After positive discussion, feedback and support on the forum, we now move this proposal to a vote.
Execution:
- Send 75,000 USDC to Contract Naming Pod Multisig
- Send 10,000 ENS to Contract Naming Pod Multisig
Outline
This proposal aims to launch ENS Contract Naming Season: a time-boxed program focused on the creation and empowerment of an ENS protocol integration leaderboard with the goal of driving adoption of ENS at a smart contract, protocol and DAO level.
This proposal also outlines a ‘Temporary Contract Naming Pod’ with the explicit mandate to drive the communication, adoption and onboarding of different protocols and projects to the program over the next ~6 months. This pod will be primarily led by ENScribe with support from FireEyes and any other humans interested.
A budget for this temporary pod is also proposed, to be used for two purposes; USDC to be used by the pod to pay contributors (primarily Enscribe and any other organisation/human that facilitate the process (outreach and coordination with protocols for example). As well as ENS tokens to be used as incentive for existing and new projects to climb the leaderboard, and achieving proposal goals:
- Develop different engagement strategies for ENS contract naming and ENS leaderboard engagement.
- Creating a social drive for ENS contract naming and the leaderboard.
- Direct outreach and onboarding to given protocols and DAOs to encourage their participation in ENS contract naming season.
- Experiment with funding retroactive adoption of ENS names for prominent and high impact smart contracts across Ethereum.
- Develop a clear strategy and execution plan that drives more contracts to adopt ENS naming principles, as well as text records pertaining to the given project.
- Establish an approach to $ENS-based incentives that could be redeployed for future initiatives to drive ENS adoption in other areas (beyond contract naming).
We’re directly targeting approximately 30 large projects spanning L2 networks, DeFi protocols, Public Goods funding, staking and infra for naming incentives. We also expect smaller projects to embrace contract naming and propose themselves for rewards.
This proposal builds on the ENS: Propagating Use Cases, Registrations and Exposure concept and discussion, as well as meetings between Fire Eyes, Enscribe team, and other ENS contributors in an open telegram group.
Motivation
Clear, human-readable contract names improve user safety and UX, as well as being beneficial to wider ENS adoption. Widespread contract naming further establishes ENS as the identity layer for Ethereum users and contracts: wallets and explorers can show clear provenance, users avoid scam addresses, and DAOs standardize their onchain presence. The forum discussion, WG calls and wider discussion have identified this as “low-hanging fruit with outsized impact,” and suitable for a focused pilot funded by ENS DAO.
Targets for this program and an ENS integration leaderboard are:
- User-facing contracts in widely used Dapps including:
- DeFi (DEX pools, lending markets, bridges)
- Consumer (social, gaming, community, payments)
- Core protocol contracts (L2, DeFi protocols, DEX pools, lending markets, bridges, etc)
- DAO governance inc. multisigs, executors, treasuries
- ENS enablers: wallets, deployment platforms, infra that builds in contract naming
By creating a leaderboard of projects that have successfully integrated ENS into their contract; naming will be shown on a number of different ‘tabs’ of the leaderboard.
- Apps that have named a number of the contracts that end users interface with.
- DAOs that have named a number of their treasury, working groups, fund distribution and DAO contracts.
- Protocol contracts that have been named to demonstrate versioning and show relationships between contracts.
- Wallets and infra that have made ENS integrations easy and accessible, CC the existing work by Namehash Labs and other community members on ENSawards.
Budget & Timeline
- Budget:
- Initially a budget of $75k USDC to cover operational and contributor expenses.
- Up to 10,000 ENS tokens to cover smart contract naming incentives
- Timeline:
- Up to 6 months, after which the program will be assessed, and either unused tokens sent back to the DAO, or rolled into a future program if the DAO sees the program and its subsequent reporting successful.
Governance & Pod
- Custody of Funds: All funds held by Contract Naming Pod Multisig, with monthly distributions to contributors
- 100% of operating and incentive funds will be distributed to the pod multisig initially, with these funds then being distributed to contributors on a monthly basis, with oversight from the MetaGov working group.
- Contract Naming Incentives Pod Responsibilities:
- Maintain a public shortlist spreadsheet of target contracts and infrastructure providers.
- Approve awards via a simple majority, publish rationale and scores.
- Create a consistent rubric for incentive allocation for contracts
- Conflict of Interest - members recuse where applicable.
- Establish ENS best practices and guidelines for naming aimed at target project categories (Dapps, DAOs, protocols)
- Pod Multisig Address:
- contractnamingpod.eth
- 0x8Bf6F9F91D70a9a3c2FCe45dF30EcE735C54D624
- Pod Multisig Members:
- james.eth
- guildnavigator.eth
- ens.gregskril.eth
- nischal.eth
- estmcmxci.eth
- lightwalker.eth
Success Metrics
- Number of contracts named during program
- Campaign engagement and support from leading L2 network, top tier protocols/Dapps and key voices in the Ethereum ecosystem
- Contract naming coverage across top protocols/DAOs by TVL/volume
- Wallet/explorer coverage for named contracts
- Standards adoption: # of repo templates, plugin downloads, PRs merged
- Cost-effectiveness: $ENS per impactful contract
Timeline
- Proposal: Taking this proposal through forum and working group discussions ✅
- Vote: Proposal presented as an onchain proposal to the DAO to be voted on ✅
- Kick off: Empower Enscribe and a temporary pod to publish target shortlist, begin outreach, open submissions, etc. As well as creating content (tweets/articles) about this season!
- Monthly: Review submissions, distribute grants, update dashboard / spreadsheet
- Month 6: Final review with KPIs and recommendation back to the wider DAO.
Caveats
During and post program we expect to see a measurable and meaningful increase in both contract naming with ENS and awareness of the importance of this for improving Ethereum UX and security.
However, given the wide range of targets, the speed with which they can comply with best practices and recommendations will vary. Where there are projects with large treasuries/TVL and significant user bases, it may not be possible to comply fully with recommendations in the given timelines, especially if they come onboard later in the season.
Hence vocal commitment or intent to to embrace this initiative could be considered a success for some projects should integration/naming work not be completed within the bounds of the initial season. ENS token incentives could prove to be valuable in getting some of these key projects over the line.
Additionally, there are limitations with respect to the pool of smart contracts which can have primary names set. There have been discussions on potential ways forward, however it is anticipated that through this initiative a better understanding of approaches to increase the potential coverage could be established.
To keep messaging simple, whilst primary naming is preferred, where not possible, a forward resolving name should be considered a win.
