Apply for Community Grants via DAPP Network Governance

Published in

The DAPP Network Blog

5 min readSep 1, 2021

The DAPP Network Governance System is a robust self-funding and decision-making system for supporting network improvement proposals as well as initiatives to increase network awareness and adoption. It plays an integral role in the network by enabling DAPP token holders to reach consensus regarding the direction of the DAPP Network. Potential new features, educational materials, marketing campaigns, and even entire dApps are able to be proposed as either bounties or community grants that can seek funding through the Network’s treasury.

Bounties vs Grants

Throughout its history, the DAPP Network has had many different bounties made available through both LiquidApps and DAPP Network Governance (see a complete list here).

Bounties are typically created for tasks that the community believes would be useful to the network, but without having a specific person or team attached to them. This means that anyone can complete the assigned task and be rewarded with the bounty, typically paid for in tokens. Sometimes bounties can create competition between multiple teams vying for the same reward, a good thing for decentralization.

Grant proposals, on the other hand, are typically proposed by the person or team volunteering to complete a specific task. A grant can be seen as a bounty that is being written specifically for the proposer themselves to complete using their skill set to accomplish the task or feature.

Types of Community Grants

DAPP Network grant proposals may be created for any type of work. There are no strict limits, as long as they aim to improve the DAPP Network and are accepted by DAPP token holders through its on-chain voting mechanism. Common types of proposals are likely to include funding for:

Bootstrapping development for a dApp or a project that utilizes and highlights the DAPP Network and its services.
Developing bridges between new and existing blockchains.
Creating specific tools or services to support the DAPP Network.
Writing technical documentation, tutorials, and/or code templates or references for the DAPP Network.
Promoting or advertising the DAPP Network.
Presenting or supporting conferences, hackathons, meetups, or code boot camps.
Producing video, infographic or other explanatory materials related to the DAPP Network.

DAPP Network Governance Voting

Proposals in the DAPP Network Governance System are subject to voting by DAPP holders who stake their tokens into the governance vault. So, like any governance proposal, you need to convince voters that the initiative should pass.

Proposal Process

A proposal can be submitted by any DAPP token holder, for a fee of 1,000 DAPP tokens.
For a proposal to be accepted, it must attain a threshold of 2% of the total supply of DAPP within an initial voting period of up to 30 days.
If the proposal is accepted during the initial voting period, the proposal creator will receive the proposal creation fee back (the initial 1,000 DAPPs).
For a proposal to be approved, it must attain a threshold of 10% of the total staked/locked DAPP tokens in the governance vault (DAPPGOVERNOR) AND win a majority of the votes cast by the end of a three-day voting period following the proposal’s approval (i.e. a proposal that receives 10% “Yes” but has 15% “No” will not be considered approved).

For a detailed guide on how the voting system works with DAPP Network governance, click here.

Tips for Applying for Community Grants

Keep your Proposal Short and Clear

Your proposal should have a clear title, followed by a detailed description of the objectives. The proposal should explain how it will benefit the DAPP Network, how much DAPP you are requesting, how you arrived at this value, and finally who you are and how you plan to do the work. Voters should be able to immediately get an idea of what you are proposing from the first few lines of your proposal.

In order to make sure that your grant proposal is properly formatted, it is recommended that each proposal include an external link to a document that is rich text formatted for clear and concise readability. It is recommended that grant applicants upload a DOC or PDF version of their proposal to an IPFS service such as Pinata or potentially be hosted via DAPP Network once the DAPP Drive bounty or a similar user-facing service is created.

Facilitate a Pre-proposal Discussion

It is important to get feedback from the community before you post your proposal to the blockchain. An open community discussion will help you find out if the community believes there is a need for what you are planning to propose and also if someone has already proposed something similar in the past, and whether it succeeded or failed. There is a dedicated Telegram channel for DAPP Network Governance that is best for these discussions.

Cultivate Identity and Reputation

The DAPP Network community is one of the network’s strongest features, and newcomers are always welcome. However, because of the way proposals work, there needs to be reasonable trust that the work promised in the proposal will be completed if it passes. If you are new, consider starting with a smaller proposal first to prove your ability to deliver on time and budget. Attaching your real name (or your pseudonym associated with your reputation), GitHub repository, or established company/project to a proposal also helps build trust. Your reputation is also relevant to whether or not your proposal is requesting funds up front, upon completion, or a mixed hybrid of both.

Campaign for your Proposal

Proposals with a video or pitch deck have a far greater chance of succeeding. Uploading a video gives your proposal a human touch and a chance to convey your enthusiasm in a way that isn’t always possible in text. Post your video to the DAPP Network governance Telegram group, run a webinar or host a Telegram voice chat to explain the proposal and answer questions. Put some work in before you ask for funding to demonstrate your involvement with DAPP Network.

Demonstrate Commitment to the DAPP Network

If you are asking for significant funding to start up or expand a for-profit business built using the DAPP Network, you will need to explain why and for how long this funding is required, and what you are offering in return.

Keep the Community Updated

Your proposal should include details of how you plan to keep the community and network informed of your work. Meet your commitments and post regular reports so your output is clear, and make yourself available on social channels to answer questions. Remember, your ability to pass future proposals depends on your demonstrated ability to deliver and communicate.

Join the DAPP Network social channels to share ideas for your grant proposals today! We can’t wait to see what we’ll build.

DAPP Network

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