Create a UNI-ARB Working Group
Summary
This proposal suggests the establishment of the UNI-ARB Working Group, leveraging a substantial allocation of 2.2 million ARB tokens intended to enhance the Uniswap ecosystem within the Arbitrum Protocol. WG0 will work along to establish two major sub-working groups focused on:
- Protocol Delegates: Active participation in Arbitrum governance through a delegation committee
- Ecosystem Fund: Management of grant program and research for projects fostering the Uniswap-Arbitrum ecosystem
This is a joint proposal from Alastor and web3 Studios - bringing together top-tier experience from work in web3 (Uniswap, Zerion, Polygon, Lido, Gitcoin, and others), TradFi (Qatalyst, Blackstone), Consulting (McKinsey).
It was reviewed and iterated with the help of @Doo_StableLab and @Juanbug, who will join as part of the Working Group Zero to bring their experience in establishing similar programs for leading protocol DAOs.
Background & Sub-Working Groups
For more in-depth background please read the detailed proposal linked above.
This proposal is focused on strengthening the bonds between the Uniswap and Arbitrum ecosystem through setting up two Sub-Working Groups following this mission.
Working Group Zero (WG0) is acting as a structural roof of key Sub-Working Groups and is tasked with:
- Formation of the Sub-WGs, incl. participant nomination and election process
- Establishment of the Sub-WGs objectives and ground rules
- Initial planning of the investment schedule (picked up by the elected Grant Program)
The Sub-Working Groups will cover the following topics:
1. Protocol Delegates
A committee 5 members will serve as dedicated representatives of the Uniswap community’s interests as it was implemented by Uniswap-Optimism Delegate Committee. The primary goal is to actively engage in Arbitrum governance, allowing the Uniswap community to shape the future of the ecosystem. Potential responsibilities might include:
- Participation in voting discussions
- Voting participation through multi-sig
- Attendance at bi-weekly community calls
2. Ecosystem Fund
The Ecosystem Fund, fueled by the ARB-Uniswap Grants, will serve a crucial role in fostering a thriving and sustainable Uniswap-Arbitrum ecosystem.
The fund will extend its scope in a multitude of ways:
- Strengthening ecosystem partnerships
- Seeking investment opportunities through the ARB-Uniswap Grants Program
- Assisting chosen projects with strategy, customer acquisition, retention, engagement, go-to-market, and fundraising/mints
After several rounds of productive discussions with Uniswap delegates, we’re eager to highlight our focus on addressing the following opportunities for growth and improvement:
- Sub-Working Group Commitment: Responding to concerns about participation commitment in working groups, we propose built-in measures for member dropout if dedication wanes. This approach addresses the widespread issue in DAOs of securing active and diligent contributors.
- 8-Week Sprint: Despite the work-intense process of forming Sub-Working Groups, we’re confident we can streamline this using market best practices and our larger Alastor & w3s teams’ operational strength.
- Protocol Delegate & Ecosystem Fund Complexity: Establishing a robust Ecosystem fund entails a lot of detailed conceptual challenges that need be well-thought through, e.g., managing application processes, handling high volumes of applications, documenting decisions, community engagement, etc. We aim to utilize existing grant program best practices as far as possible, confident our team can provide the necessary expertise. The groundwork we lay will give the elected Sub-Working Group a solid foundation to build upon and adapt as necessary, sharing in the workload.
Working Group Zero (WG0) members
We propose the Working Group Zero, tasked with the formation of the sub-working groups to be composed by the following members:
- Alastor (Crypto-native advisory) @Stastny
Experience: Prepared the Uniswap Fee Switch Report 4 diving into fee switch ramifications and recommendations and served as advisor to mStable 2 on their sale to dHEDGE. The Alastor team has done strategic grant work for Lido, Decentraland, and Gitcoin. - web3 Studios (Crypto-native advisory) @bernard
Experience: Leading Strategy Work and Supporting Governance for Gro DAO, Strategy Support for Zerion, conducted analytical and research work together with leading web3 firms such as Polygon, The Sandbox, and DappRadar. Incorporating operational and execution excellence from a team with experience at McKinsey and Blackstone. - Doo Wan Nam (COO at StableLab, Uniswap Deployment Accountability Committee) @Doo_Stablelab
Experience: Professional delegate at StableLab across major DeFi protocols, including MakerDAO, Optimism, Aave, 1inch, Balancer, Element, InstaDapp, Hop. Previously spent 3.5 years at the Maker Foundation. Participation in an Accountability Working Group that shipped Proposal Template 2.0 - Upgrade for Deployments & Agreements 1 - Jun Sun (Uniswap Deployment Accountability Committee, Delegate) @Juanbug
Experience: On current Uniswap Deployment Accountability Committee (with Doo), Led Penn Blockchain governance for 2 years, Delegate at Compound, Aave, MakerDAO, etc; Helped draft, steward, and submit various cross-chain deployment proposals, Co-authored a research paper Deep Diving into Uniswap’s Governance with recommendations on reinvigorating governance activity.
Intention of the proposal
This proposal aims to strengthen the bonds between the Uniswap and Arbitrum ecosystems, promoting mutual exchange and collaboration. Our goal is to boost Uniswap’s presence within Arbitrum and enhance the Uniswap ecosystem in its entirety.
We view this as a valuable complement to Liquidity Management proposals - and recommend an equitable ARB airdrop distribution among these initiatives for a comprehensive strategy.
By establishing a preceding Working Group 0, committed to orchestrating the formation of Sub-Working Groups and conducting transparent elections, we aim to effectively manage the complexities of this initiative.
What are the next steps?
Subject to the outcome of the Temp Check, the proposal will be put up for Snapshot vote. If the following on-chain vote will be approved, this would result in a transfer of funds to a multisignature wallet, controlled jointly by the parties mentioned in this proposal and Erin, from the UF to fund contributor compensation for this program.
Details
- Distribution amount: 2.2M $ARB - split equally between the Protocol Delegates and Ecosystem Fund Sub-Working Groups
- Contributor compensation:
- 20k ARB total for 8 week time commitment of the WG0 members
- Compensation for the Sub-Working Group members oriented at guidelines in the Uniswap Grants Program and the Optimism Delegate program. Considering mechanisms like Hypercerts for retroactive compensation tied to OKR achievement
- Duration:
- 8 weeks for WG0 establishing objectives and ground rules for Sub-Working Groups and initiating election process for these
6-month Grant program
Grants: $50k - $250k
Apply Here: 
