foreign
[Music]
I'm Luke so I'm with the ethereum
foundation with the ecosystem Support
Program which as Monet was saying it's
ESP
um I won't say ethereum I won't say the
ecosystem Support Program again today
it's just the ESP so we hope everyone
can remember the acronym
yeah so thank you for coming I'm going
to spend some time just you know talking
a bit about what ESP is uh what we do
what we look for and how you can apply
so
you know ESP is if you look at our
website you know esp's the public facing
allocation arm or the EF so what we're
talking about there is
you know where the arm of the EF that
provides support to the ecosystem could
be Financial could be non-financial
um with the intention of growing the
ecosystem and pushing the ethereum uh
pushing ethereum forward
um you know to meet the objectives that
I think we all see that that ethereum
could have
um you know we're not we're we're not
here to kind of say what needs to be
solved certainly not in most cases
um we're just here to help guide and uh
we really like to hear the feedback from
from everyone in the ecosystem as to you
know what are the problems that need to
be solved
um we might have some ideas but I'm sure
everyone else has ideas as well and at
the end of the day for ethereum to meet
its objectives people need to start
using it people need to start solving
more problems uh so we can push it all
forward
so what do we support
um you know generally speaking public
goods you know we talk a lot about
public goods I think there's there's
often a lot of confusion as to when we
say public goods what are we talking
about
um you know generally speaking what
we're talking about is open source uh
non-commercial available for everyone
to build on
um you know and positive some outcomes
you know another way another way to look
at you know maybe more specific or maybe
more
abstract depending on how you want to
think about it is you know public goods
they're not excludable they're non-rival
risks that's the standard definition
user cannot be prevented from accessing
them for free and
everyone can use them at the same time
um so really you know when we when we're
trying to build out public goods we're
trying to build we're striving to build
positive positive outcomes
um and we need
we need public goods that avoid the
destructive scaling of web 2. so that
that's that's the you know highest level
of when we're evaluating a project the
highest level consideration
um
yeah so this talk is going to be you
know Thor talked this morning about uh
you know some targeted Grant rounds
which which the EF and ESP run
periodically I'm not going to talk about
those types of those types of
opportunities specifically I'm going to
be focusing more on just the the regular
application process and kind of the more
the more General uh ESP function
so you know what are we looking for
you know this is like the the general
the general themes of projects we're
looking for you know there's obviously
nothing specific in here
it's it's ideas that fit within this
framework
um
right so again what we're looking for is
it's at the infrastructure level we're
looking for things that everybody can
build upon and
and yeah
so
jumping ahead the
you know this is the mental model that
I've created for myself
um to help me understand
to help me understand where we fit you
know so I hope this slide confuses you
as much as it potentially maybe asks
helps you ask some questions as to what
types of projects are we looking for
um so the way I look at this is you know
the the vertical axis here is how is how
important is the development to
ethereum the horizontal axis is you know
how capable you know how motivated is
the ecosystem to to implement something
as well as as well as how much capacity
do they have and is that is that funding
capacity is that technical capability
um you know it could it could be
anything in between
right so in the like in the in the top
left
uh you know you kind of have like the
ethereum roadmap
um
really core development type of
activities and research activities
related to related to core development
and you know that that's really
those are really areas that I think the
EF plays a really strong role in at
least signaling signaling activities
that need to be done
um certainly it's not all executed by
the ethereum foundation it's executed by
by members of the core development team
which are within and with outside uh and
outside of the uh the ethereum
foundation as well as uh you know
partners and grantees and so there's you
know hundreds of people that that work
work on those types of worked on those
types of projects
um the bottom the bottom right is
you know let's say more commercial
projects more projects where there's
maybe more financial incentive in order
to build an application or perhaps just
purely
um
like application Level uh function so
you user-facing applications and areas
where you know funding might be fairly
easy to come by
um so it may or may not require as much
ESP involvement in helping to steer that
that's just people building businesses
on top of the blockchain which is what
we want to see
everything else in between so kind of
the you know certainly in the in the in
the top portion is
I you know it's certainly incomplete I
think if we looked at the entire problem
domain there's probably no blank space
on this page at all
um but generally speaking it's you know
the infrastructure associated with
implementing you know
all the other all the other capabilities
in here like when we talk about ux and
crypto is bad what infrastructure is
missing in order to enable a a ux that
that actually makes it uh you know
enjoyable to use
um you know how do we how do we increase
censorship resistance how do we uh you
know increase the you know uh negative
Mev how to or you know minimize the
negative Mev I should say uh you know so
so again this is not this is not
intended to be a you know a complete map
it's just something I use to frame
myself for when we see applications it's
kind of a where does it fit where does
it fit in this space and is is it
something that you know we should just
be making connections to other other
funding sources within the ecosystem or
is it something that we should be
engaging with or is it you know
something that you know you don't really
need our help
and you know the bottom the bottom left
is really just you know maybe it's the
items that are or topics that are too
early to implement doesn't mean we don't
need to do the research today
but perhaps it's it's it's too early to
get started
um
so you know they'll trickle up in
priority in One Direction or another uh
over time right so you know I'd be
curious I'd be curious to talk with
people you know this whole week or any
time really just as to what are the
problems that that everyone else sees
you know what what do you think the
missing infrastructure layers are in
order to build what you want to build
and and that would let everyone else
build what they want to build as well
right so this is yeah again it's just a
mental model I've created to confuse
myself and everybody else but uh
I hope it I hope it helps at least see
where my head is at
um
you know so then we talk about
you know what do we kind of stay away
from right so
we're not basically if the EF is always
looking for ways to uniquely support the
ecosystem so if there are opportunities
for you know VC funding or other funding
sources within the ecosystem we would be
more apt to make connections than to
support directly
um
right projects that are actively raising
money
um probably don't require the EF support
if you're if you're building a new nft
project or a new nft platform unless
there's some really Unique Piece of tech
in what you're trying to do
again it's probably not something that
that we support we do see a lot of
applications in that area
um but it's
it's not something that we we would
actively try and support and certainly
token
we don't talk tokens we don't and we
don't talk about Investments and we
don't talk about that type of thing as
well as hobby activities you know hobby
activities are certainly great
they might be beneficial but they're not
the types of things we that that we
would generally support if you're trying
to start a Breakfast Club of some kind
it's probably not the right the right
place to uh to apply
so we'll get into the different types of
support that the ESP provides
you know I don't know if if any of you
have checked out the ESP website this
year versus last year we complete we
completely revamped the website back in
February to help streamline the process
of applying for support as well as to
as well as to I guess provide some other
options for the types of support that we
provide
so the the first type we have here is
office hours so this was new in 2022.
and so office hours gives you the
opportunity to submit an application
requesting guidance on your project or
guidance on how to get involved in a
project or just
you know some some advice you don't have
to submit a Grant application here this
is just simply it's a fairly
straightforward application if it's
something that you know if your project
idea is something that appears to be
aligned with with something we we would
like to talk about uh then we we quickly
set up a 20-minute phone call with one
of our evaluators and
and we go from there oftentimes uh we
these lead to recommend you know
recommending a team or an individual to
apply for a grant or it might be you
know what we're going to connect you
with someone else within the EF or
someone outside the EF in order to move
your project forward
um you know I think I think the last
date I was looking at is
we've seen something like 300
applications this year
for office hours uh calls I think we've
held over a hundred office hour calls uh
this year so that's a hundred unique
teams
that our team of seven or eight people
have been
been talking to this year just simply
providing this type of support and
there's been more than a handful that
have have turned into grant applications
or sponsorship applications as well
so next up so so office hours is
non-financial support
um
so the first type of financial support
we provide is sponsorships for community
events now these will these are always
um
educational in nature I'll say but
they're you know their their local
events local organizers may or may not
have an EF presence associated with them
it's just it's just intended to build
out build out local local communities
um you know so we we look at things like
how aligned are the organizers with
ethereum what what types of other
projects have have they supported
um
how many people are they trying to get
involved in their event it doesn't
matter if your event is big or small I
think the big or small just determines
you know how much money might be might
be required in order to support your
event you don't have to have big name
speakers in order to apply for a
sponsorship we just need to know that
you have
credible community members who are able
to who are able to push the message of
ethereum forward and and help to build
those communities
we also look at you know
why would the EF support is it just
simply you you want the money in order
to support these in order to get the
event off the ground or is there some
other is there some other aspect that
would benefit the local community
um
and you'll see later on in one of my
charts the the number of sponsorships
that we've awarded in 2022 has been I
think Beyond everyone's expectations as
you know everyone leading all the
community events in Latin America and
around the world leading up to leading
up to uh this week as well as leading up
to the merch it's actually quite
impressive when you see how many how
many sponsorships the EF has provided
this year and not even the EF actually
I'll clarify the sponsorships that the
ESP program has provided this year so
not including sponsorships that other
teams within the EF have have provided
as well
and then and And to clarify as well
sponsorships are not considered grants
um so they're just it's it's a it's a
lighter weight process for for uh
providing funding to to these local
communities
the first type of Grants we call them
small grants
the name is kind of self-explanatory
um they're intended to be small in scope
and small in duration so this would be
typically three to six months they're
meant to be kind of this is the place
where where we are willing to take risks
on teams individuals new technology uh
to see what can happen so this is you
know you have an idea early stage you
want to just try and produce uh you know
a proof of concept or an MVP and you
need a little bit of funding in order to
just uh get that get that off the ground
and see see if there is potential there
um you know this is that this is the
type of program that or the the uh Grant
process that you would apply through
it's a it's a we typically intend to
award these within about
I'll say three weeks would be roughly
the target from the time you apply to to
the time we
agree to you know is this something we
want to move forward with or not or want
to support or not again oftentimes
applications come in here and we
actually decide that perhaps EF support
is not the best place to get support so
perhaps there's another Dow funding
source or perhaps there's some other
connections
um that would be that would be better
certainly there's there's back and forth
between between the uh the ESP team and
the applicants to make sure everyone
make sure we understand what the
proposal is make sure the team
understands kind of what types of
constraints there may or may not be be
on uh you know what scope we would be
willing to support but these again these
are intended to be lightweight
and this is where we take the risks
and project grants so this is the last
source of uh
of grants that we and the ESP team
provide directly there's no real cap on
funding here so these are late later
stage projects or later stage research
activities that require
perhaps a
a more robust source of funding and
support
these applications go through a let's
say they might they might be two months
would be roughly the target from
application to award for
for applications in this area and it's a
very collaborative process trying to
figure out uh trying to scope the
project appropriately make sure that
there's a a an achievable roadmap make
sure there's Milestones along the way to
to demonstrate progress or to find
places to say you know what it's not
going to work or or what have you
and make sure that we're
you know generally make sure that we're
all on the same page and
so again these are the the decision to
make making process here like we go back
through talking with advisors within the
EF pulling in advisors from the
ecosystem if it's something that you
know perhaps they're better better
positioned to uh to weigh in on as to
you know is this the right is there
someone else working on this Tech is
there is there not
um
you know and it does the solution appear
viable does the team appear capable
those those types of questions as well
so certainly it's a it's a more
intensive process
um but this is one area there where I
think you know to be honest we've we've
started to see a
our pipeline in this area to dry up a
little bit
um we're not exactly sure why that
there's there isn't a there aren't
people working on those later stage
projects now it could just be that
everyone's been focused on the merge and
focused on projects sort of related in
that front and now everyone's trying to
figure out well what is the next thing
to be to to actually push forward in in
the short term
um and in these projects oh I'm sorry
going back to small grants one second uh
when I say short duration it's like
three to six months for for small grants
I'd say project grants are probably six
to twelve six to eighteen month types of
road maps that that we'd be laying out
with the teams
okay so evaluating grants is you know as
I've been alluding to it's uh it's
fairly complicated process we do a lot
of due diligence
on applications you know to make sure
that you know we ask ourselves a lot of
questions we ask the grantees
probably not as many questions as we ask
ourselves but a lot of questions as well
you know we're looking at
you know
let's see if we look at is this the best
use of resources right the EF has
limited resources the ecosystem has
limited is is this the best place to to
put the ef's funding to push things
forward
um we look at the team is this the best
team is this the best use of that team
as well
um
right if we have highly capable teams
solving trivial problems
maybe we'd be better off trying to
direct them to help solve a more
complicated problem than than perhaps
the one they're more interested in it
wouldn't be it wouldn't be the first
time if we had a conversation with a
team when they proposed a proposed
something to us and we actually tried to
direct them to work on something else
because we saw what they were trying to
do we've seen what they've done in the
past and we know they're capable of
solving a bigger problem than perhaps
what they're
what they were proposing or perhaps
their scope was was too limited
um also perhaps the the goal of the
project was too ambitious
and so then we would try and scale the
project down to well why don't we just
try and find that the proof of concept
or the you know the minimum viable
product to
that needs to get done prove that we can
do that and then perhaps there's a
discussion for for follow-on funding or
perhaps that brings you to the point
where you don't require EF support
anymore now you've retired the risk to
your project and you can move it forward
um
yeah and then I suppose we look at also
the
you know what are the side effects of
the EF supporting
it's always I'd say this is one of the
most difficult considerations that we
always have to make is what are the
chilling effects if we support your
proposal
and you're the
and you get you know it looks like an EF
stamp of approval on your on your
solution does that mean the rest of the
ecosystem stops developing of it right
so we need we we always need to make
those considerations as well
and we also want to make sure that teams
are able to have a sustainability plan
in their in their roadmap
um it's not always obvious especially
when you're building out public goods I
think that's sort of the definition of
public goods so it's there's a dichotomy
there of how do you
how do you become sustainable when
you're trying to just build the
infrastructure like how does a consensus
client team for example become a
sustainable business are they
and how how do you make how do you come
up with the balance there so it's a
consideration it's it's a tougher one
for us to
totally understand but what we what we
try to avoid is having teams that are
clearly going to be dependent on us for
the next several years because there
there is no way to monetize ever what
they're trying to do
um
uh we also try to avoid we call it King
making so it's sort of like the chilling
effect we put your stamp on your project
and now it looks like the EF endorses
zap project and no one else should work
on that project is just you know we'll
put our stamp on your wallet and
there you go we don't need any other
wallets because now we have the EF
indoors to wallet so we we avoid avoid
those situations as as much as possible
uh we also try to avoid we don't want to
enable Bad actors obviously I think
that's a no-brainer
um
right so so that gets into getting to
know the teams getting to know their
intentions getting to know other
projects they've worked on
um
not obviously we don't do background
checks or anything like that but
certainly talking to people that that
the team knows everyone everyone
typically you know the applying for ESP
support you don't need to know anybody
to apply
um it's an Open Door anybody can apply
but certainly people that are active in
the ecosystem
have probably been engaged with other
other organizations that that we're
familiar with and if there's a if
there's sort of a reference we can look
at to help validate then you know that's
that helps make things easier as well we
also try to avoid creating our own
competition and again that's one that we
we shouldn't have to say but we do see a
lot of applications about I'm trying to
build applications on algrand or I'm
trying to build a new L1 altogether you
know can you can you please support my
project so clearly you know those ones
are obvious obvious rejections
um
in most cases
you know it certainly when you talk
about building competition obvious
rejection but sometimes there's a unique
idea in there as well
so that we're always looking for
this was one other thing we put in there
is
we see your proposal we see your project
what's the really unique
piece of tech that you're trying to
build
that is actually beneficial that we
think and we we would agree on is
beneficial to
uh ethereum right so sometimes you'll
see a team submit a project proposal
that actually gets scope you know
requesting hundreds of thousands of
dollars that gets scoped down into you
know thirty thousand dollars because
that's really there was really just that
one key nugget of tech that that was
important to build the rest of it was
just an application layer on top
so the general General process when you
submit an application
um through the website say that is you
know you'll hear from us very quickly
and probably within within two weeks
we'll be trying to schedule a call to
have that have that first level of
Engagement and make sure we're all on
the same page with what the application
is and what the next steps are
you know one thing that's
suppose one thing that's not on this
slide would be you know obviously if we
keep extending the line out you're going
to get to
you know if it's small grants maybe it's
just another another week or two to make
a decision if it's project grants
there's a whole bunch of other gates in
there once we award a grant there is a
formal legal agreement that's put in
place between the EF and the and the
team it's not just uh it's not just a
handshake agreement so there is you know
we need to do kyc checks on teams and
individuals we need to make sure that we
have uh that we're onboarding you onto
the onto the uh into the program and so
so there is some process involved in
that sometimes teams get confused with
and and it's not unexpected so it's just
you know oh it's awarded where's my
funds well and sometimes it can take it
can take three weeks it could take six
weeks depending on how how long it takes
to get that uh legal agreement signed at
the end of the process
um
so
I'm going to talk a little bit about
what we've what we've been up to
um
so
I won't won't go into too much here but
I just wanted to kind of show you like
this is the number of applications we've
been receiving
per quarter since uh early 2020.
um
and you can see a huge spike in 2022.
now I don't know if that's all
completely related to the website
redesign I don't know if that's
something to do with market conditions I
don't know if that's something to do
with the maturity of ethereum today
versus where it was in 2021
and you can see
you know the yellow one office hours so
you can see lots of office hours support
and it's been picking up as the year
goes on you can see small grants
um lots of small grants applications
right and and you know quite a few quite
a few uh
sponsorship applications there as well
and the next slide is actually
when we convert that into Awards
um
right and here what I actually found
what I actually found quite interesting
here was
although the number of applications you
know especially if you ignore so this is
financial Awards so we don't when we're
talking office hours we don't award uh
office hours in our system so that's why
you won't see office hours on here
um but
when we look at the awards we actually
don't see the same increase so we're
actually we're we're seeing tons of
applications I'd say it's like uh if we
ignore the office hours we're seeing 50
increase in applications if not more
but the awards you know if we exclude
the sponsorships in Q3 which was
all the uh events leading up to the
merge and leading up to leading up to
Devcon where even just I think uh in Q3
we awarded
about 63 sponsorships uh for merge
meetups
um right so that's why that's so big so
this is actually getting to the sort of
the Crux of the problem or the Crux of
the question which is
you know how do we get better
applications how do we get everybody
here everybody
working in ethereum if you have
when you're applying for for uh ESP
support
having applications that are more
aligned I think this works out to about
a 10
maybe 15 conversion rate which maybe is
not unrealistic and maybe that's maybe
that is the way it should be
um
but certainly what we would really like
to see is you know fewer applications
related to my new nft project more
applications related to related to
helping build out infrastructure and
doing research that actually drives
ethereum to to be able to achieve its
goals
so this slide is it's basically the same
slide as the last one
um except instead of broken down by
by the
type it's broken down by the category
right so you can just see the the
variety of categories and we've we've
started to try and
increase the granularity of the
categories that uh
that we're we're trying to I guess
classify the applications or the awards
within
um but yeah certainly you can see huge
spike in community events
and but
again it just stands out to me that that
the level is not increasing even though
the volume of applications is increasing
so the team is the team is now you know
screening
hundreds of applications a quarter
or a few hundred applications a quarter
where they used to be screening 120
applications a quarter
um and trying to find the trying to find
the good projects in there the good
teams uh is
I guess increasingly difficult because
it just starts to it just starts it can
easily get lost in the noise
um at various times
so I won't go into too much on these so
this is just the last a few set of
slides so periodically uh the ESP does
run targeted Grant rounds we do
certainly support the other teams all of
the other teams at the EF when they're
when they're awarding grants or when
they're running Grant rounds so Thor was
talking about his rounds this morning or
his grants this morning and you know so
for for example we had a academic Grant
round earlier in the year
um
the response was Far surpassed our
expectations we ended up having to
double the the budget uh for awards from
what we were originally initiating or
expecting so we ended up awarding 39
grants for 2 million dollars to uh
researchers academics interns PhD
students that kind of thing and there's
going to be another academic round
coming
we haven't announced anything yet but
probably January February of next year I
think is is the current plan so if you
know any researchers or
then please pay attention to our blogs
for that
Danny was talking about this one
yesterday the the merge data challenge
so you know this one closes at the end
of the month so again you can look that
one up and apply
we have the semaphore grants round that
again Thor was talking about this
morning
it's uh wrapping up in in a few weeks as
well so again
please apply
and I think that mostly wraps up my
presentation so you know please stay in
touch we do have a booth for the entire
week
so you can come and find us there will
be someone from the ESP team there for
you know all the time there's people out
there helping us support it today while
that while our team is in here
um but yeah come by ask any questions
you have if you want to just stop us
while we're here stop me in the hall
doesn't matter ask some questions we'd
love to talk because you know we're not
I think I might have said this earlier
we're not here to tell anybody what
needs what we want to see in an app what
we want to see people applying for we
actually want to hear from you as to
what you want to apply for so we have
General themes but you know the problems
that need to be solved you're the boots
on the ground trying to get these things
done get the technology pushed forward
and if there's any help that we can
provide then by all means please ask
we might have time for one or two
questions and then we're going to have
our web 3 is great panel so does anyone
have a quick question
down with another
thank you thank you for the presentation
we are going to look further into it
because we really need a lot of help
with our project I just have a question
so in one of the slides you said that
you stay away from Public Funding rounds
so my question is if we took part to get
congruents funding runs I was still
eligible for a grant from the
ESP well so I I think we'd have to look
at the specifics
um
yeah I think that's that's maybe a
little bit different
right a Bitcoin a Bitcoin funding around
Bitcoin is funding public goods
activities as well so I think that would
be that'd be something that um we would
want to look at perhaps so it's not it's
not an out right now I'd say if you're
if you're issuing tokens
if you have active VC rounds that that
you're looking at then those ones are
kind of off the table but uh yeah there
might there might be extra
considerations depending on the project
and and what the impact of that project
is intending to be
you know
thank you
um hello my name is sunny I'm wondering
what kind of grant opportunities do you
have for inclusion and diversity
initiatives in the space
any opportunity that you want to propose
I think would be would be my response I
think that it we have run certainly
sponsorships we have explicitly
sponsored events where that's the focus
um right whether it's whether it's
um you know just trying to get more
women into the group or whether it's
trying to find other under other
underserved communities
um to get into to get into ethereum and
to help educate in in those areas so
yeah so it's certainly I can't say what
there's there's no specific opportunity
we're open to all to all suggestions and
all proposals okay thank you