The Uniswap Labs team has put forward to the community a proposal to create a non-profit organisation to support the growth of the decentralised exchange. To implement the initiative, the authors are seeking $74 million.
🦄 Today, I’m so excited to put forth a proposal to create the Uniswap Foundation with @nkennethk https://t.co/J8NPoHqshk
— Devin Walsh (@devinawalsh) August 4, 2022
The authors of the proposal were Devin Walsh, head of human resources at Uniswap Labs, and Kenneth Ng, head of the Uniswap Grant Program (UGP).
“The mission of the Uniswap Foundation (UF) is to support the decentralised growth and resilience of the protocol, its ecosystem and the community. […] The organisation represents a natural evolution of UGP, which was launched about 1.5 years ago as MVP to support ecosystem growth”, Walsh wrote.
UF would provide grants to developers, researchers, analysts and others involved in advancing the protocol. In the authors’ view, the organisation would enable governance of Uniswap and expand the decentralised exchange’s ecosystem.
The proposal contemplates registering the Uniswap Foundation as a legal entity in the state of Delaware (USA). Walsh would take the CEO’s seat, Ng would become chief operating officer.
To create the organisation, the authors asked the community for $74 million:
- $14 million in UNI — an operating budget to cover the expenses of a 12-person team over three years;
- $60 million in UNI — as funding for the UGP program.
Separately, Walsh and Ng asked for UF to be allocated 2.5 million UNI tokens ($22.8 million at the rate at the time of writing) for “participation in governance, mainly through delegation”.
If approved, the funds would be issued in two tranches. The first, worth $20 million, would cover the team’s needs for two years. The amount also includes annual funding for UGP.
The second tranche would be paid by the Uniswap treasury within 6-12 months after UF is registered as a legal entity.
The proposal was supported by the Uniswap team. The project’s founder Hayden Adams described Walsh and Ng as “outstanding members of the community”. He noted that UF would report to Uniswap Labs and help advance the protocol.
2/ The Foundation would be set up as a steward of the Protocol, working to strengthen and improve it over time. And what excites me most about it are the people driving it, @nkennethk and @devinawalsh.
— hayden.eth 🦄 (@haydenzadams) August 4, 2022
Yet among Uniswap community members there is another view. Adam Cochran, partner at venture firm Cinneamhain Ventures, approved UF’s aims but called it a mistake at this early stage to earmark $60 million for the grants program.
1/17
So I don’t mind the proposal to create a Uniswap Foundation — and I think its got decent planning.
But $60M to UGP is misguided at this phase.
Uni Grants Program has thus far deployed ~$7M in grants so and its frankly been underwhelming.https://t.co/Ri3VNOBh6c
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) August 4, 2022
“So far, UGP has distributed about $7 million in grants, and, frankly, the program has not been very effective,” he wrote.
Earlier in April 2022, Uniswap Labs launched a venture arm for investments in Web3.
Read ForkLog’s bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.