Ethereum Foundation 2020 Spring Report
source|Ethereum Blog
To Ethereum users and builders:
“The road ahead is bright for Ethereum”, we said so in last year's report, and we still believe so firmly after a year. What is different this year is that the Ethereum ecosystem has begun to piece together its future territory bit by bit based on the foundation of the research and development work in the past few years. (Translator's Note: Chinese versionEthereum Foundation Spring 2019 Development Report)
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who are we?
As a non-profit organization, the Ethereum Foundation only does what is good for Ethereum. We also know that what started as a small open source project in 2014 has grown into the largest community in the industry. As we said in last year's report, the unique advantage of Ethereum is that it gathers developers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and active users around the world, and our Ethereum family is still growing.
Generally speaking, we only perform work that is within our scope of responsibility, or that we are better suited than other organizations to support Ethereum and the Ethereum community. The ecosystem is made up of participants, so first of all we would like to thank everyone for constantly improving themselves and increasingly promoting the decentralization of Ethereum!
Even though the challenges are endless, the developers still persevere. Your strength and achievements make us amazed. There are also Ethereum users in the past year. Your support and participation have provided a steady stream of motivation for our work, and we will do our best to present the potential of Ethereum to everyone.
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What is our goal? How?
The Ethereum Foundation itself is more of a "bazaar" model than a "cathedral". This means that each working group and team in EF performs different responsibilities, but the common goal is to promote the development of Ethereum. This is also Ethereum in our eyes. Just as Ethereum is composed of multiple layers, so is the resource allocation plan of the Ethereum Foundation.
Knowing this, we will also explain how to allocate resources below.
In general, we are targeting many fixed R&D teams, community builders, or independent individuals, so a single, centralized form of distribution is not a panacea. Through continuous iteration, we have formed a multi-pronged resource allocation method.
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Category A: long-term support
The first thing we want to talk about is the area of long-term support, which is an area most readers will be more familiar with. some of the teams included(such as Geth and Solidity),andEth1.xandstateless research, EF's Eth2 research team andformal study, These are the keys to the success of Ethereum.
This branch also includes management and operational roles, such as the ESP (Ethereum Ecosystem Support Program) team, community and communications coordinator, and administrative and legal personnel.
In the past, the Ethereum Foundation was the home of these projects, but as the ecosystem grew, the purpose of the foundation changed. These projects and teams now fall under one of the support categories of the Ethereum Foundation, and the Foundation is the most appropriate funder.
Over the past two years, the Foundation has given Category A project teams more autonomy over their budgets. We feel this approach better reflects how supported parties function as a team.
Every year we ask teams to submit roadmap and budget proposals, and other teams are able to evaluate and pass their applications by weighing their own needs. Think of it as a system of checks and balances where we rarely collaborate as individuals.
In this way, we can clearly determine which projects are running, which projects need assistance, where the greatest room for improvement is, and how to help the team achieve its goals.
As for the other aspects, we mentioned earlier that the opportunity is diffused to the entire ecosystem, aiming to cross the boundaries of internal and external. Doing so minimizes our operational responsibilities while avoiding too much impact on the development process.
Through our continuous efforts, this "outward-looking" expansion has derived many different forms, which are also other distribution methods we will talk about next. No matter what type they belong to, they can be collectively referred to as "ecological support".
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Center of gravity shifted to ESP
Upgraded from EF Grants Program to Ecological Support Program(ESP)After that, the resources provided by the foundation can be divided into financial support and non-financial support. The goal is to allocate resources in an optimal way to maximize the development and application of Ethereum.
A previously published blog postThe Ecosystem Support Program: 2019 at a GlanceA detailed review of our 2019 financial grants to teams outside the foundation. Beginning this year, ESP will be reported quarterly,first quarter reportAlready live. The ESP team will share more with you in the coming months about non-financial support for the team and how the team can benefit from it. (Translator's Note: Chinese versionEcosystem Support Program 2019 at a Glance)
One of the most important functions of the ESP is to expand support through open surveys to discover and participate in new projects. The ESP team willopen questionnaireProjects submitted in the program are assessed and included in peer review, and applicants are consulted and, where required, expert advisors are consulted to develop a tailor-made support plan for the project team.
When making decisions such as resource allocation and economic support, the ESP team will make a plan in every detail, and consider every factor as much as possible, including the project's planned route, execution, team structure, and even feasible alternatives. achievements and impact.
In short, ESP's decision-making process will be more comprehensive than ever, designed to help each phase of a project and coordinate the support they need.
Type B support is also difficult to take care of all aspects of the ecology. It is impossible to provide comprehensive support for the ecology only through the public questionnaires received, because we are essentially responding to existing applications.
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Class C: delegated assignment
Suppose now that a potentially disruptive new second-layer solution comes onto the scene, but is hampered by a lack of organization and funding. In the C-type support form, this emerging focus can be called a "domain", and what we can do is to "delegate" the functions of resource allocation and setting project goals to one or more An expert in a related field to inspire creativity and confidence in the team, whether they work for EF or not.
These domain experts identify specific problems that need to be solved, then communicate with builders to fund their work through financial support.
More importantly, the process does not require EF to participate in the new team at all, and it is more proactive, targeted and collaborative than the B-type support method mentioned above.
Initially each area gets a small budget and grant, like last year's local grant programs in Korea, Japan and Taiwan, but the amount will grow over time. More mature fields can refer to the zero knowledge that has been put into use, eth2 collaboration, developer experience andEthereum.orgWebsite construction and more.
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Category D: Third Party Support
Secondary allocation of resources to independent funding models and organizations can help us further decentralize allocation. While we are proud of our increasingly refined ecosystem support efforts, secondary allocations can allow funds to flow to needs that the EF team hadn't considered.
Examples included in this category are community-driven grant matching (Gitcoin's CLR mechanism) and DAO funding (Moloch). Third-party distributors also fit into this category. One example is our support for the UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) Crypto Fund, which identifies and funds funding projects.
Another example is ETHGlobal, which has always maintained its own independence and realized the secondary distribution of funds through hacker bounties and other forms. Granted, it's early days for Type D support, but our work on these is well underway.
Although this method may seem experimental and radical to some people, many members of the Ethereum ecosystem have been looking for a more complete funding method, and the emerging ideas have opened new doors for us.
This type of work plays a complementary role to other types of funding forms of EF, and may include extreme cases that are not covered by types A to C, although there are still some disputes and even competitions in some aspects. We only have the right to speak on the initial allocation of funds (such as allocating funds to DAO organizations), and how to allocate them after that is in your hands, which is of great benefit to innovation and participation Harmful.
We understand that having to take responsibility for resource allocation from start to finish can be a challenge, but we can overcome these issues by diversifying our funding channels.
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The categories complement each other
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Pros: The only category that involves default ongoing funding, allowing teams to focus on long-term development.
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Class B
Advantages: Through open call, more diverse and targeted funding can be carried out.
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Class C
Pros: Allows people with specialized backgrounds to proactively determine priorities, allowing greater flexibility in project initiation.
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Class D
Pros: People-oriented and able to observe trends within the ecosystem.
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Every choice we give ourselves helps EF to be more effective at encouraging others to innovate, and as we mature, the distribution of the pie is optimized:
As you can see above, before the EF Grants Program (ESP predecessor) launched in 2018, almost all funding went to "EF teams".
In 2018, we made large grants to identify the high-quality projects most in need of funding. This creates a stronger foundation for the future, making the energy and number of contributors more sustainable. With the public web about to usher in massive changes, we're glad to see some decisive decisions bearing fruit.
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2020 plan
This year, the foundation is fully able to meet or even exceed the commitment made last May. Specifically, we favor a total allocation of funds between 25 million and 40 million, depending on the needs of the ecosystem, the number and quality of ESP applicants, and the expansion of new funding categories.
Our support for eth2 will gradually increase as needed. Additionally, at this critical juncture, funding for eth1.x-related R&D work will also remain steady, and we recognize that we cannot afford to lose sight of one another (some of the work on eth2 needs to be based on stateless Ethereum).
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The latest progress of ecological support projects
Beginning this year, we will communicate more about the assistance provided by ESP, including highlighting updates and achievements of funded projects.
To present all this information, the team performed aESP websiteexist
existfeature pagehome page
home pageAn update on the ESP program will be provided
“wish list”Will include areas of support that we will focus on in the future
New sections will be updated and replaced regularly, and other sections are planned to be added, so keep an eye out for updates. For the latest news, please follow on Twitter@EF_ESP, and registerSubscribe to ESP news！
We hope to be able to fund high-quality projects that contribute to the development of Ethereum. If you know of any builders or teams that are in urgent need of assistance,secondary title
Gifts from Grantee Teams
We extend an invitation to all Ethereum enthusiasts: you can join us atEF's Blogtext
Eth1.x Series | Author: Griffin Ichiba Hotchkiss
Learn about current work on Ethereum, including topics like Stateless Ethereum.
Recent updates:
The 1.x Files: A Primer for the Witness Specification- 2020-05-04
The 1.x Files: The Updated Stateless Tech Tree- 2020-04-02
The 1.x Files: Stateless Summit Summary- 2020-03-12
(Translator's Note: Please refer to the following for the Chinese version)
Eth2 Update Quick Facts | By Danny Ryan
As the title says, this series aims to follow up the latest news and progress of eth2, moving towards the beacon chain!
Recent updates:
Eth2 quick update no. 11- 2020-05-06
Eth2 quick update no. 10- 2020-03-31
Eth2 quick update no. 9- 2020-03-17
(Translator's Note: Please refer to the following for the Chinese version)
Eth2 Staking Series |By Carl Beekhuizen
Users are about to use ETH in a whole new way. Through this series, you can learn about eth2 staking related information and the design behind it.
Recent updates:
Validated, staking on eth2: #3 - Sharding Consensus- 2020-03-27
Validated, staking on eth2: #2 - Two ghosts in a trench coat- 2020-02-12
Validated, staking on eth2: #1 - Incentives- 2020-01-13
(Translator's Note: Please refer to the following for the Chinese version)
Other series are not listed here
Stay tuned for more ongoing updates from other EF supported teams, the latest releases can be found here!
In the past year, important fresh blood has been injected into the ecology, and we are deeply proud of the power brought by the decentralized distributed network. And as a whole, we will continue to cultivate, give everyone the opportunity to participate in the construction, without the need to bring every project under the same roof.
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Before eth2 arrives...
In the general direction, we will not be arrogant or impetuous, and continue to perform our duties around the Ethereum ecosystem. We also look forward to seeing new projects and new forms of participation! At present, you can keep an eye on the EF blog and@Ethereum, and also explore newEthereum.org Community Page. In the near future, the academic team and the Devcon team will also release big news, so stay tuned!
If readers want to know information that has not been covered in this article, please feel free to ask. Feel free to contact press@ethereum.org with any questions or suggestions. We will collect feedback from the community or external resources, thank the community for providing us with continuous inspiration! We may post a Q&A in a few months to get some feedback.
Before the arrival of eth2, our main job is still to abide by the responsibilities of EF, not to overstep or relax, and to stand firm where the Ethereum ecosystem needs us most. We can't wait to see the new look of Ethereum, and all of this is inseparable from everyone's hard work and time. The road is long, and I would like to accompany you.
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Disclaimer: ECN's translation work aims to deliver high-quality information and learning resources for the Chinese Ethereum community. The copyright of the article belongs to the original author. Reprints must indicate the source of the original text and ethereum.cn. For long-term reprints, please contact ethereumcn@gmail.com Authorize.
Public account: ETH Chinese website
Website: ethereum.cn
Disclaimer: ECN's translation work aims to deliver high-quality information and learning resources for the Chinese Ethereum community. The copyright of the article belongs to the original author. Reprints must indicate the source of the original text and ethereum.cn. For long-term reprints, please contact ethereumcn@gmail.com Authorize.
