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Edit: Based on the community feedback, a proposal update has been added at the end the original proposal below.
Staking Rewards Stake App integration & Ecosystem Partnership
Executive Summary
About: StakingRewards.com is the premier staking aggregator and tooling platform dedicated to the staking economy. It equips investors, analysts, and industry participants with a comprehensive suite of tools and insights, enabling them to optimize staking investments and stay abreast of the evolving landscape of proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain networks.
Purpose: The purpose of the integration with Polkadot is to provide native staking capabilities on stakingrewards.com that enhance user experience, foster decentralization of the Polkadot network, and offer additional staking ecosystem tooling. The goal is to build the official Stake App for the entire Polkadot ecosystem. This integration will also support onboarding existing and upcoming Parachains for a fraction of the costs.
Scope: The scope of the project includes developing a dedicated Polkadot staking integration optimized to provide an exceptional staking experience for the Polkadot community, encompassing the entire staking user flow from start to finish.
Benefits: The integration will provide significant benefits to Polkadot users by offering a more streamlined and efficient staking experience.
Introduction
This proposal supports the Polkadot Ecosystem in their efforts to decentralize Polkadot infrastructure by providing additional staking tools to enhance community staking activities and the greater Polkadot ecosystem.
Integration Features
With years of experience optimizing the staking flow for users on StakingRewards.com, we have developed a comprehensive staking app that fully enhances the user experience. The app includes the following features:
Native Staking Capabilities: Users can connect their Polkadot wallet and stake to a chosen validator or liquid staking protocol directly through stakingrewards.com. This happens through an integration into the Staking App. Users will be able to stake with any or multiple validators in a single transaction.
Advanced Monitoring: Real-Time Portfolio & Reward Tracking Terminal for Both Retail and Institutional Users to monitor staking positions across multiple validators.
Curated Staking Strategies: Allows users to stake with pre-configured sets of validators to minimize correlated slashing risks and promote decentralization.
Risk Optimized Validator Ranking: Highlights validators that promote network decentralization through delegation.
Parachain Support: Thanks to Polkadot's modularity, Parachains can be supported at a fraction of the cost following mainnet integration as many components can be reused.
Impact on the Project
Enhance Decentralization: We will work towards decentralizing the validator network by attracting more validators from diverse backgrounds and geographical locations, thereby increasing the network's resilience and security.
Improve Staking User Experience (UX): We recognize the importance of a seamless and intuitive staking experience. Our project will focus on developing tools and interfaces that simplify the staking process and provide users with greater control over their staked assets.
Increase Adoption: Through targeted marketing efforts, community engagement initiatives, and strategic partnerships, we aim to increase awareness of Polkadot's benefits and drive adoption of its network and services.
Onboard More Validators: We will actively recruit and onboard validators to participate in the Polkadot network, expanding the validator pool and further decentralizing network governance.
Enhance Validator Tooling and Verification: By providing validators with robust tooling and verification mechanisms, we aim to improve their operational efficiency and ensure the integrity and security of the Polkadot network.
Integration with Staking Data API: We aspire to integrate Polkadot data into the Staking Rewards API, enhancing the visibility and accessibility of Polkadot staking opportunities to a wider audience, including institutional investors such as Grayscale.
Commercials and Milestones
Milestone 1 - Research Methodology Development
Milestone 2 - Staging & Testing
Milestone 3 - Stake App GoLive including all key features
Total amount requested: 100.000 EURO (114.000 $USDC)
Conclusion In conclusion, this proposal seeks to integrate Polkadot with the Staking Rewards platform, enhancing the staking experience for its users while promoting decentralization and adoption within the Polkadot ecosystem. By developing a dedicated Stake App, we will provide native staking capabilities, advanced monitoring tools, and curated staking strategies that cater to both retail and institutional users. The requested funding of 100.000 Euro (114.000 USDC) will be allocated across three key milestones, ensuring a robust and efficient implementation that aligns with Polkadot's long-term goals.
We look forward to discussing this proposal with the community and welcome your feedback before moving forward with an on-chain proposal.
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Edit 12.09.2024:
Proposal Update: Response to Feedback and corresponding Adjustments
Background:
Before submitting our proposal to governance, it was posted on the discussion forum from August 19th to September 5th. During that period, there were no comments, so we moved forward to governance.
Once in governance, we received valuable feedback that raised important considerations we hadn't initially addressed. As a result, we are revising the proposal to incorporate these insights.
Key Feedback:
@TMC: Highlighted the lack of governance capabilities in the proposal.
@saxemberg: Addressed concerns regarding the ranking logic for Polkadot Validators (currently based on VSP & AUM).ย
We deeply appreciate the constructive dialogue and encourage continued community engagement to ensure this proposal adds significant value to the Polkadot ecosystem.
Proposed Adjustments:
About Staking Rewards:
With 150,000โ200,000 unique monthly users, StakingRewards is a key platform for staking across multiple ecosystems. Increased exposure of Polkadot staking and governance here will significantly benefit the ecosystem.
Our staking API is widely used by major industry leaders, including Grayscale, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bloomberg. Additionally, the Staking Summit, an annual gathering of key players from across the industry, offers further opportunities to elevate Polkadotโs presence in global staking discussions.
Each year, we host the largest global Staking Summit, bringing together key industry players, including foundations, home and enterprise stakers, liquid staking protocols, builders, and investors. Moving forward, we will explore opportunities to integrate Polkadot into the summit to drive further adoption and innovation.
Further Engagement:
We look forward to ongoing discussions and are confident that these adjustments address key feedback, enhancing our proposal's value. We hope this revised proposal encourages your support! Any additional feedback or suggestions are greatly appreciated and welcomed. ๐
Threshold
Really, Polkadot has a vision for the entire chain, and we need to promote the implementation of this vision. Of course, we should actively solve the problems encountered in this process, rather than giving opposing opinions from the beginning. This attitude is really unacceptable.
In addition, Polkadot has such excellent ecological technology. What do we need? We need users, we need more users who are currently not in the ecosystem.
This is an opportunity to reach more users, and we should find ways to seize it.
Hello and welcome to Polkadot's OpenGov. This will be a NAY for us. As a Polkadot validation operation we should be inclined to vote in favor further staking visibility for the ecosystem but we choose to vote against 1140 due to the existing explicit biases that Staking Rewards has for their recommended validator lists as a part of their operations. So funding this behavior should not be in the interest of the treasury as this will only boost the visibility of the big validation operations with significant marketing funds and sponsoring partners of Staking Rewards even further, all done with public funds.
For those reasons, public funds like the Polkadot treasury should be in favor of the inclusion and development of unbiased and ranked lists that not only favor a certain party's partner, rather with a more objective focus which we believe it is possible. A previous attempt like referendum 1062 would be more suitable as a recipient of the treasury funds for such tasks as long as there is proof that the result can be unbiased, something that we have shared in private with the proposer of 1062.
Remember to verify your on-chain identity as well as posting the decision deposit.