Introducing Tehnical Innovation Awards

Governance zkDAO
1

Following a discussion among current zkDAO governors, we will hereby propose a set of new milestones for zkDAO launch grants that fit the criteria of being technically innovative. Whether a project is considered technically innovative is to be decided by a majority vote by the zkDAO governors, but in general, this subcategory label is meant to be applicable to projects in which new technical challenges are met. Currently, this may apply to projects in which a new ZK circuit is being designed and implemented. For projects fitting this criterion, the requirements for Milestones 4 and 5 will be to reach 100 and 500 daily active users respectively, instead of 1k and 10k.

So overall, the rationale is to reward and encourage projects that demonstrate considerable technical sophistication, and to allow them to more easily attain the higher milestones (and thereby higher DBI and voting power); technically innovative projects can sometimes benefit the space tremendously even if they do not directly attract a high number of users.

3 Likes
2

Following a further dicussion among current zkDAO governors we have decided to offer a further incentive to launches fitting into this category (Technical Innovation): a subsidy of up to $5k for auditing the applicant’s project. Auditing is a requirement for reaching milestone 3. For projects where the circuits are similar to other existing protocols, we recommend applicants to go for ‘quid pro quo’ auditing, i.e. auditing a peer’s code in exchange for the same service. However, especially for awards fitting into the Tehnical Innovation category, more in-depth auditing may be warranted to ensure the quality of the code can benefits others as an open source repo. Therefore, we decide that a subsidy would be suitable, and hope it stimulates more projects trying to go for this option.

1 Like