AIP-442: Grant Ships: Accelerating ApeCoin’s Ecosystem Evolution

PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION

Grant Ships: Accelerating ApeCoin Ecosystem Evolution aka “Ape Ships” is a proposed grants funding game specifically for ApeCoin DAO in support of ApeChain ecosystem development. The Grant Ships game is an “evolutionary grants meta-framework” that lets a DAO choose multiple teams of grant allocators (aka ‘Grant Ship Operators’) who compete to best allocate funds within a given domain.

This proposal is to fund 1 round of the Grant Ships game with the option to fund future rounds if the DAO likes the program. The Grant Ships platform provides a dynamic, transparent, onchain and community-driven funding initiative customized for the ApeCoin ecosystem to strategically fund sectors critical for the growth of ApeChain. This process will help ApeCoin DAO discover and empower the best allocators and the best projects aligned with their mission.

The Grant Ships game is at its heart a smart-contract-enforced governance system for grants programs. This means that the Grant Ships game has a clear ruleset and governance pathway where every in-game interaction is backed by an onchain transaction.

ApeCoin holders are involved at key junctures to ensure appropriate voter influence on outcomes without creating voter overwhelm or fatigue. DAO Voters influence funding direction primarily through Ship Operator and Game Facilitator elections and periodic TCR-gated Ship Operator portfolio reviews — the results of which determine relative Ship funding levels going forward.

Under the hood, Grant Ships uses Allo Protocol and Hats Protocol to provide reliable and flexible funding with revokable permissions — ensuring the DAO maintains control of the funds earmarked for grant allocation. All transactions and governance actions are recorded on-chain and presented publicly, fostering an environment of transparency, accountability and trust.

Additionally, the game can be played without the competitive aspect, serving as an open, transparent grant distribution protocol. Funding can be given to any group to distribute as grants using the app, ensuring all steps are open and available to DAO members.

Grant Ships: Accelerating ApeCoin’s Ecosystem Evolution aims to create a sustainable and scalable funding model that grows with ApeChain, supporting its development into a premier blockchain ecosystem.

BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM

• Enhanced Community Governance:

  • Voter Engagement: One of the goals of Grant Ships is to identify skilled allocators and empower them with the necessary tools to make effective funding decisions. The DAO has the opportunity to elect individuals or teams they believe will excel in these roles. A DAO vote also determines relative Ship funding levels for subsequent rounds.
    • Candidates are encouraged to self-nominate and actively campaign for their preferred roles. The election process will be facilitated through on-chain multi-choice voting, leveraging ApeCoin. To accommodate this, the creation of an additional module may be required to enable ApeCoin’s integration into the voting mechanism. The positions available for election are Facilitators and Ship Operators. Additionally, these roles may be appointed directly by the DAO’s councils if deemed more suitable for the DAO’s needs.
  • Feedback: Every in-game action is recorded onchain and can be verified by any member of the DAO. This data provides the DAO with all the information needed to make informed decisions about how to run the game (e.g. ship funding and administrator elections).

• Targeted Ecosystem Growth:

  • Focused Funding Rounds: This proposal describes a funding round description that instructs Ship Operators and Grant Applicants to support the growth of ApeChain by funding and creating projects that fall the following categories:
    • Infrastructure - ApeChain tools, protocols, frameworks, etc.
    • DeFi - Financial platforms and initiatives
    • Gaming - onchain game loops, NFT collections, etc.
    • Other - the unexpected and creative
  • Adaptive Domain Allocation: The DAO retains the flexibility to adjust the focus of future funding rounds based on emerging strategic needs.
  • Community Driven: The Grant Ships framework allows every DAO member to influence funding decisions without frequent votes or the need to gain massive context before every voting.

• Competitive Excellence:

  • Performance-Based Funding: Our model incentivizes high performance among grant allocators by directly linking their funding to demonstrated impact of their grants. This meritocratic approach encourages each Ship to strive for excellence. The better the results they deliver relative to the other Ships, the more funding they receive. This encourages a continuous drive for improvement and innovation.
    • Grant allocators verify the completion of funding-related milestones through a multi-step process. Initially, projects outline their intended milestones as part of the application procedure. Game Facilitators then have the responsibility to assess and approve these milestones.
    • Once a grant is sanctioned and the project has successfully undergone KYC and consented to our compliance policy, they are required to submit detailed reports of their milestones through the App. The Ship Operator meticulously reviews these submissions to ascertain whether the reported milestones align with the approved plan.
    • Subsequent to the Ship Operator’s validation, the Game Facilitator will also validate and is authorized to release the allocated funds to the project. This systematic approach ensures that only those projects that fulfill their proposed objectives receive the funding.
    • The following screenshots are what a milestone report looks like in the app:

* Impact Measurement: Grant Ships does not evaluate impact directly, instead providing numerous onchain events detailing all activity within the grants program, which can be fed into external impact evaluation systems.
 * Accountability Mechanisms: While encouraging excellence and freedom to run a Ship how operators choose, our system also has strong accountability mechanisms in place.
* Underperformance: In cases where a Ship repeatedly underperforms or fails to meet the community’s standards of integrity and impact, the DAO has the authority to defund them completely or revoke their ability to allocate funds. There is also a “flag” system in place which allows the game facilitator to take immediate action if a Ship’s actions are outside of compliance.
* Graduated Consequences: A yellow flag can be issued by Game Facilitators which acts as additional context to voters during TCR votes. A red flag is issued for obvious, repeated or intentional violations by a Grant Ship. A red flag suspends a Ship’s ability to distribute funding, until and only if, the DAO reinstates the Ship’s permissions through a TCR vote.

• Cultural Reinforcement: By tying funding to performance and making the outcomes publicly available, we foster a culture of accountability and excellence within the DAO ecosystem. Operators are motivated not only by potential funding but also by the prestige and recognition that come from being a top-performing Ship.
• Competitive and Collaborative: The competitive environment provided by the Grant Ships game will attract high-quality projects and allocators who are committed to the success of ApeChain. We also anticipate patterns of cooperation, skill-sharing and seeking of win/wins among ships and builders in the interest of creating something awesome as a community.

Sample portion of feed from the Grant Ships App from a live grant round

• Documentation and Reporting: Feeds generated from smart contract data are accessible through the Grant Ships app. These feeds detail funding activities providing key metrics and insights for voters to use during decision making.
  • Compliance Policy and Attestation: Fund allocations must be approved by a Game Faciltator before they can be distributed by a Grant Ship. This provides the DAO with the option to implement policies and prerequisites for grant recipients (e.g. KYC compliance, AML procedures, etc.). This takes the responsibility and potential conflict of interest from the Grant Ship operators and lets them focus on making wise allocation decisions.
    • The duty of performing due diligence, including KYC/KYB checks, is assigned to the elected Game Facilitators. They are tasked with ensuring compliance with all ApeCoin DAO regulations. Our contracts stipulate that Ship Operators are not involved in handling grant funds; instead, a Game Facilitator is required to authorize fund transfers to grant recipients. This occurs only after verifying that all requirements have been fulfilled.

OVERALL COST

Total amount requested from the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund = 550,000 $APE.

PROPOSAL

Link to the full proposal: https://forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-442-grant-ships-accelerating-apecoins-ecosystem-evolution/23455

The AIP implementation is administered by the Ape Foundation. Implementation may be immaterially or materially altered to optimise for security, usability, to protect APE holders, and otherwise to effect the intent of the AIP. Any material deviations from an AIP, as initially approved, will be disclosed to the APE holder community.