github Repository. This repository provides up-to-date information on all AADAO funding activities:

Currently,AADAO is redesigning its website. Once completed, the website will also be maintained with near real-time updates on its grants and venture funding activities.

In chronological order

Cosmos Hub Testnet Incentive Program (renewal)

Hypha Co-op, Lexa Michaelides
Interchain Security
Approved: May 08, 2024

$77,000

After an already successful pilot program that began last year, the six-month Testnet Incentives Program aims to support Cosmos Hub validators’ participation in the Hub’s Interchain Security testnet — where new software is tested and new consumer chains are initially onboard — by incentivizing validators to reliably participate, providing feedback to consumer chain teams, helping other validators join the testnet, and more.

The more mainnet validators we have in testnets, the more confidence there is in the testnet’s ability to sufficiently test new upgrades. Unfortunately, running testnet infrastructure has a cost for validators, and actively participating in testnet requires time and resources. This program exists to incentivise mainnet Hub validators to actively participate in the Hub’s public testnets.

This grant is included in the current transparency report due to incomplete information provided in the previous report.

Incentivized Testnet for Interchain Security (ISLE)

Hypha Co-op, Lexa Michaelides
Interchain Security
Approved: May 15, 2024

$50,000

ISLE is an incentivized testnet to prepare the Hub for transitioning from Interchain Security (replicated security) to Partial Set Security (PSS). The PSS testnet will educate validators and involve existing and incoming consumer chains, unlike previous testnets that focused only on validators. Scheduled for May 15-22, this one-week testnet offers a significant opportunity for testing necessary technical deliverables, as well as PSS marketing and content creation leading up to the mainnet launch of PSS.

For context, past incentivized testnets have requested around $300k from the Community Pool and lasted up to 4 weeks, while this time to optimize time and resources Hypha team agreed to lower the testing period. Please note that only $30k of our $50k grant was utilized, with the remaining $20k refunded back to the DAO’s wallet.

This grant is included in the current transparency report due to incomplete information provided in the previous report.


Economic Model for Interchain Security (PSS)

Pro Delegators, “Phil RX”
Interchain Security
Approved: May 15, 2024

$15,000

Evaluation framework to help prospective Partial Set Security (PSS) candidates assess how many validators a chain may need, and how to qualify validators and their related services (e.g.,relevant security parameters). The modeling will include relevant economic costs (financial metrics) – this initiative will help chains and validators make more informed decisions in accordance with revenue projections and or cost basis estimates. The grant’s scope also includes support in the creation of a web interface for this model, and the production of a video to help better explain Interchain Security to wider audiences.

Quadratic Funding Program for the AEZ

Dora Hacks, Brian Breslow
Interchain Public Goods
Approved: May 15, 2024

$200,000

Quadratic funding (QF) is an innovative on-chain funding distribution mechanism that improves upon traditional voting models. It uses a quadratic algorithm to decrease the influence of whale voters from dominating governance and funding decisions.

For the Cosmos Hub and AEZ, Dora Factory pioneered a QF implementation using Dora Vota, a CosmWasm and IBC-enabled appchain that provides an impartial voting infrastructure – overcoming the Hub’s lack of smart contract support.

Following Cosmos Hub Proposal #917, 80,000 ATOM was secured for Dora Hacks’ ongoing innovations in QF for AEZ public goods and appchain builders. AADAO has approved an additional $200,000 grant, committing $20,000 for each of 10 successive rounds over 24 months. Dora Factory’s second AEZ QF round saw participation from over 400 contributors; their first round had participation from over 100 contributors.

AADAO’s QF grant aims to foster the sustainable development of public goods and appchains within the AEZ. QF extends the Hub and AEZ’s ability to support public facing goods and services with smaller funding requirements. QF is especially vital for addressing market gaps that delay or otherwise deprive resources for public goods, which often lack venture capital financing and or clear business models. QF enables community driven financial stewardship, benefiting projects such as IBC Relayers, NFT Indexers, popular cosmos-sdk modules, and open-source tools.

For more details on the QF funding model, please consult the Quadratic Funding & Voting Guide.

Please note, AADAO is actively collaborating with the Dora Hacks QF program to minimize the risk of duplicate funding. The Dora Hacks team will provide regular updates on projects and teams applying to be part of the QF rounds. This information allows AADAO’s Grants Committee to identify and prevent potential “double-dipping” across both funding streams. Both teams are working to ensure the integrity of each funding process and optimize resource allocation within the ecosystem. To be clear, there will be teams that apply to both funding programs, but so long as the scope is different, this is not an issue.

La Multisig: Community Activation in LATAM

La Multisig, Hernan Milstein
Events, Marketing & Education
Approved: May 17, 2024

$12,000

Argentina is already home to over 115,000 developers and a third of the population uses stablecoins for daily purchases. To kickstart a dedicated Cosmos Hub community in this region, La Multisig will organize two in-person events. Leveraging our $12,000 grant, one small-size event will be held in Buenos Aires in the next few months, and a second mid-size event will be held at the end of the year, both focused on kick-starting and sustaining an ATOM community in the region. These events are expected to boost end-user awareness and developer adoption of the Cosmos Hub and AEZ among LATAM users.

We should note here that there were other education and marketing elements in La Multisig’s initial application, which were removed from the scope of this grant. Some of those rejected elements were subsequently approved for funding by a community vote and direct community contributions as part of the Quadratic Funding program.

Cosmos Hub @ EthCC, Brussels

Miwa Events, Yuni Graham
Events, Marketing & Education
Approved: Jun 06, 2024

$29,540

This grant organized a Cosmos Hub side event at EthCC Brussels. The full-day event (12-7pm) took place on July 7th, the day before EthCC, and targeted participants from both the Ethereum and Cosmos ecosystems.

The event had over 1,100 registrants (against a venue capacity of just 100) and 100+ individuals who wanted to pitch at the AEZ Pitch Night (for the 3 available pitch slots). As well as keynotes from Ethan Buchman and Youssef Amrani, the event hosted 4 developer-focused workshops (Cosmos SDK, CosmWasm, Launching on ICS and a Node Operators Guide).

We should note that Miwa Events were effectively contractors for the event - an event management company used to handle the logistics of the event. This $29,540 grant covers all costs of the events - from venue, food and drinks, to photographer and merch printing, as well as a fee for Miwa’s service. Miwa was not responsible for the programming or promotion of the event, unlike a traditional grantee.

Stargaze: ATOM Creators Fund

Stargaze, Shane Vitarana
ATOM as Interchain Money
Approved: Jun 14, 2024

$50,000

This grant is aimed at promoting the use of ATOM for NFTs, with Stargaze, the premier NFT platform in the interchain, leading the effort.

With this grant, Stargaze will:

  • Add ATOM as a mint denomination on their platform.
  • Create an ATOM Creators Fund to incentivize NFT creators from outside the ecosystem to launch collections mintable only in ATOM on Stargaze.
  • Run the “Atom August” campaign, a four-week event where all Stargaze Featured projects will mint in ATOM.

The ATOM Creators Fund project includes encouraging 2-3 high-profile creators from outside the ecosystem to launch signature collections on Stargaze. The Stargaze team will execute on marketing and outreach efforts, produce onboarding material for the creators and conduct workshops (online and IRL) on minting with ATOM.

The Atom August campaign is designed to drive ATOM’s use on Stargaze’s NFT marketplace, measure ATOM usage over time through mint volume, and incubate the cultural, marketing, and community value of ATOM-associated NFTs, establishing a new use case for the ATOM token within the ecosystem.

Frontend for the Interchain Security (PSS) Economic Model

PYOR, Sayeeshwar Kumar
Governance, Tooling & Infra
Approved: Jun 26, 2024

$10,000

This grant will build the website front end for the PSS Economic Model (created by grantee, ProDelegators). The primary purpose is to make ProDelegators’ economic model more accessible, dynamic and user-friendly. The front end will need to:

  • Help users figure out which validator they should stake with (PSS means different rewards with different validators)
  • Help validators figure out the cost vs benefit of running a consumer Chain.
  • Help consumer Chains figure out the economic cost of the security they want/need; help chains create blacklists based on validator metrics, etc.

Ludium: Developer Activation in South Korea

Ludium, “Agwn”
Events, Marketing & Education
Approved: Jun 26, 2024

$15,000

Ludium is a Web3 Builder Community focused on providing information, education, and bounty opportunities for builders to transition their career into Web3. All materials on Ludium are open sourced for the public usage. For the past 3 years, Ludium conducted education and bounty programs for Ethereum Ecosystem, Multichain Foundations, Government and community. Ludium will be a strategic partner in developing events and education based marketing in Korean/S. Korea, a significant regional market for Cosmos.

This grant is for the development and deployment of a Korean developer onboarding course, primarily targeted at South Korea (SK). The Ludium team will produce content (written, code samples and videos) on 3 core modules:

  • Cosmos Overview: Intro to Cosmos Ecosystem, Go Language and how to use CosmosSDK
  • Intro to CosmWasm: Intro to Rust and CosmWasm contract development
  • CosmWasm dApp: Hands on exercises to deploy dApp on Neutron

The content will be structured into “missions”, which will be deployed on Ludium’s in-house LMS platform. Ludium will then find up to 100 SK devs to go through the content, and support the course with AMA and online workshops.

Funding IBC Gas Costs for Cosmos Hub’s Relayers

CryptoCrew, Clemens Scarpatetti
Governance, Tooling & Infra
Approved: Jun 26, 2024

$56,000

The IBC Relayer Fee Grant Working Group (WG) was created as per governance proposal #862 - to cover the transaction fees for IBC relayers on the Hub. A report about the first service period (2024/01/01 - 2024/06/21), can be found here.

Prior to this proposal, IBC relayers were responsible for covering these fees themselves. This situation was problematic for two main reasons:

  1. Lack of scalability: As the network grew, the cost burden on relayers became increasingly unsustainable.
  2. Fairness issues: It was equivalent to users sending messages without paying for the delivery cost.

While proposal #862 created a dedicated gas fee wallet to fund these transactions, the funds were depleted after six months. Without prompt replenishment, IBC relaying on the Cosmos Hub faced the risk of trickling down to a halt.

This AADAO grant will be used to purchase approximately 8,000 ATOMs at market price to replenish the fee grant wallet, ensuring continued effective and efficient IBC relaying on the Hub. Without this crucial funding, IBC operations on the Hub would halt, severely hampering the Hub’s ability to perform its core functions and interact with the broader Cosmos ecosystem. Currently, 24 relayer teams utilize this fee grant.

Superbolt: Bringing Advanced NFTfi to the AEZ

Superbolt / MB Aejir
ATOM as Interchain Money
Approved: Jul 03, 2024

$125,000

This grant to Superbolt is for developing an advanced NFTfi protocol on Neutron. Superbolt will feature a cutting-edge NFT marketplace, a no-code launchpad, and revolutionize NFT liquidity and utility in the AEZ.

NFTfi, or NFT finance, enhances the utility and liquidity of NFTs by turning them into financial assets. Superbolt will introduce fractionalization, breaking down NFTs into smaller, fungible tokens, making them more accessible and tradable.

Superbolt’s NFTfi Layer will also use Astroport PCL for efficient trading, and facilitate borrowing and lending with NFTs as collateral to secure loans, among many other NFTfi use cases.

Superbolt’s NFT Marketplace will be a customizable trading hub for Neutron, a key platform of the CosmosHub’s AEZ. Expect advanced analytics, various user modes (including Degen mode), and a sleek UI/UX, with plans to include messaging features to enhance user interaction.

Their NFT Foundry will be a no-code launchpad making NFT creation easy. By removing technical hurdles, it encourages creativity and community growth. Superbolt aims to position Neutron as the go-to for NFT launches, with future integrations for smooth NFTfi onboarding.

AADAO approved a $125,000 grant to Superbolt to bring these revolutionary use cases to the AEZ, further increasing utility and on-chain activities in the AEZ. To unlock the full grant amount, Superbolt will need to hit TVL targets.

2024, Cosmoverse (Update)

2024 Cosmoverse

Cosmoverse / Basil Nasereldeen
Events, Marketing & Education
Approved Amount: $100,000
Temporary Loan Amount: $80,000

In March 2024, AADAO approved an $100,000 grant to support the 2024 Cosmoverse event, following previous grants of $110,000 for Cosmoverse 2023 and $40,000 to Cryptocito for content production in 2023.

AADAO transitioned from deploying grants in $ATOM to $USDC towards the end of their 2023 pilot year. AADAO asserts that their contributors explicitly communicated to the grantee team that the 2024 Cosmoverse grant would be deployed in Noble USDC.

On March 20, 2024, AADAO transferred 80,000 $USDC8 to the address cosmos12m4dshpc5qqvrafw46pu6rg4743aswljupx445, which had been identified by the grantee team as the recipient address. A critical misunderstanding occurred, as AADAO assumed this address was fully controlled by the grantee team. However, it was subsequently revealed to be a CEX Kraken address suitable exclusively for $ATOM transactions, rendering the grantee unable to access the $USDC funds.

To ensure uninterrupted work on the conference, the Cosmoverse team requested a loan from AADAO. Given the grantee’s status as a recurring recipient and the perceived good faith in the relationship, AADAO approved and disbursed a non-interest bearing loan of $80,000 on May 24, 2024.

Grace, the elected member of Oversight, conducted an initial review in early June, and the scope of her previous review was limited to assessing the necessity and reasonableness of the loan. She concluded that the loan was justified due to the sizable cultural footprint of Cosmoverse as a branded annual event for the Cosmos ecosystem, and noted a joint effort to reclaim the $USDC stuck at Kraken, with primary responsibility for recovery lying with the grantee team.

As of July 28, 2024, Grace has decided to examine the role of faulty information transmission and or the role of potential missing internal measures that lead to this situation.

Meetings have been scheduled to review all perspectives of the incident. She has asked for documents that substantiate various perspectives. A comprehensive incident report will be delivered to the community by August 7-10, 2024, pending full cooperation of all relevant parties.

At the present time, Grace is primarily concerned with examining processes. Oversight actions and related purview can involve review of procedures that may be suboptimal for the proper management of public funds. Such review applies equally to both the grant-making organization and the grant recipient.

By examining this incident, her focus is on strengthening processes (where and if needed) – to prevent similar issues in the future, ultimately benefiting both the DAO and its grantees. For ongoing updates to this issue, please see Grace’s posts here.

All parties are advised to await this forthcoming report for further guidance and resolution of this matter.

Grants, Name Changes

To enhance clarity and consistency in its reporting, AADAO has revised the names of several grants. The revised names will be used in all documentation, including past reports and future communications.

This change was prompted by a need to provide, and work with names/titles that are more accurate and immediately comprehensible descriptions of each grant’s purpose and scope. Please note that while the names have changed, the objectives and milestones of these grants remain unchanged.

Old Name New Name
2023 AADAO Grants
Interchain Meetups Interchain Meetups in Italy
Liquid Staking by Stride Stride: Trustless Liquid Staking for the ATOM Community Pool
Escrow Module: DreddSecure Escrow Module for the Cosmos SDK
Cosmos Millions Cosmos Millions: Bootstrapping ATOM liquidity
Cosmos Hub Data Lenses AEZ Revenue Dashboard on Data Lenses
Messari Research Reports Messari Protocol Reports for the Cosmos Hub
Auction Module for AEZ Auction Module for the Cosmos SDK
Interchain Wallet ATOM Gas Station on Leap Wallet
Fairblocks Private Governance Fairblocks: Private Governance Votes for the Cosmos Hub
Cryptocito AEZ Content Creation: Cryptocito
Piloting deliberative governance for the Cosmos Hub Cosmozens Assembly: Deliberative Governance for the Cosmos Hub
Cosmos Hub Hackathon AEZ Boost Hackathon
Proof of Personhood - Anima Anima: Proof of Personhood for Cosmos Airdrops
ICS/RS Consumer Chain KickStart Service Interchain Security Onboarding Service
DAO DAO Neutron Deployment DAO DAO On Neutron
Multiple Grants in the infrastructure domain Cosmos Indexer
Metamask Snaps Infrastructure MetaMask Snaps Infrastructure for Cosmos
Blockworks Research ATOM Tokenomics RFP: Blockworks
Binary Builders ATOM Tokenomics RFP: Binary Builders
Cosmos in Brazil Cosmos Brazil: Developer Activation in Brazil
RMIT ATOM Tokenomics RFP: RMIT
IBC Summit Cosmos Hub at IBC Summit
AEZ Ecosystem Build Out References Shogun Fi: Decentralized Interchain Market Maker for the AEZ
IBC Atom Compounding Compounding Interchain Security Rewards to staked ATOM
Colombian Development Seedbed Nacion Crypto: Developer Activation in Colombia
Interchain Allocator’s Covenant System Timewave: Covenant for Deploying ATOM Liquidity
Astrovault+ Astrovault to Neutron
GT:1 Automated grant payments tooling Calc Finance: Automated, Streamed Payments for AEZ DAOs
Interchain Info Development Funding AEZ Dashboard & Content Creation on Interchain Info
New DAO bootstrapping SunDAO: Bootstrapping a Cosmos Investments DAO
Fiat Onboarding to the ATOM Economic Zone Kado Money: Direct Fiat Onboarding for the AEZ
Testnet working group Cosmos Hub Testnet Incentive Program
2024 AADAO Grants
Asteroid Protocol Asteroid Protocol: Supercharging Inscriptions on the Cosmos Hub
Lava Network Lava Network: Incentivized Public RPC for the Cosmos Hub
Everstake Airdrop Dashboard Spelldrop: The ATOM Airdrop Explorer


Summary: Grant Applications

The below visualization is for applications received since the start of AADAO.

Summary: Grants Approved, Funding Distribution by Category

Below, please find a categorical breakdown of total funds distributed from pilot year (03/2023 - 12/2023) through the current renewal funding year (02/2024 - present); as well as funds earmarked to be distributed contingent upon milestones achieved.

The tables below are prepared using data maintained by the Internal Auditor and Controller.

Grant Category 2024 Grants Distributed
Amount Approved $USDC Amount Disbursed $USDC
Governance, Tooling & Infra 140,970 77,970
Events, Marketing & Education 236,540 202,540
Interchain Public Goods 200,000 20,000
ATOM as Interchain Money 161,000 87,000
ATOM Interchain Data 96,851 31,756
Interchain Security 142,000 81,000
2024 Total Funding Paid Out 500,266
Funding Due Upon Milestone Completion 477,095
Total Funding Approved 977,361


Grant Category 2023 - 2024 Grants Distributed
Amount Disbursed $USDC Amount Disbursed $ATOM Total Amount Disbursed
$USD
Governance, Tooling & Infra 170,370 6,608 236,370
Events, Marketing & Education 225,040 1,782 242,540
Interchain Public Goods 55,050 5,322 108,050
ATOM as Interchain Money 87,000 - 87,000
ATOM Interchain Data 31,756 - 31,756
Interchain Security 81,000 1,527 96,000
ATOM zone build-out 190,617 8,847 278,851
Cross-Chain Collaboration 12,750 2,111 33,750
Tokenomics RFP - 4,361 43,654
2024 Total Funding Paid Out 853,583 30,560 1,157,971
2023 Total Funding Paid Out 264,989 2,267,817
Funding Due Upon Milestone Completion 1,346,441
Total Funding Approved 4,772,229


V. Venture Funding

As discussed during the mandate renewal and subsequent announcements, AADAO has begun to deploy venture funding.

Venture investments aim to “help grow and diversify the ATOM Community Pool, help to exponentially grow the AEZ and ATOM usage.” For more information on the purpose of the new Ventures program, please refer to the official blog post: “Cosmos Hub Introducing Venture Grants”.

On May 17th, AADAO announced its first investment in Elys Network. Elys blends the seamless CEX trading experience with the benefits of DeFi infrastructure, bringing forward the ultimate platform for trading, swaps, liquidity mining, staking, leveraged LP, PerpDex and more.

The team made its first venture funding into Elys because it leverages Interchain Security using Partial Set Security (PSS) and integrates deeply with the Atom Economic Zone (AEZ). The ventures team believes Elys enhances ATOM’s utility while also fostering increased adoption across the ecosystem.

The total approved investment amount for Elys Network is $500,000.

The investment was remitted in two USDC $250,000 disbursements:

Venture Funding #1, Elys Network: Payment 1 of 2
Venture Funding #1, Elys Network: Payment 2 of 2

Jordan Andrews joined as the Venture Funding Lead after the Elys investment agreement was executed.

AADAO has recently finalized a second venture funding agreement. It will provide more information about this deal as soon the team receives authorization from the counterparty to disclose details.

For VC funds, angel investors, accelerators, incubators interested in collaborating with AADAO Ventures — or if you’re a web3 startup building with the Interchain Stack or are otherwise ATOM aligned - have a conversation with the Ventures team by contacting Jordan at: jordan@atomaccelerator.com.



VI. Tokenomics, RFP Recap

As part of its Tokenomics RFP, three grantees (Binary Builders, Effort Capital, and RMIT) submitted eight actionable recommendations to be potentially implemented through Cosmos Hub governance.

AADAO initially expected the community to adopt a more involved and curatorial function in discussing, refining, and vetting the ideas and policy concepts forwarded in grantees’ respective research and recommendations. However, progress has been slower than anticipated due to limited engagement from the community.

In response, AADAO will assume a more proactive role to address the inertia. This means, the DAO core team will help structure and manage public policy conversations; and draft signaling proposals necessary to formalize the changes that must be affirmed and approved by the Hub.

The team recognizes that the RFP recommendations are at times complex and some components still require additional exposition to support informed decision-making from the community. Therefore, AADAO will prioritize ensuring sufficient time for stakeholder and community education of relevant issues before submitting any on-chain proposals for voting consideration.

AADAO reaffirms its neutral stance on the Tokenomics recommendations published by grantees. The DAO’s enhanced role is purely administrative, serving as a facilitator. The team will employ the CHIPs (Cosmos Hub Improvement Proposals) framework to advance feasible and desirable Tokenomics ideas, beginning with the DRIP module (Developer Revenue Incentivization Program).

DRIP, conceived through Binary Builders’ Tokenomics RFP research, addresses the Cosmos Hub’s current limitations in issuing milestone-based grants for core development. Presently, funding proposals typically deploy 100% of funds upfront, creating execution and pricing risks without recourse for non-compliance beyond social pressure. DRIP aims to establish a more stable payment system, benefiting both ATOM tokenholders and funding recipients.

The recent adoption of CosmWasm opens possibilities for implementing solutions to these risks. AADAO will initiate its expanded role by proposing a signaling proposal for the DRIP module, upon more satisfactory discussion and feedback on the Cosmos Hub Forum. AADAO asks for your attention and participation in these important public conversations.

[END]

Note: The AADAO Transparency Report is a joint report produced by the Oversight Committee and StratComm Committee Members.

Endnotes

  1. Proposal 82, 58.54% Turnout / 40.00% Quorum; YES 71,016,518 ATOM, NO 2,724,762 ATOM, NWV 55,891,644 ATOM, ABSTAIN 19,835,290 ATOM

  2. Proposal 848, 69.65% Turnout / 40.00% Quorum; YES 73,165,203 ATOM, NO 56,667,011 ATOM, VETO 11,669,549 ATOM, ABSTAIN 36,323,836 ATOM

  3. YES: Vote for your preferred candidate.
    ABSTAIN: Use this option if: This person is not your preferred candidate (remember to vote YES on your preferred candidate’s proposal), or You wish to contribute to the quorum without voting for or against the proposal.
    NO: Voting NO has no impact on the election outcome.
    NO WITH VETO: Use this option if you believe the proposal: Is irrelevant to Cosmos Hub (spam),Disproportionately infringes on minority interests, or Violates or encourages violation of Cosmos Hub governance rules.

  4. A multiple choice proposal is a proposal where the voting options can be defined by the proposer.The number of voting options will be limited to a maximum of 4. Multiple choice proposals, contrary to any other proposal type, cannot have messages to execute. They are only text proposals. For more, please see CosmosSDK. Reportedly, the multiple choice option has been developed by Binary Builders, and ready for implementation via the next governance module upgrade.

  5. 05/10/2024, Strangelove voted No 920; 05/14/2024, Informal voted No 920; 05/24/24, Swiss Staking voted No 920.

  6. AADAO Compensation Brackets:
    Program Managers and Strategy Committee Members: $75 to $95 per hour
    Oversight Members, Technical/Developer Members: $45 to $65 per hour
    Reviewer Committee Members: $35 to $55 per hour
    Administrative Members: $15 to $20 per hour

  7. AADAO Strategy Committee Members: Youssef Amrani, Ryan Orr, Riley Edmunds, and Carter Lee Woetzel. For information on Strategy subDAO and other subDAO members, please see: aadao/team at main ¡ gaiaus/aadao ¡ GitHub

  8. There are a total of five (5) $USDC milestone payments referenced in A22 Proposal/Milestone Payments. Only the $80,000 $USDC disbursement is relevant to Cosmoverse 2024. Milestone payments disbursed in this multi-send include: Fairblocks $18,000, Metamask Snaps $12,750, Cosmos Brazil $22,500, Kado Money $30,000, Cosmoverse $80,000

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I obviously just skimmed the report for now but can already say, massive respect. This is impressive. Thank you a lot.

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Tl;dr

Executive Summary of AADAO Transparency Report #7:

1. Financial Reports:

  • Detailed financial reporting provided for main, operational, and subDAO wallets.
  • Balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow management reports included for all wallet types.

2. Oversight Committee Election:

  • Grace Yu elected as community representative through first-ever Cosmos Hub Governance election.
  • High voter engagement, with turnout around 59% for all candidates.
  • Proposal #920 for Grace received more participation (ATOM deployed in voting) than the ATOM 2.0 proposal (#82), and nearly matched the participation of the ATOM Halving proposal (#848).
  • Grace won the election with 60,856,064 ATOM, which was 5,439,569 more ATOMs than the runner-up (a 9.8% advantage).
  • 90% of “No” votes for Grace came from just three validators: Informal, Swiss Staking, and Strangelove.
  • Election highlighted need for improved voting processes and active supervision during elections.
  • Grace’s role is 35% Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) with a compensation bracket of $45 to $65 per hour

3. Transparency Initiatives:

  • Grace built GitHub repository for AADAO information.
  • “Transparency Drive” launched to publish key governance policies and foundational documents.
  • Changes made to enhance reporting clarity, including revisions to grant names for consistency.
  • 2023 Grant Retrospective published, analyzing the performance of 40 grants awarded in the inaugural year.

4. Grants Program:

  • Transition from batch system to rolling, open application process for grant review and approvals.
  • Enhanced transparency in application feedback, including sharing evaluation scores and notes with unsuccessful applicants.
  • Two-month grace period implemented for rejected reapplications to maintain integrity of the process.
- Recent Grants (Approved since May 2024)

       ATOM Creators Fund (Stargaze): $50,000 
       Brussels EthCC Cosmos Hub Event: $29,540 
       Cosmos Hub Testnet Incentive Program (renewal): $77,000 
       Developer Activation in South Korea (Ludium): $15,000 
       Economic Model for Interchain Security (PSS): $15,000 
       Frontend for the Interchain Security (PSS) Economic Model: $10,000 
       Funding IBC Gas Costs for Cosmos Hub's Relayers: $56,000 
       Incentivized Testnet for Interchain Security (ISLE): $50,000 
       La Multisig: Community Activation in LATAM: $12,000 
       Quadratic Funding Program for the AEZ: $200,000 
       Superbolt: Bringing Advanced NFTfi to the AEZ: $125,000

     Total cumulative spend (since May 2024): **$594,540**

5. Performance Bonus Structure:

  • New KPI-based bonus system introduced, with 50% based on individual performance and 50% on team-wide KPIs.
  • Team-wide KPIs include ATOM Market Cap Dominance, Service Quality Improvement, and AEZ Growth.
  • Semi-annual assessments for individual performance and annual assessments for team-wide KPIs.

6. Team Changes:

  • Jordan Andrews hired as new Venture Funding Lead.
  • Damien Bonello departed as Oversight Coordinator; position revised to 20-25% FTE.

7. Venture Funding:

  • First investment of $500,000 made in Elys Network, focusing on Interchain Security and AEZ integration.
  • Second venture funding agreement finalized, details to follow pending disclosure authorization.

8. Tokenomics RFP Recap:

  • AADAO to take more proactive role in advancing recommendations from three grantees (Binary Builders, RMIT, Effort Capital).
  • Focus on structuring public policy conversations and drafting signaling proposals.
  • Prioritizing community education before submitting on-chain proposals.
  • DRIP module (Developer Revenue Incentivization Program) identified as initial focus for implementation.

9. Cosmoverse 2024 Temporary Loan Issue:

  • $80,000 USDC mistakenly sent to CEX Kraken address instead of grantee-controlled wallet.
  • Temporary, non-interest bearing loan of $80,000 issued to ensure uninterrupted work on the conference.
  • Oversight investigating the incident, with a comprehensive report expected by August 7-10, 2024.
  • Follow up to be provided here.
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To echo another discussion currently taking place within this forum about ICF transparency (link here), we would like to emphasize the visible efforts being made on the AADAO’s front. While AADAO has faced its own criticisms in its early days, unlike the ICF, whose actions are still eagerly awaited, AADAO has acted promptly. The extensive reports released publicly by the DAO demonstrate their commitment to transparency and their dedication to the Hub’s community.

It’s important to recognize how time-consuming and resource-intensive it is to produce such detailed reports and maintain transparency. We should appreciate those who adhere to these standards, and it appears AADAO is doing just that. We want to express our gratitude for their efforts and encourage the continuation of this practice in the foreseeable future.

pro-delegators-sign

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Agreed, respect. Also, thank you Cosmos_Nanny for the TL;DR.

Agreed, the promptness is extremely appreciated.

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Thank you for recognizing the effort invested in producing the transparency reports. These reports are not solely the product of Oversight, but rather a collab effort involving Strategy, Grants, Operations, Ventures and Comms.

While Oversight is responsible for project management wrt transparency report production, it should be noted that the overall curation of the report is achieved through a consensus-based process across committees.

“Curation” refers to the selection of the most relevant and urgent items for reporting. It is a common misconception that transparency equates to a comprehensive log of all activities.

Such an approach would not only be impractical but would also impose significant time and economic costs/challenges. This level of detail would more accurately be described as surveillance rather than transparency.

There’s odious transparency.
And there’s effective transparency.

I’m a proponent of the latter. The information I seek, and the information conveyed via reporting is driven by disclosure of material information pertinent to decisions and considerations where community involvement and awareness are crucial. The objective is informed participation without overburdening the stakeholder relationship or compromising operational and or community efficiency.

Achieving meaningful transparency requires commitment and cooperation from all parties involved. It doesn’t happen spontaneously and demands mindfulness and good communication habits continuously – it also requires good faith and some trust.

AADAO includes me in meetings where Oversight attendance is clearly relevant. But they have gone a step further by inviting me to participate in discussions that may not directly fall under Oversight’s purview. This inclusive approach has been invaluable for me in my first two months, giving me context for the quality of the deliberations and decision-making processes.

And on the note of trust – thank you again to the community for trusting me to do this job.

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