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Apply for Retro Funding 5: OP Stack

Submit this application by Sep 5 at 19:00 UTC

Round 5 will reward OP Stack contributions. This includes direct contributions to the OP Stack, as well as its key dependencies. A single project can only apply to one OP Stack category (listed below). This means that each distinct contribution you have to the OP Stack should be setup as its own project.

Timeline

The deadline for applications is Sep 5 at 19:00 UTC. After you apply, you can still make edits to your projects until the deadline. You do not need to resubmit your application if you make edits, but you do need to republish your metadata onchain.

Eligibility

The round will reward impact which has been generated between October 2023 - August 2024. Impact will be rewarded within the following three categories: Ethereum Core Contributions, OP Stack Research & Development, and OP Stack Tooling.

Each category has it’s own eligibility criteria. Please review the following category descriptions carefully.

Ethereum Core Contributions

Category 1

Ethereum Core Contributions

Ethereum Core Contributions are infrastructure which supports, or is a dependency, of the OP Stack.

Examples: Smart contract languages, Ethereum consensus & execution clients, EVM, Ethereum testnets, Cryptography research.

Eligibility: The following types of projects are eligible.

  • Ethereum client implementations
  • Infrastructure to test and deploy chains
  • Languages that are dedicated to the development of smart contracts
  • Research which informs Ethereum core development

Not eligible: The following types of projects are not eligible.

  • Projects that are used to develop or deploy contracts or apps, including in the development and deployment of Optimism contracts, may be rewarded in Retro Funding 7: Dev Tooling, and are not in scope for this category.
  • Extended Ethereum related tooling that is not listed under eligibility, including analytics/data infrastructure, frontend libraries, indexers and more. These may be rewarded in Retro Funding 7: Dev Tooling and are not in scope for this category.
  • Generic Ethereum related research that does not inform Ethereum core development
OP Stack Research & Development

Category 2

OP Stack Research & Development

Direct research & development contributions to the OP Stack, and contributions that support protocol upgrades.

Examples: Optimism Protocol upgrades, OP Stack Client Implementations, modules & mods, audits and Fault Proof VM implementations

Eligibility: The following types of projects are eligible.

  • Work on core components of the OP Stack, including client implementations, modules, and modifications.
  • Research or development that introduced features, improvements, or capabilities to the OP Stack.
  • Security audits specifically on the OP Stack or its components.

Not eligible: The following types of projects are not eligible.

  • Optimism Monorepo contributions by non-core devs: Only Optimism Monorepo 11 contributions by core devs may be rewarded within Retro Funding 5. Commits to the monorepo are currently mainly done by Optimism core devs and the core dev program is not developed enough to support outside contributions to the monorepo yet. As the core dev program evolves, more contributions to the monorepo may become eligible.
  • Submissions to the Optimism Bug Bounty Programs are not eligible to participate in this round.
OP Stack Tooling

Category 3

OP Stack Tooling

Efforts that improve the usability and accessibility of the OP Stack through tooling enhancements.

Examples: Integration and load testing infrastructure, scripts for running an Optimism node, RaaS providers, OP Stack tutorials & documentation

Eligibility: The following types of projects are eligible.

  • Tools that facilitate the deployment, operation, or testing of the OP Stack. This includes integration tools, load testing infrastructure, and scripts for node management.
  • Services for deploying and hosting an OP Chain
  • Documentation and tutorials which aid in understanding of the OP Stack’s components and its development

Not eligible: The following types of projects are not eligible.

  • Projects that are used to develop or deploy contracts or apps, including in the development and deployment of Optimism contracts, may be rewarded in Retro Funding 7: Dev Tooling, and are not in scope for this category.
  • Extended tooling that is not listed under eligibility, including analytics/data infrastructure, frontend libraries, indexers and more. These may be rewarded in Retro Funding 7: Dev Tooling and are not in scope for this category.
  • Documentation and tutorials which are not about the OP Stack’s components or development, such as non technical tutorials about Optimism.

Rules

Failure to adhere to the rules listed below will result in disqualification.

  • Promises of Future Impact: Promises of future deliverables or impact are not allowed.
  • False Statements & Deception: False claims about your contributions, past impact or funding & grants are not allowed.
  • Hateful Content: No racist, sexist, or otherwise hateful speech, no discrimination.
  • Deceiving Badgeholders: Malicious content that could cause harm or unintended consequences to users.
  • Fraud & Impersonation: Claiming to be a brand or person you are not. The Grant owner must be directly affiliated with the project, the funds must go to the project.
  • Advertising: Using RetroPGF application to showcase something you are selling like a token sale or NFT drop.
  • Bribery: Bribing badgeholders or vote buying is strictly forbidden.
  • Contacting Badgeholders to Promote Your Application: Using private channels such as DMs to promote your applications to badgeholders.
  • All Recipients are Subject to KYC: If you do not pass KYC, your grant will be returned to the RetroPGF treasury for future rounds.
  • Outside of Retro Funding Scope: Contributions that do not have a clear relationship to Optimism, applications that do not highlight a valid contribution or contributions which are outside of the RetroPGF scope.
  • Spam: Applications containing spam, such as irrelevant answers, plagiarized content, broken or unrelated impact metrics and contribution links will be disqualified.
  • Applications in Languages Other Than English Will Be Discarded: This will help simplify the process as English is the working language of the majority of Badgeholders. Please ensure you translate any content that’s part of the application.
  • Duplicate Applications: Multiple applications from the same individual, project, or group which apply for the same impact.