Key Info
Name: Blockworks Research
Delegate Address: blockworksres.eth
Twitter: @blockworksres
Website: Blockworksresearch.com
Background
Blockworks Research is a growing team of analysts focused on delivering institutional-grade data-driven research and analysis for DeFi. Our team is well-known in the industry for producing high-quality research reports and data dashboards covering various topics, including leading ecosystems and applications, tokenomics, emerging trends, on-chain analytics, and market analysis. In addition, we divide our team into protocol-specific coverage so that our analysts are experts in their respective niches. The success of our media arm, Blockworks, has aided us in many of these areas.
As a part of Blockworks Research’s mission, we want to help Uniswap reach its full potential by informing protocol structure, strategy, and treasury spending leveraging our expertise and passion.
What do we want to see happen in Uniswap governance over the next year
- An increased percentage of the circulating supply voting regularly through experimental
solutions to decrease voter apathy. We want to support events that tackle this problem like this delegate race, participation gamification, and other novel solutions. - Focus on attracting new astute opinions to the forums. People whose goals are aligned with the Uniswap protocol and represent a diverse set of stakeholders. This can be achieved through partnerships and content creation that brings an awareness around votes and forum discussions.
- More conversation and experimentation around creating value for the protocol. Discuss and create a flywheel that puts Uniswap on the path to bringing in more value than it spends annually. Invest these funds back into the protocol such as continued support of the Foundation and the creation of other budgeted subDAOs / working groups.
- Increased innovation from the Uniswap community through governance that enables builders or researchers with great ideas. Working with the community to develop and implement unique ideas that would elevate Uniswaps’ product offering and user experience
Reasons we want to be a delegate
Our desire comes from our passion: Uniswap will help remove rent-seekers and benefit the average person worldwide. We are here to be a steward to this overarching goal. Our team already spends an immense amount of time understanding Uniswap’s mechanisms and projects building atop the protocol. We also closely follow the governance forum, GitHub, and Discord, following important protocol stakeholders to stay in the loop and using our expertise to create informed opinions and strategies.
Skills and areas of expertise
Blockworks Research analysts have extensive first-hand knowledge and experience in crypto through daily usage and analysis. We are adept at data analytics (both onchain and traditional,) risk assessment, community building, and evaluating new technologies. We are DeFi power users with a deep understanding of various protocol mechanisms, what works and what doesn’t work, and where the gaps are currently in the market. Our analyst team has sector and protocol-specific coverage, which empowers us to be experts in our respective niches.
Past contributions to Uniswap ecosystem and/or demonstrated protocol knowledge
- Contributed to many discussions in the forums (Profile - MattOnChain - Uniswap Governance)
- Launched Grant Farm, a public good that helps get more eyes on the Uniswap Foundation (​​Grantfarm: List of Grants Programs - Blockworks)
- Twitter threads (such as https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1555248695578398722?s=20)
- A plethora of Uniswap reports behind our paywall for subscribers (Blockworksresearch.com)
Views on 3 past Uniswap governance proposals
- Create v3deployments.uniswap.eth subdomain and populate its text fields
We are in favor. The v3 deployments ENS subdomain will help swappers identify official implementations of the uniswap protocol so that there is never confusion around which the DAO has deemed official. We would confidently vote in favor of this proposal and suggest that in the future the Foundation or DAO consider creating a second web interface for Uniswap that includes all chains documented here. Without the ENS txt file, traders would have no simple way to know which Uniswap implementations are safe to use.
- Uniswap Deployments Accountability Committee
We are in favor. The Accountability committee is pertinent now that BSL has expired. It is not realistic to expect the DAO to audit new deployments of the code, and this committee is important to ensuring that malicious deployments are not recognized as official. They will be a major tool in the DAOs decision making process and ensuring that new deployments follow strict guidelines.
- Uniswap v3 Gnosis
We are in favor. A single deployment of Uni V3 on each chain should be deemed official so that the DAO may hold the power to turn on the fee switch, as long as the deployment team does not alter the code and in any way.
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
Blockworks Research is an Arbitrum delegate but will abstain from any votes that may be considered controversial.
Top Issues
Cross Chain deployments
Following the Cross-Chain Bridge Assessment Team’s report, we should decide on one standard to facilitate cross-chain governance. Like, the Multi-Message-Aggregation approach will one of the best options.
Fee switch
The fee switch should be tested. The test must have the utmost consideration for regulation and not disturbing the protocol (LPs).
DAO working groups
Budgeted entities under the DAO, like the UF, help move some of the humdrum decisions away from the DAO to groups of experts. They also enable true decentralization of the protocol by moving some activities away from Labs. Things like grants (UF), marketing, developers, research, and more should all be handled by the DAO through regular cadence votes on budget and members for these groups.