[APPROVED] Open Shards Alliance (OSA) Guild - 17K $NEAR Funding 2021 [Proposal]

Near Community and nodes Community Fund
1

TLDR of the proposal:
The Open Shards Alliance (OSA) is a guild of MainNet validators and NEAR enthusiasts that operate and maintain a shared decentralized network named GuildNet. The network is solely maintained by the guild and is used to train validators new to NEAR and as a sharded experimental TestNet for DApps.

The guild provides training, experimental features, and tooling for validators interested in NEAR.

The goals are to:

  1. Train and grow a base of validators to further decentralization when sharding is enabled on MainNet.
  2. Develop common validator tools for monitoring and troubleshooting
  3. Test experimental features of NEAR
  4. An Incentivized NEAR TestNet

Detailed proposal - max 450 words, if more info is needed link to docs:

The GuildNet network has been community-run and governed since July of 2020. An initial budget of 50K was provided under the StakeWars budget and it was recently identified that this budget expired at the end of 2020. To-date the guild has issued around 5K in rewards. Our current monthly budget run is 800 NEAR. This is comprised of rewards issued to guild members for maintaining portions of the network’s repos, tools, and recruiting.

OSA accomplishments JUL 2020 - JAN 2021

  • Members: 100
  • 8 shards
  • Active Validators: 15
  • Hard-Forks: 15+ (Network Upgrades)
  • 12 Forked & Maintained NEAR Repos
  • Tools: GuildNet Faucet, CI/CD for Hard-Forks, Staking Bot, Monitoring Tools
  • GuildNet Documentation

2021 Goals

  • TPS Testing and Results report
  • Recruit 15+ additional validators to fully decentralize the network
  • Incentivize the tokens of the network (tokenomics, founder distributions, NEAR Swap integration)
  • Build additional tooling to support validators (Monitoring tools, auto-deployment scripts)

Potential ROI/impact on the NEAR Ecosystem:

  • The OSA is aligned with the mission of NEAR to provide an opportunity to the world by providing opportunities for a greater degree of decentralization by training validators.
  • Once sharding is enabled we plan to have 30 additional experienced validators ready to decentralize the network further.
  • NEARsama and Incentivized TestNet
  • Overall 2021 goal is to begin the process of self-funding through an incentivized network

Amount of funding:

We would request a budget of 17K NEAR for 2021:

  • 12K (1K monthly) NEAR monthly for network support and tooling
  • 5K StakeIt or BreakIt validator recruiting competition

Project lead (internal/external):

External project lead: Henry Tafolla (blaze) already retained as a part-time contractor through July 30th 2021.

Timeline:

  • Q1 TPS Testing
  • Q1-Q2 Validator recruiting - StakeIt or BreakIt validator competition Mar 1st - May 1st
Community Council Poll
  • Yes
  • No
  • Abstain
0 voters
Open Community Poll (min trust_level_1 required)
  • Yes
  • No
  • Abstain
0 voters

Voting and quorum thresholds:

<2K$ - 1X Yes - no minimum quorum (* quorum defined as min number of members needed for the vote to be valid)
2-10K$ - 2X Yes - no min quorum
10-30K$ - 3X Yes - min quorum 4 of 7 - 4X members should vote in either direction
Above 30K$ requires Erik or Illia’s additional approval (Head of NF/Chairman of NFC)
Above 100K$ requires NEAR Foundation Council approval

3 Likes
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Hi Henry! Thanks for submitting this proposal. Due to the amount requested this will take a bit more time than usual. Could you please share a timeline/deadline for when you need a decision? We are working with @Grace on revamping the process.

3

Thanks for the update! The most immediate need is to continue to issue rewards for guild member contributions and for the Stake It or Break It competition in the short-term. So in terms of a timeline, it would be good to have a budget approved within the next month or so.

4

Hi @blaze
I trust this has been taken care and that guild members continue to receive rewards for their contribution.
Please let me know.

5

Hi. Grace. I was out last week, but had a sync with Shreyas today. I have updated the community fund request to include just the budget for the monthly rewards and the validator competition. I will submit a separate grant request for the incentivized TestNet launch. Thanks!

2 Likes
6

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the inputs, everyone. Appreciate your advice on this, @StefanoPepe. Had a great discussion with @blaze today and he will be reporting on the metrics on a monthly basis here on the forum. The incentivized testnet will be part of the grants as discussed.

@erik.near We have reached quorum on this. Please vote or leave a comment/questions when you get a chance.

4 Likes
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Hey @blaze , @shreyas

How are things going on the OSA front?

Are those metrics being shared in the forum monthly? Are they in another thread? A general update would be ace!

8

Hi @David_NEAR we started monthly reporting last month.

I will be working on July’s report this week. The grant was also approved for the incentivized TestNet last month. More details to come!

1 Like
9

:boom: !

Great stuff, thanks for the update @blaze