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.

Grant Application Process

To apply for a grant, please follow the process outlined below:

Prepare a short and meaningful pitch to be presented to LEGO committee participant (it should contain following info:

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.

Make contact with the LEGO person responsible for your specific area of contribution (or just any LEGO person who will forward you to the relevant point of contact) on Telegram to introduce yourself and your idea.

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

On the boulder and higher level, the proposal is shared on research forum for community review.
Upon completion, the developer/creator is always welcome to present results of the work done on research forum, our discord or your twitter account mentioning LEGO. 🎉

The timelines for grant execution will differ based on the size of the grant opportunity as well as the number of committee members needed to take part.

LEGO Grants

Grants should be sorted into four different piles by expected size and impact:

a. Sand grain ⏳

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 atm)
it can be specked and evaluated by a single person in the course of two days in total

💡

An example of a sand grain is a Dune Analytics dashboard that compares day-over-day deposits of various liquid staking protocols.

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 atm)
it’s a few days total across a few persons to spec and evaluate at most

💡

An example of a pebble is a StakingRewards-like smart contract that would allow incentivizing stETH deposits into Maker.

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 atm), excluding audits
spec and evaluation alone are significant undertakings
it requires an external audit

💡

An example of a boulder is an implementation of withdrawal protocol for stETH.

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.

💡

An example of a mountain is the liquid staking protocol for Polkadot.