January '24 Update

Another exciting month for the grants program! As the DGP v1.5 enters its final month in its current term, we’re excited to report on a number of important new initiatives and updates from existing grants. Now that we are further into the term, the report will include a section on the progress made by our funded grants. The goal is to highlight the accomplishments of our grantees and impact of the program.

This report combines activity from January 2024 and December 2023.

New Grants

Below, we highlight the grants approved since our last report. Batches are compiled by Grantors and submitted for approval by our Trustees.

As a reminder, the program allocates funding between two buckets, Community Initiatives and Strategic Initiatives, to improve the program’s efficiency and allow for more contributors. Community initiatives focus on projects that grow the dYdX ecosystem and contributor set. Strategic initiatives target larger scale projects that contribute to the development, growth, and improvement of the dYdX protocol.

Strategic Initiatives

Direct Withdrawal with Coinbase (IBC forwarding) (Coinbase)

This grant will fund an integration of IBC forwarding with Coinbase to support direct withdrawals from all Coinbase Exchange accounts to dYdX subaccounts. Today, users have to withdraw their USDC from Coinbase to Noble, and then send those same funds to their dYdX account through an IBC message. With this grant, users will be able to pick dYdX as a destination from the Coinbase withdrawal screen, allowing them to directly deposit funds into their trading account.

DYDX Regulatory Whitelisting in Japan (CoinTrade)

In Japan, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the country’s leading regulatory body for all crypto related matters, is responsible for approving the listing of new tokens across all exchanges. Exchanges must first get approval from the FSA before they can add new markets. This can be a long and difficult process.

This grant will fund an effort to gain whitelisting approval from the FSA for all exchanges in Japan to be permitted to list DYDX. As part of the grant, CoinTrade, the exchange leading the listing process, will also add support for DYDX trading and staking on their exchange. We expect more to follow in response given the painful regulatory process will be done.

Notification Infrastructure (Notifi)

This grant will fund the integration of Notifi on the dYdX frontend, which will enable customizable and in-depth alerts for users. The Notifi products embeds directly into the dYdX application, and allows users to create custom alerts among a set of predefined events. Events will include:

• Trading activity (liquidations, triggers, margin health, take profit reminders)
• Governance activity (new proposals, proposal results)
• Account snapshots (state of margin and open positions at end of day, etc..)

Notifications can be sent over email, Telegram, or Discord, letting users pick their preferred platform.

Community Initiatives

Tradingview-Connector: v4 Support (0xIbuki)

This grant will support the existing Tradingview connector tool, a previous grants funded project that was well received and used by the community, to be compatible with dYdX v4. The tool allows users to connect their dYdX accounts and execute on Tradingview strategies. This grant will allow for advanced and automated trading strategy implementation and support every order type offered on v4.

Cosmos Validator Watcher (Kiln)

This is a grant to the Kiln Validator team for supporting the dYdX chain in their Cosmos Validator Watcher plugin. The Validator Watcher operates as a Prometheus exporter and brings real-time monitoring of any Cosmos-based blockchains. Using this tool, validators can access features like:

• Block Monitoring: Tracks missed blocks by validators (with an option to ignore blocks missed by a large portion of other validators)
• Signature Stats: Shows the count of missed signatures per block.
• Validator Status Updates: Monitors the current validator set, including bonded or jailed status.
• Staking Data: Reports on total staked amounts and minimum seat prices.
• Proposal Participation: Tracks validator votes on pending proposals and proposal timelines.
• Upgrade Notifications: Provides information on upcoming blockchain upgrades and related proposals.

New Initiatives

Below, we highlight new initiatives that we’re working on and actively looking to fund. These RFPs (Request for Proposals) invite contributors to apply for specific projects and ideas that we think could have a positive impact on the protocol. We also encourage interested contributors to take inspiration from these initiatives and come up with their own ideas for high impact grants.

API Endpoints for Circulating Supply, Fees, Rewards, & APY

This is an initiative to enhance transparency and accessibility for users and developers. We propose the development of API endpoints to provide real-time information on critical aspects of the dYdX Chain. The primary focus will be on circulating supply, staking APR, trading fee collection, gas fee collection, and trading rewards distribution.

Content & Community Engagement (Dutch)

We are seeking proposals from top communities to execute a comprehensive content strategy targeting the Dutch-speaking crypto community. This RFP aims to bring awareness to dYdX, educate potential users, and onboard them onto our platform.

Go Trading Client

We are looking for talented Go developers interested in rebuilding the existing Typescrypt client for dYdX v4 in Go. The client should make all trading and chain functionalities accessible via Go programs, and format the code in such a way that mirrors the existing client structure. The RFP will also include additional ongoing support to add more functions and updates based on protocol developments.

Funded Grant Updates

Below, we highlight updates from grants that have been funded, some of which have already been completed.

dYdX Launch Incentives (Chaos Labs) In-progress

Chaos is leading a $20m launch incentives program to promote the adoption of dYdX v4. The team reported the completion of their first season rewards, which resulted in the successful distribution of $5M in DYDX rewards to active traders and users of the protocol. The second season has now begun.

Data Services and Analytics (Numia) In-progress

Numia is building an analytical dashboard that measures and highlights all of the protocol’s activity, while also adding support for on-chain data queries for Google’s BigQuery tool. The dashboard is nearly complete, with comprehensive and accessible charts highlighting everything from the number of deposits to daily new traders joining.

Observatory (RockawayX Labs) In-progress

RockawayX added support for dYdX v4 on their Observatory platform, a tool used to monitor the health of our protocol and the active validator set. The dashboard tracks important metrics, including the performance, participation, geographic distribution, and ISP distribution, of dYdX validators. These metrics can be used for delegation strategies and incentivization for improving the overall health and performance of the validator set.

CCTP Relayer (Strangelove Labs) Completed

Strangelove finalized their Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol relayer, which is responsible for transferring USDC between Etherereum and dYdX via Noble. Through this relayer, users can transfer funds directly from Ethereum, improving the onboarding experience for Ethereum-based users. The relayer has already seen millions of dollars worth transferred.

‍dYdX Merch (Toyoji Ltd) In-progress

dYdX Merch, now running for over a year as the protocol’s promotional merchandise program, released a new set of clothing and accessories. The new collection promotes the launch of dYdX v4, with tons of new items for the community to embrace. Merch is used to engage the community and incentivize participation.

C++ Trading Client (Fast Forward) Completed

Fast Forward shipped a C++ version of the trading client, allowing C++ developers and traders to more easily onboard dYdX v4. The clients all the features included in the existing Typescript client, giving users the same experience. With this, we hope to onboard more developers and programmatic traders that prefer C++.

Enterprise Grade dYdX Wallet (Pine Street Labs) Completed

PSL added support for dYdX v4 on Forest, an institutional focused wallet with enterprise grade security and functionalities. The support lets users transact, custody, and stake DYDX within an organizational setting, including approval thresholds and rules for transacting. We hope to onboard more institutions and improve institutional staking participation with these types of wallets.

dYdX Research - Korean (Four Pillars) Completed

Four Pillars published an in-depth report on dYdX v4 in Korean, which explores the protocol’s launch and promotes its new functionalities. Our goal is to engage the Korea crypto community, by both familiarizing and promoting dYdX v4 with local users through media engagement.

Application Data

We received 26 new applications in January, and 27 in December. This represents a slight decrease in applications from our November applications. Generally speaking, this can be expected given the prolonged holiday season.

With new RFPs being posted weekly, we expected new applications to grow in the coming months. We also work more diligently on directly sourcing the right applicants, such that the DGP is not entirely dependent on unsolicited applications. We find combining both approaches maximize our potential to identify the most qualified candidates.

Operational Update

Balance

DYDX: 309,081.00

USDC: 1,565,861.00

Total USD Balance (at current DYDX price): $2,474,559.14

Payables

Outstanding Funding Approved: $1,164,900.32

Outstanding Operational Budget: $50,000

Total USD Payables: $1,214,900.32

Total Budget Remaining: $1,259,658.82

‍

Operational Expenses

Grant Conflict Disclosures

In this section, we highlight the steps taken to mitigate conflicts in the grant approval process in accordance with the policy.

• Wintermute abstained from voting on grant approvals to Notifi and Kiln due to small investments in both.

‍