[SCP-TBD] Engineering Workstream Renewal, Jun - Sep 2023

Abstract / Overview

The ShapeShift DAO relies on the Engineering Workstream to maintain the open source code base, undertake core engineering work to enable new features, support integrations from the broader community, and to provide architectural oversight and technical leadership as we continue to execute the DAO’s vision.

This proposal is to continue to fund the Engineering Workstream’s budget from June 1st, 2023 through September 30th, 2023 inclusive (4 months).

This proposal adopts SCP-92 Definition of Workstream Leader.

Motivation

Previous proposal

  • The Engineering workstream came in under budget of the previously approved proposal.

    February $113,934 (includes $24,825 of infrastructure) and 400,000 FOX.

  • March $85,884 (includes $23,134 of infrastructure)
  • April $85,450 (includes 2 new engineers pro-rated, no infrastructure) and 183,374 FOX.
  • May $100,250 (slight positive variance due to one off payroll alignment) and 362,622 FOX.

Total labor, infrastructure, and overhead spend of $385,518 USDC against an approved $580,800

Completed deliverables

  • THORChain savers integration
  • Supported completion of Osmosis bounty & integration
  • Wherever notifications (EPNS integration)
  • Optimism integration (grant funding secured)
  • WalletConnect to dApps
  • WalletConnect V2 upgrade

LI.FI

  • swap and bridge integration
  • 1inch swapper integration
  • Swapper selection
  • Swapper manual receive address
  • Major swapper performance and architecture improvements
  • DeFi opportunities architecture improvements
  • Polygon chain support
  • Monorepo migration
  • Major performance improvements
  • Gas estimation improvements and EIP1559 support
  • Cluster monitoring
  • Optimism upgrade
  • All UNI V2 LP support
  • Information architecture changes
  • DeFi by position and asset
  • QR code BIP21 support
  • Mixpanel migration
  • NFT basic support
  • Global search
  • Trade donations
  • Trade simulation
  • KeepKey desktop client support
  • Deprecate Portis and TallyHo wallets
  • Equity cards
  • Related assets across chains

Team

Existing

0xdef1cafe

  • - Workstream Leader & Senior Engineer

0xApotheosis

  • - Senior Engineer

gomes

  • - Senior Engineer

kaladinlight

  • - Senior Engineer

New

humblehound

  • - Senior Engineer

woodenfurniture

  • - Senior Engineer

Mandate

This proposal seeks to have the Engineering Workstream be the sole maintainers with discretion over CODEOWNERS, permissions and administrative rights of the ShapeShift GitHub namespace. The billing account shall be controlled by the Fox Foundation.

This is to ensure the DAO maintains a high standard of code quality, velocity, reduced regressions, and has a single core team acting as maintainers responsible for the codebase.

The Engineering Workstream will work with external contributors to ensure contributions can be made expeditiously while not compromising quality, patterns or stability.

Budget spreadsheet

The details below expand upon the budget spreadsheet

Recurring costs

Labor

  • 0xdef1cafe salary reduced 25k due to location change
  • Any contributor reserves the right to take any portion of salary in FOX and locked varieties thereof.
  • The budget includes two newly filled Senior Engineer positions at a rate of $180,000 each. Welcome to humblehound and woodenfurniture!

Infrastructure

The Engineering Workstream previously paid a managed-services provider, TaxiStake, for infrastructure that powers the entire backend of the open source platform and mobile app.

The Fox Foundation now covers these costs, and the Engineering Workstream is not requesting funds to cover these costs in this proposal.

For reference previous infrastructure costs are outlined above.

Non-recurring costs

Bounty Program

With the increased engineering capacity and transition of Product Workstream leadership, we are sunsetting the bounty program from the budget, as it has proven to be ineffective.

Miscellaneous

The budget also contains a line item for $5,000 USDC of discretionary funds which may be used for travel, conferences, retreats etc, at engineering’s discretion.

The line item above is provisional, and any unspent funds will be returned to the DAO.

This budget seeks approval for the commitment of $5,000 USDC for non-recurring costs.

Contingency

Unforeseen costs will arise, and 10% of the USDC subtotal is requested accordingly.

The budget seeks approval for $37,967 for contingency to be spent judiciously at the workstream’s discretion, shall it be required.

Variance

Unused funds from any budget category will be returned to the DAO at the end of the budget cycle.

In the event that the Engineering Workstream requires more funds, a separate governance proposal shall be raised.

Deliverables

Goals

The Engineering Workstream continues on in spirit from the previously approved proposal(s).

The workstream exists to execute on the shared DAO roadmap, co-creating and executing sustainable data driven roadmap in conjunction with the Product Workstream.

The DAO recognizes that the crypto ecosystem is rapidly evolving and liable to change quickly. The Engineering Workstream reserves the right to add, remove, or reprioritize goals from this list, with the intent to deliver the most valuable and relevant items expediently to the market.

The product roadmap, emerging partnerships, and changes in resourcing are all factors liable to change the scope or prioritization of listed goals, however, broadly speaking, we intend to complete the strategic goals that are currently defined.

Reporting

  • The Engineering Workstream will report progress against these goals via the following methods

    availability via Discord, covering most time zones

  • weekly product/engineering public meetings
  • weekly governance calls
  • on demand for any specific deliverable

Should the community request other reasonable forms of reporting they will be considered on their merits.

Benefits

Fundamentally, the DAO delivers a product to increase ease of use of the multi-chain multi-wallet multi-protocol universe that we find ourselves in. It is the Engineering effort that builds our product. We need Engineering in order to thrive. The goals listed above will be delivered.

Drawbacks

Engineering labor is the most expensive component of the DAO’s budget. Any aspect that does not seem appropriate to serve the greater needs of the DAO should be criticized.

Vote

FOR: Fund the Engineering Workstream from June 1 2023 to September 30th 2023 for $417,633 USDC, with 0xdef1cafe as the Workstream Leader.

AGAINST: Do not fund the Engineering Workstream beyond May 31st 2023.

Progressed to ideation here https://forum.shapeshift.com/thread/44376