SubstrateSnap maintenance proposal

[mpetrunic]

Project Abstract

Previous grant: w3f/General-Grants-Program#244

• The SubstrateSnap (plugin) enables support for the Polkadot and Kusama network inside of Metamask and by doing so enables Polkadot dApps easy integration with Metamask.
• ChainSafe believes that Snaps are vital to fostering increased adoption of web3 systems and as such consider the maitainance of the ChainSafe SubstrateSnap a strategic priority.

For which grant level are you applying?

• Level 1: Up to $10,000, 2 approvals
• Level 2: Up to $50,000, 3 approvals
• Level 3: Unlimited, 5 approvals (for > $100k Web3 Foundation Council approval)

Application Checklist

• The application template has been copied, renamed ( project_name.md) and updated.
• A BTC or Ethereum (DAI/USDT) address for the payment of the milestones is provided inside the application.
• I have read and acknowledged the terms and conditions.
• The software delivered for this grant will be released under an open-source license specified in the application.
• The initial PR contains only one commit (squash and force-push if needed).
• The grant will only be announced once the first milestone has been accepted.

[semuelle]

Thank you for the application, @mpetrunic. We will look into it as soon as possible.

[Noc2]

Thanks a lot for the application. Sorry for the late reply here. I currently have covid. Signing this grant might also take a little bit longer, since this is the first maintenance grant, which applies publicly via a PR. So based on this we are probably also going to update the template, etc, which isn’t in its final form yet. In general, I want to support the application, but I have a few questions:

• Is 8000 per week, the maximum or do you plan to invoice this independently of the actual workload? It might make more sense to structure it with a max. Also to potentially have something set up for a longer time period.
• How many hours per day do you work? The hourly rate seems to be 400 USD, if you assume 8 hours per day.

[Noc2]

For reference, we just updated the template a little bit: #880

[bryant-chainsafe]

Thanks for getting back to us so quickly @Noc2 and I hope you are feeling better!
Answers to your questions below.

1. $8000 is the budget required for us to maintain SubstrateSnap @ 0.5 FTE per week. In other words, this amount is fixed and will not change.
2. 3-months (rounded to 12 weeks) @ 0.5 FTE (20h/w) = 6 eng-weeks FTE
   6 eng-weeks FTE @ $8000/eng week = $48,000

My apologies for the confusion!

Please also bare in mind that we have chosen to do this at a discounted rate of $8000/w as opposed to our former base rate of $12,000/w due to the strategic importance. We have just raised our base rate to $14,000/w.

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to reach out!

[Noc2]

Thanks for the quick reply and the discount. Could you try to update/integrate the following part: https://github.com/w3f/Grants-Program/blob/master/maintenance/application-template.md?plain=1#L109-L113 Even if you plan initially always to invoice us for 16k per month, it might make sense to already structure this as a cap. This might make it easier to extend the contract in the future. Also given that it’s the first public maintenance grant, it would be nice to have this integrated. Let me know if you have any questions.

[bryant-chainsafe]

Hey @Noc2 , thanks for that! I am working through your comments.
In the meantime, I do have one question. Is the 50k cap on Level 2 grants per month, or per maintenance contract?
We do intend for this to be a long-term agreement (longer than 3 months) but have opted for level 2 due to applciation simplicity in comparison to level 1. In the event that it is per month, we would extend the proposed duration of the grant so that we can avoid frequent renewals. Let me know your thoughts, thanks!

[Noc2]

@bryant-chainsafe The 50k is per contract. My recommendation would be to for now sign a grant below 50k and we start the discussion early for a long-term follow up contract.

[bryant-chainsafe]

Thanks for that @Noc2 , we should have the changes integrated shortly. Thanks!

[Noc2]

@bryant-chainsafe I’m sorry to inform you that I need to put this grant application on hold for now. I will send more information via email.

[Noc2]

@mpetrunic Thanks a lot for the update. I’m just waiting for one more reply and then we can probably go ahead with it.

[Noc2]

The grant is no longer on hold and I’m personally happy to go ahead with it and will share it again with the rest of the team.

[github-actions]

Congratulations and welcome to the Web3 Foundation Grants Program! Please refer to our Milestone Delivery repository for instructions on how to submit milestones and invoices, our FAQ for frequently asked questions and the support section of our README for more ways to find answers to your questions.

Before you start, take a moment to read through our announcement guidelines for all communications related to the grant or make them known to the right person in your organisation. In particular, please don't announce the grant publicly before at least the first milestone of your project has been approved. At that point or shortly before, you can get in touch with us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to collaborate on an announcement about the work you’re doing.

Lastly, please remember to let us know in case you run into any delays or deviate from the deliverables in your application. You can either leave a comment here or directly request to amend your application via PR. We wish you luck with your project! 🚀

[bryant-chainsafe]

Hey @Noc2!!
Great news :)
Seeing as this is a maintenance grant without milestones per see, at what point will we be able to publicize this?
Thanks!

[Noc2]

@bryant-chainsafe That’s a good question. Given your track record, feel free to immediately get in touch with [email protected]

[bryant-chainsafe]

Thanks, @Noc2, will do!

[FlorianFranzen]

This was delivered in polkadot-js/apps#8070, but so far has not been reviewed or merged.