LEGO Q2 2025 - Report

Let's take a moment to review the achievements of LEGO in the second quarter of 2025.

This quarter, LEGO has invested in Decentralization Support, Research & Advocacy, Community Support, and Decentralized Governance.

Through this report, the LEGO committee aims to provide you with a clear understanding of the progress and vitality within Lido and Ethereum ecosystem during Q2 of 2025. We hope you find the advancements we've made inspiring!

• Issued grants structure
• 1. Decentralization Support
• 1.a. Strengthen D.U.C.K.: Governance, Assurance, and Real-World Adoption
• 1.b. Boosting Ethereum Consensus Client Diversity with Grandine
• 2. Research & Advocacy
• 2.a. Decentralization Advocacy (DRC)
• 3. Community Support
• 3.a. Retroactive grant for Swiss-Knife.xyz calldata decoder utility
• 3.b. Other notable Community Support grants
• 4. Decentralized Governance
• 4.a. Optimizing Lido On-chain Voting Timelines for Inclusive Governance
• LEGO Q2 2025 Results
• Community Lifeguards Initiative

Issued grants structure

To ensure maximum transparency, the LEGO committee has produced a regular report highlighting the accomplishments of the second quarter of 2025.

In this quarter, Decentralization Support grants led with a total of DAI 87,6K. Following were allocations for Research & Advocacy (DAI 50K), Community Support (DAI 8,6K) and Decentralized Governance (DAI 5K).

Overall, the disbursed grants for Q2 2025 amounted to DAI 151,2K.

Please refer to the following chart for a visual representation of grants by categories:

On the next chart you may find grant amounts by initiators:

This quarter the most productive grantor is Izzy with $40,4K 🥇, congratulations! Followed by Alex🥈 with $39,4K and kadmil🥉 with $34,4K!

1. Decentralization Support

1.a. Strengthen D.U.C.K.: Governance, Assurance, and Real-World Adoption

D.U.C.K. is an open-source initiative designed to equip Node Operators with practical open-source tools and frameworks, enhancing operations and mitigating risks in running staking infrastructure, which has already received LEGO funding.

Currently, D.U.C.K. operates as an open community-driven initiative without a formal organizational and governance structure. To enhance its real-world applicability and long-term sustainability, the next proposed 6-month project development phase will focus on the following key areas and tasks:

• Governance & Coordination: establish a formal governance model and transition D.U.C.K. into a structured foundation or non-profit entity.
• Content Expansion & Industry Alignment: attract more industry participants and institutions and deepen the knowledge base with their expertise.
• Framework Enablement: operationalize assurance and review processes & boost visibility and adoption through strategic marketing, including co-marketing efforts with a Big Four audit firm.
• Real-World Integration: Enable D.U.C.K. to be used in assurance frameworks and technical audits by leading professional services firms and position D.U.C.K. as a recognized standard for risk management and assurance in node operations.

This initiative is co-invested by a Big Four audit firm and Lionscraft, who are contributing resources beyond the grant request, demonstrating aligned interests and shared commitment to the project’s success.

Total requested funding for the 6 months is $75,200, split into two parts: 50% ($37,600) up front to initiate work (has already been disbursed, in DAI) and 50% ($37,600) upon completion and release of the “Assurance Upgrade”, after review and approval by the Lido DAO NOM workstream (based on quantity and quality of deliverables).

In addition, an extra request of up to $100,000 will follow based on the evaluation of the complexity of the initial assurance review test cases. These funds will top up the “D.U.C.K. Funding Launch for Audit Participants” grant pool, aimed at supporting early-adopting Node Operators by covering up to 50% of their assurance review costs. Allocation of these funds will be coordinated with Lido NOM representatives.

1.b. Boosting Ethereum Consensus Client Diversity with Grandine 

Grandine is a high-performance, security-focused Ethereum consensus client. Originally launched in 2019, Grandine was open-sourced in March 2024, enabling broader community collaboration. Since then, it has continued to mature through open-source contributions, multiple security audits — including audits by Matter Labs and X41 D-Sec (available in the project repository) — and early production deployments. The client is already live in production, currently supports a growing share of Ethereum stake, and is technically ready to scale further.

The grant was requested to support Grandine’s continued development and adoption. Key grant-supported activities include:

• Operator enablement: Collaborating with node operators to support and ease migration to Grandine
• Feature development: Implementing deployment-specific features to enhance operability and performance
• Ecosystem integration: Conducting additional interoperability testing with other consensus clients
• Community readiness: Improving documentation and community support
• Advocacy for client diversity: Actively participating in client diversity initiatives, including participation in industry coordination calls and efforts to promote multi-client validator setups

A LEGO grant of $50,000 (in DAI) was approved and disbursed. This grant aims to contribute to Ethereum’s long-term resilience and decentralization by supporting the growth of high-quality, independently developed consensus clients and strengthening overall client diversity.

2. Research & Advocacy

2.a. Decentralization Advocacy (DRC)

The Decentralization Research Center (DRC) is a U.S.-registered social welfare non-profit focused on promoting decentralization as a fundamental characteristic of emerging technologies, with a primary focus on blockchain. The DRC’s mission is to ensure that decentralization is recognized and upheld as a core value by regulators and policymakers.

DRC requests a grant to advance pro-decentralization narratives and policy through a “Full Stack Advocacy” approach, combining academic research, public summits, and hands-on policymaker education in Washington, D.C., to deepen engagement, shape influential narratives, and advocate for regulatory frameworks and legislation that incentivize decentralization.

This grant will fund three core areas:

• Research: Producing reports and accessible narratives that highlight the role and value of decentralization in blockchain ecosystems.
• Policy Advocacy: Engaging directly with U.S. regulators and lawmakers to ensure they understand the unique characteristics of decentralized networks, including the development of explanatory materials on decentralized staking models.
• Community Engagement: Hosting summits and workshops, expanding a podcast series, and publishing op-eds and articles in major media outlets

Key Deliverables:

• February 2025 - Published report outlining decentralization criteria to be applied in policy
• March 2025 - Published recommendations to SEC’s Crypto Task Force
• April 2025 - Hosted the 2025 Decentralized Tech Summit in Washington, D.C.
• May 2025 - Publish policy recommendations supported by high-signal industry stakeholders
• February - May 2025 - Educational campaign on Capitol Hill

A $50,000 grant (in DAI) was requested and approved by LEGO to scale DRC’s advocacy and education initiatives in support of decentralized blockchain ecosystems. The funds have been fully disbursed.

3. Community Support

3.a. Retroactive grant for Swiss-Knife.xyz calldata decoder utility

Swiss-Knife.xyz is an open-source toolset designed for Ethereum developers and power users, built by Apoorv Lathey and other contributors. It offers a wide range of EVM utilities — including a highly practical and user-friendly calldata decoder — all accessible directly via browser, without the need to install local software.

Although the project was not developed under a LEGO grant or in coordination with Lido contributors, it was independently discovered and widely appreciated within the Lido contributor community for its practical value and ease of use in day-to-day operations.

Given the impact and usefulness of the tool, a 3,000$ (in DAI) retroactive grant was awarded to support the project’s continued maintenance and evolution.

Swiss-Knife.xyz remains actively maintained, open-source (GitHub link), and freely accessible for broad use.

3.b. Other notable Community Support grants

4. Decentralized Governance

4.a. Optimizing Lido On-chain Voting Timelines for Inclusive Governance

A $5,000 retroactive grant (in DAI) was awarded to Tane in recognition of impactful contribution to improving Lido’s on-chain voting process, specifically, optimizing voting timelines to enhance accessibility and encourage broader participation.

Tane initiated and actively drove the development of the “Optimizing Lido On-chain Voting Timelines for Inclusive Governance” proposal. The work focused on restructuring Lido DAO’s weekly voting cadence to enable more inclusive engagement from voters and reduce operational bottlenecks.

The baked proposal was successfully passed through an on-chain vote and has since been implemented as part of Lido DAO’s governance process.

This grant was proposed and supported by community members as a retroactive recognition of Tane’s initiative and research. See rationale on the Lido research forum.

LEGO Q2 2025 Results

Overall budget used during Q2 2025 was DAI 151,2K, which constitutes 30% of total DAI 500K allocated per quarter.

During Q2 2025, all grants were disbursed in USD stablecoins (mostly in DAI).

Community Lifeguards Initiative

Similar to Q1‘25, the CLI sub-committee’s approach included a mix of content, async support, and synchronous activities.

In Q2, total budget usage increased to $24,003, up from $16,670 in the previous quarter. The majority of funds were spent on key integrations, with the remaining amount distributed between general community grants and the ongoing development of Solo Stakers Guilds.

Out of the quarterly $20,000 budget, $7,570.65 was utilized (representing 37.85%), reflecting a 36.07% increase from the previous quarter’s $5,500. The largest share of expenditures went toward travel, followed by software-related and other miscellaneous costs.

For a detailed overview of CLI achievements in this quarter, see the CLI Q2 2025 report.