TL;DR
Allo Protocol is a resource allocation protocol that enables communities to more effectively invest in their needs. The initial iteration, v1, went to mainnets in December 2022 and currently powers Grants Stack. We began working on Allo v2 in July and are currently in the final stages of auditing its code, with v2 slated to deploy to mainnets by the end of October.
We believe that a resource allocation protocol is a core piece of infrastructure with high long-term potential, and that the “community investment” use case can support a full ecosystem of user-facing applications. This belief drove our investment in v2, as the new design makes it easier to create new applications and provides a more powerful profile registry. However, we are aware that we are facing headwinds due to the bear environment and that we may be a little too early for the market. Our focus in S20 and S21 will be testing the market’s current ability to support this ecosystem so that we can make a more informed decision about our mid-term strategy.
S18-19 Goals
3 apps built on Allo
- Status: Projected to hit 2 out of 3 apps
- Alloscan (complete)
- Impact Stream (in progress)
More detail can be found in our S19 update.
S20-21 Strategy
We are very early in the Allo adoption cycle, and we are aware that there aren’t deep wells of community investment resources in the current market environment. With v2 slated to go live to mainnets in the next couple weeks, we are shifting our attention to testing the market’s ability to support multiple applications on Allo Protocol. In broad strokes, we are planning to spend S20 on “bullet”-style bets in an effort to get our first set of pools on v2.
Depending on our ability to hit our S20 goals (listed below), we may decide to continue focusing entirely on protocol work or temporarily pursue other opportunities to advance Gitcoin’s network effects while we wait for the market to improve. If we end up going the latter route, our assumption is that our focus will be on advancing Gitcoin’s grants GTM, but we will work closely with CSDO to identify the best areas on which to concentrate. We believe that Allo v2 is a strong technical product with a long-term future, but we want to be prudent about how we spend our team’s resources in the bear market.
You can read more about our S20 strategy here.
S20 Goal
Given how early we are in the Allo adoption cycle, we are opting to set a shorter-term goal so that we can more easily measure progress and focus on building momentum.
5 pools created on Allo v2
- The Allo team will be running at least 1 pool on v2 in S20, and are hoping that we can achieve another 4 pools through the channels outlined in our strategy doc linked above.
- Note that we will not count test pools — we want to see pools with actual funds flowing through them.
S20-21 Budget Request
The next two seasons’ budget requests are effectively flat with S18-19, and we expect that to continue for the foreseeable future. We plan to continue with our existing team and will not add any headcount. Outside of contributor salaries, the bulk of our existing costs come from funding pools to incentivize builders and audit earmarks in case we need ad-hoc reviews of protocol changes.
Amount
Allo is requesting $758,398 for S20 + S21, excluding reserves and rolled over amounts.
| Gitcoin Season | Budget 2023.11 | Budget 2023.12 | Budget 2024.01 | Total S20 | Budget 2024.02 | Budget 2024.03 | Budget 2024.04 | Total S21 | Total S20 + S21 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Allo Budgeted Spend | $95,566 | $95,566 | $165,566 | $356,699 | $100,566 | $100,566 | $200,566 | $401,699 | $758,398 |
| 33% Reserves | $118,900 | $133,900 | $252,800 | ||||||
| Past Season Treasury Balance | TBD | TBD | |||||||
| Total Request* | $475,599 | $535,599 | $1,011,198 |
A full breakdown of the budget can be found at the end of this post.
*The amount of GTC requested and the value of the reserves will be adjusted based on the current market value at the time this proposal is moved to Tally using the lower of the current price or the 20 day moving average, whichever is lower.
We will be requesting our funds through one Snapshot vote, but the release of the actual funds will be split over two Tally votes (one at the start of each season) for reasons of accountability and to mitigate potential price fluctuations.
Budget evolution:
| S18 (actuals) | S19 (projected actuals) | S20 (Budget) | S21 (Budget) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allo budget | $331,198 | $403,636 | $356,699 | $401,699 |
Budget Breakdown
Allo Protocol is staffed by the following team:
Core contributors (5):
- Aditya Anand (tech lead)
- Jason (engineer)
- Kurt Merbeth (engineer)
- Zakk Fleischmann (workstream / engineering lead)
- Nate Gosselin (workstream / product lead)
Part-time or shared contributors (1):
- Sorana Dinu (operations)
Our cost breakdown is as follows:
| S18 (actuals) | S19 (projected actuals) | S20 (Budget) | S21 (Budget) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contributor Salaries | $242,071 | $269,071 | $275,200 | $275,200 |
| Contracting (Dev Rel, GTM incentives, design) | $73,242 | $12,393 | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| OpEx (Software subscriptions, gas, audits, travel, professional development) | $15,885 | $122,172 | $31,499 | $76,499 |
| Total | $331,198 | $403,636 | $356,699 | $401,699 |
Conclusion
The team is incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished with Allo v2 — it is a much stronger technical product achieved in a remarkably short period of time. We think the protocol is powerful, and we are excited to begin bringing it to the wider community.
