LEGO is the Lido Ecosystem Grants Organisation. Our mission is to grow the greater liquid staking ecosystem through fast and unimpeded grants to developers on a mission.

We strive to fund individuals, projects and initiatives which benefit both Lido and/or the surrounding space while maintaining efficiency and accountability for big developments.

Purpose of LEGO

The mission of the Lido Ecosystem Grants Organization (LEGO) is to provide valuable resources to contributors who help to improve Lido and the liquid staking space.

By rewarding talent early with developer incentives, bounties, and infrastructure support, LEGO acts as a catalyst for growth and helps to maintain Lido as a leading and most useful liquid staking protocol in the whole space.

Grant Application Process

The goal of LEGO is to allow fast and unimpeded resolutions on small-sized grants while maintaining efficiency and accountability for big developments. The program starts small but will grow over time.

LEGO Members

LEGO is built up around 2 unique segments - LEGO Council & LEGO Nominees.

The LEGO Council is comprised of the founding LEGO partners. The LEGO Council is comprised of 8 individuals with a range of backgrounds and experience, each responsible for a specific segment of Lido.

The LEGO Council:

• @lykovalex - Admin, General
• @kethfinex - Community
• @kadmil - DeFi Integrations
• @skozin - Ethereum Liquid Staking
• @katernoir - Validation Tech
• @timbeiko - Ethereum Ecosystem alignment
• @isidorosp - General, node operation, decentralization, future of staking
• @vshvsh - General, Tech

Each LEGO Council member has significant autonomy over grants up to boulder size, as long as they stay within the allotted budget, but will have to clear mountains and overdrafts with the main governance body. All LEGO Council members are equal in power and workload, but have different specialties (e.g. there’s a BI-focused LEGO person, incentive programs-focused LEGO person, etc).

The LEGO Council determines the details of LEGO applications/grants, specifically classification and associated funding/costs. If you are interested in pursuing a grant contact the relevant LEGO committee member to introduce yourself, the topic and your plans for it.

The LEGO Nominees is an expansion of LEGO by 10 individuals who manage personal allocations (up to 10,000 LDO using 30d TWAP at the moment of refill) with the ability to approve pebble-sized grants to developments which they find to be of benefit to Lido/the industry.

• Klim
• FrontAlpha
• Felix Lutsch
• CC
• Eugene Pshenichniy
• Georgios Konstantopoulos
• JK
• Will Harborne
• Edi
• Jacob

We propose every LEGO committee member be compensated 35 LDO/hr capped at 20 hours/week unless they agree to operate pro bono. This compensation, along with the budget, will be allocated to the LEGO multisig from the Lido treasury. In keeping with the committee’s commitment to the community, compensated hours and duties will be logged publicly and transparently.

Grant Classifications

LEGO Grants are sorted into four different piles according to expected size and impact:

• Sand grains: can be handled by a single LEGO committee member out of their personal budget as they see fit.
• Pebbles: require a second LEGO committee member to agree to the grant approval and participate in the evaluation of the results.
• Boulders: require majority approval of the LEGO Council.
• Mountains: should be applied for using a regular governance process.

If a LEGO committee member exhausts his or her individual quarterly budget, they can still propose to the full committee that sand grains and pebbles receive grants out of the shared portion of the budget, but will need to obtain approval of a majority of the LEGO committee members. If the committee runs out of a shared budget, they can request an extension from the governance.

The LEGO Council will determine the fair evaluation of the costs of funding for a grant application. The funding costs will be correlated to the classification of the grant application, larger-sized applications will be funded more than smaller-sized applications.

a. Sandgrain

This category combines all contributions that are nice to have, yet not detrimental, whilst also not being too costly and whose quality can be easily evaluated by a single person.

An improvement is a sand grain if:

• it is something nice to have for Lido
• it’s no big deal if it doesn’t get delivered at all
• grant won’t cost Lido more than 330 RAI (~$1,000)
• it can be specced and evaluated by a single person in the course of two days in total

b. Pebble

Pebbles are non-critical, small things that are beneficial for Lido but not so trivial to call a sand grain.

An improvement is a pebble if:

• it doesn’t fit into a sand grain
• it’s not a big deal if it gets delayed or abandoned to a different contributor
• it won’t cost Lido more than 3,300 RAI (~$10,000)
• it’s a few days total across a few persons to spec and evaluate at most

c. Boulder

Boulders are big, important things that are imperative to be carried out by experts and thoroughly evaluated by core contributors.

An improvement is a boulder if:

• it doesn’t fit into a pebble
• it should be delivered on time and with good quality
• it should be supported by Lido over a long period of time
• it won’t cost Lido more than 33,000 RAI (~$100,000), excluding audits
• spec and evaluation alone are significant undertakings
• it requires an external audit

d. Mountain

Mountains are critical improvements to Lido that have a significant impact on its growth, security, operations, etc.

An improvement is a mountain if:

• it doesn’t fit into a lake
• it offers a significant change in growth, security or operations of Lido

LEGO Budget

Diversification proposal introduced new structure of LEGO budget, which will be comprised of 40% LDO and 60% DAI equivalent of $500K per quarter (net of outstanding balance in LEGO multisig) - rounded historical size and split of grants disbursed in LDO and stables for 9 months preceding the proposal. LDO equivalents of the budget and individual allowances (15,000 LDO for council members and 10,000 LDO for LEGO nominees) to be calculated as 30d TWAP at the day of each Easy Track motion creation.

Budget and caps are reassessed on a quarterly basis. While the goals and priorities of the grant program will be thoroughly discussed and reviewed by the community through public discourse, the decision to start LEGO by operating as a small committee is to ensure that the application and decision process will be efficient and predictable, so applicants have clear objectives and timely decisions.

Applications

If you have an idea about improving Lido ecosystem that would like to be funded, the best practice is to prepare a short pitch and contact any LEGO committee member to present it. A good example should consist of:

• Title: What is the grant application about?
• Author(s): Who will be working on the proposal?
• Purpose: How will it aid the Lido ecosystem? Why is it important?
• Summary: A brief summary of the grant application (3-4 sentences)
• Details: timelines, expenses estimates, grant payment schedule.

LEGO committee representative may ask you about some additional details or will redirect to other committee member with more suitable background to assess the request.

If it’s a sand grain or pebble, it’s likely you will get a grant quickly and efficiently. For boulders and beyond you’ll have to work with the committee and/or larger Lido governance, which takes time and effort.

Additional Information

📖 How can I apply?

🥇 Successful grants

👪 LEGO Members

LEGO GitHub shield

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