The Uniswap community members are working on a proposal to create an ecosystem foundation. It aims to support the decentralized growth and sustainability of the Uniswap protocol, as well as its supporting ecosystem and community. The proposal will be bankrolled with $74 million in UNI, which is Uniswap’s native token.
Devin Walsh and Ken Ng, the community members, said the Uniswap Foundation would be an independent entity that would focus on and support the decentralized exchange protocol. Its current process demands a high level of coordination and effort. The community wants to speed up governance processes for high-impact and high-value projects.
Walsh believes there is far too much friction in the governance process. She said there is no clear source of funding to put in the amount of research, thought, and care that should go into some of these proposals. As such, Walsh intends to use grant funding to improve delegate and proposer experiences. She highlighted that the allocated 5% of grants will be used to support research and measure success against median participation rates. It should be noted that the existing ecosystem is difficult to navigate.
Builders face difficulty in finding developer tooling and libraries. Walsh said there is no official point of contact for anyone to ask questions about where to locate documentation. She wants to make it easier to navigate the ecosystem. This will be the key to long-term sustainability and growth in a decentralized protocol. Walsh says an ecosystem team that oversees engagement in the community would be set up to improve engagement, that is if the Uniswap Foundation were to be created.
Uniswap’s grants program has been active for more than a year and a half now. It has provided funds to a number of projects. Walsh believes support for more ambitious and impactful projects is important for the ecosystem to grow. Individuals have expressed interest to build very high-impact and ambitious projects if the proposal is passed. A non-dilutive funding source for some projects would be beneficial for the long-term Uniswap ecosystem.
