Profile of Leighton in Optimism

Posts by Leighton

• PoolTogether Grant #2 Update & Moving Forward by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: March 23, 2023, 9:30 p.m.
  Content: Summary Since the PoolTogether protocol launched on Optimism, PoolTogether Inc has received two grants. Grant 1 ( 450 , 000 $OP) through the Foundation Fund. Grant update here. Grant 2 ( 550 , 000 OP) through Token House Season 2 5 . This thread updates on the performance of grant 2 and next steps. Usage of $OP & Results of Grant 2 : Grant 2 had three goals. The first and most important goal was growing deposits and depositors while reducing overall $OP distribution. This goal was accomplished. Grant 2 reduced the amount of $OP tokens being distributed to depositors by 30 % (from 27 , 500 per week to 20 , 000 per week), while reducing OP distributed total deposits actually grew to $ 40 million. Growing deposits from $ 35 million to $ 40 million while reducing OP distribution was the stated goal of grant 2 . The recent USDC depegging did create a large amount of withdrawals. However, the protocol has still outperformed the general downturn of USDC and is recovering. The second goal of the grant 2 was to grow unique depositors from 10 , 000 to greater than 30 , 000 . This goal was again successful, there are currently over 35 , 000 unique depositors into PoolTogether on Optimism. In addition to these metrics based goals, grant 2 asked for OP tokens to help build an alternative interface and new yield source integrations. Two alternative interfaces have been built, the first is PoolyGotchi, a gamified interface to set and achieve personal savings goals. The second RetroPooling is a simple interface for smart contract wallets that allows one-click no loss donations to RetroPG.eth. For the yield source integrations, the OP tokens allocated have not yet been distributed as the core prize pool is being upgraded to be ERC- 4626 compatible and yield sources will make more sense to fund after that is completed. In total, 550 , 000 OP tokens were given in grant 2 , 400 , 000 of those have been fully distributed. The remaining tokens are retained for the goals discussed above. Looking Forward: PoolTogether has delivered on the promise of being the “front-door to DeFi” on Optimism. It continues to stand out as a simple, secure, and financially healthy place where people can try Optimism for the first time. From there, they can use more mature DeFi tools and other apps built on Optimism. Grant 2 showed the protocol can significantly grow while reducing reliance on incentives. However, although PoolTogether did show strong growth, the overall low interest rate environment caused by the bear market has prevented the growth flywheel from fully taking hold. PoolTogether Inc is currently working on the “hyperstructure” upgrade, this will make the addition of new yield sources and token types permissionless. Our belief is this will address the current limitations the protocol has and allow the growth flywheel to take hold. With that said, there is still meaningful work needed to be done before that milestone is reached. Expected delivery of the fully audited production version is July 15 th, roughly 4 months from today. This leaves a roughly 15 week gap between when the grant two OP rewards will end and when the upgraded protocol will be ready. PoolTogether Inc will be applying to the foundation for a third grant. The goal of this third grant will be both continuing the current value proposition of PoolTogether V 4 and also jump-starting the growth of the hyperstructure. We ultimately believe the hyperstructure will drive the best long term growth on Optimism. We welcome feedback! We are interested in hearing if others in the community believe an additional grant is warranted and how it should be used! Appendix: Grant 2 OP Incentive Distribution Schedule Project Name: PoolTogether Affiliated Project (if applicable): PoolTogether Distributor contract address: 0 x 1470 c 87 e 2 db 5247 a 36 c 60 de 3 d 65 d 7 c Announcement Date: November 11 , 2022 Announcement Link: Mirror Article / Medium Article / Tweet Start Date: November 15 , 2022 (extension) End Date: March 28 , 2023 Distribution Type: TWAB Rewards 1 OP per Epoch: 20 , 000 $OP Epoch Length: per week App Incentivized: app-unspecific, incentives on smart contract level Contract(s) Incentivized: Yield Source Prize Pool Action(s), Pool(s), etc. Incentivized: Average balance & share of the prize pool over time Eligible Addresses: All depositors on Optimism Extra Notes: Distribution statistics can be seen here.
  Likes: 7 Replies: 0
  Likers: omarsin, yungsb, oplov3r, cryptoaya, fractalvisions, kudin, amir1366t
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• PoolTogether Grant #2 Update & Moving Forward by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: March 23, 2023, 9:30 p.m.
  Content: Summary Since the PoolTogether protocol launched on Optimism, PoolTogether Inc has received two grants. Grant 1 ( 450 , 000 $OP) through the Foundation Fund. Grant update here 1 . Grant 2 ( 550 , 000 OP) through Token House Season 2 6 . This thread updates on the performance of grant 2 and next steps. Usage of $OP & Results of Grant 2 : Grant 2 had three goals. The first and most important goal was growing deposits and depositors while reducing overall $OP distribution. This goal was accomplished. Grant 2 reduced the amount of $OP tokens being distributed to depositors by 30 % (from 27 , 500 per week to 20 , 000 per week), while reducing OP distributed total deposits actually grew to $ 40 million. Growing deposits from $ 35 million to $ 40 million while reducing OP distribution was the stated goal of grant 2 . The recent USDC depegging did create a large amount of withdrawals. However, the protocol has still outperformed the general downturn of USDC and is recovering. The second goal of the grant 2 was to grow unique depositors from 10 , 000 to greater than 30 , 000 . This goal was again successful, there are currently over 35 , 000 unique depositors into PoolTogether on Optimism. In addition to these metrics based goals, grant 2 asked for OP tokens to help build an alternative interface and new yield source integrations. Two alternative interfaces have been built, the first is PoolyGotchi, a gamified interface to set and achieve personal savings goals. The second RetroPooling is a simple interface for smart contract wallets that allows one-click no loss donations to RetroPG.eth. For the yield source integrations, the OP tokens allocated have not yet been distributed as the core prize pool is being upgraded to be ERC- 4626 compatible and yield sources will make more sense to fund after that is completed. In total, 550 , 000 OP tokens were given in grant 2 , 400 , 000 of those have been fully distributed. The remaining tokens are retained for the goals discussed above. Looking Forward: PoolTogether has delivered on the promise of being the “front-door to DeFi” on Optimism. It continues to stand out as a simple, secure, and financially healthy place where people can try Optimism for the first time. From there, they can use more mature DeFi tools and other apps built on Optimism. Grant 2 showed the protocol can significantly grow while reducing reliance on incentives. However, although PoolTogether did show strong growth, the overall low interest rate environment caused by the bear market has prevented the growth flywheel from fully taking hold. PoolTogether Inc is currently working on the “hyperstructure” upgrade, this will make the addition of new yield sources and token types permissionless. Our belief is this will address the current limitations the protocol has and allow the growth flywheel to take hold. With that said, there is still meaningful work needed to be done before that milestone is reached. Expected delivery of the fully audited production version is July 15 th, roughly 4 months from today. This leaves a roughly 15 week gap between when the grant two OP rewards will end and when the upgraded protocol will be ready. PoolTogether Inc will be applying to the foundation for a third grant. The goal of this third grant will be both continuing the current value proposition of PoolTogether V 4 and also jump-starting the growth of the hyperstructure. We ultimately believe the hyperstructure will drive the best long term growth on Optimism. We welcome feedback! We are interested in hearing if others in the community believe an additional grant is warranted and how it should be used! Appendix: Grant 2 OP Incentive Distribution Schedule Project Name: PoolTogether Affiliated Project (if applicable): PoolTogether Distributor contract address: 0 x 1470 c 87 e 2 db 5247 a 36 c 60 de 3 d 65 d 7 c Announcement Date: November 11 , 2022 Announcement Link: Mirror Article / Medium Article / Tweet Start Date: November 15 , 2022 (extension) End Date: March 28 , 2023 Distribution Type: TWAB Rewards 1 OP per Epoch: 20 , 000 $OP Epoch Length: per week App Incentivized: app-unspecific, incentives on smart contract level Contract(s) Incentivized: Yield Source Prize Pool Action(s), Pool(s), etc. Incentivized: Average balance & share of the prize pool over time Eligible Addresses: All depositors on Optimism Extra Notes: Distribution statistics can be seen here 1 .
  Likes: 7 Replies: 0
  Likers: omarsin, yungsb, oplov3r, cryptoaya, fractalvisions, kudin, amir1366t
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• PoolTogether Grant #2 Update & Moving Forward by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: March 23, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
  Content: Summary Since the PoolTogether protocol launched on Optimism, PoolTogether Inc has received two grants. Grant 1 ( 450 , 000 $OP) through the Foundation Fund. Grant update here. Grant 2 ( 550 , 000 OP) through Token House Season 2 . This thread updates on the performance of grant 2 and next steps. Usage of $OP & Results of Grant 2 : Grant 2 had three goals. The first and most important goal was growing deposits and depositors while reducing overall $OP distribution. This goal was accomplished. Grant 2 reduced the amount of $OP tokens being distributed to depositors by 30 % (from 27 , 500 per week to 20 , 000 per week), while reducing OP distributed total deposits actually grew to $ 40 million. Growing deposits from $ 35 million to $ 40 million while reducing OP distribution was the stated goal of grant 2 . The recent USDC depegging did create a large amount of withdrawals. However, the protocol has still outperformed the general downturn of USDC and is recovering. The second goal of the grant 2 was to grow unique depositors from 10 , 000 to greater than 30 , 000 . This goal was again successful, there are currently over 35 , 000 unique depositors into PoolTogether on Optimism. In addition to these metrics based goals, grant 2 asked for OP tokens to help build an alternative interface and new yield source integrations. Two alternative interfaces have been built, the first is PoolyGotchi, a gamified interface to set and achieve personal savings goals. The second RetroPooling is a simple interface for smart contract wallets that allows one-click no loss donations to RetroPG.eth. For the yield source integrations, the OP tokens allocated have not yet been distributed as the core prize pool is being upgraded to be ERC- 4626 compatible and yield sources will make more sense to fund after that is completed. In total, 550 , 000 OP tokens were given in grant 2 , 400 , 000 of those have been fully distributed. The remaining tokens are retained for the goals discussed above. Looking Forward: PoolTogether has delivered on the promise of being the “front-door to DeFi” on Optimism. It continues to stand out as a simple, secure, and financially healthy place where people can try Optimism for the first time. From there, they can use more mature DeFi tools and other apps built on Optimism. Grant 2 showed the protocol can significantly grow while reducing reliance on incentives. However, although PoolTogether did show strong growth, the overall low interest rate environment caused by the bear market has prevented the growth flywheel from fully taking hold. PoolTogether Inc is currently working on the “hyperstructure” upgrade, this will make the addition of new yield sources and token types permissionless. Our belief is this will address the current limitations the protocol has and allow the growth flywheel to take hold. With that said, there is still meaningful work needed to be done before that milestone is reached. Expected delivery of the fully audited production version is July 15 th, roughly 4 months from today. This leaves a roughly 15 week gap between when the grant two OP rewards will end and when the upgraded protocol will be ready. PoolTogether Inc will be applying to the foundation for a third grant. The goal of this third grant will be both continuing the current value proposition of PoolTogether V 4 and also jump-starting the growth of the hyperstructure. We ultimately believe the hyperstructure will drive the best long term growth on Optimism. We welcome feedback! We are interested in hearing if others in the community believe an additional grant is warranted and how it should be used! Appendix: Grant 2 OP Incentive Distribution Schedule Project Name: PoolTogether Affiliated Project (if applicable): PoolTogether Distributor contract address: 0 x 1470 c 87 e 2 db 5247 a 36 c 60 de 3 d 65 d 7 c Announcement Date: November 11 , 2022 Announcement Link: Mirror Article / Medium Article / Tweet Start Date: November 15 , 2022 (extension) End Date: March 28 , 2023 Distribution Type: TWAB Rewards OP per Epoch: 20 , 000 $OP Epoch Length: per week App Incentivized: app-unspecific, incentives on smart contract level Contract(s) Incentivized: Yield Source Prize Pool Action(s), Pool(s), etc. Incentivized: Average balance & share of the prize pool over time Eligible Addresses: All depositors on Optimism Extra Notes: Distribution statistics can be seen here.
  Likes: 7 Replies: 0
  Likers: Omarsin, YungSB, oplov3r, cryptoAYA, FractalVisions, Kudin, amir1366t
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• [Review] [GF: Phase 1] PoolTogether by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: Nov. 4, 2022, 6:17 p.m.
  Content: Understood. Your issue wasn’t with the request type but rather the lack of details. :+ 1 :
  Likes: 1 Replies: 0
  Likers: opuser
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• [Review] [GF: Phase 1] PoolTogether by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: Nov. 4, 2022, 3:43 p.m.
  Content: Thanks for the input! As a point of general feedback on the process. It’s quite difficult as different voters clearly have different priorities. All the pushback we’ve gotten thus far is that we’ve allocated too much to building better user experiences… to the extent we almost completely cut out all the request for OP allocated towards it. One thing that would be helpful is if people put their voting weight in their names on discourse… that way feedback could be weighted appropriately based on voting power.
  Likes: 2 Replies: 2
  Likers: polynya, mhluongo
  Replies:

  • polynya: That’s a good idea. Meanwhile, you can find out here: Optimism | OP Token House - Delegate Voting Weight Tracker (dune.com)
  • OPUser: Leighton: ll the pushback we’ve gotten thus far is that we’ve allocated too much to building better user experiences… to the extent we almost completely cut out all the request for OP allocated towards it. I can provide some input here, initially token allocated to builders was not clear. What you want to build, how did you reach to that specific number and how it will add value. Once you provided information to those, it was easy to support your proposal.
• [Review] [GF: Phase 1] PoolTogether by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: Nov. 2, 2022, 10:07 p.m.
  Content: @OPUser asked a further question via Discord and I wanted to answer it here for visibility. What you want to built is clear from your last comment, but could you break this cost estimate, how did you reach to this number ? are you calculating Dev hours * hours rate, if so then how much. There isn’t an Apples to Apples comparison since the OP tokens won’t be sold and generally shouldn’t be viewed as money. However, I do have some stats on past expenses of related activities. I know Pool Grants paid $ 25 , 000 for phase 1 development of the Web 3 Savings card interface 2 . This specific project was one developer working on a part-time basis. Ideally, what we would like to achieve on Optimism is much bigger… A direct to Optimism on-ramp with fiat conversion making it simple to use PoolTogether for someone who owns crypto but has never used a dapp. We anticipate this being a multi-person project because it would include front-end, web designer, and also back-end / smart contract integration work. So we are targeting having enough resources for a single large grant that can motivate a talented team. If the total amount requested ( 110 , 000 OP) wasn’t needed then I would anticipate any remainder could be used for some OP on-boarding incentives specifically for that interface. I believe that would be very effective. In terms of yield source’s integration our ideal path here would be working closely with a team to get them done. We’ve generally paid $ 15 , 000 per yield source integration. Yield sources always need a good audit which generally will cost about $ 30 , 000 . I don’t expect an auditor would accept OP tokens as payment so likely that will be paid for by PoolTogether Inc and then OP tokens will incentive the actual integration work + the launch of the new pool. When new pools with new yield sources are created, they need to bootstrap deposit growth, so any tokens not needed for the actual growth can be used towards that. Hopefully this helps create some clarity! Let me know if it does!
  Likes: 4 Replies: 0
  Likers: opuser, gonna.eth, filterbyspam, tjark
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• [Review] [GF: Phase 1] PoolTogether by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: Nov. 1, 2022, 7:58 p.m.
  Content: Thank you!! It seems like people are generally in favor… however, I will default to our original sponsors, @jackanorak and @mastermojo if you would like me to lower or remove the OP allocated towards yield source integrations and interfaces, let me know and I will do so.
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• [Review] [GF: Phase 1] PoolTogether by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: Nov. 1, 2022, 7:39 p.m.
  Content: It sounds logical and it’s not too much work but given the time constraints I’m not sure it’s possible. Let me just re-iterate the key points here as I have added more information in the comments. 550 , 000 OP total grant request 380 , 000 allocated to depositor rewards 110 , 000 OP allocated to alternative interfaces 55 , 000 OP allocated to alternative yield source integrations For the 110 , 000 we think there is a big opportunity to further leverage “PoolTogether as the front door to DeFi” by making a dedicated interface targeted to people who own crypto on centralized exchanges but have never used an app. Think of it like if the Optimism Get Started page and app.pooltogether.com had a baby. That’s the primary a goal, a secondary goal would be more experimental ideas that might get submitted once we put out a request, I used the web 3 savings cards as an example. That specific example is already funded so doesn’t need a grant but I think there is a lot of room to build easier to onboard interfaces for the protocol. As I mentioned in another comment, the PoolTogether Inc team has zero designers and only 1 front-end dev so having some grants to do work on front-ends would be helpful. The second part, 55 , 000 OP for yield source integration is more straight forward. Right now the protocol is only intergated with Aave on Optimism, this is pretty limiting. It would be great to integrate with other yield sources, we have looked into integrating with Velodrome so that is possible but I also assume in the coming months more yield sources will be coming online. These OP tokens would be used as incentives to get those teams to integrate with the PoolTogether protocol. This is something we’ve done before on Ethereum mainnet. I’m not sure if that adds clarity? I am happy to try and adjust the original proposal as several people have asked questions about it but I also don’t want to mess up the voting process! So looking for some input on best suggested path forward.
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  • Gonna.eth: It does thank you! I’ll support this proposal.
• [Review] [GF: Phase 1] PoolTogether by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: Nov. 1, 2022, 7:10 p.m.
  Content: Thanks for the input and kind words! Could you clarify this for me? we asked every other proposal to either state exactly how teams/projects reserves will be distributed What level of detail do you need beyond what is already shared? Do you need to know exactly who would be getting the grants? I rather have to approve a second proposal asking for UIs core features individually than leave this 30 % to the team will. My understanding (via @Netrim) is at this stage, we can’t change the proposal. Is that correct? If it is possible to adjust the current proposal before voting I would do so.
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  • Gonna.eth: Leighton: My understanding (via @Netrim) is at this stage, we can’t change the proposal. Is that correct? If it is possible to adjust the current proposal before voting I would do so. You can change the proposal. Tag your approvers to reafirm their position. Leighton: What level of detail do you need beyond what is already shared? Do you need to know exactly who would be getting the grants? “Well if you say 10k Op will go to this team for this UIs” that would be awesome. But if you have the UIs features in mind and you don’t have the teams at least specify those features and approximate distributions. “Feature 1 does this and we will allocate approx 10k OP” Sounds logical or is it too much work? I’m trying to figure out how to approve this I’m very fond of developer grants.
  • Netrim: As Dhantee says, the proposal CAN be changed but you need your delegates to maintain their endorsement.
• [Review] [GF: Phase 1] PoolTogether by Leighton - No Role
  Posted on: Nov. 1, 2022, 4:47 p.m.
  Content: wanted to know, though – what’s the process of integration look like, and how’s the dev burden distributed between you and the partner protocol? has there been friction in getting new yield sources onboarded? Good question! Over the years we’ve tried many different approaches, we’ve done them internally, we’ve bountied them and then yield source teams have done them. Our best outcomes have been working directly with yield source teams to get them done. We also always audit them. So generally we’ve tried to either get the yield source team to do them for free and we pay for the audit or provide some sort of grant to the yield source team… that would be the idea here. That said, though, hoping to get a brief sense of finances and why a grant at this stage would catalyze better UX – are you unable to move this forward otherwise? The PoolTogether Inc team is a total 5 people (was 4 people until yesterday when we added Ncookie). We have zero designers on our team and we only have one front-end. So internally, we are highly limited in terms of what we can do UI wise. I’ve always felt like there is a big need for a UI that connects to the protocol but focuses specifically on people who have never used a dapp before (have a Cex account but never used DeFi). So that’s something specifically I’d love to see. We’ve also had a lot of good work done on instrumentation, things like prize notification bots, prize odds calculators, things along those lines. Overall, these integrations and UIs are things that will move a lot slower but I thought having some allocation for them would be good as a longer term play rather than incentive focused stuff.
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