Funding for Public RPC Providers via Bounty 31

Dear community,

I present this proposal on the authorization of the curators of bounty 31.

This proposal seeks to continue funding of Public RPC Providers for the period of six months plus an additional month's contingency. Funding is issued to bounty 31 which awards vendors for RPC services on the Polkadot relay-chain as well as its system parachains. The total cost for such provision is USD$171,951.34, which represents $22,141.98 per month without contingency and administrative expenses.

Bounty 31 adopts an tender based procurement model in which service providers bid on requirements as set-out by the curators. The tender requirements are aligned to ecosystem needs and can scale up/down depending on usage. Tenders are scored and the highest scoring providers receive funding. Attention is also being placed on quality of service and should service providers fail to meet said quality-standards they will be penalized or lose funding altogether.

This approach has seen a reduction with independent funding proposals for such services and steering of providers to a "market rate".

Further details can be found here

Kind Regards, Will | Paradox | ParaNodes.io