Visibility Initiative for Funded Projects

I am considering the implementation of a new initiative aimed at enhancing the visibility of projects funded by the Polkadot treasury. Given the significant contributions these projects make to our ecosystem, I believe it is essential to recognize and promote their connection to Polkadot.

I’d like to propose that all projects funded by the Polkadot treasury include a statement on their websites/software/dapp/wallet, etc., such as “Funded by Polkadot DAO,” or a more impactful alternative. This simple addition will strengthen Polkadot’s identity and provide greater transparency to our community and potential investors.

Objectives:

  1. Increase Visibility: Acknowledge the support from the treasury to enhance Polkadot’s reputation.
  2. Provide Transparency: Inform the community about projects benefiting from the treasury.
  3. Encourage Collaboration: Foster a sense of belonging and cooperation within the Polkadot community.

How: (waiting for more suggestions)
In each proposal, projects will be required to specify where and how they will use the statement “Funded by Polkadot DAO.” This will allow for future verification to ensure that the acknowledgment has been properly implemented.

Before formalizing this proposal into a WFC (Wish for Change), I would like to gather feedback from the community.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and recommendations.

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I like very much your idea!!

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Secured by Polkadot has already been used, and I think it’s nicer than funded, so I would go with that. “Funded” just makes me think about money and that Polkadot is paying it—which should not be the first thing that comes to our mind.

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Secured by Polkadot would also be a viable option; however, I currently do not observe it being utilized by projects that have received funding from the treasury. Additionally, on an organic level, this initiative would enhance visibility for both Polkadot and the various projects involved.

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We actually have “Funded by Polkadot Treasury” as a footer in all of our banners: x.com

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A mention somewhere on the wallet and website would be better

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It’s giant on our website.

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Thank you! That’s exactly what I meant and what I would like to see from anyone who has received funds from Polkadot’s treasury!

It’s like when Google forced all Android smartphone manufacturers to write “Powered by Android”.

I’ll give you my concept of how I see it, taking wallets as an example…

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Hey @thewhiterabbitM! @filippoweb3 had the same idea, and I’ve already received some support from other parts of our ecosystem for this.

It would be great to have a set of requirements for this part. I thought about a minimum pixel size for banners, where they have to be posted and so on. Unfortunately, there’s no way of enforcing Substrate- and Polkadot-based projects to do the same.

There has been the idea of changing Substrate’s open-source license to enforce any “Secured by Polkadot” logo.

Or we can change the approach, such as by either paying projects to add a logo. Best scenario would be, if they’re motivated to do that for free, because it adds value to their brand.

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This is going to be hard to enforce without some automation here.

Of course I agree with this proposal, and I think there should be a number of terms allowed by our community based on how they use Polkadot.

  • Secured by Polkadot
  • Powered by Polkadot
  • Funded by Polkadot

These three are the most obvious verbs for me.

As for automation, I think an OpenGov NAY bot could help with such a requirement: x.com

Specifically, if a proposer comes to the treasury, and does not include such a phrase in their website, the bot could detect it, and vote NAY.


An alternative to the NAY bot would be some kind of micro-incentive to include these taglines.

I wrote some of those ideas about such incentives to also help us make an up to date ecosystem map:

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In my view, if they are seeking financial support from the treasury, it would be considerate for them to include a logo or some form of acknowledgment indicating that they have received funding from the Polkadot treasury on their website or directly within their applications. I will contact Filippo and ask him to join the discussion.

This is great suggestion. Automating the verification process would significantly enhance efficiency for all parties involved.

And I agree with:

  • Secured by Polkadot
  • Powered by Polkadot
  • Funded by Polkadot

Maybe the distractive team can prepare some dedicated graphics.

I like this idea to acknowledge what Polkadot does for projects! It makes sense and helps a lot in marketing the product.

I think we need to deeply reflect on the meaning of:

  • powered
  • funded
  • secured

Secured should be used for chains and things that are sending data through a Polkadot core.

Powered should be used for applications that use resources of another application. I think in the case of Polkadot, “secured” and “powered” can be used interchangeably, as Polkadot is a Layer 0 (although “secured”, IMO should have priority). For parachains, only “powered” makes sense to me.

Funded is simply used for projects that got funding from the treasury.

Example 1:

Polkadot ← Hydration ← flappywud.lol

Hydration is secured by Polkadot and powers the web3 game flappywud.lol (the game drops WUD and NFTs to players). The game is thus also powered by Asset Hub (and more stuff like graphic engine, etc. that we do not care much).

Example 2:

Polkadot ← Mythical ← Rivals

Mythical Games is secured by Polkadot, and Rivals is powered by Mythical.

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Straight to the point, I totally agree, we need to work both on PR level with projects and on a possible onchian system to implement this initiative. I await other suggestions, in the meantime I’ll take notes. Thanks.

Secured for me was any kind of application on the entire Polkadot Cloud, at any point in the stack. Contract, Parachain, etc… They all inherit Polkadot’s security one way or another.

Powered were things to me outside of the Polkadot ecosystem, but use the Polkadot technology stack. So dedicated L1s (Avail, Midnight, etc…). Front-ends using the Polkadot-API, SCALE, etc…

Funded, as you said, are any projects which do not fit in these buckets but have been supported by treasury funding.

Perhaps a team could even rock multiple slogans.

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If we wanted to initiate this initiative, how could we proceed? Should we create an OpenGov proposal, or could we try to contact the various teams directly and propose it without an onchian proposal?

In my opinoin, these would be the immediate action items:

  • Create a repo to manage this stuff.
  • Create a set of resources and guidelines on including this content.
    • Standard SVGs with the slogan, light and dark themed.
    • HTML code with alt text that can be easily searched by script.
    • Perhaps we can research and copy guidelines from similar initiatives.
  • Compile a list of teams and relevant information needed for each team, probably in a simple JSON.
  • Create a “checking” script to find these words or slogans on their website.
  • Run the script and publish the output, making it clear who and where we can improve.
  • Call to action to the community to reach out to these teams, and suggest to them to include this branding, to satisfy making the bot go green.
  • See where we can get from there, and if we need to start creating incentives or punishments.

I don’t think we need to get gov involved or even money yet. If the person who does this work wants to be compensated, I think a retroactive proposal would probably be approved if the result of the work was obvious and the requested amount was reasonable.

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Hey @thewhiterabbitM - Thanks for opening the discussion! I’m currently working on a WFC with some of the ecosystem to tackle this very issue.

The plan would be to help increase the visibility of Polkadot and thus, awareness of its adoption, we propose to instil a Wish For Change that makes it a requirement to display the Polkadot Logo, in some format on their own branding, campaign, product or socials if you have sought funding from the Polkadot Treasury in some format.

Happy to work and collaborate on this!

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