Summary

This proposal outlines the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative—Cycle 3, a compensation program designed to improve and sustain the participation quality and dedication among Uniswap delegates following the conclusion of Cycle 1 and 2.

Background

In late February 2024, StableLab proposed the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative. After the GovSwap event in Denver, further research to plan and implement the Delegate Reward Initiative was highlighted, leading to the formation of the Uniswap Delegate Reward Working Group, composed of 8 members from different organizations. After extensive research for more than a month, the Working Group produced several findings, which can be found here: https://gov.uniswap.org/t/findings-from-uniswap-delegate-reward-working-group/23702

Incorporating these findings, the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative Cycle 1 was proposed and launched in June 2024. Cycle 1 was successful in that the 12 delegates selected maintained 100% voting participation rate for votes during this period. In addition, several new delegates joined the protocol due to the presence of incentives.

With learnings from Cycle 1, including how to make a points system to determine the top delegate applicants in a more fair and objective manner, along with a tier system to incorporate different participation levels of delegates, Cycle 2 was launched.

Cycle 3 Proposal Details

Application Eligibility

There will be a week-long period for candidates to submit their applications. The top 15 delegates will be determined based on a point system outlined below.
Delegates from Cycle 2 must apply again for Cycle 3–they will not be automatically included.
Only delegates who have participated in onchain voting for at least three months prior to the application post are eligible for Cycle 3.

Uniswap Delegate Reward Cycle 3 Metrics

In case there are more than 15 eligible applicants, the top 15 will be chosen by the following objective metrics. The highest number of available points will be 11.

1. Voting Participation

Since a delegate's primary role is to utilize voting power from delegators and vote in Uniswap’s best interest, active participation is essential to ensuring quorums are met and malicious proposals are thwarted. This category carries a total of 7 points, with onchain voting weighted more heavily due to its ability to directly impact governance contracts and direct treasury funds. The voting rate is evaluated based on the past six months.

Offchain Voting (Snapshot)

90% and above: 3 80% to 90% : 2 70% till 80% : 1.5 60% till 70%: 1 50% till 60%: 0.5 50% or below: 0

Onchain Voting

90% and above : 4 80% till 90% : 2.5 70% till 80%: 1.5 60% till 70%: 1 50% till 60%: 0.5 Below 50%: 0

2. Proposal Authorship

Contributing to proposal drafting for Uniswap DAO is valuable, but maintaining quality and preventing malicious proposals is equally important. As a result, only successfully passed votes are counted. This category is worth a total of 3 points, with onchain proposals receiving greater weight once again.

For non-binary proposals, if a "No" equivalent option was available and the final voting outcome was a choice other than "No," the proposal qualifies for points in this category. For example, the Uniswap Treasury Working Group (UTWG) Election would not be eligible, as there was no "No" vote option. However, the [Temp] Uni Onboarding Package - BSC would qualify, since an "Against" option was present, and the final outcome was "$1M."

Authored or Co-authored a proposal that passed offchain (Snapshot) vote before.

Yes, 2 or more: 1 Yes, 1: 0.5 No: 0

Authored or Co authored a proposal that passed onchain vote before

Yes, 2 or more: 2 Yes, 1: 1 No: 0

3. Community Participation

The full point for this category is 1.

Community Calls (attendance for September, October, December 2024 & January - Feb 2025)

Attended at least 80% of calls: 1 Attended at least 50% of calls: 0.5

Tie Breaker

Ties will be decided by the date of the first onchain vote that these applicants cast in order to reward delegates who have been contributing to Uniswap governance for an extended period. The tie-breaking value will be determined based on the end date of the vote in which the delegates participated, not the onchain date when the vote was cast.
In the event of a tie with the first tie-breaker criterion, priority will be given to the delegate who has cast the most votes in the last 6 months.
In the event that the tie persists further, the final decision will favor the delegate who was first to present their delegation platform—hence, priority will be given to the individual/entity who first publicly declared their intention to become a delegate.

Delegate Reward Eligibility

Once delegates have passed the application process, they must fulfill the following requirements to be eligible for up to $6,000 USD worth of $UNI reward per month.

Requirements

Maintain a minimum of 80% participation in onchain and off-chain voting during the last 3 months to be eligible to receive up to $3,000 worth of $UNI per month, with the proportional payment based on each delegate's participation in the total votes cast during the last 3 months (number of votes cast x 100 / total votes cast during the last 3 months). For example, if there were 10 votes cast in the last 3 months and a delegate voted on 8 of them, that delegate will receive 80% of the $3,000 USD, i.e. the delegate will be eligible to receive $2,400. If another delegate voted on 7 of those votes, that delegate will not be eligible to receive any rewards as their participation was 70% of the votes, below the 80% minimum.

Additional Rewards (the below are only available if the above Requirement of Voting Participation is fulfilled)

2a. Write rationale for the voting on their delegate profile.

Deadline for writing rationale would be 7 days from the end of each vote.

2b. Attend Uniswap Community Calls.

Achieving these above will provide an additional up to $3,000 USD worth of $UNI. For 2a and 2b, there will also be proportional payment. For example, if there were 4 votings and 1 community call, and a delegate missed writing a rationale of 2 of the votes, the delegate would be eligible to receive $1800 [3/5 * $3000].

Budget

We are requesting 540,000 [6000 USD *6 Months *15 Delegates ] USD worth of UNI for cycle 3 of the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative.

The total amount, once approved, will be sent to the Accountability Committee, which will be responsible for the monthly distribution of rewards to eligible delegates. Since the total budget of the Delegate Reward WG has not been fully used, administration of this reward program–including the creation of this proposal and the admin work behind verifying monthly delegate participation–will be allotted from that account, with no additional costs to the DAO. Therefore, the total budget request will be solely for the delegate pay.

UNI Price @ $8.05: $540,000 -> 67,080 $UNI