[CES] OBRA: Initiatives Reporting Update - April

[fin_areta]

Hello everyone, we’re excited to bring the first OBRA reporting update from the Contributor Efficiency System (CES)!

The first month of OBRA operations kicked off by setting up the essential processes with Safe and CES. To date, we have successfully onboarded seven out of the initial nine initiatives, covering three different defined OBRA strategies. All CES onboarded initiatives have reported their progress back to the DAO, which we are eager to share below.

Application Status
OBRA has received seventeen total applications to date, nine of which having been accepted into the program. Meanwhile, one more OBRA initiative has passed Snapshot, and two others have been submitted for voting. The bulk of applications focused on Strategy 5 regarding improving governance participation with just under 90% of all applications covering Strategies 5, 3, and 2. Strategy 4 (Research decentralization of Safe tech stack) has received zero applications so far.

Budgeting
Regarding budgeting, OBRA has promised $497k in funds to initiatives to be transferred over their duration of operations. This reporting period will see $145k of funds transferred to initiatives towards achieving their deliverables.

Milestones
In this period, two initiatives have achieved milestones, with a total of three milestones completed collectively. Given the expected completion dates of many outstanding milestones, we anticipate significant growth in these totals for the next reporting period. It is important to note that funding is not tied to milestone completion, but rather to the expected duration of each initiative, with checks and balances in place to ensure that projects continue to deliver their promised milestones at a reasonable pace.

To view more details and keep an eye on the progress of OBRA initiatives for this past reporting period, please see our CES Reporting Summary page here.

To stay fully up to date, and explore the Contributor Efficiency System in full, please see our CES Notion hub. We keep this up to date with all of the latest OBRA updates throughout the month.

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CES Resources

For this months reporting: Reporting

For all CES Updates: Notion

[adamhurwitz.eth]

Thanks for the report! I didn’t realize that OBRA funding was not tied to milestone completion. I understand this if estimated time frames take longer than expected.

Is there a level of validation that meaningful work is being done if funding is not tied to milestone completion?

[Andre]

OBRA is based on streamed payments, which for now is handled as monthly payments. The control mechanism is that the DAO can terminate initiatives in the 4th sprint if the updates are not viewed as sufficient for progress. It’s currently the balance how to be flexible enough with pre-determined milestones (as was also brought up today in governance call) while having accountability. But agree in this it is different to a grants payout that is dependent on milestone achievement. This aspect however can be changed going forward.

@Andre

Payment terms: Initiatives are generally funded by streamed payments with a 4 weeks cliff period unless the sum of funds is < 10,000 USDC in which case payment may be made through a series of scheduled payments or as otherwise agreed upon. During the cliff period the payout can be terminated by the Safe Ecosystem Foundation in extreme cases, such as the project being inactive and not communicating.

[fin_areta]

Hi Adam, thanks for taking the time to read through the report.

To add to Andre’s point, we are actively tracking progress towards each initiatives’ milestones at every monthly reporting period. Based on the timelines given in their proposals and aligned on in milestone-setting sessions with the CES team, we can map out how far along progress should be towards each milestone and reconcile that with their actual reported progress. This gives us an idea of whether initiatives are on track or overdue for completing milestones, which, as Andre mentions, may be reflected in their funding payouts.

We track all of this in our CES Notion Hub which I’ll link here for your ease of reference.

[adamhurwitz.eth]

Thank you for clarifying the streaming monthly payment by design and ability for the DAO to vote to discontinue initiatives if needed in a worst case @Andre.

I appreciate adding more info @fin_areta. It is good to know that there is a public progress tracker your team built for OBRA proposals.