[Proposal] Gitcoin (Grants Lab) x Wonderland Partnership

[deltajuliet]

TL;DR:

We’re asking for 31.25k GTC /mo for a 4-year engagement (1.5M GTC total) with Wonderland to Build Allo Protocol.

Thanks to @Wonderland, @meglister, and @owocki for co-creating this proposal.

Wonderland (defi.sucks) is a team of developers, researchers, and creators who love building innovative solutions. The Wonderland team will join forces with the Grants Lab, operating under a monthly retainer + token vesting to closely collaborate and enhance our ongoing projects. They will act as embedded strategic partners, deeply integrated into our development processes, providing comprehensive evaluations and actionable insights to refine our offerings. This partnership will start with a 2 -month trial period, after which we will engage in a more extended 3.75 year commitment, with GTC (mentioned above) vesting quarterly.

Why is this strategically important?

Allo Protocol is the cornerstone of our technological ecosystem and likely is the eventual value accrual layer of the technology stack. This engagement with Wonderland will ensure that Allo protocol is a world class protocol + eventually ecosystem.

By leveraging Wonderland’s expertise in protocol development we can ensure the right architecture, implementation, and velocity to pursue the highest potential outlined in the Whitepaper and Rainbow Paper.

The Gitcoin Protocol has been reinvented 4 times already (dgrants in 2021, 2022 era development, Allo v1 in 2023, Allo v2 in 2024). Having wonderland onboard will get us out of the expensive and high opportunity cost cycle of building it wrong => having to rebuild it while the market passes us by.

Background

Wonderland is a multi-protocol core development group They’re a collection of multi-disciplinary experts with a track record of backing their partners with solid, innovative DeFi solutions. Their “cool sh*t” approach is about rolling up sleeves, diving into data, and coming up with innovative solutions. They have worked with tier A teams like Optimism, Connext, Balancer, Reflexer, and more.

The Plan

Over this engagement, we aim to tap into Wonderland’s expertise in protocol design and development to bolster our Grants Lab capabilities. We’re excited about co-creating the future with a partner who gets it—the long game, and the commitment to public goods.

What Wonderland Will Tackle

• Discovery Period: In the initial 2 months, Wonderland will assess potential architectural directions for Allo, weighing options from updates to pioneering new paradigms.
• Strategic Build: Post-discovery, the focus turns to constructing Allo 2.1, driving protocol innovation
• Long-Term View: They’ll be an ongoing partner to the team, ensuring alignment, Wonderland’s ‘never lost a partner’ track record offers stability and continuity for the road ahead so we can continue building (and funding) what matters.

The Investment

The monthly retainer will come from Grants Labs budget with a monthly commitment of $20,000 per Wonderland team member directly involved in our projects, at this time we expect 2 developers to be engaging with the Grants Lab core devs, however that may change in time. This will be reflected in future budget requests.

A vesting schedule after a successful initial 2 month engagement to Wonderland at 1.5 million GTC tokens, vesting over 48 months and managed transparently on-chain. This proposal is requesting these funds from Gitcoin’s treasury.

Gitcoin will create a four-year vesting schedule for 1.5 million GTC tokens. The tokens will begin to vest linearly from their starting date (TBC based on this proposal’s reception). Additionally, there is a two-month cliff; should Wonderland’s contract be terminated before the 2-month trial period ends, Gitcoin has the ability to activate the clawback function and reclaim 100% of the tokens. After the two-month mark, Gitcoin retains the right to retrieve all unvested tokens if the agreement is terminated. Both parties may terminate this agreement at any time effective immediately upon 15-days prior written notice to the other party due to any failure of either party’s obligations under what’s stated in this proposal.

At the conclusion of the two-month trial, the Grants Lab team, led by @meglister and @owocki , will assess Wonderland’s contributions and update this forum with their findings and guidance on continuing this partnership.

Wonderland’s Partner Feedback

From @Wonderland : Don’t trust, verify. These are quotes from a few of our partners and founders who have worked with us for extended periods and can attest to our quality and commitment. We also conducted several independent reference checks to validate Wonderland’s credentials and testimonials.

“Wonderland was wonderful to work with. They aren’t cheap but they do excellent work. They went above and beyond their assignment and even found & fixed a bug in a related system, following our communication guidelines for risk mitigation at every step. 10/10 would recommend.”

• Ameen, founder @Reflexer

“Wonderland is an incredibly talented technical team that takes a radically different approach to how they work with protocols. They are a close partner & core contributor to the Connext ecosystem, taking a proactive leadership role in not only building, but also helping determine what the future of the network will look like. I strongly recommend them to anyone looking for a high integrity, high quality partner.”

• Arjun, founder @ Connext

“The Wonderland team has been instrumental in helping us push the design space for Aztec and think better about the types of contracts that can be built on Aztec. They are knowledgeable, motivated, and efficient in their work.”

• Joe, founder @Aztec

"Great working together, if I could, I would have them run the protocol full time, complete trust”

• Andre Cronje

“I always enjoy collaborating with Wonderland. They have a wide understanding of the defi space, its needs and problems, and they have the right skills to solve them. They’ve developed one of the most widely used plugins for Hardhat and are always willing to help the defi/Ethereum space.”

• Patricio, founder @Nomic Labs

What This Means for Gitcoin:

• Strong Partnership: Wonderland only wins if Gitcoin wins. They’re in this with us for the long haul and we know we’ll move harder, better, faster, stronger with them alongside us.
• Focused Innovation: Engaging Wonderland means bringing their ‘build cool sh*t’ ethos right into our wheelhouse.
• Aligned Missions: Like us, Wonderland digs the public good and champions open source. They’re in it for the haul, which means they invest in success, not just deliverables.

Ask to the Community

Does the idea of pairing up with a team like Wonderland spark the same excitement in you as it does in us?

Vote

• Yes: Approve the 2-month trial with Wonderland and allocate a total of 31.25k GTC /mo (1.5M GTC) for the long-term engagement.
• No: Do not proceed with the partnership at this time.
• Abstain: Neutral, awaiting further discussion.

Let’s build cool sh*t together. This can be the Gitcoin way.

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Trial Period Spec Follows

Links

Allo Protocol Upgrade Working Group Planning Doc

Discovery Period

For the discovery period (2 months), it is proposed that the Wonderland team evaluate three different architectures for the future of the Allo protocol:

1. A version of Allo 2.1
2. Intents based architecture
3. Any other research directions they recommend (including but not limited to):
   1. Any other architecture patterns we should adhere to
   2. Architecture from first principles

Deliverable(s):

Recommendation(s) about which direction we should go for the long term, short term.

Skills ppl bring to table:

1. Wonderland - seen a lot of protocol designs
2. Grants Lab team - knows Allo/Grants design space

Gating Condition

1. We believe in good faith there is a there there for the long term at this time.
2. In order to continue after the discovery period, we want to emerge with confidence that
   1. Wonderland is the right partner.
   2. There is 4 years of work for 2 FT devs.
   3. There is protocol level innovation

Beyond that

1. Build Allo 2.1 ⇐= strong foothold for future development.
2. Whitepaper / Rainbowpaper roadmap
   1. Build things that get us Allo gmv
   2. Build things on Rainbowpaper roadmap.
   3. See working list here.

[Wonderland]

Hey Gitcoin community! We’re thrilled to join this conversation and excited to help empower Gitcoin to continue fulfilling its important mission for years to come. Let’s keep building cool shit together, for everyone!

We’ll be here to answer any questions or doubts you may have.

[owocki]

I am in favor of this proposal. I think that Allo Protocol is a strategic centerpiece of the Gitcoin ecosystem and having such a strong team of protocol devs at the table to build side by side with Grants Lab will be a strong investment in making Gitcoin’s software lead the market again.

[meglister]

I am also in favor of this proposal! I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the Wonderland team and doing reference checks for this engagement. Their references have been glowing and I think there’s huge strategic upside for Gitcoin when we accelerate and excel at protocol development. I really appreciate their model of embedding deeply in teams and look forward to welcoming them into our team meetings, demos, etc.

That said – we will openly and honestly evaluate the relationship during the trial period to make sure this will work for both sides.

[Sov]

I am supportive of this proposal. Wonderland brings a wealth of experience to the table and working with the team will be a big level up for Gitcoin.

[umarkhaneth]

I am supportive of this proposal, having heard glowing things about Wonderland and seeing the conviction of people whose opinion I respect of the need for another protocol-level upgrade.

When measuring the success of allo v2.1, I will be looking to see if it is able to achieve adoption outside of Gitcoin. We know there has been $363,799,857 in Grants Funding by just 5 Grants Programs: Arbitrum, Optimism, Octant, DAO drops, and Gitcoin. Gitcoin Grants makes up 10% of that total while the vast majority comes from L2s in the last two years.

Since GMV is our north star metric I hope to see the trial have strong leads on how allo will achieve adoption by orgs outside Gitcoin

[Viriya]

Very excited to see us invest in our future and in accelerating our development through this proposal. It sounds like their approach will be a culture fit for Grants Lab. I appreciate @meglister’s call out on evaluating success throughout the trial period and I trust that the team has done their due diligence in evaluating the contract. Yay let’s goooo!

[system]

This proposal has gathered sufficient support @deltajuliet would you like to proceed to snapshot?

[quaylawn]

Can we announce this in a press release style format once it has gone through?

Given the implications on our trajectory as an organisation, paired with Wonderland’s pedigree, it makes sense.

If we feel comfortable moving forward, it feels to me like most of the information is already here. We would just need:

• approved quotes from either @meglister or @owocki
• approved quotes from the crew at Wonderland

Happy to discuss OKRs, audience, distribution channels, execution, reporting and risk assessment in closed channels

[system]

The Snapshot is now live

[thedevanshmehta]

I have voted FOR given the involvement of the core gitcoin team and the good reviews of Wonderland that I’ve seen.

I would have ideally liked more details on the actual work they would do in the first 2 months and how we can assess success at the end of this period to determine continuation.