[FIP - 178] Flywheel Grant Renewal For 2023

[fraximalistdave]

Author

DeFi Dave

Proposal

Grant Flywheel $214.2k (50% in FRAX/50% in FXS) over the next year to continue activities promoting the Frax ecosystem and producing high-quality DeFi content. Funds will be streamed over llamaPay.

Background

Over the past 6 months, the relationship between Flywheel and Frax has done nothing but blossom and has played a pivotal role in shaping the narrative about Frax. The Frax Core Team have proven themselves to be the most talented builders in all of DeFi, shipping a plethora of primitives over the past year. But before Flywheel existed, Frax did not have an effective strategy for promoting their brand or educating the wider public. As the old mantra goes, if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? It was clear that the Frax ecosystem needed assistance on that front and that help was not going to come from anywhere else but the community.

Enter Flywheel. What started as a podcast in the wake of Terra’s collapse to redefine the toxic narrative surrounding stablecoins has turned into one of the most highly acclaimed podcasts in all of DeFi. Since our last grant, Flywheel has grown by leaps and bounds; Our Twitter has increased by 2770% from 900 followers to 2500 followers and our YouTube has increased 3140% from 430 subscribers to 1350 Subscribers. In addition, Flywheel has hosted a number of meetups of all sizes over the past 6 months that have attracted builders from across the ecosystem. Furthermore, Flywheel provided educational resources to those looking to learn about Frax and its primitives such as FrxETH, Fraxlend, etc. as well as patronized a number of memes to be created and distributed online. The response for Flywheel has been overwhelmingly positive and it is apparent the tangible effect Flywheel has for shaping the perception around Frax.

In addition, Flywheel has become a vital educational resource for those researching Frax, becoming the basis of organic threads about the ecosystem.

It’s quite evident the massive upside Flywheel is providing Frax by acting as the de facto media arm and diplomatic wing of the Frax ecosystem, being an extensive resource for people who want to learn more about Frax, a first point of entry for protocols looking to partner with Frax, and rallying the community both online and in real life.

Performance of Last Grant

FIP 99 (Flywheel Sponsorship Proposal) passed on August 10th and the very next day we premiered our first episode of Frax Check which to date we have 23 episodes to date. The weekly series is a public service to the Frax ecosystem as we both cover the performance of the protocol as well as what is being discussed and voted on in governance.

For our flagship podcast, we had a total of 19 episodes that included ads for primitives such as Fraxswap and FrxETH. We admit that this is the biggest glaring eye from our past proposal (not reaching the required amount of ads) and we would like to address this portion here. At the beginning of the grant period, we were still figuring out the direction of Flywheel. Fraxcast became Frax Check and we didn’t know exactly how to approach the advertisement. We were able to stand by our word of producing weekly episodes of Frax Check which in itself is an advertisement of the Frax ecosystem but that doesn’t excuse going back on the commitment from the original proposal. What we propose to make up for it is to include FrxETH advertisements in at least 10 of our videos on our chanel that are not either Flywheel or Frax Check. This will allow us to reach the require quorom and make everything right.

In addition, we have reached out to Amplice, a talented meme maker who has worked with Gearbox and Based, to make promotional videos about FrxETH and relevant Frax primitives to put as our primary adverts. Furthermore, there was one particular initiative that was not listed in the proposal but we decided to fund anyway and that was patronizing content for the infamous Twitter account FraxBull1. From our efforts, a number of those memes have gone viral and have made Frax more easily digestible to the wider populace in a fun and engaging manner.

For our event portion, we spent much more than anticipated. We had two major meetups (Fraxgiving and Frax 2 year Anniversary Party) and are planning a third one at HubWeb 3 in Florianopolis, Brazil which all together cost $5k to produce. Yet, Stable Salon, which brought together stablecoin builders and enthusiasts from around the ecosystem, ended up costing us $20k to put on. In addition to the Contracted Content Budget, we made a total of 14 videos which cost a total of $2k to produce.

From creating content to hosting events IRL, we have learned a lot over the past 6 months and are ready to use those lessons to further optimize our budget for this grant proposal. We now have gotten into a regular schedule of programming of content and are in a much better position to keep our promises.

Proposed Grant and Budget Breakdown

We propose the following budget for the course of the next year which totals $214,200 ($17,850 a month). The line items of this budget include podcast and content production, IRL events, business development representation, creating merch, patronizing art and content, and releasing Frax-branded NFTs. In comparison, our entire budget is almost three times less than MakerDAO’s events budget alone.

We have broken down the costs and deliverables for each item and welcome feedback from the community. The details of each budget item can be found below:

• $104k to produce weekly episodes of Flywheel over the next year
  • We propose a budget of $2k per episode for Flywheel for the coming year. Costs associated with this will go towards production, logistics, and labor. The reason for the increase in rate is because we want to hire a professional editor and upgrade our equipment which in turn will bring more viewers. Furthermore, we will continue putting adverts at the beginning of every episode.
• $52k to produce weekly episodes of Frax Check
  • We propose to continue having Frax Check at a budget of $1k an episode (no in rease). Frax Check is our weekly “Frax vibe check” and gives a rundown of the performance of the protocol on-chain as well as governance discussions off-chain. In addition, we publish the slides in our newsletter to coincide with the episode. Frax Check is an important public service to the Frax ecosystem and allows for people to keep up with Frax on a consistent basis. Costs associated with Frax Check will go towards labor, hosting, and production. Additionally, in the description we will add a link to one Frax ecosystem primitive such as FrxETH.
• $25k for IRL Events
  • We propose having a $25k budget for hosting events. This number was determined after reflecting on costs of previous events. Events can be split up into two categories; conference week events and standard meetups.
  • A conference week event is an event that occurs outside of a major conference. An example of a conference week event is when we had Stable Salon during the same week as Messari Mainnet. Major events require a lot more planning and effort compared to standard meetups especially if custom products and services are needed. In the coming year, we intend to host at least 3 Frax X Flywheel events outside of conferences. Likely candidates for locations of potential major events include ETH Denver, ETHcc and Devcon and we expect the budget for each meetup to be $5k each. Costs associated with these events will be used to cover renting a space, travel logistics, labor, food/drink, and renting equipment.
  • The remaining $10k will be used to cover expenses for standard meetups throughout the year as well as covering unanticipated costs in case. Standard meetups are smaller events that happen both during conference and non-conference weeks. These events vary in size and effort but can cost anywhere between $500 to $4000 depending on venue, number of attendees, etc. We intend on hosting at least 5 standard meetups (avg. budget $2k) throughout the year.
  • When appropriate, we will make a considerable effort to partner with reputable sponsors to lower costs associated with hosting events.
• $15.6k for business development representation
  • Throughout the course of last year both online and offline, DeFi Dave has represented Frax in multiple different environments including meetups, Twitter spaces, on live interviews, phone calls, and interfacing with people at live events.
  • Specifically, DeFi Dave will be spending time as an official representative of Frax on The TIE SigDev portal which was designed to be a platform for protocol core teams and sophisticated investors/institutions to interact with each other. Part of DeFi Dave’s time on here will be spent shaping the narrative for Frax at an institutional level as well as responding to messages.
  • According to The TIE team it is estimated that this work will take anywhere between 5-10 hours a week. Along with other business development activities mentioned, at a rate of $50 an hour, the total cost for 6 hours a week is $15.6k a year.
• $10k to produce Frax-branded merchandise
  • It is commonplace for projects to have their own official merch yet Frax has lacked heavily in this area. The only time that merch has been given out at a conference was at ETHcc in Paris in July 2022 when 20 sweatpants were given out to people. This was paid for by Flywheel and cost above $1k. What we propose is to earmark $10k to spend on merch to give out at conferences which will be a combination of Frax and Frax X Flywheel branded merch. Costs here will cover production and shipping of merch.
• $5.1k for patronizing art and content
  • Although this was not earmarked in the last budget, Flywheel spent considerable time and effort creating and distributing Frax memes on Twitter. This is in addition to Flywheel pating to have a variety of Frax-related content produced including Bobby J. Shilla’s articles, a guest article by Daseu, and StableClaire explainer videos.
  • For FraxBull, we propose a budget of $3.6k to produce for the year to produce at least 10 memes a month. Furthermore, we propose $1.5k will be used to fund written articles about Frax with a minimum of at least 1 article a month.
• $2.5k for Frax-branded NFTs
  • NFTs are a great way for communities to build comradery and clear examples of this are GMX’s Blueberry Club and Dopex’s Diamond Pepe’s. It is about time for the Frax community to do the same. What we propose is the creation of Frax Cocks which will be the community NFT project of the Frax protocol. How we plan on executing is by creating a sudoswap pool of 1221 Frax Cock NFTs (1221 was decided since 12/21 is Frax birthday). Holders will be permitted to join an NFT-gated group chat. We propose a budget of $2.5k which will cover the costs of creating the art, deploying the contracts, and seeding the Sudoswap pool.

KPI-Based Incentives

Incentives are an excellent way to reward progress. From our last grant, we were able to accomplish a number of our incentives including 10 videos that garnered over 1k views as well as breaking 1k subscribers on YouTube and 1k followers on Twitter. Along with keeping the incentives of our last grant, we propose a number of new ones. All incentives are rewarded at the discretion of the Frax Core Team and are to be paid in FXS.

• Social Media Account Growth
  • Reach 5000 subscribers on YouTube, $1000. Reach 10000 subscribers on YouTube, $2500.
  • Reach 5000 Followers on Twitter, $500. Reach 10000 followers on Twitter, $1000.
  • Reach 1000 Followers on Instagram and TikTok, $250. Reach 5000 Followers on Instagram and TikTok, $500. Reach 10000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, $1000.
• YouTube
  • Reach 1000 views on a YouTube Video, $250. Reach 10000 views on a YouTube video, $500.
• Twitter (Includes FraxBull1)
  • Reach 10000 views on any Frax-related original tweet, $250. Reach 50000 views on any Frax-related original tweet, $500.
• Instagram
  • Reach 100 likes on any Instagram post, $250. Reach 500 likes on any Instagram post, $500.
• TikTok
  • Reach 10000 views on any Frax-related original post, $250. Reach 50000 views on any Frax-related original post, $500.

Team

And just like last time, the people who are leading this initiative are:

• Sam McCulloch (@traders_insight) long-time member of the Frax community. Executive producer of all content, co-host of Frax Check, contributor to the Flywheel website.
• DeFi Dave (@defidave22) Day Zero Fraximalist. Co-host of Flywheel and Frax Check, contributor to the Flywheel website.
• kapital_k (0xkapital_k) DeFi/Gaming/Tokenomics enthusiast and early Frax supporter. Co-host of Flywheel and Frax Check.

Motivation

Flywheel has firmly established its role in the ecosystem as the destination for information and alpha regarding Frax. As an organic development, Flywheel essentially fills the role of a marketing department and due to its quality and reach is able to reach the target audience Frax is looking for. Yet like any department, Flywheel still needs funds to keep the lights on in order to continue pushing content out as well as interact with the wider community in a thoughtful and genuine manner. We hope with this round of funding we will be able to keep performing our duty as stewards of the Frax ecosystem and spreading Frax far and wide as it enters the next stage of its development.

From the motivation section of our last proposal, there are still several points that ring true. Flywheel still aims to be the “Bankless of Frax” and take the wheel in driving the narrative for Frax and Foundational Deep DeFi forward. There is simply just too much at stake to do nothing and merely “hope for the best”, we need to keep actively engaging the wider DeFi community and beyond in order to inform, educate, and entertain them about Frax and its surrounding ecosystem. We strongly believe that Frax will reach Ethereum-level in size and along the way, Frax can not only scale technologically on-chain, but must scale socially off-chain as well.

Flywheel has done an excellent job representing Frax so far and we are here to keep pushing the momentum forward. As mentioned in the last two proposals, the Frax ecosystem is growing to become much bigger than the core team alone and numerous contributors and commentators have arisen that have helped advance the protocol into the future. Flywheel is here to organize and shine a light on Frax, carrying the Fraximalist torch up high for those who seek it.

Proposal

• For: Grant Flywheel $214,200 (split 50/50 between FRAX and FXS) to continue producing Frax-related content online and IRL
• Against: Do Nothing

[Mark11]

Thanks Dave - I am a big supporter of this and the work you guys are doing.

I have a few comments below:

1. I don’t think 2K per an episode of Fraxcast is warranted given the numbers & it is often content unrelated to Frax - 1.5K is more realistic (& we should be paying for advertising slot(s), not the content itself given it isn’t necessarily Frax related - this will also help you grow the business of Flywheel & a floor for advertising space). I think it would be great to pay that extra $500 for a 45 minute a week twitter spaces hosted by Flywheel - as we know that people want to talk about Frax - this can be a space where the community can discuss FRAX, ask questions about the protocol, talk about proposals etc
2. Clarification of how the FXS is calculated to be paid out - I think it makes sense to be paid lump sum quarterly at the end of each quarter on a simple twap for the quarter
3. It would be good to get more of a discussion around the governance proposals on FraxCheck - atm it is mostly made up of the numbers discussion
4. It would be good to have ‘The Flywheel’ contributors make proposals for protocol improvements (FIPS) (I know this is mostly done under your name atm) - this would ingrain Flywheel as a staple of the community when proposals pass that have Flywheel as the author

[ssmccul]

Hi Mark,

On #4 Dave isn’t the only making governance proposals. I’ve made several in the past few months. You can see all my post history.

Most recently I wrote the frxbtc proposal.

Previously I wrote FIP-119 Gearbox Amo authorizes up to 2 million in AMO funds to be deposited to the liquidity pools.

[amirnader]

#3 sounds good, biweekly section about Governance Proposals would be a great idea. I can participate in them and it can be 10 - 15 mins section.

[RobertSharratt]

FWIW, as someone new to Frax I got a huge amount of information from Flywheel. It helped me understand the Frax economy. I think that Frax will be the largest stablecoin in 2023, if it connects to the real economy. Flywheel could help inform crypto people and normies about the benefits of Frax and the wider Frax economy.

[fraximalistdave]

Hi Mark, appreciate your comments. Here are my thoughts:

1. Point taken and will consider it if we decide to make any final adjustments. To your idea about the Twitter space, I think it would be a good idea to make it bi-weekly or once a month. Twitter spaces are a different medium and require different needs compared to our podcasts so we can adjust if we decide to do that.

2. Currently, FXS is calculated by the price on the day the incentive was reached. For transparency purposes, I created a sheet that records what the incentive is and when it was reached.

3. We have a governance roundup in Frax Check but it can definitely be improved and expanded upon. We could even have Nader on as well to discuss proposals.

4. Point noted, would make sense to have Flywheel listed in authors as well.

[Mark11]

Thanks Dave

@fraximalistdave

Currently, FXS is calculated by the price on the day the incentive was reached. For transparency purposes, I created a sheet that records what the incentive is and when it was reached.

How does this work where the for the main amount of FXS that is streaming through Llamapay? How is that amount calculated?

@fraximalistdave

Twitter (Includes FraxBull1)

• Reach 10000 views on any Frax-related original tweet, $250. Reach 50000 views on any Frax-related original tweet, $500.

I’d also be keen to see a cap or some other mechanism to keep this at a limit - such as a quarterly or weekly maximum otherwise it could get out of control as an cost centre. I also think likes and/or retweets should be part of the metric as they are the best indicator of the value of the tweet to the target audience

[fraximalistdave]

@Mark11

How does this work where the for the main amount of FXS that is streaming through Llamapay? How is that amount calculated?

Incentives are separate from LlamaPay and is paid in lump sum. It is calculated from taking the day the incentive was reached and matching it with the closing price on CoinGecko. So for example if a video reaches 1k views on December 10th, we would take the price of FXS at the end of the day ($6.05) and divide it by $250 which would equal 41.32 FXS. For YouTube, we go to our stats to find if the metric was reached and for Twitter we tweeted the day 1k followers were reached.

@Mark11

I’d also be keen to see a cap or some other mechanism to keep this at a limit - such as a quarterly or weekly maximum otherwise it could get out of control as an cost centre. I also think likes and/or retweets should be part of the metric as they are the best indicator of the value of the tweet to the target audience

I am open to suggestions on some limit here but I disagree that likes/retweets should be included in the metric. Views are straightforward and simple, don’t need to overcomplicate things.

[ms4444.io]

Flywheel is integral to developing the Frax ecosystem - it’s been my go to for information and learning as a non-technical person. At this stage, I think frame control is crucial in establishing Frax as one of the top stablecoins out there. Flywheel’s role in shaping such narrative is important in growing the community.

[Mark11]

Thanks Dave

@fraximalistdave

Incentives are separate from LlamaPay and is paid in lump sum. It is calculated from taking the day the incentive was reached and matching it with the closing price on CoinGecko. So for example if a video reaches 1k views on December 10th, we would take the price of FXS at the end of the day ($6.05) and divide it by $250 which would equal 41.32 FXS. For YouTube, we go to our stats to find if the metric was reached and for Twitter we tweeted the day 1k followers were reached.

Maybe I am missing something here - isn’t the grant asking for $214,200 (split 50/50 between FRAX and FXS) if so how is the $107,100 in FXS calculated?

[Mark11]

@fraximalistdave

I am open to suggestions on some limit here but I disagree that likes/retweets should be included in the metric. Views are straightforward and simple, don’t need to overcomplicate things.

The limit should be 1 per week then - open to other suggestions - but if the account has any substantial following 10,000 views will be hit every tweet

[fraximalistdave]

@Mark11

Maybe I am missing something here - isn’t the grant asking for $214,200 (split 50/50 between FRAX and FXS) if so how is the $107,100 in FXS calculated?

It was calculated by the price of FXS the day the llamaPay starts streaming. I still think it should be like this, I can’t think of an example that grants are given out quarterly like that after being approved. Having a stream for a year via llamaPay is fine for both sides.

[Mark11]

Thanks - was just trying to understand how it would work.

I actually don’t think it makes sense to load up Llamapay for a year in advance for services not yet delivered - the best way the DAO has to protect itself is by regular review of the spending it is making - if the DAO doesn’t think it is getting value or performance it can cease funding.

What benefit is there for the DAO to do this on a yearly basis as opposed to a six monthly basis? (I’d be quite comfortable for the upfront payment into Llamapay if it was on a more regular cadence)

[ssmccul]

Mark, the DAO can cancel the Llamapay stream at anytime through a DAO vote. If services are not provided, the DAO can easily vote to pull back funds. Given this, why do you feel a shorter time frame is necessary? What added benefit would there be to have shorter voting periods versus a longer one if all services are satisfactory?

[Mark11]

Ah cool - I thought Llamapay was permissionless once it was loaded - all for the proposal then! (wishlist would be a ceiling, even if a high one, on the twitter/other bonuses)

[antonio32]

Guys, we appreciate the work you have done for the frax ecosystem! If we give you money, why don’t we create a DAO and contact the biggest influencers in the space and give them money to promote FXS…

I am against any grant for marketing in the DEFI world. Terra gave grants amounts only to projects who built on Terra. We should give grants only for development on the frax ecosystem, like projects, something that has a use case, not marketing.

And if we gave you funds why don’t you spread your grant in millestones? you cannot ask 250k before and after you will not deliver. We should learn from Cosmos and Juno communities how they handle their grants, way better then us. They never pay for marketing!

I’m against this proposal
-Create a DAO for handling marketing purposes;
-All grants should be in milestones;
-Frax should have a committee to review and give grants like Juno Growth SubDao : https://twitter.com/GrowJuno - we can learn a lot from them;

[fraximalistdave]

Okay everyone, after hearing input from the community. I have decided to make several amendments to the proposal:

• Instead of 100% of the grant being streamed via LlamaPay that half the grant will be streamed via LlamaPay and the other half the grant being paid lump sum at the end of the year. Of the grant being streamed, we propose that it be composed of 80% FXS/20% FRAX and have the inverse of that (80% FRAX/20%) FXS make up the lump sum payment. This ultimately aligns incentives for Flywheel to perform for the entire year.

• Several members of the community mentioned to me privately that they would like to see efforts towards independent income streams outside of the grant. I propose that for next year’s grant, we have a sub-section in past performance that shows progress in that area. The most likely sources of revenue will be from merch, premium subscriptions, ads, and events. These initiatives will make Flywheel more resilient in the long-run.

[fraximalistdave]

Edit: Removed KPI incentives from final proposal.

The final breakdown of the grant is as follows:

Total Cost: $214.2k

• Half of the grant will be streamed via llamapay and half the grant will be granted lump sum at the end of the year.

• Of what is streamed via llamapay it will be 80% FXS and 20% FRAX. Of the lump sum it will be 80% FRAX and 20% FXS

Grant Components

• $104k to produce weekly episodes of Flywheel

• $52k to produce weekly episodes of Frax Check

• $25k for IRL Events

• $15.6k for business development representation

• $10k to produce Frax-branded merchandise

• $5.1k for patronizing art and content

• $2.5k for Frax-branded NFTs

Extra Note

• Section in 2024 grant proposal about the progress of independent income streams of Flywheel.

[antonio32]

So now every content creator can ask for funds from the community for marketing? We should allocate funds only for projects who build and grow the frax ecosystem, not promotion or marketing purposes.

[amirnader]

I really like the KPI incentives here. But I think we can have an additional FIP for these incentives to be Universal for every content creator, not just Flywheel. So thanks for removing that from this FIP.