We launched the OGP with the goal of building and supporting an active ecosystem of motivated contributors. Our approach was simple: to fund community projects and initiatives that help Osmosis grow.
In this first edition of the OGP Retroactive Report, we will share a breakdown of what the OGP has funded so far, highlight a few of the grants we are most excited about, and emphasize some high priority areas for the consideration of future applicants.
Q1 Funding Breakdown
The OGP started accepting and reviewing applications a little over three months ago. Since then, we have approved 33 projects for over $1.2M in funding, after having reviewed and diligenced 170+ applications.
Approved grantees truly reflect the diversity of the Osmosis ecosystem, ranging from individual community members to companies, validators, and DAO builders:
If you’d like to see all of the funded grants, we strongly recommend checking out the OGP website and Dework pages.
So far, we have approved six batches of grants, which can be summed up into the following categories: Apps, Analytics, Tooling, Infrastructure, Education, and Other (which includes all of the projects that don't fit into a specific category).
The chart below details the total funding amount for each batch, broken down by category:
After funding a number of Analytics projects in the first two batches, we shifted our focus on Apps and Infrastructure in the later batches. On average, we allocated $200k per batch distributed between 5 grantees.
After all six batches, the largest category of projects by funding amount was Apps, followed by Analytics, Infrastructure, and Tooling:
Grants Highlights
While we're confident that all of our approved grantees will go on to add significant value to the Osmosis ecosystem, we would like to highlight some upcoming projects that we are most excited about.
Cron.cat's decentralized automation layer will enable CosmWasm developers to integrate event-driven and scheduled tasks. Users will benefit from being able to automate many of the common workflows that are done manually today.
Having a fiat on/off-ramp is a critical piece of infrastructure for any exchange. With Kado's solution, users will have the option to onboard directly onto Osmosis without having to go through a centralized exchange, which will make Osmosis more competitive and attract new users. A large portion of this grant will go towards subsidizing fees for users, which will provide an added benefit for them.
Eco Stake is building a delegation tool using the AuthZ module, which will allow stakers to delegate their voting power to non-validator addresses, creating a new class of delegates that will sit between stakers and validators. We're still not sure how this feature will be used once it's live, but we're confident that interesting experiments will come out of it.
With Margined's perpetual swaps, users will be able to use leverage without having to think about expiring futures contracts, which is useful for hedging risks and speculation. Keep an eye out for the Margined airdrop, as they announced that they will distribute 5% of their total token supply to Osmosis users!
Most grantees are still working on their projects, which is understandable given the OGP has only been live for 3 months. Yet, some exceptional grantees have already completed some deliverables; we will share a few examples below.
Dashboards for Weekly Analytics Reports
Hathor Nodes have completed the Staking, LP, and Governance dashboards, which are being used for their weekly analytics reports. Having helped track the bridge proposals and assess the V9 Nitrogen exploit, among other things, Hathor Nodes have become key members of the Osmosis community.
All That Node now supports Faucet, StateSync, Public and Archive Node services for Osmosis. Validators and developers can use these services to quickly and easily set up their nodes, and build without significant barriers. These services will be supported by All That Node for another four months. We'll assess whether to negotiate a further grant to renew support for these services once the four months are over.
Tenderduty V2 Validator Monitoring Tool
Although the documentation is still being finished, Block Pane recently released Tenderduty V2. Tenderduty is an easy to use monitoring tool that allows validators to detect downtime and take the necessary actions. We encourage all validators to check it out as the tool has received a ton of positive feedback.
A Call for Applicants
Many RFPs are being worked on or have been completed over the past few months. So, as we consider the next quarter of the OGP, we would like to highlight some of the funding categories and RFPs that we will be prioritizing going forward.
Apps
Attracting teams to build on top of Osmosis and extend its core functionalities will be crucial to cement Osmosis' position as the interchain AMM. Therefore, funding apps that deploy on Osmosis to leverage its product suite and user base will remain a key focus for the OGP.
RFPs spotlight:
- Options protocol – e.g. Katana
- NFT fungibility protocol – see Floor Perps for inspiration
- RWA Finance – e.g. Centrifuge
Infrastructure
Since Osmosis ultimately relies on healthy nodes, having reliable and secure node infrastructure will only become more important as more developers use the blockchain. Also, many apps will eventually want to spin up their own app chains, so making Osmosis more composable by creating additional avenues for app chains to integrate with the core AMM will be a huge competitive advantage.
RFPs spotlight:
- Alternative, open-source frontends for Osmosis
- Enable fee abstraction for other app chains
- Governance module improvements – e.g. multiple-choice voting
- Adding the equivalent of Ethers.js FallbackProvider to CosmJS – see FallbackProvider documentation
- Interchain Security module for Osmosis
Tooling
Well-built tooling can improve the end-user experience for Osmosis users and developers. This is especially true as more and more DAOs deploy on Osmosis, so we need to make sure that they have the tools required to operate effectively and be as secure as possible.
RFPs spotlight:
- DAO tooling – e.g. DAO DAO
- Market-making tooling – e.g. Hummingbot
- Smart contract monitoring – e.g. Tenderly
- Validator tooling
Education
Since the Osmosis Support Lab has done a great job at educating new users with digestible how-to videos, we would like to focus on funding more advanced Cosmos SDK and CosmWasm courses to arm developers with the skills required to build on Osmosis.
RFPs spotlight:
- Developer courses – e.g. CosmWasm Academy, NEAR University
- Gamified Cosmos SDK / CosmWasm tutorial – e.g. CryptoZombies
Research
Finally, we have added Research as a new category to the existing list of RFPs. Research will play an essential role to help the community determine optimal growth strategies, identify new revenue generating opportunities, and support the long-term success and sustainability of Osmosis.
RFPs spotlight:
- New AMM designs
- Incentive structures for gas-fee trading
- Osmosis DAO organizational research
- Retroactive research on Osmosis MEV
- Explore solutions for interchain transaction atomicity
- LP incentive optimization or retrospective
As always, we are open to your suggestions. Fill out this form if you have a project in mind that could add value to Osmosis, or the broader Cosmos ecosystem.
We appreciate the time and effort all applicants have put into their applications. Please don't be concerned if you haven't heard from us yet, as we are still working through applications, and look forward to receiving many more!
There will be many more updates to reflect on in the next edition of the OGP Retroactive Report, as many grantees will have completed their projects by then. In the meantime, if you'd like to contribute to the growth of Osmosis, apply here.
