Project Criteria

Summary

Project criteria:

1. Adds Value to the Ocean Ecosystem
2. Aligned with Ocean mission
3. Meet a minimum proposal requirement
4. One Project / One Proposal

Details of Criteria

In OceanDAO, governance is about directing the flow of resources towards the teams and projects that offer the best chance for growth. OCEAN holders are incentivized to do work to learn more about each team and project proposal, and then use OceanDAO to vote for the most promising teams/projects.

When proposing a project, these are the three criteria to keep in consideration: (1) Adds Value to Ocean (2) aligned with Ocean mission. Projects that fail (2) will not be considered for voting. Once voting opens, only criterion (1) remains. Additionally, your proposal must (3) meet a minimum proposal requirement and make sure to understand that (4) One Project / One proposal. Let’s elaborate!

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Criterion (1). Adds Value to the Ocean Ecosystem. OceanDAO’s emphasis on ROI > 1 was a useful construct from a purely mechanical perspective. But in practice it focused too much on a stark, objective ROI number that could be very hard to measure. How do you measure ROI for improving documentation? Yet there is value being created. Projects shouldn’t need a business orientation.

So we have shifted OceanDAO focus away from “ROI > 1”, and towards “value add” with a larger emphasis on community. It’s a softer, gentler DAO that gives more space and freedom for experimentation.

To reflect this shift, here is an updated criteria for projects around “value add” and community.

Project Criteria

Ways that a team might add value:

1. Usage of Ocean — how well might the project drive usage of Ocean?
2. Viability — what is the chance of success of the project?
3. Community active-ness — how active is the team in the community?
4. Adding value to the overall community — how well does the outcome of the project add value to the Ocean community / ecosystem?

This is a short list, on purpose. It balances tech & viability, with community.

Criterion (2). The project must help to promote the Ocean’s mission & values (or at least not work against them).

• Mission & values. Ocean’s mission is to equalize the opportunity for people to access data. Ocean’s values, and further details, are here.
• Any project that pays or rewards for voting in any way will disqualify the project from the round.
• Any project that infringes copyright, or licensing agreements may be blacklisted.

Criterion (3). Minimum Proposal Requirement.

• Anyone can propose a project to OceanDAO. However, to be considered, you must have at least 500 OCEAN in the same Ethereum wallet as listed in your proposal by the time the proposal process ends. If selected for a grant, this will be the same wallet where you will receive your grant funding. This helps to filter towards people with a vested interest or “skin in the game” in OCEAN - that is, Ocean community members. Ocean Protocol team members will verify.
• You need to have 500 OCEAN in specifically an ETH Wallet address (OCEAN on other blockchains will not be accepted for the 500 minimum parameter; eg BSC or Polygon are ineligible).

Criterion (4). One Project / One Proposal

• We have increased the ability for teams to access more funding. Each project should only submit one proposal per funding round.
• We ask every individual to list themselves as part of the "Core Team" or "Advisor" on any number of teams.
• If a “Core Team” member has previously received a grant, any project in the future with that participant will not be eligible for a “New Team” earmark. The Grant Proposal Template has been updated to make this easy.

At the end of the day what matters is not how many projects you are on BUT shipping the actual project deliverables. And if you’re unable to ship your deliverables, the community has the ability to ask questions and vote how they choose.

Visit the Project Standing page to learn how to submit updates to your project.